grovefieldsresidents

Grove Fields Residents Association

Committee Meeting

Date 13/06/17 at 7pm

Version 0.1

Attendees Keiron Wybrow, Belinda Goss-Lambourne and Graham Bright

Apologies Tony Johnson, Dimitri Patrikios and Bob Winter

Purpose:

To review progress against Committee actions and to make the necessary preparations for setting up the bank account.

Agenda:

Approve minutes from previous meeting
Update progress made against the actions
Provide Keiron (Treasurer) with the appropriate documents to set up the bank account

Agreements:

Minutes and actions from previous meeting were agreed.
Committee agreed to set up a bank account with Metro Bank.
Chair, Treasurer and Secretary to provide a signed copy of the constitution to Keiron to set up the bank account.

Actions:

Action Actioned by Due date

1 Review & approval of minutes from the Grove Fields Residents Association meeting (initial AGM) on 11th May, 2017

Approved without any further amendments. Minutes can be posted to the wider membership via the Facebook and Website page once these sites have been established.

ACTION: Load approved minutes on to FB page and Website. Bea COMPLETE

2 Committee Roles

The roles of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary need to be assigned in order to sign and approve the constitution for the Grove Fields Residents Association
Graham Bright put himself forward as Chair, Keiron Wybrow put himself forward as Treasurer and Dimitri Patrikios put himself forward as Secretary. All roles were approved by the Committee.
Other roles for the committee members will be identified as the work required of the committee is defined over the coming 1 to 2 months

ACTION: Chair, Treasurer and Secretary to sign the constitution. Graham, COMPLETE Keiron, Dimitri

ACTION: Investigate how to set up a bank account for the residents association. Keiron 11th June

3 Final amendments to the draft constitution

Name: Grove Fields Residents Association was approved
The additional objective “To maintain the area known as Grove Field as green belt land” was approved
An additional clause in the Membership Section was added: 3 e) Membership shall not be open to any resident who is employed by RELX or supports their proposed development of the Grove Field
The Geographical area for the membership, basis for financially contributing to the residents association, minimum age to become a member and the number of members allowed per household is defined within the ‘Membership Process’ agenda item below

ACTION: Make the final changes to the constitution in preparation for signing. Graham COMPLETE

4 Membership scope and process

The minimum age of a member is 18, this was approved
It was agreed that a single residence could have multiple members as long as they are over the age of 18
The geographical area for the residents association will be based upon the list of roads agreed by the committee to be included as an Annex to the constitution. Prospective Members who wish to join, who do not live on one of the roads within the geographical area may still be able to join if the Committee approve it.
It will be free to become a member, however, a voluntary financial contribution will be encouraged to help pay for the payment of professional planning advice should it be required
It was agreed that the current residents list of 93 individuals would be emailed requesting that they confirm that they would like to become a member of the Grove Fields Residents Association
Once a prospective member emails Graham (Chair) or Dimitri (Secretary) to confirm they would like to become a member they will be sent an email confirming they are now a member and asking them to click on two links:

The first link will be to our crowd funding page requesting a voluntary contribution
The second link will be to our private Facebook page which they can now join

ACTION: List the roads identified in the meeting for inclusion in the annex of the constitution Graham COMPLETE

ACTION: Develop the email to be sent to the current list of residents Graham COMPLETE

ACTION: Develop the response email to be sent to people confirming they are now a member Graham 4th June

ACTION: Investigate and set up a crowd funding page for the residents association Bob COMPLETE

ACTION: Investigate and set up a Facebook page for the residents association Bea COMPLETE

ACTION: Identify the best way for keeping a register of members Graham COMPLETE

ACTION: Develop a leaflet to be dropped to all residents within scope of the association Tony 4th June

ACTION: Deliver leaflets to all residents within scope of the association and follow up with a ‘door knock’ All 11th June

5 Other key activities that need to be planned

Strategy for engaging with politicians

We need a list of all the politicians (Town Councillors, Dacorum Councillors, County Councillors and MP) that as residents of Tring we vote for
We need a ‘statement’ to send outlining why the Grove Field should not be developed

Growing Membership - This will be through emailing the residents who have already shown an interest PLUS a leaflet drop and door knock of all houses identified as within the appropriate geographical area
Social Media – We will have a Facebook Group, Website and crowd funding page
Storing and sharing files – We will use Drop Box for storing key files initially just for the committee to access but in time this could be expanded
Fundraising

We will actively encourage all members to support fundraising activities for the residents association
Members have asked if they could have a stall at the Grove Road Fete and what should they say

Committee agreed a stall at the Grove Road fete would be an excellent idea
Committee agreed that the following simple messages could be shared:

The residents association’s priority is to ensure the Grove Field remains to be Green Belt land
If anyone would like to enquire about becoming a member of the residents association they should contact either Dimitri or myself

Funds are available to help run residents associations

Freedom of Information Request – The initial response to the FoI from Dacorum was discussed and it was agreed that we should appeal their decision to withhold the minutes from the meeting that RELX had with Dacorum

ACTION: Identify the Dacorum Councillors Bea 18th June

ACTION: Identify a full list of all politicians Graham 18th June

ACTION: Draft out a list of bullets as to why the Grove Field is not the best option for development Graham 18th June and then share this with the committee to be further developed

ACTION: Set up a website for the residents association Bea COMPLETE

ACTION: Set up a drop box facility for the residents association Bob 11th June

ACTION: Liaise with the members regarding the messages to be shared at the Grove Road School fete Graham COMPLETE

ACTION: Understand the process for raising and securing funds from the Town Council Keiron and Tony 11th June

ACTION: Appeal the decision by Dacorum to withhold some information requested through the FoI Graham COMPLETE

6 Actions from 8th June committee meeting:

Actions and minutes from 24th May, 2017 meeting approved and progress against actions captured above
Dimitri shared with the committee that due to an escalation in work commitments that he felt he could no longer fulfil the role of Secretary. All Committee members fully appreciated and accepted Dimitri’s position and unanimously agreed he should remain as a Committee member after resigning from the role as Secretary.
Discussed and agreed Belinda to replace Dimitri as Secretary for the Committee

ACTION: Revise the constitution to reflect that Belinda is the new Secretary and arrange for Keiron, Graham COMPLETE Belinda and Graham to sign the constitution

ACTION: Update the website to reflect the change in Secretary Bea COMPLETE

7 Actions from 13th June committee meeting:

Actions and minutes from 8th June, 2017 meeting approved and progress against actions captured above

It was agreed by the Committee that an account should be opened with Metro Bank in the name of Grove Fields Residents Association
As per the Constitution (reference section 6c), the Secretary, Treasurer and the Chairperson shall be signatories on the account and all cheques shall require two of these signatures.
The signatories are the Chairperson (Graham Bright), Treasurer (Keiron Wybrow) and Secretary (Belinda Goss-Lambourne)

ACTION: The three signatories to attend the bank to show their ID and sign the paperwork to set up the account. Graham, Bea, Keiron 20th June

Next Meeting date and time to be confirmed once Committee is ready to engage with politicians and ready to carry out the leaflet drop