Page 5 - ALG Issue 4 2018

chairman’s comments
Welcome to ALG 4, the last magazine of 2018.
I am writing these notes shortly before the September Management Committee Meeting; this meeting is different as it will be held at Hothorpe Hall, near Market Harborough, not in Corby. The reason is twofold:
A meeting is held annually to which members of Staff, Regional Representatives and Mentors are all invited. This is the only time apart from the Annual General Meeting when all three arms of the Society come together.
These training / networking / information sessions originated when the Mentors were nothing to do with the National Allotment Society but were a separate entity known as the Allotments Regeneration Initiative (ARI), sponsored by the Esmee Fairburn Foundation. Back in 2011 it was decided that the organisation had reached its aims and the ARI project finished and the Mentor group was to be disbanded. However, it was agreed by the current Management Committee that the Mentors and the work they did was far too valuable to be lost, so the NAS took those that wished to move, to work under our umbrella in a similar capacity; many are still Mentors today. During the process of integration, it was decided that the Annual Mentors Meeting should be continued, albeit in a different form, and should now also include Regional Representatives, along with members of Staff. There was
a need for further integration, helping the two teams to bond, and a way of giving regular training and updating current skills.
Last year it was decided that due to timing, location and economics the Management Committee Meeting should be held at the beginning of the Hothorpe Meeting. This proved to be successful and is being repeated this year.
The full Hothorpe Meeting this year will consist of three outside speakers and the preparation work for our Strategic Plan for
2019 – 2023. This will consider such wide-ranging things as the examination of our Mission Statement and its continuing suitability,
design and organisation of future allotment sites, and probably the most important is the considerable amount of work that must be done on our next Five-Year Plan. With the experience gained whilst working on the 2013 plan we should be able to arrive at a position where we know what we would like to achieve, what could probably be achieved, and a timescale to work to. Whatever the outcome,
it will certainly mean a lot of work for many people; this is one of those unseen unheard-of exercises that the majority of members know nothing about but the work has to be done, mostly by a group of volunteers, just like you, a group of gardeners who wish to see the NAS succeed and continue for future generations of allotment gardeners. I would like to thank all of you who completed our recent survey during National Allotments Week; these responses are vital during an exercise of this kind.
With a complete change of tack, I hope you have all received your copy of Kings Seeds catalogue, and if you are a secretary I hope
you have made sure that all your members have theirs. At a recent meeting I was asked why Kings continued with their section on sundries. It reminded me of the meeting when Les Day of Kings was asked the same question. He replied that he lived about twenty miles away from his nearest garden centre; if he required a new watering can or had to replace a sprayer he was faced with a time-consuming journey, not to mention the cost involved. It was much easier, and when everything was taken into account, not too expensive, a definite boon to quite a number of gardeners. Of course, for the rest of us simply browsing through the catalogue can occupy a few otherwise miserable evenings.
Thank you for bearing with me and looking forward to next year's weather. One thing is for sure it will be different to this year's as always.
Best regards,
Tony Heeson, Chairman
Head Office
president’s scribblings
Well, what interesting weather we are having. I expect, like me, you have had some crops that have done extremely well. I have tried unsuccessfully to grow aubergines for some years now, but, wow, this year was a great success and yet early raspberries were small and dry. I don’t have time to water such crops.
It has also been an interesting time since the last magazine, in which I managed to make a mention of my last-minute trip to give a brief presentation at the House of Commons. It was a very useful visit and we made quite an impression, a thing I hope we can repeat in the future to highlight our concerns and keep MPs aware of our beneficial pastime and also our concerns.
Following that event, on behalf of my local Federation in Leeds, I was pleased to receive a certificate from the Lord Mayor of Leeds for the contribution the Federation makes to the citizens and communities of Leeds; it was presented at a Volunteers in the Community Event in the Leeds Civic Hall.
The new schools allotment competition got off to a good start. It was good to be a judge on this panel as it gave an insight into the good work going on in schools. All entries were excellent but the winners, Blidworth Oaks Primary School, were outstanding and ticked all the right criteria.
Our Allotments site held its Summer BBQ and its own surprise presentation (see story in Yorkshire section).
I loaned my promotional materials to the Huddersfield Federation who have just recently taken on the management of the Huddersfield Flower Show. If you need promotional material for an event I am sure most representatives and mentors will loan some out if needs be or even attend; a list of NAS show awards and exhibit cards, rosettes and certificates is available from Head Office and the membership area of the website.
National Allotments Week has really taken off this year. Started in 2002 by the NAS to increase awareness of allotments, this year has been exceptionally good mainly due to the efforts of Di Appleyard, our Mentor, Marketing and PR Co-ordinator. As a result, I was invited to talk on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show about the week and the multitude of benefits deriving from allotments. Talk Radio wanted
me to provide an interview between 1am and 5am. I declined, but recorded an interview for them just before midnight.
The real radio extravaganza started the following day with a session on Radio Leeds in their studio at 8.30am followed by 14 x 8-minute interviews with local radio stations around the country between 10am and 12.15pm. Kent missed out but we did one for them on the phone the following Sunday.
There was an interesting meeting with the International Office on the subject of Urban Planning. I was only too pleased the presenter was from the national planning office of Belgium and not the UK as all of their proposals were for short-term gardens and were simply referred to as community gardens, which I promptly pulled him up about.
I am pleased to say I was able to collect an International Office Diploma whilst in Kortrijk, in recognition of the Innovative Projects on Swinbrook Road Allotments, Carterton, West Oxfordshire; a presentation of their Diploma will follow soon. The criteria for entry are on the website. We already have two applications for this
year’s Diplomas. I am sure there are other sites in the UK worthy of recognition. We already have two sites on the International Good Sites Guide with another possible entry in the NW. If you have an interesting or exceptionally well-run site, contact your Regional Representative or myself; you may be eligible for entry for a Diploma or entry onto the International Good Sites Guide.
We have a visit from Holland going on at the moment in London looking at management structures of allotments, and I have interest from a group in Sweden who would like to visit the UK shortly, again to look at management systems.
Finally, I have received some more complaints, mainly to do with personality clashes. Please could site committees please ensure you have a good set of site rules and procedures in place. It would avoid all this conflict and waste of volunteer’s time and bad feeling. There is no excuse; we have example documentation available by email and once in place would eliminate many petty and more serious incidents. Looking forward to an even more positive future for our beloved allotments. Happy Gardening.
Phil Gomersall
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