PCEG AGM 2016 Annual Report This has been one of PCEG’s most productive years, with the undertaking of Workhouse Wood – our third major project and much else besides. Our membership numbers have remained more or less stable. The number of people doing the hands-on work seems about the same, and it just isn’t enough to cope even with the ever-increasing tide of litter that despoils our green spaces and our streets. I would very much like to see a wider demographic and more young people. There has been much interest in what we have been doing this year, but that hasn’t translated into new memberships. I have put a proposal before this meeting to re-brand ourselves as a more friendly offering, and I hope that will make a difference. I hope members agree that The Star is a good venue for our meetings. There is no charge for the use of this room, and we can have a friendly drink afterwards. The meetings are also well-timed for a Sunday lunch beforehand. The more we make use of the pub, I feel, the more we will continue to be welcome here. In the survey I conducted it would appear that Sunday afternoons is by far the best option for our meetings. Management Committee I should start by thanking our committee for their loyal diligence. Bob Carlisle is tirelessly efficient in his management of our accounts. He and Patience will be transferring their centre of gravity to the Kent coast very soon and we will have to find another way to manage our accounts. I think we can lighten the Treasurer’s load considerably by transferring the management of membership, members and their subscriptions to the Membership Secretary. That will be in the Membership Secretary brief for the coming year, and must note we will need to recruit a new Treasurer in the near future. Jess Currie has come to the reluctant decision that her commitments elsewhere mean she cannot give the time to the group that being a Vice Chair demands. I thank her for her support in the past. We now have a vacancy for that management committee post. It basically involves general support for me as Chair, and for the group as a whole. I would expect a Vice Chair to come up with ideas and projects that help to pursue our aims and objectives. Assistance with fundraising and administration tasks would be most welcome. Maria Kaustrater has had a very pressured time at work this year and has, nevertheless, efficiently handled the task of Secretary to our group. I thank her for that. Sandy and Eileen Paterson have continued to manage our membership database, and I thank them, too. Membership and communications In the new year I will be starting a membership drive. I would like to thank the 35 members who completed the members’ survey I sent out earlier this year. I sent it to 94 members, so the response was, in itself, somewhat disappointing and may be a reflection of the true degree of commitment in the membership. There were some interesting remarks that I will be responding to. Some less useful things like: “can you tell me if any members live near me?” – without any indication of where that member lived! PCEG Annual Report (Vers 2.1) – Page 2 Time is clearly the big factor when it comes to volunteering. The most people that regularly volunteer in any one activity is 5. I did a survey of parks friends groups in Greenwich and our hands-on numbers are comparatively low with so much competition for people’s time. Interestingly, time for the family was a big factor – so we need to make it clearer that what we do could easily be a fun family activity. I hope a re- branding will help with that. In fact 9 people said they wanted to do more volunteering – that could double the hands-on numbers we have. I’ll be looking at that. Interestingly, 13 respondents said they have either never visited, or very rarely visit, the nature reserve. Clearly, in the summer we should be organising community events in the reserve. With regard to communication with members, the survey showed that the best way is clearly through the Yahoo group and emailed news updates. People seem to like the news updates. They go to 33 “interested parties” as well. Only 12 of my survey respondents are on Facebook and even fewer, 7, use Twitter. But I continue to use both these social mediums because they appeal to the demographic I am trying to attract. One of my corporate clients this year has been a charity fund-raising consultant. She told me our web site was impossibly dull, so I have been trying to make it a bit friendlier and folksy. I was very sorry to hear about Marcia Whittard’s illness. I took, on behalf of the group, a large bunch of flowers to the hospice together with a note from us all wishing her well in what is clearly an extremely difficult time. Awards We were awarded no less than three Green Flag awards this year, adding Workhouse Wood to The Slade Ponds and Plumstead Common Nature Reserve. The judging was tough this year and we have been given quite a list of tasks to accomplish, not least of which is an updating of the management plans for each site. I have on my endless To-Do list a meeting with Parks Management to get advice and help with a considerable number of tasks. One of these, for instance, is reduction in the canopy at the western end of the pond that may give the reeds a better chance. You may know that I received a Royal Greenwich Civic Award for contribution to the community. I was a runner-up in the GLA Community Volunteer of the Year Award this year. I think the reason I didn’t actually win is that the number of members of the community we actually directly engage with was less than the winner. That is something I should fix in the coming year with some activities. I hope that Workhouse Wood will be a spur to this. Events Our presence at the Plumstead Make Merry is much diminished now, as you can see from our receipts. In 2017 we will need someone to take on the role of organising our stand. We did a splendid job on the litter- picking, and I am very grateful to the members who helped with that, I attended the Great Get Together at Woolwich Barracks field. It was a waste of time! Plumstead Live! was a great success. It was a shorter programme this year because costs are rising and the grant remains the same. Perhaps next year we can extend the event into the evening by having local bands that will play as a showcase. I am grateful to the members who helped steward it. Many people said that publicity was poor. Numbers attending were slightly disappointing, but it was a beautiful day, and the music was great. We did lose continuity by not having an event last year. I posted several times on Plumstead PCEG Annual Report (Vers 2.1) – Page 3 People Facebook, and we sent out thousands of leaflets with Greenwich Time — but I think that fewer of them than planned was delivered. Next year I think we may return to leafletting ourselves. We had a Boxing Day Mulled Wine gathering at Workhouse Wood which was attended by about ten people, I think. We may think it a good idea to make this a regular event. We also had our usual Christmas gathering in The Star pub, which was well attended by the usual stalwarts. I did two guided tours of Workhouse Wood and Plumstead Common Nature Reserve for Plumstravaganza. Both were well attended. We had eight Capital Clean-Up sessions in which a massive amount of litter was cleared from places we don’t normally care for. One of our sessions was all around the Pettman Crescent bus garage, which I have been trying to get the council to deal with for a very long time. (The site meeting I had with councillors and officers had produced no noticeable results.) Macdonalds joined us in the venture, the area was vastly improved and it will be much easier now for the regular Macdonalds litter-picks to keep on to top of it. We had another major clean-up in the Plumstead Road/Pettman Crescent area with Macdonalds and completely cleared the verge near the bus driver change-over stop, collecting over thirty sacks of litter. The sessions were generally not well attended by members. Perhaps a member will take on co-ordination of a few major clean-up events in the coming year, and help to spread the load. We participated in an Environment Champion clean-up day earlier in the year on Woolwich Common with a bunch of our CWP volunteers. We found some excellent wooden posts which the council people declined to transport to Workhouse Wood for us, so I resigned my Environment Championship is a hissy fit. The result was a personal contact with a Street Cleaning manager and an ongoing very cooperative problem-solving relationship. Funding We received a Team London grant of £484 for our Capital Clean-Up efforts. We also got a whole load of equipment such as pickers, hoops and gloves from them. We spent most of the money on building a shed for storing our ever increasing amount of equipment that we were falling over in our house.