Herefordshire focused Forest Schools information and resources.
Minutes of meeting held on Monday 08th May 2017 at Queenswood @ 5.00pm.
Sam reported that these could now be found on the member’s section of the website.
It was proposed that a separate meeting would be held regarding updating each page on the website to reflect what we do in Forest School provision in Herefordshire – we want to get across the enthusiasm and values we all share and to make the website interesting and exciting.
A suggestion was made regarding creating A5 flyers to hand out at events etc. to promote the group and it was agreed that this could also be discussed at the website meeting.
Katrina reported that this had been another very well attended event at Queenswood. Thanks are recorded here to Jo McLellan who worked all day to keep a fire going for children to toast marshmallows and cook popcorn on whilst trying to promote Forest Schools, aided by some of the WildPlay workers when available, and to Charlie McNair and Jane Denny who also gave up their free time to help WildPlay to run a mud kitchen.
The above led on to a long discussion about the Hellens Garden Festival event and what we, as a group, could provide. Trina and Hayley are already going to be there with the Wildlife Trust and they kindly said that we could join with them and run a small activity in their area or they would happily erect our banner to promote the group. As no-one present was sure whether we had a space booked, or where our advertising banner actually is at the moment, it was agreed that we needed to find these things out first. Sam also pointed out that everyone is busy and we needed to think carefully about what our aims were at these events i.e. we need to target events that are relevant to what we are trying to achieve. As a group, we are trying to promote quality Forest School provision in Herefordshire and there was a feeling that we were in danger of people giving up their free time to actually just provide a free activity for children at these sorts of events rather than really promoting Forest Schools. So, it was finally agreed, that if nothing had already been booked at Hellens Garden Festival, Trina would take the banner for us but she also welcomed anyone to go along and help with the Wildlife Trust stand on the day.
Charlie also offered to take the banner to a ‘sheep event’ she was going to be attending on the 16th May but we may not be able to find it and get it to her by then.
A suggestion was made that a pop-up gazebo could be useful if we were going to go to events to try and promote the group and Trina offered to find out some information about something suitable that she knew of.
Sam reported that some members had suggested they formed a sub-committee to look into fundraising for the group. It was agreed that we would need to identify specific costs that we could show would have a benefit to, say, children, to meet the criteria for most organisations offering funding – and this is not always easy to do. One idea put forward was to try and get sponsorship for the One Day Conference we aim to hold in the Autumn.
Trina reported that we could hold this event at Queenswood for a cost of £250 (which included having Hayley to put up and take down the Yurt and the Engagement Room). She needed to know what dates we might want to book so she could check if Queenswood was available. Sam offered to do a quick online survey amongst members to try and ascertain what day people would prefer the conference to be held on. The original date we had planned in half-term was not available at Queenswood.
Parking was raised as an issue as, if we held the event on a Saturday or Sunday, there might not be sufficient parking as Queenswood gets very busy at the weekend. Yeomans have provided a ‘Park & Ride’ service for Queenswood previously, for which people were charged £3 each (the same as parking a car for one person), but Trina was not sure how much Yeomans charged- so we would need to look into this.
Other suggestions made were:
After some discussion, it was agreed that we needed to hold another meeting in two weeks time, specifically to talk about, and plan for, the Conference.
So, there will be an additional meeting held on Monday 22nd May at Widemarsh Children’s Centre in Hereford from 4.30pm.
We need to discuss and agree lots of things including:
Sam asked that people could think about possibilities for Keynote Speakers and Workshop Leaders – we would need to find out what they would charge us as well – and ideas for Trade Stands, for the next meeting.
Sam thanked Katrina for hosting the meeting at Queenswood and everyone for coming and the meeting closed at 6.15pm.
Sam Goddard May 20th, 2017
Posted In: Meeting minutes