6th Meeting – 2010/05/19

A good attendance of over 40 people firstly had an update about the master plan of the hall with Stuart informing us that the proposals had been endorsed by Cambridge City Councillors at the 13 May Cambridge City Council South Area Committee. Councillor were also content to accept amendments that may come from the final round of consultation during June, although it was accepted that fundamental changes may need to be referred back for Councillor approval once more.

Stuart then laid out the next steps which can be found in the minutes on the link below.

The Friends and the City Council are likely to use the same survey (online and print) for the June 2010 exercise, and the City Council has suggested that it would be appropriate if an independent third party construct the survey.

There were also updates on various maintenance and anti-social behaviour issues which you can read about in the minutes.

Stuart also mentioned that there would probably be two ivy clearance days – onebefore the Folk Festival in July and one later in September time.

Bob Daines introduced Andrew Varley who is advocating the use of the former propagation centre as a ‘City Farm’. See minutes for the details of the discussion.

Logo Competition: A selection of the best entries from local schoolchildren was arranged and members marked ticks on the rear to vote for their favourites. A number received a quite a few votes. Runner up was Sophie Emma Crook; the winning entry was from Claudia Casciano, age 9, from the Spinney Primary School in Cherry Hinton.

Stuart announced that the City Council has arranged for the Friends to have a stall atthis year’s Folk Festival. The stall will be outside the main event area, by the entrance(close to the Samaritans and St John Ambulance).

The Committee has agreed to hold the next Friends meeting at 4.30 pm on Saturday,24 July at Cherry Hinton Village Centre. The intention is to have a number of local organisations / groups all be present for the public to visit during the afternoon(12.00 to 4.00) – and then hold our meeting at the end of the event. One aim of the 24 July meeting is to draw up a roster for people to man the Folk Festival stall during the Folk Festival.

The Committee had also discussed the introduction of a nominal membership fee for the Friends – £2.00 per year was suggested. We could run the membership year to run from July-July – so returning Folk Festival people could renew their membership. We would try and put together a ‘welcome pack’. If people filled out a joining form they could also indicate preferences for what any surplus should be spent on – and theFriends would be able to report on progress each summer.  A motion was moved, seconded, and it was agreed to adopt this proposal.

In addition to holding and afternoon meeting  on 24th July, it was suggested and agreed that the remaining meetings take place every two months on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Baptist Church Centre, the next meeting after July being 15 September 2010.

The full minutes are available here.