8 attendees: OC =
Owen Clutton, DB = Di Betts, MM= Mary O’Mahony
(chair), RW = Roger Wright (secretary), IS = Ian Stewart, GT = Geraldine
Thompson, AM = Angela Martin, ML = Miguel Laino.
We were also pleased to welcome Marcy Garcia
and her mum Maria, of the Filipino community, to tell us about their ideas for
the Parish Project fundraising event to be held early next year.
Agreed actions shown in bold red type.
1a. The meeting started with a diocesan JPIC
prayer.
Apologies for absence: Peter
Lowe (PL) and Nick Babb (NB).
1b. Minutes of last meeting
All outstanding
matters had been dealt with or would be discussed as part of the agenda.
2. Parish Project
OC noted that the
second collection made for St Catherine’s on 18-19 November, amounting to £966
with gift aid, would be sent to Fr Joe as soon as bank account details had been
confirmed.
Before the main
discussion commenced, RW suggested that the fundraising event could be moved to
a different date. Late afternoon on
Sunday 04 March would have the following advantages:
·
school half term avoided;
·
setting-up time not constrained by
First Holy Communion session;
·
afternoon gives a better chance for
families to come together;
·
most children’s activities happen on
Saturdays;
·
the event gives a good
alternative to being at home on a cold winter Sunday afternoon!
It was agreed that
RW should confirm that the hall would be available from 1.30-8.00pm to cover
setting-up, event duration and clearing up afterwards. [RW confirms this has now been booked for our
event.]
Marcy then listed
numerous exciting ideas for the evening, covering:
·
decorations
·
food
·
entertainment, e.g. music and dancing
·
small hall activities
Decorations were
already prepared, re-using items from previous events.
Numerous suggestions
were made for food, such as a ‘boodle fight’, hog roast, Filipino barbecue,
chef served dishes, etc. It was agreed
to have one boodle table (Filipino buffet served on banana leaves and using fingers)
with most food served from the kitchen.
There would also be a small hog roast and barbecue food, using the
kitchen oven for heat where required.
Some simple alternatives for children would be provided, such as chicken
goujons. No guarantees could be made
about nut and other allergies.
OC would ask for the bar to be open.
Entertainment could
include karaoke, traditional dancing/costume, jamming session. It had been agreed previously to have two
quiz rounds and these would be interspersed with noisier activities. OC had spoken to Fr David about asking Fr Joe
to send a short video introducing St Catherine’s, with a brief ‘hello’ to St
James'. This would also be used during a
quiet period to focus attention on the people we are trying to help.
Marcy said they
could create a chill out space in the small hall with decorations, a hammock,
pretend beach and costume items. This
would be a good opportunity for family photos.
We agreed there
would be no additional stalls, i.e. not comparable with events like the
Christmas Fayre. RW agreed to send Marcy a typical layout,
working on experience from the LiveSimply Kainmari Curry Night of April 2013,
and a link to the website photos of that event.
Programme details
will be developed in due course. The
likely start time would be 4-4.30pm, food from 5pm, finishing at 7-7.30pm.
It was agreed to
follow Fairtrade principles wherever possible and be eco-friendly with the use
of existing crockery (not paper plates) and to take waste food for council
recycling.
Tickets would be
priced per adult, child, and family. A
reasonable charge would be made in recognition of this being run for
charity. [RW subsequently checked 2013
Kainmari Curry Night prices which were £8, £4, £20 respectively, suggesting
that for 2018, £10-12, £5-6, £25-30 would be reasonable.]
GT would run a
raffle, donating, as she had done previously, some CAFOD World Gifts.
3. CAFOD
RW asked for help to distribute CAFOD
World Gift catalogues after Masses during the following weekend. The agreed rota was:
6.00pm GT DB
9.15am PL RW
11.00am OC AM
4. Traidcraft
Members present were sad to hear that
DB will be moving to a new house, probably in January. She had discussed the future of Traidcraft at
St James' with GT, and the conclusion was that the stalls could not continue. GT reported that DB does a tremendous amount
of work behind the scenes, with ordering, accounting, controlling stock, etc.,
as well the actual selling. Everyone
praised her efforts, and GT’s, with IS remarking especially that the parish owed
them a debt of gratitude. DB tabled a
list of the Traidcraft stock and some made purchase requests. The last stall will be held on 27-28 January
2018 if sufficient stock remains.
5. Any other business
IS posed the question of how does the parish progress the
principles of LiveSimply? The parish
seemed to have lost its way on the issue of sustainability and he listed some
ideas of carbon reduction measures suggested by RW. He also referred to the Global Catholic
Climate Movement (GCCM) which had played a part at the recent COP23 event in Bonn. IS had watched a one hour
webinar organised by the GCCM from Bonn and was impressed by the efforts of the
younger Catholic generation to promote the message of Laudato Si'. RW pointed out that there is a powerful link
between climate change and the people of the Philippines, which is something we
could bring out during the project period.
Countries like the Philippines are already being affected by this threat
and conditions will become more severe as time goes by.
There being no
other business, the meeting closed at 9.25pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 24
January 2018 at 7.45pm.