Chair: Andrew Phillips

Postal Address: c/o AL AMIN, 100 Mill Road CB1 2BD

MRWF 2013 AGM

7.0pm Baptist Church Thursday March 21st

Present from 2012 Committee

Abdul Arain

Jonathan Goodacre

Andrew Phillips

Julian Price

Anne Prince

Marisa Sutherland Brown

Caro Wilson

Also attending

Susanna Fleet

Chris Williams

Sam Motherwell

Kevin Blencowe

Jim Woodhouse

Piero d’Angelico

Ceri Littlechild

Dan Biggs

Steph Morren

Glyn Phillips

Clare Hedges

Guillaume Tucker

Graham Cox

Eryl Griffiths

Sasha Zoueva

Muaro Ciaccio

Oslem Cansiz

Dennis O’Malley

John Preston

1. Apologiesand Minutes

1.i Apologies were received from: Jane Brooks, Alison Mc Taggart .Margaret Starkie,

Ian and Caroline Bent, Sarah Cater, Caroline and Meredith Lloyd-Evans, Adeline Douard,Felicity McDonald Smith, Joanna Taylor, Fiona Smith, Fiona Gilsenan, Miriam Berg, Katie Preston

1.ii The minutes of the 2012 MRWF AGM on 22.03.12 were accepted and signed.

2. Election of Officers

2.i Nominations were sought from the floor but none were forthcoming.

2.ii The following had been nominated and seconded before, and were duely elected by show of hands

POSITION / NAME / PROPOSED BY / SECONDED BY
Chair / Andrew Phillips / Caro Wilson / Susanna Fleet
Vice Chair / Abdul Arain / Jonathan Goodacre / Caro Wilson
Treasurer / Jim Woodhouse / Andrew Phillips / Caro Wilson
Safety Officer / Jonathan Goodacre / Caro Wilson / Andrew Phillips
Secretary / Caro Wilson / Andrew Phillips / Susanna Fleet
IT / Julian Price / Andrew Phillips / Jonathan Goodacre
Co-ordinator for Stalls / Fiona Smith / Caro Wilson / Andrew Phillips
PR / Marisa Sutherland Brown / Andrew Phillips / Caro Wilson
Events / Sarah Cater / Caro Wilson / Jonathan Goodacre

3. Report from Chair (Andrew Phillips)

Andrew gave a report which is filed with these minutes. Points raised included

  1. The Fair had again proved popular with between 15,000 and 20,000 attending, but still managing to retain a friendly local feel
  2. The Parade had been the outstanding new feature of the 2012 Fair. It celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first school on Parkside and thanks were due to all involved, particularly the organisers: Kay Blayney of Parkside, Nicky Webb and Kinetika , and to the financial support from the City East Area Committee and Suzy Oakes Trust.
  3. It set the bar high for subsequent events but we hope for something along the same lines again this year
  4. Committee work has increased so we hope to develop a structure whereby activities are devolved to key volunteers who have committee support but do not necessarily need to be on the committee or attend all the meetings
  5. Committee’s role is to provide infrastructure ( Marquees, road closure, Health and safety, stewarding and stalls, timetable ) which allows all other activities to take place.
  6. Fair Committee is the facilitator and he and the committee members would like to thank all the other volunteers and helpers who make things happen.
  7. Road Closure. Andrew gave special thanks to Jonathan Goodacre for all the work he puts in getting permission for road closure and organising its implementation. Permission has again been granted for 2013
  8. Feedback is vital, but seems hard to obtain. Feedback is best offered through the website and it should be remembered that positive feedback is particularly useful when applying for funding
  9. An informal survey suggests that charities and charity shops together raise in the region of £20,000 on Fair day.
  10. Signage; We are grateful to the East Area committee for the grant that enabled new and better signage to be organised
  11. Brochure. A brochure was delivered to 10.000 houses before the Fair with 3.000 available on the day. Andrew paid particular thanks to Sam Motherwell for the cover illustration and to Nick Walsh for his design work and Nick Ellis for the map.
  12. The committee will consider a more sustainable brochure this year supported by a grant or sponsorship and focused more precisely on providing a programme and timetable for the Fair.
  13. Overcrowding was less of a problem in 2012 than 2011 but remains a primary concern
  14. Romsey. We were successful in generating more activity in Romsey particularly in the EF corporate centre and Hope St Yard and thanks were paid to Romsey Mill, and to HATS!
  15. Special thanks were paid to Andrew Bush who has supported the Fair generously for six years, and to this year’s additional sponsors: Al Amin, Taank Optometrists, Cambridge Building Society, St Andrew’s Bureau, and LaBute (printers)
  16. The new Traders’ Association is greatly welcomed and we look forward to a close association with it.
  17. Thanks were also paid to Christine Pearce of Salvataion Army Centre for allowing us meeting space in the SA Centre

Sam Motherwill for organising the Art Exhibiton and allowing the use of his illustrations

Will Baker for his help in the ARU drama Centre

The staff of Ditchburn Place for their help with stalls and the Opening

Izzy Maxwell Watts and Sarah Cater for organising events at Ditchburn

Guillaume Tucker for designing and maintaining our working address book CAMS.

