8 attendees: BF = Breda Ford, DB = Diana Betts, PL = Peter Lowe, GT = Geraldine Thompson, JA = June Adams, AM = Angela Martin, TW = Teresa Wells, RW = Roger Wright (Chairman)
Apologies were received from: Owen Clutton, Mary O’Mahony
Agreed actions shown in bold red type.
1. Opening prayer
Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to meet in your name, and to make a small contribution to justice, peace and care for your creation. Please bless our humble efforts and encourage us to continue working together for the benefit of others.
2. Matters arising from previous minutes (28 November 2012)
RW had produced a chart showing the weights of food from each Foodbank collection. It was noted that the trend was downward so a speaker from Orpington Foodbank would be a useful incentive. TW agreed to display the chart in the church porch.
3. Connect2
MM had visited Anna Bosher at the school to discuss Kainmari and how the children might be involved. She was very supportive of the idea and agreed to letters or pictures being produced which could be sent to Bangladesh. Within days a set of 26 letters had been written – the children had a good understanding of certain aspects of Kainmari by looking at the CAFOD website. These have been scanned and stored for future reference.
MM and RW had produced a leaflet about St James’ to send to Kainmari and also one about the village to distribute to parishioners. The letters and leaflet for Kainmari have been sent to CAFOD. The leaflet for St James’ will be distributed after all Masses on the weekend of 9/10th February when Connect2 is to be announced to each congregation.
MM will be seeing Mrs Bosher again and suggest that we wait for a response (or 3 months) before sending anything else. It was agreed that the next correspondence should consist mainly of simple art work.
There had been a very nice article written for the PWRA Gazette by one of the year 6 pupils about the CAFOD walk the children did in November.
RW reported there had been incredible enthusiasm for the Kainmari Curry Night at the LiveSimply meeting on 16th January. Julian Arnold agreed to marshal a team to organise the event and J&P members can join in with that as appropriate. The date of 2nd March turned out to be impossible and there was no Saturday date available until 15th June. Julian was confident that an early Sunday evening would work very well so the hall has been booked for 21st April from 2pm to set up for a start before 6pm to make it easy for families to attend. Everyone RW had spoken to was very keen on the idea and he thought the event could be a sell out.
Several ideas for augmenting the event were suggested. DB and GT will organise a raffle with prizes including a hamper of Traidcraft goods and some CAFOD World Gifts (donated by GT). It was also suggested that as far as possible the food should be sourced from Fairtrade products. A quiz was proposed and some alternative formats discussed briefly (table quiz and dingbats were suggested).
4. Traidcraft stall
The stall held on 19/20th January had been a resounding success, with £283 of sales. Previous sales had been £205 in October and £517 in December. DB reported that the account was now in surplus with most old stock having been sold. DB and GT were refining the list of items to be stocked, recognising that staple items such as pasta, rice and sugar were readily available in most supermarkets and would be bought there by shoppers as part of there normal requirements. Once a prevailing surplus was recorded the profit could be donated to CAFOD.
In addition to the sales on the day, orders for over 70 “Real Easter Eggs” had been taken (costing £3.99 each). These will be available for collection at the next stall on 9/10th March (Mothering Sunday). Brownie leader Suzanne Hall had agreed to encourage a couple of Brownies per Mass to help with the collection of eggs. It would not only be a nice thing to see children helping but would also relieve pressure on the stall itself if a separate table could be set up in the corridor.
RW had downloaded some Fairtrade posters to put up for that weekend as it would be at the end of Fairtrade Fortnight.
Possible helpers on the stall were nominated as follows:
|
09-Mar-13 |
6pm |
Diana Betts |
Geraldine Thompson |
June Adams |
Owen Clutton |
|
10-Mar-13 |
9.15am |
Geraldine Thompson |
Roger Wright |
Caroline Price |
Breda Ford |
|
10-Mar-13 |
11am |
Owen Clutton |
Teresa Wells |
Angela Martin |
|
5. Manna Centre collection 16/17th February
This was discussed briefly. It was agreed that there should be a reference in Briefly one week before, stressing the need for clothes rather than food or toiletries. However, it was understood that the Manna Centre was always grateful for all donations. [RW has subsequently checked their website but the currently required items page has not been updated since November so it may no longer be correct.]
6. Any other business
Other LiveSimply actions were discussed briefly. The LiveSimply tree planting scheme was also discussed and this will be offered to the parish soon. RW passed round the certificates obtained when a tree planting is bought from either the National Forest or the Caledonian Forest. Various ideas for promoting the scheme were considered including having an artificial tree ‘growing’ in the church porch using leaves of cardboard. TW agreed to think how the tree might be represented on the iron gates.
RW reported that Fr Bryan had made an agreement with the PW churches that the proceeds of the choral concert on 24th March (Palm Sunday) would be donated to the Orpington Foodbank. It is hoped that the Foodbank Director, Mary Beckingham, will speak to our congregation just before the next collection.
RW had also been approached by parishioner Martin Smith that he intended to ask guests at this birthday party on 23rd March to bring items for the Foodbank and not presents for him. He has asked if we can pick up food from the Memorial Hall about 5-6pm. No doubt his guests will help to load up. Everyone agreed that this was a very generous gesture by Martin.
There was general discussion about the modern habit of giving children too many treats. LiveSimply might help to persuade a few that this is not necessary. The Monday Craft Club has suggested producing a household hints leaflet with a make do and mend theme.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at approximately 9.20pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 27th February at 7.45pm.