Parks and Greenspace Survey

Readers with an interest in Edinburgh's parks might be interested to fill in a questionnaire that City of Edinburgh Council have on their website, which says:

"Parks are special places – green oases in our city. They are places where you can escape the hustle and bustle of daily life, exercise, watch wildlife or simply relax.

We want to know what you think about your local park or greenspace in Edinburgh. Is it a wildlife haven or a waste ground? Do you love it or loathe it? Is it litter-strewn or is it litter free?

Respondents will be entered into a prize draw to win high street vouchers and spending sprees at the Council's Inch Nursery plant sale."

Meadows Festival Association

The Meadows Festival Association is looking for volunteers to help with various activities at the forthcoming festival on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th June 2008. Please access their site below to see if you would like to volunteer. Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Meadows Festival Association

Meadows Festival Map

Here's a map of a previous year's Meadows Festival:

Meadows Festival Minutes

There was a meeting to discuss the future of the Meadows Festival tonight at Cameron Rose's house. This is a very brief set of minutes.

Please, if you are reading this blog and have some ideas for the festival, add a comment to this post.

Next Meeting
Tuesday, 19^th June, 2007 from 19:00 at Cameron's house.

Action Items
The following steps will be taken to further the project:

1. Andy - To further investigate the Meadows Festival Association to get budgets and details of anything that might be lurking there
2. Hugh - To get permission from the MSCC to be the legally responsible entity in the planning stages
3. Cameron - To begin discussions with potential sponsors
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Bank of Scotland
• Quartermile
• Sick Kids fundraisers
• Fairground
4. Hugh - To invite other councils to the next meeting
   

Attendees

• Cameron Rose (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)
• Hugh Leather (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)
• Linda Hendry (Southside Community Council)
  
• Susanna Lacey (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)

Apologies

• Andy Devenport (Tollcross Community Council)
  
• Justine Stansfield (Southside Community Council)

Evening News
Cameron recounted his interview with the Evening News. The article can be found here. Cameron indicated that some of comments may have been taken out of context on a slow news day.

Meetings with Potential Sponsors
Cameron has arranged a meeting with the Sick Kids tomorrow.

Other Festivals
The group discussed other festivals:

• Linda - Visited Japan Day which was let down by weather and lack of catering
• Susanna - Reported on open air theatre groups.
  
• She has spoken to Grid Iron who do children's interactive theatre. They are funded by the banks and are interested in the festival. She also
  
• She spoke of the National Theatre of Scotland who do adult theatre

Proposals for the Festival Format
Linda:
Proposed that the festival format be identical to previous years'. That entails:
10am-6pm
Football competition
Craigmillar fun fair
Strolling players
Beer tent
Stalls and food

Susanna:
Proposed that the festival include open air theatre, possibly Shakespeare and classical music.
Linda was concerned that the fair and the rock music might interfere.
Cameron suggested that ClassicFM might do a road show.

Cameron:
Felt it was too early to decide the form of the festival

Hugh:
Presented an idea to have a Sick Kids festival. A fun run would raise money for the charity. The kids theme would be central. The festival would be much smaller, only one triangle of the Meadows to make it seem less straggly if there is medium turnout.
Linda was concerned that the fun fair needed more space.
Linda was concerned that adults would be worried about being seen as paedophiles at a child-only theme.
Linda felt that if there was a fun run participants would go home directly afterwards.

Decision:
A format for the festival was decided to be identical to the previous years', possibly with bolt on extras like small theatre.

Miscellaneous
Antonia Dickson may keep a list of volunteers.
Linda will provide a poster to Antonia.

Meadows Festival Minutes

Susanna Lacey contributed these minutes:

Meadows Festival meeting Wed 4th April 2007 at 7pm Cameron Rose House
Cameron, Linda and Susanna. Apologies Justine, Hugh.
We discussed benefits of social/community event rather than commercial
enterprise.
Steve Kent of Edinburgh Voluntary Organisation Council (EVOC) was mentioned.
Again discussed Community Council to take on insurance to save expense.

Andy and Cameron have had internal discussions regarding Tollcross
Community Council. Details of which cannot be given out.

The organiser of Middle East Peace festival is interested in being
involved. He has a big bank of Scottish event groups to draw on. Linda
has contact details for him. This would show community and multicultural
involvement.

Meadows Festival Minutes

There was a meeting to discuss the future of the Meadows Festival tonight at Cameron Rose's house. This is a very brief set of minutes (I may miss a good deal since I wasn't thinking about taking proper minutes at the time - at least the action items should be present).

Please, if you are reading this blog and have some ideas for the festival, add a comment to this post.

Next Meeting
Wednesday, 4^th April, 2007 from 19:30 at Cameron's house.

Action Items
The following steps will be taken to further the project:

1. All - To visit any festivals that come up to report on them
2. All - To prepare different proposals about the form the festival might take
   
3. Andy - To further investigate the Meadows Festival Association to get budgets and details of anything that might be lurking there
4. Cameron - To get permission from the MSCC to be the legally responsible entity in the planning stages
5. Cameron - To begin discussions with potential sponsors
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Bank of Scotland
• Quartermile
• Sick Kids fundraisers
• Fairground
6. Cameron - To invite other councils to the next meeting
   

Attendees

• Andy Devenport (Tollcross Community Council)
  
• Cameron Rose (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)
• Hugh Leather (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)
• Justine Stansfield (Southside Community Council)
• Linda Hendry (Southside Community Council)
  
• Susannah Lacey (Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council)

Introduction
The group was informed of the previous meeting of the MSCC at which the status of the Meadows Festival was discussed. The MSCC was keen to continue the investigations of the festival. Peng Lee Yapp has withdrawn from the project, it is not clear if this means that the Friends of the Meadows wishes no longer to be involved. The group very much appreciated Peng's contributions and will miss his input.

The motivation for the project is to have a community event; possibly this may be different from the previous ethos.

The timeframe for holding the festival in 2007 is already passed and so all work is for a festival in 2008.

Legal Issues and Responsibility
We discussed the need to have a legal entity that will be responsible for the festival. There may be some issues further down the line in creating a legal entity to front the festival. However, we decided that as a matter of expediency, the MSCC would be asked to be the legally responsible entity where such is necessary for any parts of the initial period, only. This will not mean that the MSCC will be bound to be the responsible entity for the duration of the festival project.

Dates
It was noted that the previous festivals were always held on the first weekend in June.

Public Meetings and Involvement
The question of when and how the greater public should be involved was a topic of some debate. Options include holding public meetings, questionnaires, advertising in the local newspapers and speaking to local councils.

It was decided that going to the public would wait until a list of options for potential different ways to hold the festival has been drawn up by the steering committee.

Meadows Festival Association
The status of the existing charity is uncertain. It may be that they will hold on to the name. It is possible that the accounts for 2006 and 2007 have not and will not be returned.

This gave rise to thoughts about the name of the project. It may be necessary to alter the name to avoid conflicts with the existing organisation.

Further investigations were felt needed to ensure that no hidden pitfalls await due to the status of the existing charity.

Form of the Festival
Different parties had different opinions about the form of the festival. It was decided that it was important to have a number of possibilities so that further discussions could be based on concrete proposals and so that we can clarify that we are all talking about the same thing.

We will attempt to gather a small number of proposed festival ideas for next meeting. The ideas may come from other events run throughout the city or simply from the imagination.