Nick Walsh of Mono Industries for designing the website and signage

City Councillors and Council Officers for continuing helpfulness

The Police and Safety Advisory Group

Thanks were paid to the whole committee and particularly to those not standing for election this year, Anne Prince, Adeline Douard, Jane Brooks and Alison McTaggart whose service over many years has been extremely valuable.

  1. Andrew concluded his report by repeating that the Fair could not succeed without the commitment and wholehearted support of a very large number of local people to whom we are all very grateful

4. Treasurer’s Report (Andrew Phillips)

Andrew circulated the accounts which are filed with these minutes. He highlighted the following points

  1. The small surplus carried over from year to year acts both as a buffer and because sometimes bills occur before revenue is secured
  2. The MRWF bank account handles grants to the Parade and to HATS! as well as its own income and expenditure
  3. The East Area committee grant of £900 was most welcome, as was the main and additional sponsorship received.
  4. This year advertising income was somewhat reduced but stalls revenue increased
  5. The major bills (Marquees, road closure, printing) remained much as they had been
  6. Net income from advertising is low in proportion to the amount of committee work; the implication of this needs to be discussed at committee

5. Safety report (Jonathan Goodacre)

Jonathan explained that the job of the Safety Officer was to have an overview of all aspects of the Fair, but particular responsibility for the things we promote like the marquees, parade, road closure etc. Points he highlighted included

  1. The Safety Officer’s role is to provide Risk Management documents fordifferent aspects of the Fair and an overall Management Control Document
  2. He works closely with the Safety Advisory Group
  3. Road Closure had worked well this year with some changes to signage, management and guidelines. He was grateful to the City Council and Stagecoach for their co-operation
  4. The Parade had provided new challenges and Jonathan was grateful for all the help and guidance from Nicky Webb and her team and to the Deaf Centre for allowing the Parade to disband on their land
  5. Work had been done on controlling the flow in the Food Fair and Marquees. Whilst this had worked well crowd issues would continue to be a major focus for us.
  6. Fiona as Stalls Co-ordinator had worked closely with Environmental Health Agency and Fire Service to ensure safety of stall holders and attendees at the Fair
  7. He thanked the Regent Language School for allowing their premises to be used as Safety Headquarters, Eddie Barcan for acting as Deputy and Katherine Thoday for her help. He paid tribute to the hard working and efficient PCSO’s, to the St John’s Ambulance and to the 60 or so stewards who made the whole Fair possible and ensured the friendly atmosphere on the day.

6 and related IT (Julian Price)

Julian started his report by thanking Guillaume for all his work on CAMS which now generated online application forms, and Jane Brooks for her tireless work on populating the website and keeping it up to date. He welcomed Fiona Gilsenan’s involvement now. Other points raised;

  1. Thanks to Tom Lyle Severn for the excellent documentary which we hope will help with funding applications
  2. More photos of 2013 Fair would be welcome
  3. An image manager, especially one with knowledge of Flickr would be welcome
  4. Feedback on how useful the website is would also be welcome. Please contact
  5. In answer to a query from the floor Julian said the hit rate varied through the year with up to a thousand a day just before the Fair. A google search for Mill Road gave it as second or third website

7. Feedback from sponsors and others

We welcomed Piero d’ Angelico in his capacity as Chair of the Traders’ Association, and Ceri Littlechild in her role as Mill Road Co-ordinator and were grateful to them for raising issues of importance to traders.

7.i As a sponsor this year Abdul felt it had been a great opportunity to be involved and he encouraged other traders to come forward in the same way to show their support for the Fair.

7ii Ceri and Piero and Marisa raised issues that had, in turn, been brought to them about a) traders who did not normally sell food selling food on the day, and b) others who came from outside the road and set up stalls selling food without giving any contribution to the Fair. The concerns were about health and safety issues (did they have the right licences and experience) and about competition. In discussion the following points were raised

  1. Andrew as Chair: This has been widely discussed. The Fair gave all the necessary health and safety information but has no authority to ‘police’ the situation. Is this something the Traders Association can help with?
  2. Abdul: the numbers were very small and his survey showed that they all did have the necessary documentation. The Fair’s role was to bring crowds to the roads and its shops and competition should not be feared

7.iii. Festive Lights. Even though the Festive Lights were not within the Fair’s remit, Abdul wanted to express thanks to the Suzy Oakes Trust whose contribution had ensured that the road did have lights last year. He welcomed the news that a capital grant of £5000 might be available this year

7.iv. Sam Motherwell wondered what was the ideal time for the Parade to start given that the Fair didn’t really get going till after it had finished. Jonathan and Andrew both felt it was a difficult balance between having it at a time when crowds were not over large for safety reasons, and encouraging people to come to see it

7v. Questions were raised about how the Parade would be organised this year. Andrew replied that Kay and Nicky were again co-ordinating and were seeking Area Committee Grants and Arts Council Grants. He agreed that a local sponsor would be preferable. Marshalls and Microsoft were both mentioned.

7vi. Clare Hedges asked that thanks to the 2013 MRWF committee be recorded for all their hard work and commitment.

There being no other business the meeting was concluded.

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