Meeting Minutes and Agendas

AGM Minutes June 2024

For notes of the AGM in June 2024, click here

Committee Meeting October 2023

For notes of the Committee Meeting in October, click here

Committee Meeting September 2023

For notes of the Committee Meeting in September 2023, click here

Committee Meeting July 2023

For notes of the Committee Meeting in July 2023, click here

EGM Minutes June 2023

For notes of the EGM in June 2023, click here

AGM Minutes 2022

SCFG AGM 11.10.2022 Minutes

Present: Joan, John, Debbie, Carol, Eddie, Nicola, Rachael, Pat

Apologies: Candice, Ben, Emma, Pete, Liam

Previous minutes: accepted

Chair’s report:

· Problems of committee meeting over the last year so it has not really got going as envisaged.

· Difficult growing season due to drought and lack of water supply.

· Work parties at Community Centre garden have made progress with general maintenance. New plot holders welcomed and said goodbye to some longstanding gardeners.

· Volunteers are no longer being actively invited due to the administrative burden, responding to requests as appropriate.

· Rachael has helped with FB posts to keep our social media ticking over.

· We acted as a holding account for a community project celebrating the centenary of Sherwood Estate.

· We were awarded Green Flag Community again this year as SCFG but assessors only visited Edingley. £100 voucher spent at Woodthorpe Plant shop on kiwis, grape vine lavender, thyme, onion sets and peat free compost.

· We are part of Nottingham Growing Network which links us to other community gardens in the area. This has been useful in the past as a means of support and sharing information. The Network now has a paid p/t worker, Kirsty Dexter and is setting up a committee to help run future projects. Most of the community garden run differently from us, with more funding, paid workers etc. The network may apply for funding jointly so each garden is not seeking the same sources for grants. This could be of benefit for us but would need to participate more and attend meetings.

· Wildlife is flourishing at both gardens with many wildflowers, pollinators, butterflies, sparrows, owls hedgehogs, foxes and badgers.

Treasurer’s Report see separate accounts document. Agreed to set aside funds £800 to pay for Public Liability Insurance over next 5 years. Some income has come from admin of grant for Estate centenary project. We now have online banking which means plots fees can be paid by bank transfer, payments from the account easier but still require approval from former cheque signatories. Plot fees were discussed as part of the issue of raising money to pay for Public Liability Insurance. NCC or NCH may be able to provide additional funding or support in future to cover our insurance.

New Committee We need new members for our committee to help organise and coordinate our group. Debbie is still willing to be Treasurer with thanks for all her work on the accounts over the last year. Debbie would also be happy to pass on her duties if anyone else wants to be Treasurer so she could have a coordinating role. Nicola is standing down as Chair. Eddie and Rachael both happy to stay on as committee members. Plan to recruit other gardeners to help.

Plans for 2023

Agreed to have management plans for each garden as well as plans for joint events especially where budget required. Ideas as follows

Community Centre: Ongoing work to restore path, eventually pea shingle can be added which will require funding. Plot boundaries need re-aligning, with log roll best solution, also needs funding. Compost bins need replacing, Wormery feeding watering using compost.

Edingley: Pond liner needs replacing, shared beds need maintenance, bindweed removal from fence. Possible second pond

Joint plans: involvement in Sherwood Open Gardens if running 2023 usually June, City Nature Challenge April/May, socials, could be around food and cooking, picnics, Christmas meal. Carol talked about her involvement with Sharing Sherwood as we had provided herbs and other produce in the past.

Treasurer’s Report 2022- Notes

Transition Sherwood AGM October 2022

Accounts notes / decisions

1. The accounts cover the period 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022.

2. Our activities are the running of the two community gardens, at Sherwood Community Centre

and at Edingley

3. This year we also agreed to hold and spend funds on behalf of the group planning activities to

celebrate the 100 th anniversary of the Edwards Lane estate. The group was not constituted and

therefore could not get a bank account to manage the grants they received. We have

previously carried out the same task on behalf of Nottingham Co-Housing, to cover the period

while they were registering with Companies House and setting up a bank account.

4. We spent £668.99 in the financial year, of which £293.99 was for the gardens, £375 for the

estate project. Routine garden items are public liability insurance (£157) and donation to

Sherwood Community Centre of the plot holders’ fees (£50). We bought a plaque to

commemorate Anne Sheasby, who gardened at Sherwood.

5. Our income this year (£1310) has come from plot fees from gardeners at Sherwood

Community Centre (£50, passed on as a donation to Sherwood Community Association which

runs the community centre, as a thank you for the use of the centre's garden); and £1260,

grant from Castle Cavendish to the estate centenary project, of which 10% (£126) was paid to

the gardens for administering the grant (thanks Nicola).

6. We have £1682.22 in the bank at the year end, 31.3.21, of which £923.22 belongs to the

Garden. Balance at 31.3.21 was £1041.21. This increase is due to grants held on behalf of the

estate project.

7. We have set up internet banking to make things quicker.

8. This year so far we are collecting plot fees, no other income. The only significant expenditure

on the gardens has been insurance.

Decisions to make

1. Note that the costs of running the gardens are not covered by the income. We can afford to

continue using our reserves to pay the one essential expense, the public liability insurance,

and we decided at the last AGM to put aside 5 years worth of money for the public liability

insurance. It has increased to £157 this year, so I suggest we allocate say £800.

2. We have decided to spend money on log roll to better mark out the plots. Beyond that we

need to make a plan for the gardens for the next year, so as to allocate funds accordingly.

