These are the minutes of the last open meeting
Meeting Title: ACE Monmouth Open Meeting
Meeting date and time: 16th January at 7:30pm
Venue Details: Zoom
Present: Charles Emes, Sarah Read, Sarah James, Anthea Dewhurst, Jess Long, Jem Jenkins-Jones, Katherine Pitts-Tucker, Peter Davies, Clare Catto, Nichola James, Vivien Mitchell, Chloe Constable, Claudia Blair, Lucy Blaxland, Liz Williams, Sue Parkinson,
Apologies: Nicola Awni, Fiona Wilcox, Jen Bara, Cheryl Cummings, Cherry Taylor
Agenda and Notes
1. Welcome and apologies for absence
2. Haberdashers Sustainability Event
Nichola gave an update on plans for the Schools Conference as there is a good chance it will go ahead again this year, around the weekend of 28 / 29 June. Students will be encouraged to focus on a theme such as food, fashion or nature and will take part in panel discussions and workshops facilitated by influential and interesting visitors. Students will be supported to come up with real actionable results from the day. This year multiple schools will be involved and hopefully interested students from across the year groups will be able to get involved.
ACE has been invited to take part again this year, either on the Sunday or the Monday. As Monmouth Carnival is taking place on the Sunday it was decided that ACE would focus its efforts on the Monday which enables engagement with the pupils, teachers and schools, without trying to complete with the Carnival in attracting members of the public.
Next Steps: Planning will now start on ACE’s involvement, and whether we focus on one theme or multiple strands. Last year we focused on food and farming which was successful.
Sarah J kindly volunteered to help with the conference as she has experience running similar events.
3. Christmas Party Update
The Christmas party was a success, with 20-25 people arriving over the course of the event. There was much praising of Charles’ homemade dips and we had some illustrious guests including Katrin Maby (MCC Cabinet Member for Climate Change and the Environment), Catherine Fookes (Monmouthshire MP), and the Head of Monmouth School Simon Dorman. An enjoyable evening was had by all with new connections made.
Action: Charles to keep ACE members posted on future meetings
4. MTC Update
ACE representatives (Sarah R and Charles) met with the MTC Working group to discuss funding over the next few years as the previous funding agreement (£15,000 p.a. for three years) is coming to an end. ACE has some funds in the bank as we have been spending on average £8-10,000 p.a. It was therefore agreed that funding would drop to £5,000p.a for the next two years before returning to previous levels.
5. Seed Swap
The Seed Swap, run by Transition Monmouth (TM) and supported by ACE, is on Sat 8th February. Heritage Seeds along with TM and ACE members will again provide lots of beautiful seeds and plants for sale or swap.
Sue confirmed that MCC will host a table promoting energy saving cooking equipment such as air fryers, dehydrators and slow cookers. Benthyg will be there promoting its gardening equipment for hire and Tools for Self Reliance will also be present.
The ACE stall will focus on the Garden Mentoring Project – we will have ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures from all four mentees. Cheryl C and Cherry have volunteered to run the stall and speak about the project.
TM have also asked for help setting up, serving teas and coffees and providing cakes. We had offers of cake and / or biscuits from Anthea, Kate, Sarah R, Jess and Chloe. Sarah J also offered to help on the day.
6. Biodiversity Auditing Training
Sarah R has arranged training for volunteers with Gwent Wildlife Trust this Spring. This will give us a team of people able to undertake audits on wildlife areas in town and farms. Sarah needs someone to collate the list of volunteers and arrange the training. There were quite a few expressions of interest including Clare C, Sarah, Chloe, Anthea and Sue volunteered her services as a mentor when the independent auditing starts. It was thought we could reach out to Monmouthshire Meadows Group and the U3A to see if we could encourage more volunteers to undertake the training and get involved.
7. Pollution Monitoring
ACE is involved in a TM project monitoring pollution around town. The devices can be moved around to areas of interest, where they measure particulate pollution and collect data every 15 minutes. It was thought this would be a great STEM project for local schools. Sarah J volunteered to be involved.
8. Events throughout 2025
ACE will be present at the Seed Swap in February and the Schools Event in June. ACE is also aiming to run regular “Fresks” (a 3-hour event during which participants learn about climate change through a game). We have so far run two well attended Fresks in Estero Lounge. It was suggested that we approach local organisations to see if their members would be interested. Organisations suggested were Rotary, U3A, 4pm at the Priory, the WI, Guides and Scouts and MTC.
We agreed to run a one-day ACE Festival in September – Dates TBC and the exact format will be decided by the ACE Festival sub-group.
Clothes Swap – Jem volunteered to arrange a Clothes Swap. It was thought this would be ideal as part of the September Festival.
9. AOB
Lucy B questioned whether a car club had ever been started in Monmouth. Charles said Usk were looking at establishing one via an organisation called Trydani. It would need a core club of at least 15 car users. We agreed to do more research into this idea.
10. Date of next meeting
Thursday 13th February, via Zoom, 7:30pm.