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Twelve people attended the meeting, including an observer from Leatherhead. The following items were discussed -
1. Steering Committee
We agreed that the best way to enable Steering Committee business to be separated from general TB members' meetings was to hold additional, specific SC meetings. As there are a small number of SC members, these could be rotated round homes of those SC members willing to play host (current SC members are Anne, Colin, Esther, Peter, Richard, Roland, Trudie and Win). The first of these will be on 8th September at Esther's home. (Action Steering Committee members) These proceedings could then be reported on briefly by including a 'summary SC report' as the final agenda item of our general meetings.
We also discussed whether or not we needed such frequent TB members' meetings, agreeing that this could be reconsidered in due course but at present we need to try to maintain our momentum and local profile.
2. Notes from last meeting Agreed and actions reported on
Garden Share Fliers in notice boards of local allotments to publicise is in progress; Richard is waiting for John Humphreys at Eastwick Allotments to return from holidays. (Action Richard)
Esther has had one approach regarding Garden Share. Regarding other publicity, Members felt it may also be worth considering targeting roads featuring big gardens (eg there are many such roads in Little Bookham) with a leaflet drop and contacting allotment agents. (Action Steering Committee – to discuss at next meeting)
Talk to Bookham and Horsley Rotary Club Now arranged for 25th November. Richard will do a PowerPoint presentation. (Action Richard)
D3 - Don't Dump, Donate event (see also item 3 below) Potential dates for United Reformed Church Hall are 18th September or 30th
October. The latter date was favoured as 18th September was felt to be too soon. Richard will book it. He is also designing the poster and is still trying to contact others: George McNamara (local LETS Group) and Eclektic girls (TB member Viv confirmed they have now received his message). (Actions Richard) See also item 3 below and the note following it.
Finance Thanks to all involved in the (extensive!) preparation work to enable TB's bank account to be set up – an 'interesting' process! Anne will collect authorised signatories' details during/after the current meeting and then submit the application. (Action Anne, Esther, Richard and Win)
Publicity TB's carefully-crafted articles have appeared in the Leatherhead/Dorking Advertiser, albeit appearing slightly 'mangled' from the editing process – but we are grateful for the publicity!
We are awaiting details regarding if/when we will feature in the local Bookhams Bulletin. Richard reported that the circulation of the Look Local magazine will be doubling from 3,000 copies to 6,000. Apparently, he was told that printing on recycled paper may not be commercially viable, but has suggested a recycled insert as an alternative, with perhaps more online content. An observer from Leatherhead, Flip Cargill, mentioned that she has a contact at another locally-produced magazine who she believes does use recycled paper and will try to ask her about it when they next meet. (Action Flip)
Richard has started using our new email address (transitionbookham@gmail.com) to reply to anyone who contacts him.
Energy Group Richard reported that he had made contact with people at Juice from your Roof and they seem willing to give a talk at one of our meetings – he will pursue this. (Action Richard)
Government lobbying (re reversing proposal to return to weekly domestic waste collections): Richard reported that a message had been sent to the relevant group.
Logo competition no known entries to date, which is a bit disappointing but we realise that July and August are bad months to try to get anything done! We agreed to extend the deadline – Trudie will contact Bookham Library to let them know. (Action Trudie) However, Anne has also had a creative moment; she tabled her suggestion and everyone agreed it captured very well the spirit of Transition and could be developed. Richard also outlined an idea, which he will work on . (Action Richard) (Those TB members who saw Anne's draft at the meeting and who feel they know an emblem or graphic, or web link to it, that might be useful to this or Richard's idea (eg bicycle, butterfly, tree, oil derrick / 'nodding donkey' pump) are invited to email such items to Richard to try to help him.)
Food Group
Esther reported that the Bug Hotel had been constructed the previous Sunday – four hours or so of hard work, but worth it! TB members visited St Nicolas's Pastoral Centre's Biodiversity garden
project and were all very impressed, so hopefully, it will look just as inviting to any creepy-crawlies looking for a home. The rest of the garden is looking very clear and tidy and there are more new plants. The emphasis at the moment is on clearing and planting, but planning will follow and we hope to get permission to put in some edible plants. The next arranged working party date is 9th September (7.30 until dusk-ish) and Margaret will circulate further dates – if possible, concentrating on weekends, as the days are shortening, and perhaps including some Sunday mornings. There will always be weeding to do and autumn leaves will soon need clearing!
