DORSET TWINNING ASSOCIATION
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
MONDAY 24th March 2014
COLLITON CLUB,DORCHESTER AT 19.00 HOURS
- 1.Present: Acting Chair& President: John Wilson (Chairman of Dorset County Council) Secretary: Jacquie Hall (Wareham-Hemsbach Society), (Gillingham), Tony Watts and David Warhurst (Poole/Cherbourg), Jeremy Read (Sturminster Newton), John Pounder (Swanage French Circle)
Apologies: Jeremy Barker (SherborneDouzelage),Acting Treasurer: Philip Sharp
- Minutes of 27th January meeting agreed with one amendment, that John Wilson was present at the meeting, but it had not been noted
- Matters Arising that were not in the agenda:a) Tony Watts was following on from 4-5 in the last minutes, when he said he has been approached by the French re an amicable agreement between three French islands, one of which featured in D-Day, and the three islands in Poole Harbour. (Not including Brownsea which is twinned with Tatihou) After discussion it was agreed that Tony would write to John as the DCC Chairman to ascertain whether some certificate could be forwarded to them.
b) European Officer, Ann Minto is still in post but retiring soon. She emailed John Wilson with a link to information re EU funding. There are no officers in the UK through whom applications can be submitted, but Ann thought that our twin towns in France or Germany should have the necessary contacts so perhaps we could apply through them.
c) Jeremy Barker thought at the last meeting that the SW office in Brussels is closed. John Wilson confirmed that is was closed when RDA funding ceased. DCC pay an information subscription to the SE office in Brussels, also are involved in the Dorset Economic Partnership
4.Terms of reference for the Management Committee are in the Constitution, and are adequate for our purposes
5-6Treasurer’s Report and Subscription update: The total balance in both the Bank accounts is approximately £2000. There has been a payment of £219.20 recently
There are 2 outstanding subs from Bournemouth and Dorchester Lubbecke
7.Criteria and Objectives for Funding Opportunities: a) Tony Watts volunteered to produce some thoughts on Sponsorship or bursaries for individuals if they produced a project idea to help promote twinning. Projects should be match funded. He suggested the local media was informed, and we email all the members with an end date of the end of May. A proposal could be put on the website to which the members could react.
b) Another idea was for a Conference to be held at County Hall maybe around Education subjects, and encouraging the young to learn about twinning. It is hoped that Jeremy Barker will provide more information
c) A third idea is to have a fashion design competition (and a fashion show?)between teenagers in the English towns and in our twin towns, all designing outfits for the other twinning nation. Philip Sinclair could be emailed for more details or ideas he had.
8. Website: There needs to be more encouragement for use of the website
It was suggested we put a list of Committee members on the Home page. Also the website needs updating and outdated information to be removed. A Forum was suggested, but it would need someone to supervise it.
Also any approved minutes should be put on the website, and the draft AGM minutes also
9.AOB: Jeremy Read mentioned an exhibition they are putting on between 31 May and 13 June 2014, of their twin town Montebourg during WW2. D-Day events list for events in Cotentin will be circulated to members.
There are many WW1 centenary events also. One at BovingtonTankMuseum on 4th August.
10. Date of next meeting 7th July 2014 at the Colliton Club (after confirmation – 8th/9th July also possible)