TRUSTEES MEETING FRIDAY 20/8/21 @ 2PM ## DRAFT MINUTES Tim welcomed all new Trustees and confirmed his resignation as Chairman. He passed on his thanks for everybody's help. Greg offered a vote of thanks to Tim for all his hard work. Tim received a heartfelt round of applause. Attendees:- Tim, Greg, Charles,Neil, Kim, Alastair, Aimee, Colin, Sally,Carmen, Carrie and Keith. 1. Minutes of last meeting 9/7/21 were accepted. 2. Matters arising - there were none 3. Election of new Chair Sally proposed Alastair and Kim seconded Alastair accepted on the understanding that if this clashes with any other committees he is on, he would have to remain neutral. This was accepted, and Alastair was welcomed by all the Trustees. 4. Possibility of Deputy Chair Neil proposed and Kim seconded. The idea was accepted 11-1 and will be added to the next Trustees Agenda for further discussion. 5. Treasurers Report 28/7 to 19/8 Income …............£1972.88 Expenditure …......£2531.02 Todays balance in bank …...£4409.94 The Trustees offered a BIG vote of Thanks to Sally for her generous donation. 6. Storage of Data There followed some discussion about access to members information and who currently it was available to. It was agreed that as long as we have secure access we comply with the data protection act. No personal information should be on display in the cabin and Greg asked that if any Trustee completes a new member form, drop it through his letterbox. 7. Health and Safety officer. Frank has said he intends to resign once we have replaced the old H and S policy on our website and in the cabin . Tim and Alastair will sort this with Frank. 8. Long Term compost 9. Pile of rubbish 10. Fruit tree location As these items impact on each other they were discussed as a whole . Greg suggested that we could move a lot of this rubbish to the tip in Avonmouth, thus reducing the cost of skips. Greg, Colin, Charles and Tim agreed to start this process immediately. Charles will get a quote from Lee Rubbish Collections once we have cleared as much as we can in cars and the trailer Regarding the “ long term compost” pile there followed some discussion as to will this ever provide decent compost, the answer seemed to be no as a lot of stuff that was put on there isn't really suitable. Carrie suggested that we ask the council if they would remove the Green Waste at a negotiated price? Tim has a Garden waste Disposal licence, so we could take some in the trailer, and we could also take some in cars when we have finished moving the rubbish. Once the rubbish has been cleared from opposite the new loo we can establish a properly managed Long Term Compost bed. Carmen offered to investigate how other community gardens deal with their waste Alastair will ask Blaise Nursery Once we have moved the current long term compost area we can then utilise that bed for the fruit trees that are awaiting planting. 11. Opening and closing garden on public days. There followed a short discussion and it was agreed that a Trustee should open and close the garden on these days, and there should always be more that one present before we open. Neil and Carmen offered to carry on looking after Monday sessions Kim and Greg will open Wednesday and Colin offered to close . Kim and Greg will open Saturday and will also close the session. If any of the above can't attend they will organise replacements. Also the people opening can operate a rain discretion policy. 12. Volunteers with Cognitive Impairment coming to the garden alone. After a short discussion it was agreed that any person in this position must be accompanied by their carer . We need to make all volunteers aware of this. ## 13. Facilitators/growers meeting in October . It was agreed that this meeting would include facilitators , growers and interested parties. 14. Trial period for new volunteers 3/6 months . This was put to the meeting and after some discussion there were 10 against and 2 for. It was agreed to take it to a full garden meeting. 15. Volunteers to take /do jobs that benefit the whole garden and not just their own personal project. After some discussion it was agreed to leave this situation fluid , put outstanding jobs on the boards in the cabin , and email members with potential jobs so that they can volunteer for certain tasks that will suit them. 16. Rose garden management. The rose garden is not part of the BCG lease , and while we as a group are happy for Belinda to continue looking after it, we are in a grey area as to our public liability insurance . Tim will look into our policy to see where we stand. Meanwhile volunteers who offer to help need to be made aware of this. Has the council carried out a risk assessment on this area.....Action for Alastair 17. Trustee Chairman speaking on behalf of all volunteers After some discussion it was agreed that the Chair should seek agreement of the trustees before any formal decisions are published. 18. Metal structure in G/H 3 It was agreed that this should be dealt with by the buildings committee. 19. Get growing trail and Open doors in September . We have accepted an invitation to be part of the Get Growing trail and we will be open on Saturday September the 18[th] from 10-3 . We will be offering refreshments on that day and will be looking for volunteers to help. We have taken part in Open Doors previously but not this year, as the dates clash. 20. AOB Greg proposed that all future submissions for agenda items, should be accompanied by a short email explanation, so that people can consider these prior to the meeting. This was unanimously agreed. This will also be added to the General meeting agenda. Sally asked what is being done about G/H 1 roof ? Charles explained that we intend to use the same roofing as the garden room and pot store and we will carry out this work in the autumn after the harvest. Carmen said that someone visiting the garden had approached re playing some live music for free. She agreed to get further details. Alastair asked that the set of keys for the old loo be put back in the tool room so that the “ Human Nature “ group could use . Meeting closed at 3.30 pm ## **BLAISE COMMUNITY GARDEN FINANCIAL STATEMENT 2020/2021** **INCOME 2020/21 2019/20** Grants 1000.00 6709.06 Events 0.00 1280.08 Cash donations 997 93 10777.93 Plant sales 2475.00 1982.62 Miscellaneous 138.20 411.05 **TOTALS 4611.13 21160.74 EXPENDITURE** Buildings 12995.73 4692.64 Equipment 277.41 1107.08 Electricity 267.32 504.65 Plants/Seeds 129.65 222.14 Events /Catering 5.45 577.39 Com/Man/Top 1375.01 2014.68 Insurance 381.09 232.16 Miscellaneous 653.71 496.01 **TOTALS 16085.37 9846.75 SURPLUS/(DEFICIT) (11474.24) 11313.75 b/f FROM 2019/20 15655.94 4341.95 – from 2018/19 c/f to 2020/21 4181.70 15655.94** **NOTE 1. In addition to the above listed cash donations we also received “in kind “ donations valued at £1026.52 comprising : Two hose reels – 50.00, Plants and seeds – 80.58, Laminator – 30.00, Cycle racks – 326.00, four hours tree pruning instruction by Mike Bostock,-65.00, Four grape vines -74.94, 2500 plant pots – 400.00** **NOTE 2. Miscellaneous items are: Elm tree removal – 150.00, Skip hire – 222.00, Return of crowd funding duplicated payment – 177.41, Website fee – 58.98, Postage and stationery – 10.32, RHS annualsubscription – 35.00.**