Note: Subsequent to the meeting, the 9th September evening date has been cancelled in favour of a morning session on Saturday 11th September, 10am-12 mid-day because the light now starts to fail at around 8pm!
Apparently, there is a builder of bird boxes in Fetcham. We thought this might be interesting to others; possibly he could come to give a talk at one of our meetings? The Steering Committee will endeavour to set up some meetings with specific topics (as opposed to general meetings) in order to try to attract more members, so this could be included for consideration. (Action Steering Committee) See also item 4 below.
3. D3 - Don't Dump, Donate event
We agreed that to allow for clearing up and removing unadopted items to relevant charity shops etc, a whole day should be booked with the UR Church for this, although the event itself should be a few hours only (maybe 11 am – 2pm?). People can bring anything portable, or bring a photograph of anything larger. We will put up a plan at the entrance and signs designating particular areas (eg 'Tools', 'Garden produce' etc) within the hall. People can either donate or take items – or do both.
Note: Subsequent to our meeting, several emails were circulated, prompted by our reflections on the above discussion. Some issues clearly still need to be resolved, so we agreed to discuss this event at the Steering Committee meeting on 8th September. We felt it would not be desirable to commit to a date until we are quite sure how such an event would function and whether the venue is the most appropriate, once its purpose has been agreed.
4. Brainstorming session
To help with future (open to everyone) meeting plans. Ideas were:
- Food/cookery demonstrations*
- Eco crafts
- Vintage – examples of 'make do and mend' from different eras
- 'Eco-chic' – making clothes, jewellery, etc.
- Sewing workshops
- Liaise with key people from neighbouring Transition groups and mention their events too (Everything 'green' in Mole Valley?)
- Energy/home energy
- Car pools – any local ones known?
- Herbal medicines*
* Anne had earlier offered to do a vegan cookery demonstration and could also do herbal medicines. Trudie and Win are also still keen to be involved with food/cookery.
A proposed interest meeting topic for TB's October meeting was suggested: “Let's talk Rubbish!”. Those willing to contribute could maybe share ideas for a few minutes each and give examples. This and other ideas will be discussed at the next Steering Committee meeting. We felt TB could also have a Keep It Out Of The Bin group. (Action Steering Committee)
5. Insurance
We are not sure whether or not we are a legal entity, but we think we should probably have public liability insurance. (And we are not sure whether Steering Group members might be jointly and severally liable if something goes wrong!) Anne will check what Dorking and Ashtead Transition groups do regarding this. (Action Anne) Richard will check the position regarding the United Reformed Church's insurance, eg would it cover items we might bring, such as fold-up tables? (Action Richard)
6. Other items
MVDC's wider food waste collections An interesting discussion ensued! Some members felt that it had perhaps not been the best time to launch this because the hot weather caused problems with smells and even maggots. Most TB members present tried hard to avoid any food waste at all, using compost bins for most small amounts of food waste such as peel or teabags, etc. We are also not sure what the relative merits of different ways of disposing of food waste are (for example, is it better for us to compost, or send our waste in a van that is going round, using energy anyway? And if compost heaps are not regularly turned, methane gas can build up.) Flats are apparently not given the bins, which is a pity.
We all agreed that the priority must be to encourage people not to buy too much or generally waste leftover food. Perhaps we could consider a Food and Garden presence at the local Farmers' Market? At one FM recently there was a stall promoting 'Don't waste your food' and giving away free items such as spaghetti measures, scoops and bowls in return for people's 'waste less' pledges.
Twelve people came to our meeting and we enjoyed planning our way forward and hearing a lively report of Esther's permaculture course, complete with a rendering of the Baby Sardine Song!
There was a request for more opportunity for socialising and sharing ideas, so a social evening was proposed, see below.
