Those present

• Mike King
• Jhon Munoz
• Sheena King
• Tony Thornby
• Sarah Moroz

Apologies

Angus, Ivan

A minute’s silence was held for Bob who sadly passed away on 19th May.

Minutes

MK – No further updates from Ivan re: Population Matters / Wycombe Friends of the Earth. Angus sent a message that ‘Bob was a man of few words but great heart’. Nothing from Bucks New Uni – no students or staff there at the moment. Staff are working from home.

MK – re: tracking down the Wycombe for Fairtrade webpage owner – Ivan suggested messaging Steve Guy on Facebook and SK has done this. Steve said that the webpage is nothing to do with Lib Dems – it is being paid for and maintained by Steve himself. He is happy to keep this going or relinquish control. MK will send info to TT and see what he thinks. It seems unfair that Steve carries on paying for it.

JM – will invite Steve to like our Facebook page. It says that Steve works for O2 at the moment.

TT joined the meeting.

TT – It is quite difficult to move hosting on an established site. It should only be costing Steve about £3 – £4 per month – we could offer to pay him.

MK – we could set up a standing order to Steve.

SK – will contact Steve back and offer this.

TT – would also be useful to know who the provider is.

MK – JM was involved with a team meeting on 8th May with Maria from Co-op Vittoria and members of CLAC (the unifying force for small producers of Fair Trade goods in Latin America) and MK was interviewed on Wycombe Sound by person called Colin on the mid-morning show on the same day.

JM – on May 8th, there was also a cultural representative from the Municipality. The new Mayor wasn’t there. Co-op Vittoria organised various events to celebrate World Fair Trade Day and Farmers Day in Costa Rica. The people spoke mainly on the current situation. The CLAC speaker spoke re: the Fairtrade situation. The second speaker was talking about FT Towns in Latin America and Universities. Thirdly, Maria talked about Grecia and Co-op Vttoria and the link with Wycombe. JM was the only person from the consumer side. JM did a Powerpoint presentation re: the consumer side and our group and Wycombe as a FT Town. The discussion was all in Spanish. MK listened in and understood some. There were also about 25 people listening in Latin America. It was the first time that there was a European FT Town group joining this.
MK – re: getting a celebration coffee roasted for the 200th anniversary of Costa Rican independence. MK has now had a response from Liz White at Traidcraft – they use a roaster which only deals with fairly large quantities.

MK – re: becoming a Community Interest Company (CIC) or Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Ivan has sent a link from Transition Town Marlow who are considering changing from a CIC to a CIO as there are more tax breaks. Bristol FT network are a CIC.

JM – will send an e-mail to the Bristol group to ask their experience. Also Matt’s Cafe is a CIC.

TT – there is a lot of work involved in being a CIO – a lot of paperwork, admin etc.

MK – there is info to look up on internet also re: advantages and disadvantages.

SM – can you get money from government if you are a CIC or a CIO?

MK – yes and these are not taxed as long as this money is used in the current tax year. If it isn’t, the tax is paid but then can be claimed back.

MK – Ivan raised issue of us having a group e-mail address.

TT – we can have as many e-mails as we want if we had the hosting of our website domain.

JM – it would be a more formal set-up, with the e-mail address representing our group.

MK – had a call last Friday from Heather Searle – Lay Minister at Christ the Servant King church to say that they still wanted to increase their FT products at the church – also to arrange another speaker at their church and set up FT things for children. Chris Owen, the vicar there, is also very supportive.

MK – SK has found a FT group in Scotland (on Facebook) – the Scottish FT Forum . On World Fair Trade Day they set up a lecture by Pauline Tiffen (on the board of Divine Chocolate). She is producing a journal re: FT, which is aimed at academics in business and economics and to focus on what FT was originally intended to achieve. She is very proactive and supports FT but argues that all the other things now associated with FT eg. sustainability, planting trees etc dilutes the original concept. The journal is only available on-line to academics unless you join the FT society. MK may join so that he has access to the articles

JM – knew Pauline when he was working at Liberation.

MK – Pauline is also keen on equality in business. The initial article by Pauline is available on-line for free ‘Who cares about Fairtrade?’ It raises some interesting questions. She talks about linking producers and consumers and this is what we are doing.

SK – Their neighbour, Lesley, also goes to The Avenue church and is interested in FT. SK has asked if she would like to join us as an associate member.

SK – it would be good to pursue getting our Costa Rican anniversary coffee roasted.

JM – knows a manager in the Sustainable Harvest group (used to be a manager at Twin) – he may be able to help.

Next meeting

Tuesday 23rd June