Notes From Wags Meeting Mon April 8th 2013 at 2pm at Jills house

Present: Paula, Charles, Jill, Carolyn, Esther and Anne

1. Clothes and Household Goods Swap Review

Stats for event held on Sat 23rd March:

77 people paid to come in, plus 25 non paying general helpers, plus additional Food Group helpers = total of over 100 participants

approx 800 items of clothing swapped

Costs = £282.15 (down on 2012)

Income including Food = £410.50

of which:  Food £181.50 Door £192.00 Donations £22.00 Clothes sold £14.00 Profit = £128.19

This was a better financial outcome than the previous year due to  deliberately lower advertising and promotional costs and it was agreed that we should suggest we share this profit on a 50/50 basis with the Food Group.

Paula to contact Linda Lever regarding this. (Paula has done this and Linda is amenable to sharing profit as suggested Anne)

General feeling of WAGs present was that it had gone well as an event though numbers through door were down on previous 2 years. This could have been because the event was 2 weeks later in year, it was cold, there were other events on in the town that day or that people who had come before had not had a sufficiently good experience to want to come again. A good 70% of the people who came had not been previously. It was felt that the household goods had been well received and people liked the fact that they could take away what they wanted for no charge but that the advertising board for large items had not gone as well as hoped. Jill was a little disappointed about the amount of household goods left over at end but all agreed that PWS taking everything away at the end had been a great idea.

Jill to contact PWS to find out what happens now to the goods and clothes taken away.

The position over the £2.50 entrance cost possibly discouraging people from coming just for the household goods was discussed and Paula commented that almost everyone who had come through the door had come for the Clothes Swap but many had appreciated the household goods being there. There was also considerable discussion about what should happen next year including the possibility of moving to a less expensive location than the Boniface so that entrance charges could be reduced. It was generally felt that if we carry on it would be beneficial to keep doing both the clothes and household goods swaps together rather than one of them separately. Further discussion will be held in the autumn so that an appropriate location can be booked in plenty of time if necessary.

2. Plastics collection Sat May 4th

Jill will contact PWS in advance to remind as usual and get a telephone number for the driver on the day and also contact Peck & Strong as a courtesy. She will also ask PWS if they would be prepared to collect from Cheriton Fitzpaine the previous day (Friday 3rd) or on the day of the collection itself if there was capacity in the van. If they are agreeable Paula will then sort out the details with PWS.

Anne is unlikely to be able to attend on May 4th but will ask Jenny Hole, Chris Freeman and Nancy Dowling if they can help and ask latter for high viz vests.

Paula will put an ad in the Courier of April 26th.

Carolyn will be dedicated on day to sorting out and collecting plastics she needs for the Waste Sculpture for the Community Market on June 8th.

Charles will bring and erect Sus Cred advertising material as usual and bring table. Anne will organise gazebo if weather is looking appropriate in run up.

Anne will organise her high viz vests plus anyone who has one please to bring their own.

Health & Safety policy remains unchanged!

Everyone to put out green leaflets/posters ASAP in same spots as they took responsibility for when advertising the C&HG Swap (where appropriate).

3. Community Market and Waste Sculpture Sat June 8th

Charlotte Turner will help Carolyn on the day with the Waste Sculpture. Rest will concentrate on the Stall.

Stall: It was decided to concentrate on a plastics recycling theme with 4 visual sections: waste you can recycle in your MDDC box, waste you can take to our collections and to Punchbowl and Ashleigh, waste you can take to Punchbowl and Ashleigh only and plastics that cannot be currently recycled. We will also create a display with pictures of plastics on beaches, being eaten by animals etc. using Paula & Charles' boards.

Anne will contact Landscore Little Rotters to see if they would like to be involved.

Paula will hunt out pictures from Plastic Bag Free Crediton as a starting point.

We will work out the finer details of who will do what at our May meeting once we have heard from Landscore.

Waste Sculpture: Theme will be summer flowers.   Carolyn will make stems in advance. Carolyn to organise some dates when other group members can go to her house to help her. Need to collect as many plastic bottles and carrier bags for the stems as possible at Plastics collection on May 4th. Carolyn will be in charge of this. Paula will speak to David Oliver re plastic buckets for the 'flower pots' and to Cred Fest organisers to see how long we can leave it in place in the Square for.  Carolyn will get extra materials from the Scrap Store in Exeter.   If we do not collect enough materials on May 4th  Charles will go to Ashleigh and Punchbowl to see if we can 'borrow' more. Will possibly need gravel to hold stems in place. Paula will ask ABS if necessary.  Will need to advertise that we will be creating the sculpture in newsletter and papers well in advance so that people come along to take part plus get press there to take photos of the finished article. Paula will organise this.

4. Recycling at Food Festival

Jill to contact MDDC to see if they can be persuaded to provide better bins and bags this year and to make sure they are willing to take away the recycling collected at the end. Charles has requested 2 extra helpers from the volunteers pool through the Cred Fest website. Not certain whether these will materialise.  Rota to be organised and rest of arrangements sorted out at May meeting. 

5. Date of Next Meeting

 Mon May 13th at 2pm at Jills house

Meeting closed at 4pm.