CAGG committee, 2015-07-10
Minutes

Minutes of a CAGG committee meeting held at Tregarthwin on 2015-07-10. Readership is CAGG members.

Present:

Peter Jackson
Pat Fitzsimmons
Tina Hitchings
Anne Bolt

Apologies:

Calum Beeson

The meeting was chaired by Tina Hitchings.

Previous minutes

The minutes were reviewed and accepted without modification.

The Reading the Hurlers project has been resubmitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund. We expect to know the outcome in August.

TH said that she would be willing to have her mail address published as contact information in public documents.

Bank signatories have been changed.

Work to set up the Caradon Heritage company is proceeding.

Treasurer's report

Total CAGG funds, including petty cash: £822.08.

Reading the Hurlers fund: £1118.78.

Effectiveness of communication

We have good numbers of participants at field trips, up to about 16. More than 20 would be suboptimal so we don't wish to change that. We would benefit from more attendees at the talks. On average we have 16 attendees at meetings and could aim for up to 30.

We agreed that we should improve how we communicate in advance the details of precisely where to meet at field trips.

We think we could give the evening meetings a better structure. Someone should be assigned to welcome people, introduce the speakers, explain the form of the meeting, indicate fire exits and give details of forthcoming meetings and field trips. PF agreed to take this role.

We also agreed to make a poster to be placed in the window prior to the evening meetings. agreed to draft this.

We discussed the scope of meetings, but there's probably no specific change required. We are open to diverse interests relating to mining, microscopy, planetary science if opportunities arise.

Other ways of raising the profile of the organisation include

Stalls at various public events: It would be useful to have display material ready to minimise the overhead involved in setting up a stall. This would include laminated posters, display frameworks and a stock of samples and saleable items. This can be discussed further when Calum is available.
Business cards: It would be handy to have these to carry for use in serendipitous meetings and to be easily available at display stalls.
Christmas trees: There are said to be exhibitions of these in various places - just another opportunity to raise awareness. Decorations with a geological theme.
Leaflets: In a format suitable for display at Tourist Information Centres and tea shops.

Review of summer field trip

In short, it was successful. It was intensive, enjoyable, well managed and attendees learned a great deal. There were 7 attendees.

Comparisons can be made with Down to Earth trips, which are significantly more expensive but include meals in the fees. Our current level of organisation is not suitable for wider advertising but we think we should repeat the exercise with some minor adjustments to appeal to a few more members.

Adjustments to consider might be

8 days might be too long. Consider splitting into two consecutive 4-day trips.
For the Lizard, perhaps attract walkers - "Walking with Geology"?

Next year's programme

Ideally we should make a rolling plan for ourselves (though it might be published in 6 or 12 month sections). For now, we want to make a plan for 2016-01 through 2016-03.

The dates would be

Meetings          Field trips
2015-01-15        2015-01-30
2015-02-19        2015-03-05
2015-03-18        2015-04-02

(Easter is 2015-03-27)

Possible speakers:

Morwellham mine manager - Action: PF;
Suggestions from Calum?;
John Manley?;
Paul Day (powder mills) - Action: TH.

Next meeting

Hosted by PF on 2015-08-14 at 19:30. (Chair unspecified)

AOB

It was noted that the Liskeard Museum currently has no curator. There is a museum committee run by the town council.

Perhaps we could have a Geology-focussed event at the museum?

Action: TH will contact Hella Tova at the town council to discuss the idea.

Updates

This document is maintained by the CAGG. Comments should be addressed to CAGG_secretary at caradon dot org dot uk.

PNJ, 2015-06-07. Transcribed from raw meeting notes.