St Nicolas Biodiversity Garden Project
This is progressing well and the group is planning future meetings on the following dates:
- Sunday 1st August, 5.00 – 7.00pm
- Thursday 5th August, 7.30 – 9.00pm
- Friday 13th August, 7.30 – 9.00pm
- Sunday 15th August, 2.00 – 4.00pm (including planning the planting/wildlife boxes)
- Thursday 9th September, 7.30 – 9.00pm
In August we plan to build a bug hotel! For an explanation, and a list of materials needed, see www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/insects/wildlifestack.aspx. If you can come along to the St Nicolas Pastoral Centre on 1st August and bring anything on the list, that would be great. It would help to let the group know beforehand if you plan to bring a big item like a pallet – email transitionbookham@gmail.com.
Transition Bookham Logo Competition
We're near the closing date (31st July) for entries, so pop yours in the box in Bookham library, if you haven't already done so. The logo will be used on our leaflets and newsletter etc. and the winner will be announced at our D3 event – see next item – and there's a prize of a £30 garden voucher from The Vineries.
D3 – Don't Dump Donate!
This is now planned for October, probably in the United Reform Church Hall, and it will be separate from the Eclectik youth group's recycled fashion show. Everyone is invited to bring along things they no longer need, in the hope that someone else will need it instead. No exchange of money! A bit like Freecycle, if you use that excellent online scheme. Carryable items such as books, clothes, arts and crafts materials, gadgets, tools, garden plants, etc. can be brought to the event, and there will be a noticeboard to advertise large items, for people to collect if they wish.
Energy Group
This hopes to meet soon and arrange a public meeting on solar thermal and solar PV – watch out for an email from Richard the group convenor.
Social Evening
Wednesday 4th August, from 7.30pm, at Ye Olde Windsor Castle pub, 25 Little Bookham Street, Little Bookham. Come along and join whoever is there!
Fifteen people attended and we were pleased to welcome three ladies from Leatherhead, who wanted to learn more about Transition, with an eye to possibly starting Transition Leatherhead.
We hope you dropped by our stand at Bookham Village Day, the competition to design a Transition Bookham logo was launched and a £30 garden voucher was kindly donated by The Vineries as the winner's prize.
We've made a leaflet to introduce people to what we're all about, and are working on an article for local magazines and newspapers.
Food Group Progress
The prospect of a garden promoting biodiversity at the St Nicholas Pastoral Centre is looking promising. As a first step, we'll be starting to tidy up the garden and would welcome your help at the following sessions (weather permitting!):.
- Friday 25th June, 7.30 – 9.30pm
- Friday 2nd July, 7.30 – 9.30pm
- Friday 9th July, 7.30 – 9.30pm
- Thursday 15th July, 7.30 – 9.30pm
- Sunday 18th July, 2 – 4pm
Please bring your own weeding/pruning tools! Contact Margaret on 01372 451468 or just turn up.
Esther launched the Garden Share scheme at Village Day. If you have a large garden that you could spare space in, or you're looking for space to garden in, contact Esther.
D3 (Don't Dump Donate!) Day
The 'swap' event is in the planning for the autumn, most likely in September, currently looking into possible venues.
Energy Group
If you're interested in joining our Energy Group, contact Richard. This will look at ways to cut household energy use (we already have access to energy monitors and a thermal leak detector via the Green Mole Forum, and to Transition Ashtead's low energy lightbulb 'library'), the sharing of knowledge and skills, reducing the cost of installing solar water heating panels through a solar club and, long term, the possibility of community-based energy generation.
Ten people attended and we enjoyed a productive and friendly evening, planning a variety of ways to begin transforming Bookham into a resilient community. One that will cope cheerfully with dwindling resources of oil and gas, and do its bit to reduce the risks of severe climate change.
Good news! Eight of us (Esther, Anne, Colin, Richard, Win, Trudie, Peter and Roland) signed up for the 'steering committee' – this is the group happy to facilitate things in the early stages, and hopefully do themselves out of a job once the process gets taken on by the local community.
Forthcoming events and activities
Publicity – A group will be designing a leaflet, and writing articles for local media, and we'll run a competition (for adults and children alike) to design us a logo, to be included in later publicity. The closing date will be September, and we hope to offer a local garden centre voucher as a prize. We'll get the details finalized and publicise the competition when we have a...
