Minutes of SLACC meeting held on Tuesday 29th March 2011

At 6pm at SNELCC Office

Present: Joc Coventry (chair), Patsy Asch, Jo Leoni, Bar Finch (minutes), Iain MacKay, Helen Webb (from 7.35pm), Cathie Lamont (until 6.30pm)

Apologies: Robyn Newberry, Michelle Owens

Minutes of previous meeting 22.2.11 adopted.

Business Arising

• Pats reported that solar panels at Visitor Centre had earned $2,000 for Council. It has not been promoted in press, Pats will speak to Carol Davis at ADC about publicity for it.
• Jo still to write to NISBN to support local/regional marketing logo.
• Pats still to send letter of support to Friends of Northern Railway.

Correspondence

• From ADC agreeing to waive fee for Town Hall for SLA Wind Forum.

Treasurer’s Report

Robyn advised that

• no money has yet been received from Visitor Centre for Back Yard Garden Tour
• invoice from Chamber for annual sub of $100

Agreed that we should renew our membership of the Chamber. (Joc/Bar)

Agreed to reimburse Bar for staple gun lost at SLEX, and expenses for Autumn Festival Parade:            Staple gun            $69.94

Paints                          $5.00

Bulldog clips    $3.75                                    (Joc/Jo)

Recommendation that Pats should seek reimbursement for printing ink, for the many displays she has done for the stall.                                    (Jo/Joc)

Action Group Reports

SLEX (Joc)

Council is advertising for an event coordinator, (Tony Broomfield holding the fort) and it appears that SLEX will go ahead, but SLA have not been approached. Rumoured that consideration is being given to combining with the Rotary Outdoor Expo. This may not be desirable?

Agreed that Joc will write to the General Manager to get some clarification.

(Break in the agenda to welcome SLA member Cathie Lamont who may wish to set up a new action group to look at co-housing/intentional community.)

Cathie had put a notice on our website and received 18 responses. She’s done some research and concluded that it’s best to start with gathering the people who are interested (rather than the land or the plan), and then proceeding. She is planning a shared meal in April to get some discussions going. Will then see whether an action group is appropriate, and welcomes any input.

Awareness Group (Iain)

Really will hold a meeting in April.

Re: website & communications:

• SLAM – the Wind Farm story got 120 hits to full story
• The ‘mailman’ groups are: Energy 17 members, ALF 33, Heart & Soul 85, ARMlets 8, Transport 25.
• Privacy on our website:

Agreed to adopt as POLICY, Iain’s recommendation for people putting contacts on our website:

If the email or phone number is a private one not being used for business or a public contact point – We will not publish it on our site. Instead we should:

use our own email info@slarmidale.org and pass it on to relevant party and code phone numbers understood by Armidale folk  e.g. phone:[local prefix land line]3 3157

The committee also discussed what guidelines to follow when assessing content for SLAM, which is currently done by Iain. It was agreed that we should err on the side of openness, and noted Joc’s email comments circulated to the committee:

“SLAM- Sustainable living Armidale Media /Magazine /Message board ,whichever way we look at it, it  is about reaching members and getting information out .

For SLAM to be successful it needs all the relevant input we can give it. How do we define relevant??

I think that this question is best left to the reader, they have to choose to access and read anything that gets posted.

If a member may be interested ,then what right have we to control the info. If SLAM doesn’t engage our members then it will fail ,If it’s not relevant

Then I suspect members will let us know. Let it grow organically, let’s not spray it or trellis it too much ,a little careful weeding now and then, plenty of sun

And the occasional organic fertiliser (maybe manure or something that smells a little unpleasant) and we will end up with something that is vigorous,

Robust enough to withstand the occasional attack and provides an interesting harvest.

The most important thing is that we all need to nurture it.”

Energy group (Pats)

1. Meeting to be held tomorrow.
2. Wind Farm: progressing, public forums have been positive. Interim report due in May, final report June.
3. New group within the Energy Group: ‘100% Renewable” is conducting doorknock survey, with results going to local members of Parliament. Part of a national campaign.

Armidale Local Food (ALF) (Jo)

1. Home Grown Garden Tour held 5/6 March. Well-received. Figures up on last year – 98 booklets sold, expect approximately $2,000 form Visitor Centre.
2. ALF display at Autumn Festival also sparked interest despite not having a prominent position. Possibly this display is less necessary now that there is the Farmers’ Market, but worth continuing as it reaches people who never come to the market. Next year will aim for a better site.
3. Poor attendance at ALF meetings – Jo will email members for feedback.

Monthly Market Stall (Pats)

Jo and Pats prepare new material for each market – this month featured the Liverpool Plains/mining issue, promoting our next Forum.

Transport Group

No convenor for this group (i.e. no group meeting). Iain will write notice for SLAM, and contact all Transport Group members, seeking support and convenor for this group.

Autumn Festival

Congratulations on winning the Best Community Float (for the second time). In addition to the annual trophy, the prize is a quarter page display ad in the Express and the Extra. Discussion of what to use the ad for. And agreed that we promote our range of activities, including a forthcoming Thursday Forum. Iain to think about and suggest design.

Thursday Forums

April 7^th Chairman of Caroona Coal Action Group, Sandy Blomfield, will be speaking.

Bar to put press release on site and SLAM.

May 5^th Discussion: Jo will talk to Lauren at NISBN about possible forum on local marketing. Query whether New England Markets ball happened, and possible involvement of that organization. But maybe a film? The Corporation or a new one about development and planning laws etc State of Seige. Pats will check out films.

June 2^nd Focus on China, with panel of locals: Mahalath Halperin, Isabel Tasker, Wendy Smith, Garaham Patterson. Each with different perspective. Pats will contact them.

Noted that the Special General Meeting to change constitution (previously passed at AGM, but notified too late to Dept. Fair Trading) will be at the beginning of the May Thursday Forum.

General Business

1. We should start thinking about what we might do at SLEX.
2. Pats reported that expressions of interest are called for grants from DECC for community education projects $5,000 to $100,000. She suggests we work up an application, Ideas Into Action, to run hands on workshops, in  cooperation with existing local agencies e.g. Family Support, Women’s Centre, Men’s Shed, maybe in conjunction with Council’s energy program, and drawing on experience with TAFE Sustainability days. Maybe also include computer skills, ‘permablitz’, house energy audits, practical projects, LETS. Pats will raise with Energy Group, and prepare an EOI for DECC. [Helen arrived]
3. Heart & Soul Group (Helen) Several successful gatherings held at various people’s homes. A lot of discussion.
4. 4. Moree Cotton Study Tour – Bar reported that Richard and Elspeth Belfield were promoting a 2 day study tour of a cotton property in Moree, with speakers, targeting people who may have misconceptions about this industry. Agreed that Bar would put details on site and for SLAM.

The meeting closed at 8pm.

Three people put in apologies for the next scheduled SLACC meeting, and it was also noted that it is in fact a public holiday. Decided to postpone one week.

Next SLACC Meeting will be Tuesday 3^rd May at 6pm.

Noted that that is only 2 days before the May Forum on Thursday 5^th May.