29th November 2013 / ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Shelley Room The Thistle Hotel
Welcome / Trisha Gaskell-Watkins Brighton & Hove City in Bloom Brunswick Town in Bloom
Denise Taylor Brighton & Hove City in Bloom The Lanes Traders Group
Sheila Jones Brighton & Hove City in Bloom Brighton Marina
Gabrielle Villermet Brighton & Hove City in Bloom North Laine Comm. Ass.
Barbara Aston Kemp Town Gardening & Community Group
Linda Austin Friends of St. Ann’s Well Garden
Anne Glow Allotment Federation
Russ Howarth Allotment Federation
Alan Moon Friends of Hove Park
Tom Morey Brighton Marina
Cllr. Ken Norman Withdean Ward
Paul Skelly Seedy Sunday
Cllr. Carol Theobald Patcham Ward
Cllr Pete West St. Peter’s & North Laine Ward
Diane London Road Station Partnership
Jim Alison City Parks
Denise Taylor
Apologies / Juliette Hunting, Cllr. Sue Shanks, Cllr. Ollie Sykes, Richard Pearson, Bernadette Skinner, Spenser Kennard, Cllr. Anne Pissaridou, Mara Crippa, Linda Anglin, John Burns, Sue Addis.
Minutes previous AGM / There were no matters arising from the 2012 AGM minutes
Chair’s Report / DT announced that Paul Skelly had stood down from the position of Chair and wished him well for the future. A gift of a plant was awarded for his services over the past two years.
Citywide gardening competitions that had been dropped by the council due to lack of funding were re-introduced during 2013. The Best Commercial category was split in two with the introduction of Best Licensed category. This proved very successful with a record number of entries being received.
BHCIB introduced the new category of Best Primary School garden, which brought in more entrants than for the SSEIB competitions in this first year This category was sponsored by Brighton & Hove City in Bloom.
Representatives form Lansdowne, Brunswick, Kemp Town, North Laine community, The Lanes, Brighton Marina, The Allotment Federation, The Food Partnership and City Parks were all thanked for their collaboration and support, plus the councillors who sit on the working group.
Sponsors were thanked for their endorsement of the City in Bloom principles.
Cherril Starmer of The Thistle was thanked for her generosity towards the group.
The groups’ Annual Report was available for everyone and an overview given of achievements covering the successful launch at Jubilee Library in February, re-branding of BHCIB, web site, running 10 gardening competitions along with judging and collation and an award ceremony for 120 people.
A busier year is expected ahead and the group is committed to working with local communities on the In Bloom theme. Promoting a sense of pride amongst communities was referred to and the award ceremony was held up as an example where the coming together in a sense of communal well-being and satisfaction was experienced. The council was thanked for their support and initial grant funding.
It is also the groups’ objective to go beyond just gardening competitions. They will continue to draw attention to unsightly areas and work towards improving the appearance of unappealing localities.
Appeals were put out for assistance and Barbara Aston volunteered to assist with some computing skills.
Treasurer’s Report / TG-W took the meeting through the procedures of the council’s one-off grant. She explained that the group had this year set about putting everything in place to make BHCIB run sustainably and economically. The expenses for this year were largely used to set up the group. This included prize money for the winner of the logo competition who was a student from a local college, setting up the web site and design and printing costs related to branding. The launch and award ceremonies were self-financed. Where competition categories were not fully funded or sponsored the Group bore the expense. We will therefore be producing a sponsor pack for 2014 to attract more sponsors to cover annual costs.
BHCIB ‘s financial situation is robust and the bank balance stands at £20,400.
Election / Those present were asked if anyone wanted to nominate themselves or anyone else for election. Non were forthcoming.
A list of those nominated to stand was included in the Agenda and had been circulated before the meeting. DT had been nominated as Chair. This motion was seconded and a show of hands carried the motion.
TG-W was re-standing as Treasurer. This motion was seconded and a show of hands carried the motion.
GV was nominated a Minutes Secretary. This motion was seconded and a show of hands carried the motion.
SJ re-stood as a committee member.
The committee was thanked for all their dedication during the past year.
Speaker
Jean Griffin / Jean is a Royal Horticulture Society judge and a regular contributor to the BBC Radio Sussex “Dig it” programme.She expressed her joy at returning to Brighton as a judge after an interval of many years. She described South and South East in Bloom, of which she is a judge and trustee, as covering the largest gardening area. It stretches East from the Isle of Thanet to North East Hampshire in the West. Despite this there were several areas not entering into their competitions. She described being a judge and how important first impressions of an area were. She explained how toenter the competitions and said that all the information was on the S.and S.E. in Bloom website.
Jean then talked about the RHS scheme called “It’s Your Neighbourhood”. Groups and communities can enter this free competition and the benefit is that gardening skills and achievements are recognised and assessed. Advice is given from experts and certificates for the five levels of achievement are awarded. She stressed that it was not all about hanging baskets and acres of blooms, it is about the community you represent.
She suggested entering schools, Friends of groups, the city centre and heritage gardens and maybe crematoria.
Some changes were being made to the rules and entrants would no longer need a portfolio but her advice was to keep a photographic record throughout the year.Brighton and Hove City in Bloom will be working with Friends of Groups and Community Groups to make sure the city is fully represented in the It’s your Neighbourhood Scheme.
The aim for the future was to integrate with as many groups as possible and to encourage gardening in schools.
DT thanked Jean Griffin for her informative talk.
Any other business /
- There were questions from the floor about entering the It’s Your Neighbourhood competitions and it was agreed that as much information as possible will be put on the BHCIB web site.
- Jean suggested contacting Anne Holman of SSEIB for advice on categories
- It was agreed that the committee will get together will Cllr. Norman for a brain storming session regarding the sort of entries within the city to enter SSEIB.
- The meeting concluded at 5.45.
Seedy Sunday 2nd February 2014
Brighton & Hove in Bloom 2014 Launch , Jubilee Library 11am Monday 24th March
Prospective dates for Working Group Meetings . :-
Wednesday 26th February 2pm – confirmed date , time and venue to be advised
Thursday 3rd April 2pm – confirmed date, time and venue TBA
Wednesday 21st May 2pm – confirmed date and time and venue TBA