Meeting Minutes and Agendas
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.
