Steering Group Meeting Minutes 17.01.11

 Meeting Held on 17th January 2011,
 8.00pm Three Compasses

Present:  Kate, Cathrina, Rebecca, Andy, Gillian (chair) Tilly (minutes)

Apologies:  George, Rachel, Kate Allerdyce

Agenda Items

Planning the TCE AGM

We decided to hold an AGM, hopefully at HVCC in March and will see if the following dates are available; 5^th 6^th or 13^th March.

Confronting Climate Change conference

Rebecca fedback after attending this conference on 16^th December 2010. She heard inspiring talks from Rob Hopkins, Polly Higgins,a barrister and Michael Meacher. Polly Higgins is hoping to support international legislation to outlaw ‘ecocide’ and also discussed working on acts to enable the work of transition initiatives. For more information contact Rebecca.

Staement of our funds

Current funds:

TCE cash fund (currently held by Gillian):   £257.01

TCE bank account balance:                       £1008.30

£500 being from Capital Growth fund received in Decmeber and to be spent on the Transition Kitchen Garden at HVCC. £350 being from the smoothie bike award.

Cycle Generator workshop

The idea of holding a workshop on how to construct bicycle electricity generators was discussed.

Action: Gillian will discuss with the company and see if they would be interested in running a workshop locally

TCE Communications

Gillian has set up Transition Crouch End Facebook, Blogspot and Twitter. Twitter has 70-80 followers. It was agreed by those present that it would also be useful to have a simple website, as many/most other well established transition initiatives have. We discussed how to proceed

Action: Tilly to buy a domain name as the first step

Action: Those interested to look at other transition websites and see what hosts they use.

Forthcoming TCE or TCE related events:

1)TCE Draughtbusting Workshop

This will be held by Cathrina and Kate on Jan 30^th. Spaces limited.

Action: Kate and Cathrina to advertise

2)Events at Knowing Through Growing, Stroud Green library

Rebecca running Self development and planning day 31^st Jan

Low Maintenance Gardening talk 18^th Feb

Recycled mosaic making starting early February

Details from Rebecca

3) Spring Growing Spaces event at HVCC – 3.00-6.00pm Sat 26^th March

Details to be confirmed- contact Tilly and  Gillian

4) Green on the Screen- dates for films on 2^rd Feb, 2^nd March and 6^th April

Next TCE Steering Group Meeting:

8.00pm Monday 7^th February

Upstairs meeting room, Three Compasses Pub

Make your marmalade now!

As mentioned in my tweet, I went on the hunt in Crouch End, to see if the four supermarkets and two fruit and veg shops there would stock Seville oranges. These lovely knobbly, bitter fruit are only available in January and February and are the perfect fruit for marmalade.

The results: the Broadway Fruiterers and the Clocktower Store came up trumps but none of the supermarkets stocked this most seasonal of fruits.  For sure, had I wanted clementines, naval oranges, jaffa oranges, blood oranges, organic oranges, and tangerines (to try), the supermarkets would have met my needs.  They offered half-price, two bags for the price of one bargains and seedless varieties.  Waitrose even apologised for selling lemons with pips. But you see I wanted pips because that's what makes my marmalade set!

So what is the moral of this little story?  It is the myth that supermarkets offer choice.  There may be a range but if it is a niche product you are after, the local fruit and veg shop is best.  If we lose our local shops, where will we go for our seasonal fruit?

Here's a recipe for marmalade, published this Saturday in the Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/29/seville-orange-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall

And here’s a link to Dave Cohen’s poem published in the Hornsey Journal, lamenting the demise of local shops.  http://www.hornseyjournal.co.uk/news/comic_poem_highlights_death_of_crouch_end_1_773776

Free Draughtbusting Workshop               offered by Transition Crouch End                            Sunday 30th Jan 1-4pm Would you like to make your home warmer and cosier, and reduce energy bills without having to install expensive double glazing and solid wall insulation? Come to this draught busting workshop to learn to make inexpensive changes to your home. The workshop will be a practical hands on event in a local home using window and door products that really work! Places are limited to 12 so please contact Kate on 07980 260 455 / strangel@earth101.org to book You might also be interested in a link from Friends of the Earth, who circulated this story below.

Last week Alice from London sent us - and her MP - this story:
"I once rented a flat in Nottingham in the summer, in a beautiful detached house. Wonderful, till winter, when the central heating I was paying for poured through the uninsulated walls, windows and ceilings.
"I was lucky, I could find something else. The most vulnerable people often have very little choice."
If you have your own story about cold homes please tell it today at www.coldtimes.co.uk  Tenants, their parents, landlords as well as those of you lucky enough to have a perfectly warm home have been writing in.  More stories will help us convince Government to make sure the coldest, health-hazard homes are improved - and slash climate-changing emissions in the process.
Take action now.