Green Festival Planning meeting Sunday 14th December at the Sumac Centre

Present

John & Jeremy (Nottm Green Festival organisers), Russell (Veggies), Mark (Green party), Ian (Coop / Union networking), Ursula (Keep our NHS Public), Margret (Goddess Camp), Jay, Walt (Sweet Potato/Party Power PA), Jane (Nottm Greenpeace etc), Pat (Veggies).

Key decisions:

– The Arboretum is the preferred venue.

– Sunday 6th September 2015 is the preferred date – John to enquire re availability & get it penciled in their diary.

– All to pursue ideas for potential funding “on behalf of the Nottingham Green Festival Committee”.

– Crowdfunding: a web-based, networked funding appeal to be investigated by Jeremy & Walt

– Stall holders & others to be invited to make no-strings donations to demonstrate the support of the wider community – John to send bank details for bank transfers & mailing address for cheques..

Stop Press: Donations may be sent to “Nottingham Green Festival”, Unity Trust Bank, sort code 08-60-01, a/c no 53110426. Please add your post code as a reference so that we can ensure that donations are tracked properly.

– An email list to be complied – Walt & Jeremy to investigate mailchimp or similar.
… Pending the creation of the mailing list, to stay informed contact us.

– A news update to be sent by post to existing mailing list
… Pat to compile 1-page newsletter with proposed date & venue, donations request, email newslist details, invite to next meeting
… Jeremy to assist John with envelope stuffing etc.

Next meeting Sunday 11th January at the Sumac Centre.

Stop press: Meeting changed to Sunday 18th January at 4pm at Sumac Centre.

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More detailed notes

John & Jeremy gave a brief history of Nottingham Green Festival:

Early 1980’s Nottingham Peace Festival organised by Nottm CND & others peace campaigners, at Victoria Embankment.
1990 – no festival. Ross (ex Mushroom, now Five Leaves) wa one of the final organisers
1991 – Relaunched as Nottingham Green Festival, at Victoria Embankment, usually 1st Sunday in September.
2004 – Moved to the Arboretum & moved to Sunday in late May
2012 – Final year of City Council funding (£5000) – held on 10th June
2013 – No key funding, but 22nd Green Festival (on 1st September) used up reserves from previous years.
2014 – No festival due to lack of funds

Funding

The event ran on a tiny budget of about £5,000-£6,000 thanks to largely voluntary input.
City Council funding (£5000) was withdrawn when the Green Festival declined to become part of a Council organised event, withing to remaln an autonomous, volunteer, community-based event.
Funding was also received in the further past from the County Council.
The Co-op had a big presence & gave funding for a few years, but moved onto other areas of interest.
About £1500 was raised from stall holders contributions.

Budget

Arboretum hire (£240), insurance (about £600), First Aid, PA & Performers, Children’s entertainments, Stewards, walkie-talkies, portaloos, advertising in Evening post, Fliers & posters, postage.

– a certain number of stewards are specified by the council. A nominal payment is made.
– a specific budget is allocated for combination of PA & performers, who play for expenses only.
– there is some additional income from fairground, caterers, sale of tea shirts
– buckets collections bring in a small minimal amount

Fundraising

Many ideas were brainstormed. Everyone is invited to follow up these ideas.
Write “on behalf of Nottingham Green Festival Organising Committee’, the status of which exists through the signatories to the bank account, who are John, Jeremy & Doreen, acting as Chair, Secretary and treasurer (in no particular order).

Ecotricity, Good Energy or other ethical energy companies
Castle Rock Brewery (though the Green Festival is an alcohol free event)
Sherman Trust (is that the right name), the Lottery
Seeking ‘Cultural’ funding was suggested.
A link-up with the Cultural Quarter is unlikely to be appropriate due to the location & philosophical differences.

Lush gives grants of £2,000-£10,000 with a simple application process, supporting “people helping others” and “projects that have difficulty finding funds elsewhere”.

Noted that funding applications may require lots of paperwork, are not necessarily repeatable and can’t guarantee ongoing funding for future stability.

The ethical status of any corporate sponsors would need to be checked before offering their logos on publicity.
See for example: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/energy/greenelectricitysuppliers.aspx

Fundraising events, gigs, benefits etc, though useful for awareness-raising are not reliable sources of funds. Although small amounts might be raised, it may be disproportionate to the effort involved.

Crowd funding is a system for setting up simple funding appeals using the power of the internet.
Can run a ‘personal appeal’ where contributions are invited on a no-strings-attached basis, (as opposed to a charity appeal or an all-or-nothing appeal).
There is typically a fee of about 5%, but the system makes it easy for many people to make small (or large) donations.
It is recommended to include a breakdown of costs on any gofundme appeal as people are more willing to donate if they know what their money will be used for.
There’s an example of a Go-Fund-Me campaign on behalf of Veggies at http://www.gofundme.com/54onx4
Jeremy & Walt have contacts that might volunteer (or advise) to set up an appeal on behalf of the Green Festival.

Sweet Potato is/was a community interest company, now in limbo, with a some £1,000 held since 2003. Walt will contact co-signatories & check their constitution to see if it is appropriate to grant this to the Green Festival.

