Present: John and Monica McKinlay, Tom Cashman, Katie Ferguson, John Robertson, Johnny Gailey, Helen Gestwicki, Richard Cross, John Maule and Norma Carylon , Joan Pisanek, Joanna Darnley– thanks to everyone who came along.
Items
- Monica welcomed everyone to the meeting and to our new clubhouse. Thanks to those who donated furniture and daffodils! Katie will supply benches so that there will be a seat for everyone.
- There will shortly be notices of our two competitions.
- There was a brief discussion re ongoing grants and the Constitution. John and Monica have revised the Midmar Constitution in line with a Council owned site. This will be passed to Johnny Gailey who will forward it on to the lawyer at EVOC who will provide a final Draft for our approval. Norma asked if this draft would be circulated and Monica confirmed that it would, and later voted on, probably at a Special General Meeting. Tom reminded us that there may be insurance requirements if we were constituted. This will be considered with the final draft. Ian Woolard will also be consulted.
- Clubhouse Plot; In response to our appeal for ideas five suggestions had come forward; a play area for children; a path to the clubhouse with cleared area in front: a community orchard; a pond or wet area for frogs etc. and coppicing of twisted willow etc. There is room on the plot for all of this and Monica suggested that those with a particular interest could take that forward (like mini projects) allowing each to get started. Otherwise we could take the suggestions forward one at a time thus concerting our efforts.
- Thanks to Katie for her donation of fruit trees for the orchard and a group of us will be there to help her plant them out at the end of the month.
- Helen suggested a recycle corner on the plot which will allow everyone to donate useful items they no longer need. She will monitor this.
- Thanks to John Maule there is now a key for the water supply in the Clubhouse.
- The Seed Swop followed the meeting and there was a tremendous amount of donations – too many to thank everyone personally but if this is an indication of things to come Craigentinny Allotments will be Keeping Edinburgh Growing all by themselves!
- People who didn’t manage to come along on the day are welcome to help themselves to any seeds they need in return for a future donation or a small donation on the next swop day. The donations for April amounted to £2.40 which Katie will add to our petty cash.