Steering Committee Meeting – February 2022

Date & location

Old New Inn, 7:30pm Thursday 10^th February 2022

Agenda

1. Action points from previous meeting:
   1. Insurance renewal (renewed)
   2. Newsletter (sent)
   3. MailChimp welcome email (setup)
   4. Marketing materials (still pending)
   5. Press & social media
   6. Photos on Google Drive
   7. PAVO localities initiative
   8. Ideas for trips and visits
2. Project updates
3. Home energy audits
4. Hedging weekend
5. 20 minute neighbourhoods
6. Upcoming award for BRACE
7. Local food production event in Cae Bodfach
8. Representation on the Public Institute committee
9. Moving materials from the Workhouse to the community garden
10. All other business

Attendees

• David Brandreth
• Colin Hargis
• Gwen Brandreth
• Alison Alexander
• Paul Mason
• Lesley Sweet
• Fiona Slater
• Alan Bridger
• Sue Dolman
• Diana Allen

Minutes

Press and social media

Fiona has joined all the groups on Facebook, so will be sharing events shortly.

There is a social media plan on the committee Google Drive.

Previously, the social media focus has been mostly on Llanfyllin with the exception of the Repair Cafe. There was discussion about expanding marketing more widely beyond Llanfyllin and aiming to be more inclusive. This led to discussion about offering openings for events to people across the wider community at the same time as they are offered to BRACE members, and a some consideration of the capacity of workshops and the number of places that we are able to offer. It was acknowledged that it would be difficult to increase the number of places at events, and some thought given to BRACE members who had been on workshops offering follow-up training based on what they had learned. The questions about inclusivity and the priority given to BRACE members for courses related to the discussions about membership fees and benefits at the previous meeting. It was agreed that this could be discussed at more length at a subsequent meeting.

Photos on Google Drive

Lots of photos have gone up on Google Drive and there are still more to come.

PAVO Localities Initiative

Alison chaired the recent PAVO Localities Initiative meeting. The Localities Initiative is a UK government fund, which is going to be replacing EU funding to communities throughout the UK. It will be more direct, but less money is available. PAVO have been nominated to run the distribution of funding. They organised a meeting of local groups and areas. The first batch of funding is £20,000 across 9 councils in Powys and needs to be spent by June. It could be used for exploratory projects and research for longer term projects as more money will be available in future. There was apparently lots of discussion at the meeting about improving broadband and electric car charging in this area. Other communities may not have the resources to apply, so Llanfyllin would have a good chance of securing some funding and it’s worth trying to arrange a meeting with other local groups.

Alison raised food issues locally – the Workhouse are keen to run food workshops in future, and this would fit well with the community fridge project. There was discussion og other ideas involving Arts Connection. The workhouse meet every Friday afternoon anyway, so it would be worth trying to meet with them next Friday (18^th February).

There was some discussion about possible projects that BRACE could be involved with as part of this, as well as the projects currently in progress.

Sue spoke to Dr Plant, who is keen for a flier for community groups (with a mental-health focus). Perhaps this could be linked in to walking programmes.

Paul raised the risk of taking on too much personally. There is a need for much wider meetings so that the wider membership can take things on, and the steering committee meetings could be shorter and more of a guidance role.

Previously the general meetings were in two parts – the first one was a more formal meeting and the second would split into working groups. This is something that we could try to revive. It would be good to organise a general meeting and use this as a way to ask members to put forward a list of ideas that they would be interested in pursuing. The projects that have natural interest and enthusiasm behind them will be the ones that we follow through on – others can be parked for future consideration.

Trips and visits

Babbinswood Farm and Bloom and Berries in Cwm Nant Y Meichiaid were both suggested as good local trips for BRACE members. Fordhall Farm near Market Drayton was also suggested.

Home Energy Audits

There was not enough interest in Llanfyllin for this to go ahead. We need to follow up with the one person who volunteered and let them know.

Hedging weekend

This is now a one day course happening the workhouse, organised by Lottie at the Wildlife Trust. BRACE involvement is now just limited to advertising. Lottie now has a list of email addresses from the Green Connections meeting, so will advertise to them. We will advertise through BRACE. Alan Houseman the Wildlife Trust trainer is going to lead it. Alison still waiting to hear back from Lottie with final details. There isn’t much time to advertise, but there are only 10 places so this should fill up quickly.

20 minute neighbourhoods

Three communities will be part of a trial for this – a small, medium and large community. Llanfyllin and BRACE have been awarded the opportunity to be the trial medium community. Llandindrod is the bigger community and the small one is still to be decided.

20 minute neighbourhood is a city concept to reduce car journeys and give people the things they need within a 20 minute round trip, and give people more opportunities for active travel. This is unlikely to work in Powys, so the project aims to see how this could be adapted for a rural community. The focus would be on encouraging people to take up opportunities for active transport, and failing this, public transport.Ideas for projects that BRACE members want to undertake.

