co-op snowy scene

Simon and I had a great time grappling with the shops waste at the co-op. It was a bit hit and miss at one point but we think that the final scene is alright considering its rubbish. Join us on Saturday at Co-op Northwich 11-4 to see the results in person, sing, craft and get faces painted.

Helping with the group

To find out about how you could get involved with the group  e mail Beth Barlow at bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com

Co-operative gig

We are at the co-op in Northwich on the 10th December with Facepainting, Craft activities and a bit of singing. Come join us and get in the christmas spirit whilst giving to those less fortunate. Monies will go to Oxfam and Mencap.

Minutes from meeting 17th October

Present: Beth, Julia, Ian


Books for the craft event- Julia has got some books. She will give half the books to Beth to cut into the relevant pages for creating trees. Does anybody else want to help with this? Its pretty simple and many hands make lighter work. 
Bookstore at Oakmere-We feel that two events is as much as we have the capacity for at the moment. If anybody else wants to run an event for Oxfam in the Bookstore at Oakmere contact Beth by November 1st. otherwise Beth will contact them and let them know that we cant cover this year.
Co-op gig- We decided we can cover the following for this event: Sale of books as long as books are donated by staff and customers prior to the event. School class attending as long as staff can cover the logistics of this bit. Dress down day for staff, Hampers supplied by co-op, facepainting, money off vouchers, press, cheshire FM and papers-(Beth to sort), healthy eating bags, ethical eating talk by the co-op, human joke machine, craft making stall, craft kits, sculpture from junk ( maybe in a dove, snowman, fairy, star shape) Refreshments from the co-op and choir.

Date decided on 16th December 11-4pm

Weaver square gig- Decided on choir, break for lunch and instrumental to fill the part when no singing. Face painting.
Ian to contact manager to check on date. Beth to get in touch with Oxfam manger to arrange meeting. Beth to speak to Ian B about PA system and playing. Julia to speak to good news singers and Beth to let Rivendell know the dates.

Date decided on 10th December 11-3pm

For anybody wanting to help out a bit we need help with any of these:
Cutting up books for the craft stall before the event
Singing as part of the choir on one or both of  the days
Playing instruments on the days
Rattling buckets
Looking after the book stall at the Co-op
Facepainting if you have a current CRB check. 
Help on the craft stall

Date of next meeting 

23rd November 7.30pm at the Bluecap. Apologies to Beth please so that we know who to hang on for.

Minutes from meeting at the Co-operative Northwich

We talked about the following ideas for the co-op day.

• Dress down day for staff
• Hampers to raffle supplied by the co-op
• Facepainting
• Sales of books
• Money off vouchers given out in store before the event and redeemable on good in store on the day
• Speaking to Cheshire Fm for press and possible outside broadcast
• Flyers printed by the co-op to tell about the event
• Press release from the Oxfam group as its not a business it will stand more chance.
• Healthy eating bags to kids from a class at a local school 
• Asking a class from a local school to come along ( the nearest school is
• Witton Church Walk C Of E Primary School) 
• A talk on ethical eating by somebody from the co-op for kids. 
• The human joke machine- give the manager a subject and he will come up with one joke for a donation. 
• Craft stall 
• Craft kits for sale
• A piece of art made from the waste from the shop
• Refreshments etc. for the singers will be supplied by the co-op 
• Choir singing either outside or indoors if weather bad. 

50/50 split on monies made 50 to oxfam 50 to mencap. 

We discussed the following for further events:

Car boot sale on the car park. Ran by Co-op with some proceeds going to Oxfam.

We discussed the following dates:

Friday 16th December as best fit for co-op

Saturday 10th and 17th are dates already being considered by the Good news singers.

Proposed plan of action: ( let me know if it seems wrong)

• Set a date for all gigs Asap
• Decide on which elements we could realistically cover
• Contact Jon at Co-op and arrange other meeting to finalise plans
• Contact school if appropriate
• Start a list of interested singers/volunteers
• Get volunteers for craft, facepainting, giving out flyers etc.
• Do press stuff
• Contact Oxfam shop to arrange to chat to them.

