Meeting Notes for Herefordshire Tree Forum

2nd planning meeting of Tree Wardennetwork 18.09.15.

Attendees: Gillian Menzies (GM)(Chairing), Alan Jones (AJ), Weobley; James Bisset,(JB) HC adviser; Helen Stace, (HS) HWT; Cllr Richie Cotterill (RC) Kington TW; Cllr Mike Darley (MD), Marden TW; Nicky Geeson,(NG) Breinton TW; Mo Burns (MB) (Notetaker), HTF; Cllr Felicity Norman, (FN) Leominster; Cllr Angela Pendleton,(AP) Leominster TW.

Apologies: Dave Marshall, Bulmer Foundation and Treasurer, Herefordshire Tree Forum.

Agenda / Key points / Action
Item 1 / Clarifications and confirmations from last meeting:
  • FN and HC asked for it to be minuted that they had sent their apologies to the previous meeting in August.
Confirming admin roles for acting committee:
  • MB confirmedher offer tobe minutes secretary for the time being;
  • RCconfirmed he would be happy to continue coordinating the initiative.
  • It was suggested there should be a rolling chair for each meeting;
    GM agreed to chair this meeting. Minutes accepted.

2 / Matters arising:See items 3,4,5,6.
3 / HTWN Registration, Bank a/c, and next steps:
FN and HC agreed to join the Exec. Committee and signed the constitution.
JB agreed to become an ‘ex-officio’ member of committee.
MB confirmed Dave Marshall had agreed to be acting Treasurer for the HTWN. He was thanked in his absence. It was requested Martin Hales, Dave Marshall and Mike Darley meet as the banking sub-group as soon as possible to set up an a/c. MB to contact them. / MH, MD, DM
MB
4 / Formalising relationship with Parish Councils:
RC thanks members for contributing to draft of subscription ‘offer’ to Parish Councils, now nearly ready to send to Anthony Bush, HC/PC Liaison Officer, for distribution. The objective was to gain agreement from PCs’ and Ward Councils to support a TW network across the county, to create a TW for their area, and contributean agreed amount to support his/her voluntary work within the Parish/Ward. This would helpfund centralised training and information materials, meetings and other communications required during the course of a year. FN reported Leominster TC had already confirmed they were keen to offer financial support in principle – pending final agreement on amount of contribution. A sliding scale of financial contribution was suggested by HS to take into account population numbers for instance. Figures of between £25 - £50 per annum were discussed. This would be for agreement with PCs’ via AB and exec committee.
MD had been unable to approach HALC for financial support as yet but would try again at next meeting in November. However, it was to be noted that the request for support would coincide with more cuts to PCs’ Lengthsman scheme, so he wasn’t overly confident of a positive outcome at this point in time.
AJ raised the possibility of receiving financial support from a wider supporter/sponsor base who could support the work of registered TWs’ within each area – possibly as part of their team, and who could receive a regular newsletter and limited training for instance, for an annual subscription fee. / RC/
ALL
MD
5 / Network launch 7th November 2015 – planning and publicity:
Housekeeping: Community Room at Wellington Village Hall, and kitchen confirmed booked from 10 – registration to 1pm with half an hour either side for set-up/down. £9 per hour room hire rate. It was decided to extend the hire time to 2 pm to accommodate lunch for those participants who wanted to become registered Tree Wardens, before moving up to Queenswood for afternoon training workshops. MB to arrange extension – full hire cost = £36. Participants wanting to stay for lunchtime networking or workshops would need to bring their own food, but light refreshments (teas/coffees etc) will be provided for all, with donations towards overall costs, requested on day.Donations of biscuits/cakes welcome.
Programme contentand management: HS has agreed to chair the seminar element. Jon Stokes of Tree Council confirmed as main speaker; RC to outline the Parish Council partnership proposal; JB to contribute. Various other speakers discussed, including Nick Smith of Forestry Commission.
Sub-group of RC, MB, JB and HS volunteered to finalise programme (date tbc – RC to send round dates). If anyone else interested in joining this sub-group, please let MB know.
Tony Norman has offered to be a TW mentor to any new TW’s who might want support – to be promoted at launch.
MD will get hold of the Parish and Ward map of county so we can monitor where TW’s are as the numbers grow;
HS to contact BBLP’s Rachel Rice for their support and input into process and also to contact David Lovelace re mapping tools for TW’s, some of which he has already created.
Publicity and invitations:
RC to design a poster and flyers and circulate to Committee for everyone to print off and distribute in their areas.
It was agreed 50 copies of the Tree Warden Handbook should be ordered from Tree Council by RC, ready to be given out at launch. MB RC to remind Tree Wardens that the Tree Council handouts are available on pdf form for downloading.
It was proposed to invite one designated rep. from each Ward/Parish via AB - RC to approach.
AP will publicise HTWN at Leominster Apple Fair;
JB and HS to share press lists. / MB
ALL
RC
RC/HS
JB/MB
TN
MD
HS
RC
MB
RC
AP
JB/HS
6 / Communications - website /web page links:
As neither of website subgroup were available to give an update of progress, it was decided to continue to post onto HTF site for now as DL had created a separate page for TW information in the interim. JB to set up a TW Facebook page, but group decided to defer Twitter for the time being. / JB
7 / Tree diseases:
Identification of diseases such as Chalara was earmarked for a training session for the future. Sutton walls was suggested as venue for the training as 4,500 ash saplings had been planted there and would be ready for inspection by next July. To go on the training programme for 2015/16. Any further suggestions for training days welcome. / ALL
8 / Tree Week:
MB requested any information of events/activities being run to celebrate national Tree Week across the county to be sent to her by mid October at very latest if organisers wanted to be included in the published programme via the h-Tree Forum. FN would approach Jay Abrahams re activity in Leominster; HS would organise an event on behalf of HWT or possibly ‘badge’ an activity already planned for that week, plus promote an activity in the Colwall area.
So far confirmed: NG had a walk planned for Breinton Woods, GM had organised awarden–led walk around Moccas Park and D Lovelace will give a GPS mapping talk and practical field workshop in Hereford. / MB/ALL
9 / NEXT Full MEETING: Friday 16thNovember, 11.30 – 2 pm
in The Committee Room of Hereford Town Hall.
Suggested items for the Agenda are welcome.