The Women’s Environment Network, no longer active in Nottingham, has approx £200-ish. Margret will see if this can be granted to theGreen Festival.

Some Councillors, such as Michael Edwards, may be broadly supportive, but are unlikely to be able to bring in funding.
8 Area Committees cover particular geographical areas of the City. They have small budgets, but as these are usually for projects within their own communities, only the Arboretum Area is likely to consider giving funding. Ian will investigate this.

Might the Co-operative Insurance provide/sponsor the necessary insurance cover?

Would Broadway Cinema host a benefit film screening (might raise £300-ish). Would they sponsor the Green Festival itself?

To help with cash flow, Walt would defer payment providing for PA and might waive payment in the event of financial disaster.

It was also noted that a Hyson Green Cultural Festival in August 2014 seemed to have drawn some 500 people to the Forest, with minimal facilities, loos, fencing, stewarding etc (http://hysongreenculturalfestival.org.uk/)

Publicity

The uncertainty of dates, due to funding issues, has meant that for deadlines could not be met for Council What’s On Guides etc.

Noted that Peace Week was organised by Quakers, independently of the Council, but the Council publicised the events.

Email newslist essential to keep stallholders & supporters regularly updated.
Is there a (still) ‘green business directory’. Jane will speak to Penny Poyser.

A F#cebook presence is (sadly) essential, as is a website. Walt & Jeremy will speak to contacts who might volunteer help with these.

Reports, dates & pictures from 2003 – 2013 have been captured at http://www.veggies.org.uk/eventprint.php?ref=500

Marquee

It was felt that marquees would be a big asset to give cover if wet (or v.hot). This would encourage visitors to stay around and give confidence to stallholders that visitors would stay.

Margret has contact with the Newstead Tree Festival group who had funding to buy marquees which are now available for loan, approx £50 is self erected (as was the case with Goddess Camp) or £150 if erected by the providers (which is our preffered option).
Need to check any legal / safety specifications appropriate to the arboretum and any regulations concerning ground surface / vehicle damage. Jeremy will look into this.

Venues

It was unanimously agree that the Arboretum was the preferred venue
– close to City Centre
– close to The Tram & hence Park & Ride
– has mains power minimising need for diesel generators
– has a well located bandstand
– vehicle access for stalls & attractions is permitted
– well established as Green Festival venue
– has ample space for an estimated 100 stalls & 5,000 people
– good connections with the site management

Other venues were noted: Victoria Embankment; Greens Mill & field next to it; Victoria Park (Sneinton); Forest Rec; Woodborough Park; West Bridgford Cricket Pavilion; Elm Avenue / Bellevue Reservoir; Market Square; Waterloo Promenade/Crescent; St Annes Allotment site

Alcohol

The Alley Cafe (Ben) are very keen to support the Green Festival. In particular they can fully organise & run event bars, including booking, licensing, security etc.
Whilst it was felt that potential problems raised by a bar at the Green Festival would out-way any advantages, it was noted that the gated garden of the (defunct) Arboretum Pub may be a separately bookable licensed space.

Perhaps the Alley Cafe could be brought on board in other ways, eg to run a cafe now that mm…Deli is gone.

Next Meeting
Stop press :
Date changed to Sunday 18th January at 4pm at Sumac Centre.

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Notes

Pat can advise on Lush funding process, but can’t do application for Green Fest due to another application in progress

Arboretum, Dunkirk and Lenton, Radford and Park Area Committee – see http://committee.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=3892

———- Forwarded message ———-

Can’t make meeting on Sunday and don’t know if you have a poss venue. just wanted to put into the pot that st anns allotments may be interesting in hosting. we don’t have any money, and we are a bit hilly, so may be unsuitable but fresh food and green space is very important to us – and we do have quite a bit of space, so if you get stuck drop us a line

mo cooper

———- Forwarded message ———-

Sorry I can’t make the meeting as I’ll be away till 22ndDec. I’ve put in a funding bid for £1000 to run a small event in Forest Fields in the Spring, focused on energy saving, fuel poverty, recycling, repair and re-use, etc and I suggested that with add-ons of kids activities plus a few other groups we could run a mini Green Festival and recruit new activist groups to get involved with the big, City wide event. Will hear if I’ve got the money in the new year. With Rachel Wicks we ran a ‘Beat the Recession Fun Day’ in the wettest Saturday in June 2008 which had quite a bit on input from Sumac based groups, and which was a local success- something like that?

Best wishes,
Moby

———- Forwarded message ———-

Thanks for the invitation. I am not able to be there on Sunday due to other pre-Christmas commitments, however, please fee free to liaise over the outcome. Hope the afternoon goes well. It sounds wonderful.

Best wishes
Helen

———- Forwarded message ———-

Would love to see it happen again, and will be at the meeting in spirit, but very much doubt that we can make it in person. But please COUNT US IN, and if there are more meetings etc in the new year, we hope we can get to them.

Love,
Bob & Chris.

———- Forwarded message ———-

I can’t make it but am interested in helping to make it happen

Greg

———- Forwarded message ———-

Apologies for not coming to the meeting. other arrangements got re arranged from Friday. I’d be interested to know what came out of the meeting and if any other are planned..

Yours Lynda