Meeting Minutes 19th September 2011

• We spoke about how it was best to leave members who were not always able to attend meetings on the mailing list as they would still want to know what was going on. If anybody would like to be taken off or added to  the contacts list please e mail Beth at bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com.
• Julia showed us the lovely ideas for the  make your own Christmas craft stall, these included lovely Christmas trees from old books. Heather is going to try and find out how we source books from Oxfam's partner company, wastesavers. Also to look into what Oxfam does with regards to giving books to people in this country and abroad. We need volunteers to cut up books ready for the event.
• As the co-op is the only supermarket to have taken up the opportunity to have singing, craft and face painting we are going to work with them and not pursue Tesco's, Asda and Morrisons. Beth and Julia are going to meet with the manager at 1pm on Thursday 22nd.
• Middlewich Garden centre already have a charity they support so can't add to that at the moment.
• The Bookstore at Oakmere may be interested. Beth to keep everyone up to date on progress.
• Ian contacted Development Arts Northwich (DAN). They gave him the contact for the city centre. Weaver Square is being transformed for Christmas, with a chance to sing and do craft, face painting on 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th December. We decided to consider two of these dates 10th and the 17th.  ( since the meeting Rivendell singers have confirmed that they are busy on the 10th and 17th but there may be more scope for the 3rd Should we change for the 3rd?) Beth and Julia are going to see Oxfam shop manager to see if there are any points of mutual benefit for us to work on. Ian is going to liase with city centre contact.
• Julia and Ian are going to contact the good news singers to see if they can sing. Beth is going to contact Ian B to see about a PA system and other players to go with  a trumpet.We need musically talented volunteers if you know any.
• Beth went off on one about knitted bobble hats and salves. One for her to ponder.
• We spoke about craft kits to sell. One for further discussion.
• Ian to think about a list of 5 or 6 simple songs which everybody will know.
• Beth told the group about a charities event at St John's church Church Hall in Sandiway. On Wednesday  5th October 2-4.30pm there is a "Knit and Stitch" for charity event. This a chance for people to see how they can use their craft skills to help charities. Then on Saturday 8th October from 10am there is a craft stall and coffee morning. Beth and Heather to look into how crafts are used by Oxfam for possible inclusion in the Wednesday event.
• Beth would also like to tell the group about a Clothes Swap event at St John's on Monday 3rd October at 7.30pm. Bring some clothes to swap.
• Heather told us about the East Africa awareness sessions running throughout the country. Invite above to this if there if anybody who wants to go and find out more about what Oxfam is doing for this cause. Its at the Victoria baths in Manchester which is an old renovated swimming baths, well worth a visit.
• Heather is hoping to organise a new group get together which will be more accessible some time in the future.

Next meeting Monday 17th October, Blue cap at 7.30pm
Apologies please to Beth so that we know who to hang on for.

Meeting Minutes Tuesday 6th September

Present: Beth, Julia, Ian
Apologies, Lizzie, Chris, Lorna, Pat and Helen
Not Present: Heather

Riverside Results - Lisa from Riverside is sending us a voucher for £40.00 to be raffled as part of our next event or as a separate thing.
Woodpecker Meal results-They will do 2 meals for £10.00 any night but saturday and there is no need to pre book meals. Ian And Julia to find out if their group would be up for meeting at a meal like this again in Jan, Feb 2012. Everyone else to try and gauge interest in their groups. Maybe groups could coincide it with a late Christmas do.
Supermarket letters-Beth sent lettters to Asda and Morrisons in Winsford and Co-op and Tescos in Northwich. Manager from Co-op has been in touch and is really positive. They already support mencap so they would look to put on some activities too and then we split proceeds 50/50. Reps from our group to meet manager for a chat.
Press release With no picture of the event the guardian were less interested so we need to make sure we take picture of next event. Beth to remember to bring camera and maybe think of picture we could create in run up to next event.
Middlewich garden centre they are going to confirm if they are interested next Monday. possible dates discussed 10th or the 17th December. Julia to ring and take advise on dates from centre manager.
Singers/musicians Ian is going to speak to Dan in Northwich. Beth to Rivendale singers and folk club. Julia to good Will singers. Idea is to from a small group of individuals from these groups. Ian and Julia have access to a church hall to rehearse.
Crafts Julia is going to bring a demo of a book Christmas tree design to the next meeting for us to decide on.

