October Meeting - Minutes

Notes of T3 meeting 20^th October 2011

Present :- Jeff, Carolyn, Jo Vos, Laura, Christine, Chris, Justin, Phill, Tom, Steve

Apologies :- Emma, Sue F., Niki Stewart

T3Tea was very succesful,and raised almost £200 for our funds. Some of that has already been spent (£25 to Folk Festival, ink cartridges etc.) but we now have a small fund to help future projects. The fair was well attended, although some vendors did better than others, but next time we will do it so it doesn't coincide with a big event such as Folk Festival. Thanks to everyone who took part, and we look forward to working with you all again in the future.

Highbury Hall. We need to organise a weeding day, and try to organise a delivery of woodchips (free) on the same day to use as a mulch. This would be best on a weekend. We also need to organise a day with Marie and the preschool children to plant daffodil bulbs. We should also arrange a bug hotel making session, and hang them at the garden and also around the town, ie in the churchyard.

Hike and Bike Wednesday continues to have a variable attendance. It is a useful chance to have a weekly mini-meeting, and we shall continue to promote the event.

Treasures of Tenterden project. Richard Parsons of the Lions let us have a copy of their town quiz to look at, to give us some inspiration for questions. We found it useful, although some of the questions were very cryptic. We will work on our questions asap. The Treasures of Tenterden walk is still slated to take place on Boxing Day.

Steve Hickmott is from Loch, Victoria, Australia, and gave us a very interesting and informative talk about the Community Development Association there. The presentation slides are available. 

Loch is a village in the 'shire' or county of South Gippsland, which has an area of approx. 3280 square km. To give you an idea of how large that is, Kent has an area slightly larger, 3736 square km. However, in contrast to Kent's almost 1.7 million population, South Gippsland has only 27,000 people. Sustainability appears to be a big thing in South Gippsland, from the Shire council to the individual towns. A Sustainability festival is held annually at Coal Creek, and there are three Transition Towns - Loch, Foster and Mirboo North. Loch is working on a Community Garden using a tract of waste land about the size of the Leisure Centre's pool. It was given to the Loch Community Development Association by the SGSC, who were happy to save the money they usually spent mowing it by letting the volunteers of the LCDA take over. The long-term plan is to build a walking track around the town that is wheelchair friendly and incorporates the Community Garden. More info is available on the Loch Community Development Association website at www.loch.org.au and via the South Gippsland Shire Council at www.southgippsland.vic.gov.au.

Lights Out Tenterden is our next project, where we are trying to encourage shops and businesses to turn all the lights off at night. We have composed a letter and questionnaire which we intend to start sending out this week.

Next meeting is 24^th November, 7PM, venue to be confirmed.

Thanks especially to Christopher Hickmott-Arnold for bringing along his laptop to view Steve's PowerPoint presentation.