Friday, August 16, 2013

June 1st 2013 Transition Town Dorchester AGM

Nineteen people were present on a nice sunny day for Transition Town Dorchester’s AGM. We heard about various activities connected with the farm:

A Big Lottery grant has been received which will fund a cabin, a stove to warm it in the winter, a composting toilet (at last!), tools and educational materials.
Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset – A bid to the Big Lottery was submitted last year by a group of organizations led by Dorset Community Action (DCA) for a grant of £1m. West Dorset won the bid and will receive £960,000 over three years to fund a project – Communities Living Sustainably. TTD was one of the partners and will therefore have £12,000 over three years. This will cover a new polytunnel for when we have to move the farm, a solar powered pump for watering the polytunnel and will finance the post of farm coordinator, for three hours a week, who will seek to raise the profile of the farm in a variety of ways.
We are now looking after the Poundbury Orchard, adjacent to the farm, where we hope to move the geese to keep the grass down. The goose project has been particularly successful, with a lot of goslings incubated or hatched naturally over the summer – the flock is now almost 30 strong, with more to come, possibly! We also have a burgeoning population of runner ducks, which are great for keeping slugs down, bantams and hens.
People from the Mental Health Forum, who used to attend the former NHS Whitfield Farm, now come to the community farm on Wednesdays. So far they have helped us to dig a pond and to prepare an area of raised beds, as well as weeding and planting lots of seedlings.

After the AGM business, we had tea and cakes and then showed visitors around the farm.

Officers elected were Jenny Shackleford – Chair, Kate Forrester – Secretary, Judy Edwards – Treasurer.