The trial will be led by an organisation called Resources for Change, who are running the project on behalf of PACE. They will be working with the three communities. The idea is to hold community consultations to see what infrastructure is already in place and what else would be needed to make this feasible. Resources for Change will then map this information on a GIS system and produce a report looking at how the concept can be best implemented. The idea is that there will be cross-fertilisation of ideas between the trial communities, who can then act as a model for similar communities across the county/country. There is not enough money for Resources for Change to physically come out to each community, so BRACE will implement the community consultation and then feed back to Resources for Change.

John Dady is the primary contact. They will hold community consultations to see what we already have and what we might need. Physically mapping the existing stuff on a GIS system. And finding what the community assets also exist, what we don’t have, and what we’d like. They will then put this information together and look at ways that this could be implemented.

The project needs to be completed and paid for by the end of June. There is a meeting about this tomorrow (11^th February), so Diana will know more after that.

Upcoming award for BRACE

Social Farms and Gardens have nominated BRACE an award. Vlad Morosov will be going to film at the community garden tomorrow and on Tuesday to provide footage for the award ceremony. Footage will available for the BRACE website afterwards. Photos of the garden at the beginning would be useful for this. Sue has these and will try to provide them.

Local food production event in Cae Bodfach

Severn Rivers Trust are producing interpretation panels about food production in Cae Bodfach. They are interested in interviewing people who have been involved and want to do some workshops with local schoolchildren. They would also like to organise an event on Good Friday with tea and cake to invite the local community, so that people can give talks about food production in the local area.

The Good Friday event would be a good opportunity for BRACE to reach out to the community and connect with parts of it that have generally not been involved before. This could be combined with he spring seedling swap at the community garden. The Resources for Change survey should also be available then, so members of the community could be taking surveys during the event.

Representation on the Public Institute committee

The Public Institute is having its AGM on 14^th February. Any group who is a user of the Institute can put forward a committee representative. David happy to be the BRACE representative. One issue that it would be good for the Institute committee to address is an easier way to book the building.

Moving materials from the Workhouse

Alan and Fiona will liaise with Gareth Davies about moving the materials. This may need to happen over a couple of days. 2 tonne bags of soil should go to the school. Alison said that she would contact the school to see where these could be delivered.

Projects update

Keep Wales Tidy

Everything is in place except the seeds, which have disappeared [these have subsequently arrived]. PAVO will need some photos – Diana can get some off the Google Drive. This finishes at the end of February.

PAVO Social Fund

6 out of 10 workshops have taken place and the other 4 are confirmed. Diana will send Alan details for the soil workshop for advertising on the BRACE newsletter.

Safeguarding and Food Hygiene hasn’t had much take-up. Some take-up on the Food Hygiene. Both are online.

PAVO are doing free online safeguarding training with a tutor. Very useful for the people working on the school project. 3 hours online.

All other business

Gardening at the school

There are plans to create raised beds at the school, and an area of native wildflowers. The school have lots of parents who are farmers, and will have skills and machinery to help install things.

Repair Cafe

It was too tight to organise a Repair Cafe in Llanfyllin in February. The next one is in Oswestry in March.

David offered for the next one to be held at the Men’s Shed unit in April. There is 750 sq feet of space that will be available. David is signing the lease on Monday and will know more about access after that. Paul and Colin will need to go and have a look. The alternative would be to book the Institute on a Sunday in April, since it is booked up for every Saturday.

Given the strong demand and number of bookings, Alison said that she would catch up with Colin to see about the need for press releases. There should be a separate chat about the Repair Cafe to iron out the details.

Finances

Finances should go on the agenda every month. We need to work out what’s left after the insurance payment and any returns needed to the PAVO Social Fund.

It was agreed that the HSBC account should be closed and the small amount of remaining money (£11.61) should be transferred out.

The finance spreadsheet will be edited locally by Gwen and then updated once per month on Google Drive, and archived for an audit trail.

Gwen has the debit card, but is still waiting for access to the online banking.

Actions to be taken

• Alan: book a venue for the next meetings.
• Fiona and Alan: liaise with Gareth Davies about moving materials from the workhouse.
• Alison: discuss delivery of the soil with the school and let Alan and Fiona know.
• Diana: send Alan details of the soil health workshop for the newsletter.
• Colin and Paul: to discuss the Men’s Shed as a venue for the next Repair Cafe with David.
• Everyone: ideas for the event on 15^th April.

Next meetings

General meeting

Wednesday 2^nd March, 7 for 7:30pm.

Agenda

• Event on 15^th April.
• Ideas for projects that BRACE members want to undertake.

Steering committee meeting

Wednesday 16^th March

Agenda

• Discussing membership ideas (benefits, costs, pledges)
• Examples membership terms from other groups
• Aims of the group
• Purpose of the group
• Finances