Wednesday 3 February 2021, via Zoom
Attending:
- Cameron Brown
- Ben Thornber
- John Wheatley (had to leave early)
- Jim Pritchard
- Callum Purves
- Carole Haigh
- Fred Multon
- Matthew Pease
- Alastair Lavery
- Nicola Marchant
- Marion Anness (from 6 pm)
- Mike Barnacle (chair)
- Trudy Duffy (taking notes)
Apologies: Sandy Morrison, Rev Liz Stenhouse
Legal Status
After a round of introduction the chair examined section 1 of the indicated Checklist of the DTA: is membership of the Trust open to all? In this steering group landowners with substantial landholdings were not invited. We decided that membership should be open to all community members. With that we can reply affirmative to all the indicator questions.
This was followed by discussion about the legal status(incorporated or not; the merits of having charitable status and the new Scottish forms available).
Action:
John, Alastair, Ben and Carole will meet to discuss and propose suitable status.
Initial Funding
In order to get going we will need some funding, if only to meet the costs of setting up, insurance and communication. There may be funding via PKC, or we can apply for a grant (Kinross-shire Fund, Hydro Fund?)
Action:
Mike to approach PKC to find out about initial funding.
Scope of the Trust
The geographical area is clear: it is the same area which is covered by Fossoway and District Community Council. There are two approaches as to the scope: research of what the community wants or needs (top-down, strategic) or bottom-up (operational) projects such as a ditch management scheme in Drum, setting up community gardens – we all have several ideas for our communities. We may need some research – what have we got (assets), which gaps are there and what can we do to develop and fill the gaps. Other idea: look at what has been on the agenda of FDCC over the last few years. There is some information from the community engagement exercise which was carried out before the start of the Fossoway Community Benefit Fund (Hydro Fund).
Action:
Nicola, Cameron, Matthew and Trudy to meet, to look at Muckhart plan, and to pull together as much information as possible.
All: brainstorm: which projects are possible and desirable?
Launching and Engaging the Community
Development trusts should have elections. Our experience is that not many members of the community engage with existing organisations. Our idea just now is to run with a winning project and use that to engage with the community. The replacement Bridge could be such a project but there may be others. Again a two-pronged approach – working to set up a workable organisation in conjunction with developing a winning project.
We will of course need means of communication such as a website and social media accounts.
Action:
Mike to find out whether the School building (and maybe other council-owned buildings) can be leased if they are surplus to the Council’s requirements.
Jim to work on website.
Reconvene towards end of March.
Note: if anyone needs to access Zoom account, Trudy has a professional one, paid for by the Community Council and thus available for community organisations.