Next Meeting
Monday 19th September at The Bluecap 7.30pm
Can everybody please continue to send apologies or attendance to Beth or Ian and Julia so that we know who to hang fire for before starting.

Meeting minutes 16th August 2011

Present: Julia, Ian, Beth

Apologies:Lizzie

Review of the Riverside Event

• All felt it was a good money maker, making £176.20 for Oxfam. It needed less planning than other events for a good return. Many thanks were extended to Ian and Julia for organising it and getting such fantastic numbers.
• The service at the Riverside was poor so Julia and Ian wrote a letter. The Riverside have offered a free meal for two. We are thinking of raffling this to make some more funds. Beth to check with Heather about the legality of running a raffle over several weeks.
• The woodpecker In Northwich do a 2 for 1 in the day. We are thinking of approaching them to see if they will do a deal in the evening, limited menu and pre order. This would take place in Jan/feb 2012. Julia and Ian to look into.
• Beth will send out press release with amount raised and plans for future, also call out for new members.

Carol Concert Ideas

• Julia put forward idea of Karaoke Carols in supermarket receptions, this would take a number of singers and could ask for volunteers who want to sing too. Possible venues were Morrisons- winsford, Asda- winsford Tescos-Northwich and Northwich train station. Beth to pen a letter to the supermarkets to see if this is a possibility.
• Beth said that this idea depends on the quality of the singers, maybe we could approach buskers, willing oindividuals from choirs folk club etc.
• Carols and Kids-include facepainting, craft activity. We need to think of places were families go. Possible ideas were Garden centres and Play centres. We could also tag onto other events. All to keep eyes out for Christmas events to tag onto.

Any Other Business

Ian had noticed that there was an oxfam football match and was eager to find out what the final amount raised was. Beth to ask Heather.

Still need new members to join to committee. Beth to chase up existing members to see where we are up to.

Next meeting Tuesday 6th September at the Bluecap 7.30pm

Riverside meal here we come

Not quite Fuzzies Taco shop but still all the fun of the fair as we head off tomorrow to the Riverside Pub to have a good night and raise some funds. We are taking advantage of the buy one get one free offer. You pay the pub for one meal and the other free meal price gets donated to Oxfam. Simple idea hopefully loads of money in the collecting tins. The money from this one will be going to the East Africa appeal. You can find out why this is so important here.

Oxcan Minutes 14th July 2011

Present: Beth, Ian, Julia, Heather and Lizzie

Apologies: Helen, Pat and Chris

Riverside 241 – Thursday 28^th July 7.30pm

• Numbers:
• Julia and Ian – definite 10 and possibly 20. Their Church group are joining as well; they will have a definite figure by Monday.
• Beth +3
• Heather + 3
• Lizzie +3

• We will ask them to put the Oxfam money to one side. Beth has some collection boxes and Heather has said she can take it
• Julia’s friend is doing a quiz we can hand around
• Instead of doing a raffle, we could do prizes or the quiz
• If everyone could bring something to put in for prizes that would be wonderful
• Have some Oxfam literature available for people to look at
• Have the ‘goat stand’ so w can sell gifts etc, may stimulate some more recruits
• Heather to make some flyers to encourage people to sign up and join us
• Beth is going to write the press release and Heather will send some wording about The East Africa Appeal
• Have something in the middle of the table – something that will let people know the money is going to The East Africa Appeal
• Beth to send Harriet some wording through to make cards to put in the centre of the table
• Heather to bring the leaflets etc to stick on the collection buckets
• Organising the money – Heather to take the cash/cheques away. Try and tell people to bring money to the evening to give to Oxfam

The Big Zoom

§ Not had as much success as they would have liked. It was found to be most successful at a local level.

