6 attendees: DB = Diana Betts, PL = Peter Lowe, AM = Angela Martin, GT = Geraldine Thompson,
RW = Roger Wright (Chair), JA = June Adams.
Agreed actions shown in bold red type.
1. The meeting opened with the CAFOD prayer inspired by Laudato Si’.
Apologies for absence had been received from Mary O’Mahony and Owen Clutton.
2. Minutes of last meeting
All actions had been completed.
3. CAFOD
RW reported the Fast Day collection figures as provided by Geoff Ford:
£1,487 plate (matched)
£31 gift aid recovered by Geoff for CAFOD
£290 in cheques (matched)
£227 gift aid for CAFOD to recover
So £2,035 given in St James’ offering and in gift aid
CAFOD should receive about £3,813 after matching applied (gift aid not matched)
It was agreed that the short talks had been successful and a few parishioners had expressed their appreciation for these.
4. Foodbank
DB had been delivering the ad hoc collections and since the beginning of the year these had amounted to 132kg, roughly equivalent to 200 meals.
The next major collection would be on the weekend 12-13 March. The Foodbank administrator now emails RW each week with the current food type shortages. He would ask for this to be included in Briefly.
Simon Howell had written to RW asking if there could be a collection of food for the Manna Centre. There is great pressure on the parish diary for second collections and it was unfortunate that the Manna Centre collection of clothes was the only one scheduled for 2016. RW suggested that instead of collecting for the Foodbank at Harvest we should send food to the Manna Centre. The Foodbank always get large quantities about that time from the Anglican churches and therefore our collection would not be missed. A date in early October would have to be agreed with Fr David.
5. Traidcraft
The 6pm stall on 05 March would be difficult to run because of J&P members’ involvement with the quiz set-up. DB had worked on a plan so that she and GT would start the process of setting up a little earlier than usual. DB would then help in the hall, leaving GT to arrange the stall. DB would supervise the stall during and after 6pm Mass. This would release GT to run the raffle as soon as doors open. DB would need two helpers this time because Easter egg orders are to be taken. RW agreed to ask Pam Lundy and Ellen to help in case others were not available.
The rota for Sunday morning was agreed as follows:
|
Sun |
9.15am |
Geraldine |
Peter |
Mary? |
|
Sun |
11am |
Angela |
Geraldine/Diana |
Owen? |
RW was asked to put a note on the altar for Fr David to announce the stall and Easter egg orders. The eggs would be available for collection the following weekend. There was discussion about the inconvenience caused by people not collecting their orders. This often involved DB and GT visiting people’s houses to make personal deliveries.
6. Quiz Night planning
Ticketing
All tickets had been sold but there had been 5 cancellations. There will be a note in Briefly to try and resell these tickets. RW had a contingency plan in case this proved impossible.
Setting-up
RW tabled a list of tasks for the two-stage setting up process: (a) preliminaries before the First Holy Communion class, (b) from 5.15pm to doors open time. He would expect help from Mary O'Mahony and Seamus, as well as Owen and perhaps his son Brendan for (a), which was to get the tables and chairs out of store and locate them with legs extended at the end of the hall. This had been agreed with Sue David.
The following actions were agreed for stage (b) and before the day:
GT would provide a home made food gift for Terry and Alice.
AM would obtain plastic cups from her office (these had been unused and abandoned).
RW was to be shown round the hall on Wednesday 02 March so he could identify what is available and where things are located. He would then report back about items which J&P members could be asked to lend such as trays and water jugs.
Trays would be essential for carrying the food to each table as the interval is quite short. This worked very efficiently last year.
The list of helpers for this stage was expected to be AM, DB, RW, Mary O'Mahony, Owen Clutton and perhaps Breda Ford.
Fish and Chips
AM, DB and GT would bring condiments in case the Fish & Chip shop didn’t provide these.
RW suggested that the remains of food and food containers should be thrown into the same plastic sacks for him to process at home the next day.
Raffle and prizes
6 bottles of wine were donated for the main prize by most of those at the meeting and Mary O'Mahony.
GT would provide RW with a list of raffle prizes so printed copies could be displayed during the event.
JA handed over a prize she had donated to the raffle.
General
RW would produce a description of St Helen’s related to the evening’s purpose, as well as other paperwork such as labels for each table and the ticket schedule.
7. Any other business
News that the Youth Ministry group would be supporting the Peru project was greatly welcomed. The first opportunity to engage their enthusiasm in a J&P initiative would be assistance at the plant sale on 21-22 May. DB had ideas for what they could do and it would be an excellent chance for us to pool our resources. It was hoped that Fr David would encourage this.
DB appealed for plastic (not cardboard) yoghurt/cream pots to be kept for children to sow seeds at the sale.
PL explained that he intended to draft a letter to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office concerning the plight of refugees from the Middle East. He had some ideas which he thought they might consider. The next J&P meeting would provide an opportunity to review his letter and if agreeable to sign it.
There being no other business, the meeting closed at 9.00pm.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 23 March 2016 at 7.45pm.