January meeting minutes

Minutes of our meeting held on 19th Jan 2011 at Mr Lawrence Wine Bar, Crofton Park.


*Please note names of members against specific minutes/actions have been omitted from public version.

Transition London Network Meeting Feedback

• Good opportunity to network with other London groups
• Possible London Transition co-ordinator post to be created
• TT Brixton offered potential meeting space for south London groups
• Low carbon communities
• Project Dirt are launching a new website
• Good for sharing ideas with other groups

Celebrating our achievements

A number of toasts to all the things we have done up to now:

• Film nights (awareness raising)
• Participation in local events (Hilly Fields Fayre, BXAG events)
• Fruit harvesting
• Brockley Gardenshare
• Brockley Station Community Garden
• Draughtbusting training
• Collaboration with other local groups (BrocSoc, BXAG, Friends of Hilly Fields)
• River of Flowers project
• Successful funding applications
• Promotion of beekeeping
• Planting of new orchard at Hilly Fields
• ‘Flux’ club night

Transition Discussion Cards

We introduced something which has formed part of the latest book by Rob Hopkins ‘The Transition Companion’ which is about using ‘ingredients’ cards to stimulate conversation in groups under particular headings. The group broke into pairs using the topics on the cards as the drivers for conversation in relation to what we do and could do locally. Topics discussed included:

‘Outreach / skill sharing’

Becoming more inclusive

Tapping into local clubs

Engaging local businesses

Brockley Station garden > good way of getting more people involved. Potential to attach meeting to an event at the garden events.

‘Starting Out’

Lewisham Green Drinks

Engaging young people > how we communicate

‘Partnerships’

Education > Prendergast (Hilly Fields Orchard) / Developing links with schools and how to sustain them. Noted that the head of John Stainer is a trustee of BXAG and this could be a possible link. Lots of potential issues such as child protection which make it difficult to access these sectors.

St Andrews Church Hilly Fields groups > possible involvement in meetings?

Could we do a talk about bees?

Brockley Market seem to be happy to have people there handing out leaflets.

Linking up with local scout groups – could even help them get their badges! To be followed up.

‘Future’

What could the area look like?

What would be the best way of having an effect on the local area?

LEAF > community grants for things like insulation.

Approaching the council: ownership of spaces.

Lewisham Council - Community & Environment manager > happy to meet up and talk to members of the group.

‘Local food initiatives’

Brockley Station plot – could we grow enough to sell in the future?

Possible collaboration with Erin from the Broca on a Brockley preserve (tied into fruit harvesting)

Timebanking

Philip Grainger from Rushey Green timebank is trying to set up a community café in Crofton Park library. Meet up with him to discuss further how we might become involved.

Tool swap / gardening events

Energy meters – if we could get hold of some we could loan them out to people to use. Noted that Lewisham library had a similar scheme. Check if this is still running.

Post meeting note: checked and the library still do this.

Even if Lewisham do already run this scheme it would be worth promoting.

Re-skilling: – re-establish links with Frendsbury Gardens?

Sharing resources in the community – Freecycle type of thing.

Actions:

Meet with council

Look into selling produce

Re-skilling – how can we facilitate this?

Contact local scout group

Media:

Online – Blog, Facebook, Twitter – Facebook site needs to be utilised more.

South east central forum needs to be used more. All our events need to be posted on here. We should start discussions on there too.

Actions: Check on Facebook group. South east central to be utilised more (all).

Forming working groups:

It was noted that other Transition groups have formed working groups dealing with particular aspects of transition such as Recycling, Energy, Money, Food etc. We haven’t done this and it was agreed that it should be something we should work towards. Attendees noted down areas of that they were particularly interested in with a view to joining up with each other forming working groups.

Actions: Circulate list of attendees areas of interest to kickstart formation of working groups.

Brockley Station Community Garden

Bid for sign/ Fruit trees – didn’t go in however another bid is in progress (community food bid) £750 available. We have had Groundworks visit the site to advise on how we could maximise the space at the site and suggested that a couple of apple trees and fruit bushes alongside raised beds.

TTB will need to provide the labour to build any raised bids / planting. Around 12 people required. Possible workday in March.

Actions: Put together bid for community food funding.

Film evening

Hosting a night of transition related films at her members’ house. Circulate ideas for films. Attendees noted whether they would be interested in attending. Limited space available.

Actions: Member to circulate list of possible films and dates to interested members.

Dates:

• Next meeting date: Tuesday 21^st February 7:30pm Venue: Mr Lawrence Wine Bar
• Next garden event: Sunday 22^nd April 10-12pm at Brockley Station

AOB:

• New orchard being planted in Mayow Park, Sydenham on Saturday 28^th January 12-3pm.
• London orchard project are carrying out a session trimming down the cages around the apple trees at Lilac House.