4th of April, 2012

Minutes of St Andrews Fairtrade Town Campaign Meeting on 29th March 2012
Present:
Mary Popple, Averill Marks, Peter Robinson, Julian Crowe, Marie Robinson, Alice Curteis.
Apologies:
Duncan Smart

Matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting, 12 Jan 2012

i MP still to respond to Justrading. Her contact is still away.

ii AC still to send our request for a more detailed response to the IEA report to the Fairtrade Foundation. ACTION:MP,AC

 

Finance

Current balance £86.28, following expenditure on Fairtrade Trail prize (£8.98).

 

Fairtrade Fortnight round-up

1 Step out for Fairtrade competition. The competition had been won by a member of Hope Park and Martyrs Sunday School. Publicity included a photo and caption in the Citizen, and a public presentation from the lectern at Hope Park Church. We discussed how to run such a competition differently in future as it had been difficult to manage the shops’ participation. AC to ask the Sunday school teacher, whether we can use the winner’s photo on our website.

ACTION:AC

 

2 Fairtrade speaker. The talk by Abu Kamal, Palestinian farmer, producer of Zaytoun olive oil, translated by interpreter Manal Abdallah, had been very successful, attracting an audience of about 50, including all ages from students upwards, thanks to the joint efforts of both town and university Fairtrade groups. Students from the St Andrews Food Coop ran a stall selling Palestinian Fairtrade products. An olive oil and bread tasting session was held after the talk. Deirdre Muldowney, from the Scottish Fair Trade Foundation, who was transporting the speakers around the east of Scotland, was very pleased with the event. The only disappointing factor was the lack of publicity we achieved both before and after, with two excellent photos going unused by the Citizen. MP to contact the newpaper’s editor and reporter once more about this; if nothing transpires AC to contact St Andrews in Focus re possible article. MP to add information and photo to the website.

 

ACTION:AC,MP

Campaigns

1 B&Bs. AC to contact the two associations to find out the dates of their AGMs and offer a Fairtrade speaker. JC to investigate the Yahoo group for Fairtrade towns to see what ideas exist for the accommodation sector and what progress has been made elsewhere, eg the use of a Fairtrade symbol in B&B publicity. AC to write to SFTF to ask them to encourage Visit Scotland to introduce such a symbol. ACTION:AC,JC

 

2 Workplaces. It was noted that it is essential for our status renewal to have more workplaces on board. MP to send a letter and article to the Citizen for May 11th to coincide with World Fair Trade Day on May 12th, drawing attention to our need to demonstrate that St Andrews workplaces are using FT products. Another possible time for action will occur with publicity for the declaration of Scotland’s Fair Trade Nation status. ACTION:MP

AOB.

1 The Official St Andrews Guide. Mention of St Andrews being a Fairtrade town was dropped from the 2010/11 edition. AC to find out when copy needed for next edition.

ACTION:AC

2 Definition of ‘fairly/ethically traded’ for the directory. We decided to include outlets selling fairly or ethically traded goods with an asterisked explanation of how these other schemes differ from Fairtrade labelling, pointing out that consumers need to find out for themselves what they mean. ACTION:MP

3 University group. AC to contact DS asking when the next meeting is and who his successor is to be. ACTION: AC

 

Next meeting 7.30pm, Thurday 7th June, MP’s house, Blebo Craigs.