Minutes, Transition Highbury AGM, 29.4.14
Present: Caroline Russell, Caz Royds, Charlie Kiss, Ernie Jegorovas, Fiona Dunlop, Lindy Sharpe, Lucy
Bradley, Mary Stevens, Max Eilenberg, Priti Norfall, Roger Wright
Apologies: Antony Melville, Manisha Abeyasinghe, Pat Mary, Robin Nicholson
Minutes compiled by Lindy
1. The minutes of the last AGM were circulated and approved.
2. Accounts and funds
2.1 Priti presented a detailed version of the accounts, abbreviated here:
Income
Expenditure:
Balance at bank
Less (Food Group)
Less (Plastic bag group)
TH Assets
£503.11
£295.39
£3336.11
-735.04
-908.45
£1692.62
2.2. Lindy commented that of the Food Group funds, £500 are earmarked for improvements to the
ginkgo tree garden in Drayton Park – a council grant for this purpose. (This leaves the Food Group
funds at £235.62). Lindy will try to expedite work on the Drayton Park garden.
2.3 It was agreed that signing powers for cheques should be transferred to Max and Lindy, as Roger
and Antony are often away. It was decided not to move to online banking as this makes it harder for
the Treasurer to keep track of transactions. Expenditures must be approved by two members of the
Steering Committee before cheques are raised. Priti will organise the signature-changing.
2.4 To make it easier for people in the Food Group to recover small expenses, it was agreed to raise
a cheque for £100 and give the money to Fiona, who will henceforth run a petty cash fund for the
Food Group. Lindy will initiate this process.
2.5 Caroline was asked about the status of the Plastic Bag Group. She said it was in abeyance, but
she would try to contact other members, with a view to merging the group into TH, so the funds can
be spent appropriately.
2.6 It was agreed to continue to subsidise the additional cost for Priti to supply Fairtrade drinks and
sugar at the Ecology centre café.
The accounts were approved. Warm thanks to Priti for her work as Treasurer.
3. The Food Group
3.1 Fiona felt the garden was doing better this year, and there had been more help. Salad greens,
beans, leeks, potatoes, herbs and a replacement pear tree have been planted, and the raspberries
are growing well. A new mower was bought last year and has made a big difference. Cuttings had
been donated to passers-by, someone donated several pots of daffodils, and the garden attracts
many comments and questions when the gardeners are busy.
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3.2 The water butt has at last been connected but is now out of alignment so not collecting water. It
needs to be stabilized and lowered. Roger and Max agreed to fix this.
3.3 Caz will update the information in the notice board, but needs the key from Manisha (who is
currently based in south London). Lindy will email Manisha to ask about getting the key – maybe it
should be stored in the crypt.
3.4 Fiona will update the Food Group’s Facebook Page, but needs to know the password and
username – again, Lindy will email Manisha to ask.
3.5 There was a discussion about what to do with the garden produce. Manisha had suggested
selling it from the garden on workdays. It was agreed that selling it was a good idea – to raise funds
but also to use the produce and spread word about the garden (the produce could be labeled as
being from the TH garden, etc). Lucy, who works at Seasons and Blossoms, said that this shop might
be interested in taking the produce, and wouldn’t mind If there were only small quantities. It was
also suggested that Mrs Lovell’s, in the Barn, might sell some.
4. Food Cycle
Priti had drawn up a plan for a project that would use surplus food from local shops to make meals
for volunteers at the Ecology centre on Thursdays (the day when there are volunteer workers at the
Centre). The project would bring several advantages: it would use food that would otherwise go to
waste, teach the volunteers to cook using the food, and provide them with a nourishing meal. The
plan asked for TH to provide £60 a week for a six-week period (£360), to pay a worker £50 per
session (five hours @£10) to organise the food collections and make the meal, with £10 to
supplement the food if there was a shortfall. Similar projects run successfully in other local centres.
Priti propsed to start the sessions on 1 May and run for six weeks – after which time the worker
interested in organizing the sessions was away until autumn.
There was a long discussion of this idea. All felt that a scheme to make constructive use of genuinely
surplus food was a good one, and it was also recognised that Priti has worked hard and
singlehandedly to keep the Ecology Centre café open on Sundays, and deserves support. However, it
was also felt that £360 represented a significant portion of TH’s assets. An important concern was
the fact that after the subsidy ran out, there seemed no way the project could continue. It was
suggested that the start date might be delayed to allow time to find out whether similar projects
have found ways to become self-supporting; and also to approach local shops to find out more
about the quantities and types of surplus food likely to be available. On balance, the group felt
unable to support the project as proposed, and Priti withdrew the proposal. Priti felt the discussion
had been unfair and unpleasant for her. The group was sincerely sorry for the fact that she had been
upset.
5. The future of TH
In view of the lack of activity on the part of Transition Highbury over the past year (apart from the
Food Group and the café), Lindy asked how the Group saw its future.
5.1 One thing everyone seemed to agree on was that there are several grassroots groups in
Highbury, and that where possible TH should work with these other groups, rather than launch
separate activities.
5.2 There was some support for the idea of approaching Transition Finsbury to see if the two groups
might merge. On the other hand, it was felt that the point of Transition is that groups are very local.
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In any case, there is no reason why TH members can’t join in with TF activities if they wish to, so
formal merger doesn’t seem necessary.
5.3. Lindy said that she would be interested in organising occasional talks and films on Transitionrelated topics, to be held in local venues, with other local groups invited to attend. There was
support for this idea, so Lindy will go ahead. Lucy said her sister could help with organising films –
Lindy will contact her.
5.4 A couple of suggestions built on the success of the Food Group and garden. Ernestas said he
would be interested in trying to organize an activity in which children are encouraged to garden in
order to obtain a Blue Peter badge. This could be based in the TH garden; local schools and Brownie
/ Cub groups etc could be approached to see if they were interested (although it was pointed out
that most local primary schools now have their own growing areas). Lucy said there were some
unused raised beds behind Aubert Court – perhaps residents could be encouraged / supported to
start growing veg in them.
5.5 On the strength of this discussion, the feeling of the meeting seemed to be that TH was worth
preserving, and Max said he would look into updating / resuscitating the website.
Summary of actions agreed:
Funds
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Priti to organise transfer of signing powers to Lindy and Max
Lindy to initiate approval for £50 cheque to start Food Group Petty Cash
Fiona to hold and run Food Group Petty Cash
Caroline to investigate Plastic Bag group re possible merger
Garden
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Lindy to email Manisha to ask her about the key to the garden notice board and the
Facebook p/w and username
Caz to update garden sign
Fiona to update Food Group FB page
Lucy to ask Seasons and Blossoms about taking produce from the garden
Roger and Max to fix water butt
Ernie to investigate Blue Peter gardening scheme
Other
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Lindy to organise occasional films / talks, and Green Drinks
Lindy to continue to look into getting Drayton Park garden tidied up, using council grant
Max to update website
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