§ Approaching a local nursery may be the best option

The Next Big Event

§ Keen to organise a Carol Service for December

§ Beth’s choir may be able to do something

§ We all need to think about where the best place to hold it would be

§ Concerns about the cost – we would have to try and make sure we could do it as cheaply as possibly

§ Venues:

o Churches – you can’t charge people entry but you could have collection boxes being passed around

o Village Hall – We would be able to charge people entry. In Sandiway the cost for hire is £40 for 2 hours

o British Legion in Hartford – somewhere to look into? Would need to find out the cost

o Delamere – something to potentially look at. Difficulties conducting something outside were raised – electricity for music and heating up drinks

o Blakemere – Beth to ask

Tatton Flower Show

§ Oxfam have an 8x8 garden on show. They’ll have a stand – trying to get people interested in signing up and generally fundraising

§ Heather is going to talk to people and try to get people to sign up. May be able to try and recruit

Next meeting - Tuesday 11th August 2011 at the Blue Cap 7.30pm

Oxcan Meeting Minutes 6th June 2011

Oxcan Meeting 6th June 2011

Present: Beth, Ian, Julia, Chris, Lizzie

Apologies: Heather, Helen, Pat

Riverside 2for1

· They are very charity minded and willing to have us, we just need to decide on a date and time.

· Potential dates – 28^th July, or if that fails the 21^st July. Both are Thursday’s

· We need to rally the troops

· We are estimating 20 people so everyone needs to start asking round.

· The idea of doing a raffle was raised. Everyone would need to think of something to add to it and bring your ideas to the next meeting – Chris to look into

· The idea of doing a quiz was also raised – people could pay for the quiz sheets, this would bring in a little bit more money – Ian and Julia to look into

· We will need to keep it fairly low key so as not to disturb other diners.

· A list of the people attending will need to be drawn up before the night so we know who to expect. We need to know the numbers two weeks before (14^th July)

· We could do a press release after the event to help further promote – Beth to organise

· Julia and Ian to book it so all information needs to be passed to them

Fundraising ideads

· Selling books – A suggestion that we could have a book sale to help fundraise. Chris to look into this

· Doing the 40’s night again as it was a huge success the first time round, except this time the theme cold be medieval. However, we would need people who could be fully dedicated as it is a very time consuming process. If we can manage to engage enough people at The Riverside fundraiser we could look into bringing more people into it. Something to think about

· Cheese and Wine Evening?

Next Meeting – Blue Cap Pub, Thursday 14^th July 7.30pm

Oxcan Minutes 19th April 2011

Oxcan Minutes

18^th April 2011

The Blue Cap

Present: Beth, Ian, Julia, Heather and Lizzie

Apologies: Helen, Pat and Chris

Positions within the group

• Lizzie volunteered to be secretary
• We still need to find someone to be Chair and two people to be Treasurers (we need two to be able to sign off cheques etc)
• There is the possibility of rotating these roles to vary it for everyone and so people don’t feel there is too much responsibility/pressure put upon them

Action: Find three other people to take up these remaining two roles

Fundraising

• The idea of everyone bringing a friend to a 2 for 1 meal – everyone paying, the money that doesn’t go on the meal goes to Oxfam.
• What kind of things could we do at the meal? Would we want a guest speaker, a pub quiz, just let people chat?
• Thinking potentially sometime in June – Thursday evening?
• New campaign coming out in May ‘Grow’ could work around food, should we tie the meal in with that?
• Bring some Oxfam merchandise in to help promote the cause
• Acton Bridge – The Riverside Inn do BOGOF could look into that
• Julia asked Churches Together if they would be willing to do an event like Songs of Praise and give to Oxfam instead of Christian Aid – not possible
• Beth’s choir have offered to do something in the day in October to help raise money
• A lady Ian and Julia know may be able to help – part of a choir, they may be able to do something.

Action:

• Julia and Ian to phone The Riverside Inn and see what night they would be able to offer (thinking about 20 people) and what deals they could do.

Events

• Tagging onto fetes – summery, would mean we would have a captive audience already there, could have a stall
• Selling ‘Oxcan Fair Trade Tea’. We could decide on the name of it, would be supporting local communities. Would need to decide where to sell it –local Oxfam charity shops?
• Thunder Sprint (May 8^th) too late this year. Next year? Could have a fundraising stall with games and inof
• Strongest Man? Could we get anything there? We’d have a captive audience.
• Carboot sales – proceeds go to Oxfam
• Picnics/Medieval Dinner and Acts – would be more difficult to execute. Elements are there but we’d have to see if we had the market
• Do we want another speakers event? What do we want to find out?
• WI often like Oxfam speakers, look for other people/groups who would be keen in supporting more international charities

Action:

• Heather to get a list of speakers for the area
• Beth to contact Jane from Groundwork
• Lizzie to find out if we could use Sir John Deans, do we have any contacts there?

