| Thomas Acton | Present |
| Colin Clark | Present |
| Brian Foster | Present |
| Valdemar Kalinin | Apologies |
| Hazel Marsh | Apologies |
| Sue Mutter | Present |
| Lisa Smith | Present |
| Siobhan Spencer | Apologies |
| Anne Walker | Present |
| Margaret Wood | Present |
| Candace Thomas | Present |
Agenda
- Apologies
- Minutes of previous Meeting
- Matters Arising
- Social Media
- Education Network meeting
- Conference 2024/Location/Write Into Culture
- AGM
- Finance Update
- AOB
Education Network meeting
Discussion
Davie Donaldson has agreed to attend.
Pauline Duncan and Maureen Finn of STEP have also agreed but need reminding.
Action
Margaret to check with STEP
Annual General Meeting
9th November 2023 5:00 – 5:30pm
Brian to circulate in newsletter
Conference 2024
Discussion
The theme of Intergenerational Learning emerged from our discussions.
Dee Cooper is a published writer and activist from Surrey. She runs an online women’s writing group with Lisa Smith. Her daughter Dolly is one of the participants and could be asked to perform the monologue she has written. Her son Levi Cooper is a medical doctor doing a PhD in medical science.
Billy Welch organises Appleby Fair and his son Johnson is a Romani activist who participates in community grassroots action in the UK as well as working with international Romani initiatives such as TernYpe and Dikh He Na Bister (Look and don’t forget), the project commemorating the Roma Genocide.
Three generations of Rose Wilson’s extended family have maintained a commitment to education.
Intergenerational learning and lifelong education. Education across the generations. Youth conference
We might also approach, Brigid Philipson, Labour Education lead, Vix Lowthion Green Party Lifelong Education and/or Ria Patel their Equalities and Diversity spokesperson. [Leyla Moran is the Lib Dem Education spokesperson and her constituency is Oxford East and Abingdon]
Thomas Acton and Richard O’Neil are planning the publication of a bilingual book on the Romani novelist, storyteller and pastor, Matéo Maximoff and would welcome opportunity to talk about him.
Action
Anne to follow up on Maria Faraone
Margaret to contact the National Education Union (Daniel Kebede or Dominic Byrne) to ask if they would be interested hosting the conference in London or contributing to it.
Hybrid (perhaps done by us)
Social Media
Discussion
ACERT’s social media sub-committee (Lisa, Brian, Colin and Anne) met on 29-08-23 to discuss what kind of social media presence the charity requires.
Facebook is more likely to reach older people whereas younger people are more likely to use Instagram.
In addition to helping ACERT publicise our work to community members, to potential funders, education professionals, the media/local councils/government etc.
Federica Pignoloni, made a presentation to the last ACERT EC meeting of how she might use social media posts to develop awareness of the organisation. The EC asked the sub-committee to explore how we might synchronise our social media policy with the current priorities of ACERT. The subcommittee agreed that we should accept the beneficial offer made by Federica to produce two posts each week for 6 month for a fee of £600 but should ask that she modify the focus as follows:
- We develop content for the Facebook page to target parents with information relating to education
- We open an ACERT Instagram account and use this to target young people with content from community role models and education success stories. The Instagram page will also promote a writing competition with topics and tips to improve writing and publication in Traveller Times as a prize.
Lisa will meet with Federica each week to organise the posts. It is hoped that by monitoring the projects we will be able to write a social media plan including future funding and greater community involvement.
Action
Agreed:
- a renewed and more visible social media presence for ACERT is needed
- to implement a new social media strategy for 6 months, from October 1 2023, with a review after 2 months to ensure the strategy is working.
- Lisa to meet Federica to discuss whether our proposal is acceptable to her and organise a schedule of planning meetings.
- The social media sub-committee will review the project delivery and consider where to go at the end of the 6 month period
Finance
| CAFBank | £10,409 |
| PayPal | £854.oo |
| Total | £11,263 |
AOB
Discussion
Hazel Marsh reported that the Gypsy and Traveller Voices in UK Music Archives project is about to enter its next phase in which ACERT will have a role. Dr Esbjorn Wettermark, will be in touch soon.
Action
Noted
Next EC meeting
14th October 2023 at 5:00pm
