Minutes from Steering Group Thursday 19th March 7.30

Present Alan, Rose, William, Mel and Peter
Apologies John, Kerstin

1. Minutes of the 31st January were agreed.
Issues outstanding were

• Alan has still to finalise purchase of office equipment which will arrive in the next few days. BT will install a new line for LCC and the new number is 01506 670433.

• It was recognised that there will not be expenditure of funds allocated in 2008-09 year for any of the projects except Local Food and Gardening. There have been some enquiries and initial actions taken in Renewables by William to see what services might be appropriate from CaFe and Changeworks. Local Business engagements have a strategy being developed with Alan and Rose. Waste and Recycling is being taken forward with Rose with some small travel expenses only.

• It was agreed to print a business card for Alan mainly. Alan to draft and circulate.

2. Structural/management issues
• Nomination of secretary to replace Alan. It was agreed to put a notice out to all contacts regarding this vacancy. Peter agreed to be available to answer any queries about what the job entailed. A potential interest from Kerstin was noted also.

• AGM date, time, format. – 21 days notification is required.
There was considerable discussion around possibilities with a decision to hold the AGM separate from the May business meeting on Thursday 21st May. Format was to be, AGM and a mix of wine and cheese, possible plant swap and short film. I have provisionally book the Low Port Lab as the lounge isn’t available but other venue ideas?What progress Canal tearoom ?

• The need for Membership is clearly required from the constitution to establish a management group and ratify decisions by majority votes. This is an opportunity to survey potentially interested people for their skills, interests and areas people might be prepared to volunteer their contributions. The membership fee would be £1 with opportunity to give donations towards general running costs. Request sae for member card to be sent out but also manage memberships at the meetings. The first would be the April meeting on the 20th April. Alan agreed to draft form and membership card with reference to Mel and LADAS format. Peter offered postal address to receive memberships.

• Steering group/coordinating group (to be), role and meetings
It was agreed that the Steering group, which will become the Coordinating committee after the AGM, will meet approximately 10 days before the monthly General meetings. All subgroups are able to have up to 2 people from each group on the coordinating committee. This is the format established by the constitution which can be amended at an AGM or Special general meeting having given 21 days notice of intended changes.

3. Prioritise issues for attention, development and action.

There was much discussion about how to prioritise our future activities and to effectively manage this. There were clearly a number of different criteria for judging how to allocate resources and effort. The first are those events which are time governed, e.g. Marches. There are those where there is already action which needs to be built on. e.g. Linlithgrow. There are those where invest to establish a base line for future action or subsequent funding applications. e.g. survey of businesses and renewables, with identification of potential larger schemes needed. Finally there are actions where there is a group of people with a commitment to push a certain initiative forward.

Using Alan’s “Rough Plan” and considering some of the Projects there was a general understanding of the following strategy.

• Renewables needs work doing with SCRI to work out a practical submission to enable a town overview to be achieved within the next 6 months followed by a larger funding submission in a selected area. William has raised paperwork for free 1.5 day support from CAFe - Alan to proceed to apply after discussions with Tom Young from Changeworks this week.
• Energy saving will move forward with town area identification from Sitar and EAGA data to then devise a focussed campaign for the autumn. Alan is meeting with Sitar shortly.
• Waste has a prime focus as glass recycling as the flavour of the month with the LTMC looking at options actively with a final push to re-establish the Tesco area facility. No action needed from LCC as yet. Rose is developing further her composting credentials.
• Transport with regard to the initiative on cycling is the main focus supporting Helen GF@H. Other more ambitious plans for a town wide review need substantial capital resources. Potential link with Derek Halden will be carried forward but not as a priority.
• Business – Alan and Rose have already met to develop a strategy to survey Linlithgow businesses and then look to pick up to 5 to develop a more sophisticated intervention. Timescale to finish the survey by the end of April.
• Food & Gardening has developed well with the three talks and there is the Autumn Festival moving forward plus a potential plant and seedling swap. The issue of cooking food needs to be taken forward and this will be tackled at a meeting of the Food group on Monday 23rd April at Kirsty’s. The Man who Planted Trees Puppet Event left until the winter.
• Community Groups is struggling with Peter not having found the time to do more than make initial links with Springfield PS and look to develop a suitable assembly presentation which can then be used to offer to other PS schools. Similarly he indicated a commitment to respond to requests for speakers using one of the films we have on DVD but not to go looking for too many speaking engagements as he still has an evening commitment with Edinburgh University.

There are many other individual items which are receiving attention and the meeting made the following responses.
• New leaflet bi-fold A4 will follow the Comrie ideas and Alan will draft. Mel made a plea for recycled paper as against stewardship forestry.
• Business plan/vision will be aspirational to fit in with Linlithgow Aspires developments which Alan is linking with.
• Getting to know you at the Academy is all organised through Rose and a rota – banners/display to be finalised.
• Film night left until the autumn/winter.
• Marches/Gala day – Alan has approached to have a space. Essentially make it simple with banners and people dressed up to symbolise various issues around climate change.
• Farmer’s market stall presence will look for volunteers to cover each event at the next general meeting.
• Comrie Climate Challenge 6/7th June event will look for participants to hold a stall at the next general meeting.
• Big Tent Falklands will be left to individual attendance.
• Constitution update will be handled by Peter and solicitor
• New Secretary Appeal will be announce via web by Alan and Peter will respond to enquiries.
• AGM coordination (see above) and Peter will take over all responsibility as main contact.
• Public liability insurance passed from William and now with Alan.
• Funding and Top Level Project plan with Alan to develop
• Energy Audit City and Guilds will be needed prior to volunteers going to houses in a concerted campaign in the autumn. Possible linked training with other groups to be investigated by Alan.
• Thermal camera training will go forward with Alan via suppliers.
• Define and measure from the training that Alan and Rose are doing with CCF focus will be important to raise awareness with all areas of activity before jumping into new initiatives.
• Residential survey should have data analysis and article drafted by the end of March prior to the data been used in a detailed PR exercise via media and web site.
• Community Council remains with Kevin as our representative.
• WLC & Planners taken forward by Alan as LCC official representative.
• Not sure what all the acronyms are but shared with Alan, Helen GF@Home, Mel LADAS, BB, Historic Scotland, Peter Cittaslow via Phil Murray