Oxfam Events

• ‘The Big Zoom’. Aimed at children under 5 and parents. Asking for sponsored event of a zoom on a trike, pram, bike and
• We could approach local schools – Oxfam would provide leafets to handout
• More nurseries etc where we can get involved the better
• Aimed at under 5 but could be older
• Info on Oxfam website
• If we can get anyone, it would count as an Oxcan success!

Action: Lizzie to check with some local schools, family etc. It would be at the end of June

AOB: Next meeting Monday 6^th June 2011 Kingfisher, Northwic

Meeting minutes

I was thinking that we can add the minutes of our meetings to this blog so that everybody can see what we are planning. Hope that is ok with everbody. First minutes below from the meeting on the 21st March below.

Present: Ian, Beth, Julia, Harriet, Chris, Lizzi
Apologies. Gwili and Pat

Introductions

Beth was a member of the former Oxcan group and is an artist.
Harriet explained her role in the group and said that she is to be replaced soon due to maternity leave by Heather. Harriet will be back in January.
Julia introduced herself and her skills in sowing and as an organiser of other events for Northwich Churches together.
Ian explained that he has been involved with a previous Oxfam group, plays in a jazz band and is an inventor.
Lizzi has recently graduated in education studies and hopes to go into international development work.
Chris is an aviation consultant and wishes to pass some of his good frtune on to those less fortunate. He raised the concern about how much money gets through to those in need and Harriet told us that 81p in ever pound goes direct to the project and the rest is used to keep Oxfam sustainable.

Harriet explained that Oxfam in trying to involved local communities in setting up groups in an effort to make fund-raising more sustainable and give people the opportunity to give time rather then money.

Harriet asked the group to consider if they would like an oxfam speaker ever so often to find out more about oxfam.

Action: All to decide how many speakers we would like a year and what in particular would interest us.

Ideas

The group explored the following ideas:

1. Creating their own fair tea brand to sell ( Beth can find out about this through Northern Tea on 01246 232 600 if the group are interested)
2. Christmas carol singing
3. Tagging onto summer fates
4. Tagging onto events like Thudersprint and the strongest man contest
5. Going for a 2 for 1 meal but paying for both meals and extra goes to Oxfam (Action:Julia agreed to see if this was possible at a local Northwich restaurant)
6. Getting Sir John Deans College involved
7. Sports days and picnics for children maybe and Marbury Park
8. Medieval event with spinners, re-en actors and music
9. The Big zoom which Oxfam are rolling out for young children.
10. A Halloween event
11. A sponsored walk
12. Poverty challenge where you get sponsored to do something which a person in poverty does e.g. living without energy. Oxfam run this in October/November.

Action- all present to look at this list and vote on which 2 they would like to move forward on before 16th April 2011. We can then discuss this at the next meeting.

Next Meeting: Monday 18th April. 7.30pm the Kingfisher pub. Please e mail Beth if you have not already contacted us but wish to attend bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com

Oxfam info night

Big thanks go to Harriet and Hannah from Oxfam Northwest for all their hard work in organising an Oxfam info night at Castle Methodist Church Last night. There were around 20 people there and great feedback on the night. A talk from Tracy Woods on her trip to Cambodia to meet those benefiting from Oxfam's work was really interesting and reminded me why we bother to fund raise or give money to Oxfam. Its not about charity its about equity, making the world fairer, realising the privileged relatively just position we have been born into and sharing some of that good fortune in the best way we can. Rather than seeing charities as a the bane of our life we could readjust our thinking to see them for what they really are, an example of our ability to choose and vehicles to redirect our wealth and help us be better people. Tracy mentioned that the work of Oxfam is about giving people choice. The whole family eating enough to stay alive or you getting medical help for one of your sick children shouldn't really have to be a choice in a world where I am making choices about more shoes and handbags. Tonight I go to a completely different event in a gallery and "shopping destination". The organisers assure us that the hoy poloy will be there, including some footballers wives. I shall try and keep my cynicism under wraps.