Green Action GENERAL ASSEMBLY: MINUTES

17TH March 2015Grosvenor Mount

Attendees: Isabelle, Luke, Andrea, Katy, Asa, Anne-Marie

Agenda- Introduction and welcoming1)Food Hub and ROTA2)Finances3)Last GIAG4)Allotment5)Mural update6)Students for Co-operation (SfC)7)Leeds Community Project8)Feelings, needs and thoughts before the next

term

1) Food Hub-Food hub put on a food cafe event and aimed to encourage a wider audience through increased advertising however it is questionable whether the effort to try to open it up paid off due to a lack of attendance, however there was positive feedback regarding the speaker. -There has been a discussion around sharing resources – there may be a proposal bought forward from this discussion for the next GA meeting-Who will be covering their shifts over the Easter holidays? Action point: Izzy to send out an email to the food hub and a message on the loomio to find out who will be covering their shifts over Easter to ensure that if there are any deliveries someone will be there to receive them, or if not that the deliveries will be cancelled.

2) Finances• Last few weeks invoices – concerns raised that the weekly orders to lembas have been over the £500

threshold agreed by members at a previous GA meeting. Perhaps the threshold has not been communicated to everyone as the food hub has been meeting less regularly this semester?

• This is a particular concern as Easter is coming up and the shop may be closed more than usual.• In the last 3 weeks the orders were £885, £500 and £600 + personal orders. Currently there is £20 in the

account used to pay for orders. • Invoices are printed off and put in the shop each week, but they may not be looked at • Action point – It may be a good idea for those who order and Andrea (treasurer) to keep in touch with

one another regarding finances. Andrea will send an email to the 4 people who are responsible for ordering stock for the food hub with information regarding the accounts each week. There may be a small delay to the information that Andrea sends as the union processes all it’s invoices on 1 day.

• Also, it will be important to highlight the £500 threshold in future foodhub and GA meetings as a short term solution. This will be included in Andrea’s email.

• Food hub are working on a long term solution – this involves coming up with a list of things which the co-op buys – only things on this list will be kept in stock.

• GIAG reimbursement – was everyone reimbursed? It would be useful to know how much the event cost so that we have an awareness of possible costs if we decide to run a similar GIAG event in future years.

• Money available for other things than food – in the second account there is £1000. In the third account there is Green Fund money. Some money has been put aside to be used to fund other groups.

3) LAST GIAG• GIAG was well attended, the food was very good, some new members were signed up and there was

positive feedback form attendees• 50 people attended, action point – Anne Marie to send register to activities office to gain funding • It would be good to run the event again in future years and to reflect on how it went this year and how we

could make it bigger and better in future years• In future years, we could put more focus on getting across the message of what Green Action does, what a

co-op is and how consensus decision making works• Proposal – to create a document with information from this years event, such as the recipes, the

costings, the itinery, so that this information can be used to repeat and recycle the event again in future years. Include ideas for for running it again, such as ice breakers, workshops etc.

• This proposal led to a further proposal – to create a folder/scrapbook/display/timeline/powerpoint presentation of the year for the future with information about what we’ve done, what we’ve learnt, what happens and when, resources we have, ideas etc which can be handed on to future Green Actioners. A group could come together over the summer to think about this idea.

• Action point – Andrea will set up a doodle to find out who is interested and when they are available for an initial meeting

• It is likely that this group of people will also be involved in organising the AGM. Therefore, perhaps at this meeting a date can be set for the AGM – Wednesday 6th May or Wednesday 29th April? Or perhaps a doodle can be sent out closer to the time?

4) Allotment• Feedback – have spent the winter clearing the ground ready for planting. Will now be focusing on planting

and growing in the coming months,• Meeting this Sunday 22nd @1pm at the allotment in Hyde Park. All welcome!!! Please call Katy on

07791352528 if you’re not sure where it is and we can arrange to meet beforehand. • At this meeting we will discuss the future, hand over for next year, plans and then report back at next

meeting

5) Mural Update

• Feedback – waiting to hear back from the Student Union. Aim is the have it all approved and ready to start painting by first week back after easter.

• Will hear more at next GA meeting

6) Students for Co-operation• Students for Co-operation meet up in Leeds was well attended, well organised and very inspiring. GA is the

oldest co-op in the group and it was interesting for other co-ops to see how we run.• SfC includes 30 student co-ops, all with different knowledge who are bought together to share

information. It is a young co-op of co-ops, it has little money but lots of strong ideas. Due to student nature there is a big turn around which has its advantages in a large number of alumni.

• GA members went to big conference in Edinburgh and attended workshops• The interim meet up in Leeds spawned a number of working groups including safer spaces,

intergenerational outreach (to non student co-ops), communication (between co-ops and to outside world), finance (national fund for student co-ops), making links with workers co-ops (students who graduate but still want to be part of a co-op). Also the idea of creating regional groups to share knowledge and support one another locally.

• If you’d like to get involved in any of the working groups, you can become part of the Sfc loomio – ask Anne Marie or Luke Tilley for details, or send out an email on the GA mailing list. There’s also the oppurtunity to attend conferences.

• SfC will be discussed again at the AGM and next general meetings to raise awareness about becoming involved

• It may be easier for co-ops to take on general responsibility for a specific working group and share the responsibility between members

• Proposal – It was suggested that we are a strong city in terms of post student workers co-ops and that we could take collective responsibility for this working group.

• Action point – in the next GA meeting, look at the proposals from this meeting and discuss

7) Leeds Community Project• LCP sprang from GA’s campaigning group who were looking for a campaigning hub. This split into 2

groups, one which was linked to GA and looking for a cmapus based space and then another non-GA group which is now LCP.

• LCP is volunteer run, they are currently occupying grosvenor mount, offering an alternative to the university selling the land for flats. There’s always 2-3 people on site and you can sign up on the rota if you’d like to be involved.

• LCP will continue as a group after the Grosvenor Mount project, continuing to look for unused spaces in whcih to create community centres

• They are running a leaf campaign to show solidarity – wearing a felt leaf badge. • Proposals – to put LCP leaf badges in GA shop with information about LCP, to offer an official statement

of support for LCP from GA, to use Grosvenor Mount as a meeting place for meetings and socials, to give LCP a grant of £200 (£100 now and £100 later) from the money put aside for supporting other projects

• Action point – Andrea to get £100 from cash office to give to LCP

AOB• I just thought it was quite exciting that someone named Izzy is looking into starting a student housing co-

op in Leeds, which is also somehting that new LUU society named Housing and Homelessness want to do. Possibilty of linking up with them? Luke to pass this info on to Izzy.

• Well done if you actually read all this!! Sorry it was so wordy summarising is not my strong point! xx