Stall on Village Day, 19th June – With games, publicity, display of energy monitors, thermal leak detector, etc. on a stall decorated with food plants in unusual containers (in the event's circus theme). Let Esther know if you can help with containers or plants, or if you can give an hour or so helping on the stall.
Stall on Open Gardens Day, 20th June – Publicise biodiversity and gauge interest in garden shares.
D3 (Don't Dump Donate!) Event, September – Possibly in the Barn Hall, for people to bring things to give away or advertise (if they're too bulky) on a noticeboard. Perhaps combine it with a recycled fashion show in conjunction with Bookham Youth Centre and their ECLECTIK project. We will make plans for this at our next meeting on 16th June, so do come along if you are interested.
The Food Group met on 19th May and come up with some excellent ideas...
St Nicolas Church are considering our offer to turn the overgrown garden round their Pastoral Centre into an attractive garden for biodiversity. With insect attracting plants, bird boxes, mason bee nests, etc. it seems likely they'll give us the go-ahead.
A garden share scheme (using Landshare?) to put people without gardens in touch with those wanting someone to share theirs, and the produce. There are still long waiting lists (people waiting years!) for the local allotments.
A local Community Orchard, but we will need land for this! If the Bookham Fields campaign is successful, and the fields between the A246 and the Lower Road Rec become designated as common land, maybe part of them could be turned into one.
Other groups
We're starting up an Energy Group, contact Richard if you are interested, and a Protect Your Local Environment Group was discussed – dealing with local pollution problems (such as dog's mess being left in plastic bags) and encouraging biodiversity.
This meeting was a follow up to the launch event in March. With an attendance of about 25 people, we all first introduced ourselves and gave brief(ish) reasons for why we'd come along. These were numerous, at different levels of awareness but, clearly, we all had a shared purpose.
We then reviewed the jottings that had been done, for possible groups, at the launch (food, recycling, make do and mend, conservation, energy, transport). This raised numerous questions and started lively discussions, and also highlighted areas of overlap.
Out of this brainstorming came the realisation that more awareness of existing resources was desperately needed - for example, what facilities exist for passing on unwanted items (Freecycle, Freegle, LETS, St Nicolas church, etc.), or recycling things that the council don't already take.
We are fortunate to have lots of existing groups and organisations in Bookham, and it was felt that collaborations could be initiated to pool resources and people. Don't forget you can subscribe to receive email updates from the Green Mole Forum.
Food featured highly, with one person mentioning that they had underused greenhouse capacity! Capel Goes Green, who very successfully raised funds by collecting unwanted apples and selling them back as juice, was mentioned. Esther is keen to hold an informal get-together, as now is the time to start any planting. She'd especially love to hear from anyone interested in garden sharing schemes.
It was agreed that a local swap day would be a good first event to involve the whole community and raise publicity (possibly Swap It September - paying homage to Swap It Surrey which closed on April 30th, or D³Day - Don't Dump Donate!) a day to allow people to give away/swap anything (at a venue, like the barn hall, and/or at the kerbside - a Bookham-wide garage sale). Large items requiring collection could be advertised on a noticeboard.
There was lots more to cover, but, as is always the way, we ran out of time. Thanks to everyone who came for being part of this exciting new venture. Please consider being part of the steering group and find out more about Transition Towns.
We screened The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil as part of our launch event. This took place at Bookham Baptist Church with the following agenda -
- 7.30pm Bookham Vision to introduce Transition Bookham
- Outline of programme for the evening and introduction to the film
- The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
- Briefly explore film's message and relevance
- Local Transition group members share their experiences
- Question and answer session with 'expert' panel
- Outline some possible interest groups within Transition Bookham
- Contribute to possible groups by jotting down ideas and doodling!
- 9.30pm Finish
It was quite a full schedule, so we had limited time to explore all aspects of Transition and only scratched the surface.
In the last few minutes, as people began to leave, there were a number of designated tables (food, energy, recycling, etc.), with a big sheet of paper and felt tip pens on each, for people to contribute ideas. Below is an example (ignore the lines and circles!) produced at a Training for Transition event, held last year, which our richardm attended.
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