Present:
- Siân (Chair)
- Eva
- Steve
- Susanne
- Tim
- Sarah L
Apologies:
- Margaret
- Sarah B
Previous minutes
These were approved.
Minutes arising
The Lent refugee speaker event went well, with about thirty people attending. £120.05 was raised for Assist. Rodrigo spoke well and people seemed to get value from it. Soup quantities could be adjusted next time! The board about refugees and handouts were well received.
Tim reported anecdotally that the S2 food bank is struggling for funds to buy items to supplement items which are donated. Whenever he is there, they run out of key staples. People setting up standing orders for regular giving would make a big difference. This might be something we could raise with the Parish Council, looking for a push for the next year.
Re sci-fi night, it was suggested that might have had its day, not least due to the loss of Greg.
Sian hasn’t had the chance to speak to Stephen about a potential Muslim speaker but will pursue this.
Eva is going to be the contact for the Diocesan J & P Commission although she is not going to attend. In relation to the variety night, what we can offer is limited to that. Eva has told Fr Shaun we are happy to help with gathering contributions for anything like donations to Syria as happened before.
Susanne S is fundraising for Fr Francis’ lunch project but we don’t have much more information about how it is going. Susanne will check with her about this. An option such as a cake sale could be considered. After debate, we struggled to find a date in June when a reasonable number of us will be present, 18th June being best but Stephen and Eva won’t be able to do any Sundays in June. Susanne will speak to Susanne S about this.
The May Day trek hasn’t gone into the Franciscan due to Sian being away, but she will organise it for this Sunday’s newsletter.
The East Africa appeal raised £3500, which was then doubled by the Parish.
AOB
Parish Council: The meeting is on 16 May and we need to do a report for it. Stephen and Eva won’t be able to attend. Sian will attend in their place, with Tim as backup. There was a discussion about what we needed to include, and we drafted a few ideas which Eva will take and pull together into a report.
Thanks were recorded to John for all his hard work for J & P over the years.