Debbie Seaborn Treasurer

9 October 2022

Treasurer’s Report 2022- Accounts

Date Cheque no  Payee                                                                        Amount             Joint  CC Edingley      Estate project

06/04/21 200004 Carol McCormick (gardeners to cut hedge)                  20                           20

25/07/21 200005 Zurich Insurance                                                                       157             157

25/07/21 200006 Nicola Holmes (padlock)                                                     12.5                                 12.5

02/09/21 200007 Joan Cook (plaque for Anne Sheasby)                        14.99            14.99

21/10/21 200101 Carol McCormick (gardeners to cut hedge)                             20                         20

16/11/21 200102 Nicola Holmes (AGM room hire)                                                19.5         19.5

02/02/22 200103 Sherwood Community Centre (plot fees)                       50                           50

03/03/22 200104 Lucy Simons (leaflet printing)                                         230                                                          230

12/03/22 200105 Lucy Simons (Survey Monkey/leaflets VAT                     145                                                    145

TOTAL EXPENDITURE 2020 – 2021                                                   668.99       176.5          104.99        12.5                    375

Income

03/02/22 Plot fees Sherwood                                                           50 50

02/28/22 Castle Cavendish grant – estate project                          260        26                                           234

03/28/22 Castle Cavendish grant – estate project                        1000      100                                                   900

TOTAL INCOME  2020 – 2021                                                         1310               126             50           0                    1134

Balance b/f from last yr Surplus/ deficit this yr       Balance c/f

Joint               32.05                           -50.5                    -18.45

Sherwood     969.35                        -54.99                      914.36

Edingley                39.81                         -12.5                     27.31

Estate project 0                                759                           759

TOTAL                 1041.21                                                         1682.22

Balance in Bank 31.3.2021 1041.21

Balance in Bank 31.3.2022 1682.22

Net expenditure Garden 2021 – 2022      -293.99

Net expenditure Estate project 2021 - 22 759

Minutes from Meeting

16 Sept. 2021

Present: Debbie S, (Treasurer) Rachael v O, Joan C, Lindsey D, Vesse A, Eddie E, Carol M, Lyndsey S,

Nicola H (Chair)

Apologies: Kay K, Angelika B, Anna R, Open Wings, Maxine L S4S

Welcome and introductions NH and JC. Explanation of group’s development as Transition Sherwood, the activities we used to cover, our central core of organisers dwindled so we could no longer cover the range of Transition issues we had in the past. Our focus has been on community gardens since 2014. Historically our group evolved with a coordinator for each garden but no organiser apart from Treasurer who had a role across both gardens. At the AGM in Sept 2020 It was decided to change our name and look at how we could be better organised to share tasks to sustain our work into the future and work across both gardens.

Change of name

· Proposal to change group name from Transition Sherwood to Sherwood Community Food Gardens- Meeting vote carried unanimously

Finances

DS presented accounts. Agreed to present the same at AGM for official approval. Meeting asked for suggestions for future spending.

· Regular expense is PLI -proposal to set aside sufficient funds for 5 years-£800 unanimous agreement to proceed

Income is from plot fees at CC garden, passed on as donation to CC, and one off grants for specific projects. As funds depleted by necessary payments as above new sources of funding will need to be explored.

Committee

NH outlined need for committee to organise group across both gardens. This would allow improved resilience, less dependent on individuals and better co- ordinated for both gardens. As a constituted group we would normally be expected to have a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer especially if applying for funding. Roles could be shared and rotated or Committee and officers if elected would serve according to adopted constitution. Need for rep from each garden. List of tasks that need to be covered presented to meeting.

Invitation to join committee

Accepted by: Lyndsey S, Lindsey D, Rachael, Debbie (Treasurer), Nicola and Eddie

Items for discussion

· Community Centre Update. DS explained CC application for “asset of community value” which gives 6 months’ notice of Council decision to sell the building. Complicated by inclusion of vacant land next to Woodthorpe Meadow which council may want to keep separate for development.

· Constitution will need to be changed to reflect new name and organisational structure. NH has a draft prepared for new committee to discuss then hope to adopt at AGM

· Work parties- volunteers have attended after advertising through NCVS and Do It. Useful maintenance of both sites, picking, pruning, weeding shared spaces, grass cutting, shed clearing etc. Difficult to find a time to suit everyone but sticking with 1st Sun for CC garden and 3rd Sun Edingley. Change so both same time 11-1.

· Food Banks – requests for fresh food from local workers to support asylum seekers and query from volunteer. Sometimes herbs used by Sharing Sherwood but fresh produce not required. Difficult to organise a regular way of doing this as we don’t always have a surplus on small plots. Arnold Food Bank do accept fresh food but need to be contacted first. Wild NG is fairly new project to raise awareness of local nature, based on Carrington Sherwood area, campaign to stop spraying streets with weedkiller. We are members of Nottingham Growing Network providing support and ideas sharing amongst community gardens. Useful past projects on saving water and wildlife garden. No current project or funding but umbrella organisation is Social Farms and Gardens which has really useful resources on its website, templates for risk assessments etc , governance etc https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/

· Replacing tools idea to look at additional tools needed. Agreed to sharpen shears at CC garden. Woodpeckers- wood work fixing group might be useful.

· Site Plans idea to have regular calendar of maintenance and developments/improvements for each site which could help inform work parties and gardeners involvement.

· Help for Open Wings Anna asked for input to help clients to make the most of plot and grow food to use in kitchen. Difficult to commit to regular help but NH will discuss further with Anna

Committee meeting date- NH to email to find suitable time.

AOB Agreed to have social get togethers as well as meetings. Frequency of Committee Meetings- aim for quarterly with additional when required.

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