Present

Alice Curteis, Averill Marks, Marie Robinson, Peter Robinson, Mary Popple

Apologies

Andrew Smith

Read previous Minutes of 21 January 2009.

1. Matters arising from last minutes          

·        AC had spoken on fair trade to Martyr's Church Fellowship, mainly using a quiz to promote questions and discussion.  AC to send MR the quiz to be kept for future use or development as basis of a talk.

2. Finances

·        PR reported that £104.50 had been spent buying sample sachets of tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and chocolate bars, from Fairshares Trading.  After buying the bananas (item 2(ii)), c. £350 remained of the grant from SFTF, which should cover buying a banner, the new website, and printing the Finder.PR to report to SFTF how the grant for FT Fortnight has been used.

·        PR to report to SFTF how the grant for FT Fortnight has been used.

3. Fairtrade Fortnight  23 February -  8 March 2009

·        Arts Building Talk - This talk on 27th February, had been attended by about 30 people, mostly from churches or individuals interested in Malawi, and a few students/university staff.  The short talks by Betsy Reed and Towera Jalakasi were followed by a good Q & A session.

·        Change for Burma, and Fairtrade Banana Event - Saturday 7th March.  Rev Rory Macleod, Holy Trinity Church, had organised a fund-raising fun-run on the West Sands to support the Global Day of Prayer for Burma.  Since this day coincided with the FTF promotion of banana-eating competitions, it had been agreed to offer to reward participants with Fairtrade bananas.  £40 of our SFTF grant for funding events during FT Fortnight was spent buying 200 bananas from the Co-op and Morrison's.  Surplus bananas were distributed the following day to some town congregations.  The Citizen covered the event both before and afterwards, thus gaining good publicity for both causes and the SFTF.

4. Fairtrade Town Finders for Fairtrade Fortnight 2009

·        AS had almost finished collating the data and would shortly be able to forward it to PR for printing.  MP to add this to our website.  It is hoped to hand these out in town one day over the summer (date to be decided).  MR to request help with this in due course from those who normally assist on the supermarket stall rota.

·        AC had discovered some Fairtrade vending machines in town: bus garage, Old Course Hotel, and the university Sports Centre.

5. Website

·        Alasdair Popple will manage the website after August, and he and MP will revamp it in various ways.  MR to ask Iain Robinson to speak to MP/AP re. aspects of the design.

6. The R&A and Open 2010  

·        MP had forwarded an email detailing Fairtrade products now in use at the R&A: coffee for Members, tea and coffee for staff, and bananas throughout.  A Fairtrade Town certificate had been offered to the R&A for this.

·        MP to enquire re. progress with use of Fairtrade products at the next Open.

7. Fife Fair Trade Forum

·        Plans for a schools' competition for a Fife Fair Trade logo, a banner, and another publicity event in the autumn were reported.   Details of FT product usage throughout Fife are being collated at Fife House.

·        It is intended to hold a meeting for all members of the Fife Fair Trade Forum.

8. AOB    

·        New certificates: it is hoped to produce these ourselves, incorporating the SFTF logo, but otherwise much the same as the originals.

·        Another approach to the town and district B&B/guest houses might be made initially in the autumn, prior to the 2010 Open, to encourage greater use of FT goods.  Bruce Stuart of Fairshares Trading, Burntisland had offered help with information on products and prices, and sample sachets could be handed out along with a letter.

·        MR suggested writing a small article for St Andrews in Focus to provide an up-date on local and Fife-wide FT initiatives - possibly for Sept/Oct issue in the run-up to our November anniversary.

9. Date of next meeting  

Date of next meeting:  Thurs 4 June, venue to be confirmed.

ACTIONS: AC: 1; MR:3,5,8; MP: 3,5,6; PR: 5