EDAP Group meeting, 18 June 2008

Present: Adrienne, Chloe, Kate, Kevin, Patrick, Polly
Apologies: Pippa

Agenda

  • feedback
    • funding application
    • last meeting with groups
    • meeting with the Lewes Community Land Trust
  • next meeting with the groups, July 4th
  • the EDAP process
  • what the EDAP group needs to do
  • new contact person
  • summary of next steps
  • next meeting

feedback

funding application

  • Adrienne and Kate, with input from Patrick and Chloe, applied for funding for an EDAP coordinator and developing visioning workshops from the South Downs Sustainable Development Fund. This was done on a very tight schedule as we only found out about the fund a short while before the deadline. The application has gone in, the funders will contact Kate tomorrow if they would like us to give a presentation about the bid next week.
  • Kate fed back from a meeting about funding and constitution held last night: the general feeling was that funding should be applied for and managed by the groups themselves, requiring all groups to have their own constitution and bank account
  • this led to that group suggesting that the recent application for funding outlined above should be taken on by the EDAP group, requiring us to write a constitution and set up a bank account for the EDAP group, or we should withdraw the funding application
  • the following concerns were expressed about that meeting and the suggestion about the EDAP funding:
  • the meeting was called after the issue of funding and constitution was raised at the last contacts group meeting, it was decided at that meeting to call a separate meeting to address these issues because the contacts group meeting is not a decision making or principle making body and all people active in TTL should be invited to attend this meeting in accordance with TTL principles. There was in fact no invitation sent out to either the people at that original contacts meeting, to the ttl active email group, to the contacts email group or to the EDAP group. It was felt this meeting therefore had no mandate to set out principles on funding or to suggest we should wither set up a bank account and constitution or withdraw the funding application
  • it was also felt that the EDAP process is a core function of TTL, in fact our main aim, and is a TTL-wide issue
  • it was pointed out that Adrienne, Kate, Patrick and Chloe from the EDAP group were involved in the application
  • the EDAP group agreed that if the funding is received we will manage the post
  • Kate agreed to present to the funders if they request so
  • we will contact the people involved in that meeting

last meeting with groups

  • the turnout was very disappointing, with only one group representative attending
  • there was a lively discussion on the EDAP process as w hole

meeting with the Lewes Community Land Trust

  • last week Adrienne, Patrick and Chloe from the EDAP group met with John Stockdale and Dirk Campbell from the LCLT to findout what each group is doing and explore how we might work together
  • the LCLT is creating a plan for land use in Lewes, called Lewes 2020, with a consultation process and feeding into the District Council's Local Development Framework
  • The LCLT grew out of the anti-development campaigning groups in Lewes wishing to work together on a positive plan for Lewes, they meet once a month on the first Tuesday of the month
  • their plan is to put out a leaflet to the town and carry out a survey, they then wish to have a meeting to explore a vision for the town, they will then do a draft report which will be up for consultation and then will produce a final report
  • we explained how our EDAP process, noted that the TTL land use group was not preparing a plan, expressed our intention to work together
  • at that meeting we agreed to arrange a meeting to work out a process for the visioning/consultation in the community with the facilitators we work with, ie Alix from them and Hermione and Zoe from us, Chloe will represent the TTL EDAP group
  • Patrick expressed concerns about working too closely with other groups in Lewes as a general principles which needs further discussion
  • Kevin suggested we should make sure the LCLT are aware of TTL's aims and principles
  • we will discuss further at the mext meeting

next meeting with the groups

  • the next meeting with the groups is July 4th, venue TBC
  • it was suggested we will invite the groups to share with us what they have got so far on the EDAP process and also tell us all the ideas for projects they have had so far

the EDAP process

  • we identified several problems people encounter in engaging with the EDAP process:
  • generally people are disassociated with their locality, lacking knowledge of it
  • people who haven't done a permaculture course (unlike the students at Kinsale) are faced with catastrophic future scenarios and no design tools or a menu of positive solutions
  • the writing of the document is not easy
  • it requires a lot of time and energy
  • we also discussed different possible shapes the plan might take:
  • a novel – a vision of the future
  • a menu of positive actions
  • a soundscape
  • film
  • the theme of community engagement was discussed:
  • we recognised community consultation is essential to the process
  • there are problems of timescales, if people have the skills, time and will to carry out a process of consultation
  • whether it should be done this year, starting September, or be one of the first steps of the plan
  • whether it should be done by the groups with a visioning/planning template to community groups or by the EDAP group or another group, perhaps with funding
  • we discussed the timescale:
  • it was pointed out that to carry out an analysis of Lewes as it is now, a visioning process in the community, gather knowledge of positive solutions and best practice and the writing of the plan is a pioneering project and will take time
  • there was general agreement we should keep to the timescale we have set out, rather than take a lot longer over the process

what the group needs to do

  • here we began to list out our potential tasks and will continue to work on this:
  • facilitate the EDAP for Lewes
  • support a process of gathering visions of Lewes from the community
  • build a relationship with local government
  • research Lewes as it is now and its existing resources
  • build up a menu of positive actions/projects
  • collect the groups' work and pull it together
  • present the EDAP to the community

new contact

  • Pippa would like to give up being the group contact at least for some time, but still wishes to be part of the group.
  • Chloe offered to take on the contact role for the time being.

summary of next steps

  • invite groups to the next meeting with RSVP – Chloe
  • follow up the funding application – Adrienne, Kate
  • go to the groups to gather information on the stage they are at, including written documents and pull it together:
  • Adrienne: heart and soul, currency
  • Polly: transport, food, waste
  • Patrick: energy, business
  • Kevin: health, textiles
  • Chloe: schools, land use, arts
  • follow up the LCLT thing – Chloe, Adrienne, Patrick
  • work on the EDAP process: all

next meeting

  • next week, Tuesday 24th at the Lewes Arms
  • to discuss the EDAP process

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