May 2008 Area Committee Meeting

Perhaps the most important duty of the Co-operative Group Cambridge and East Anglia Area Committee for the May meeting was to comment on the recommendations of the Group Board concerning the constitutional review. I have already covered this is some depth, so I will very briefly summarise this part of the meeting as being broadly supportive of the proposals, with some concern expressed regarding the mix of lay and professional directors on the CFS board (and to a lesser extent the other subordinate boards). You can watch the presentation of the recommendations to the national Group AGM here.

We also discussed the recent regional AGM held in Kettering. I think that the prevailing view was that it had gone well, with the workshops in the morning being particularly useful.

Our discussion of trading matters concentrated on our food shops in the area, with a local Operations Manager talking to us about overall financial performance so far in 2008, plans to rebrand shops, and a discussion about those shops that are felt to be currently underperforming. The Ops Manager also talked about plastic bags. These have now been banned at our Girton store as part of a village campaign. Our other stores will gradually become a bit more responsible about plastic bags. The idea is that after roll-out, plastic bags will be kept behind the counter rather than in piles out front, and there will be lots of publicity about alternatives (including our Fairtrade unbleached cotton bag of course)!

We then had our update from Ranjit, our Co-operative Affairs Officer, concerning all the membership activities that had gone on. Our "What's in a Name" event had had very god feedback from our members - but sadly it wasn't booked to capacity. The part of the day that had seen a visit to the Daily Bread worker Co-op was particularly well received. Forthcoming events include Strawberry Fair, the Royal Norfolk Show and the Folk Festival.

We then allocated our Community Fund cash to local charities and community projects. We had a huge number of applicants, and we were able to support six of them to a total amount of £3,150. More details on these soon.

Finally, we had reports from the Regional Board and the regional Values and Principles committee. In the minutes of the Board, I noticed that the question that I had suggested for the AGM regarding the Mosquito child deterrent devices had been withdrawn - an answer had been found informally through the membership team (we are assured that the Co-operative Group does *not* have any. Any previous devices that existed have been replaced with our speakers that play classical music. Making an area uncool to loiter in by playing Mozart is, IMHO, fair enough. Using a brain-curdling high pitched noise is not!