CAG Welcome to the new finiancial year!

Note especially the training dates at the end of this email. Is anyone else interested in the "Carbon Conversation" training? It sounds so good.


Hello

As we start the new financial year, the following email is contains details of this year’s grants, CAG events and other information you will find useful. Please take the time to have a read through and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need anything clarified.

We are really looking forward to working with you in the coming year.

With best wishes

Simon

CAG Project Manager





Maintenance Grant

For those of you who have already completed your accounts – thank you! We appreciate the time taken to put these together and it has really helped us to produce our final reports. If you have yet to send us a copy of your accounts, please do so as soon as possible as we are unable to release any further grants to groups that have not done this. There are guidance notes on putting your accounts together in the CAG Toolkit, downloadable from the members’ page of the website. Please let me have copies of everything by Friday 30th April.



This year’s maintenance grant is £250 and can be used for the day to day running of your group; room and van hire, photocopying, etc. Please remember to keep a copy of all your receipts. For future reference, the CAG financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March. You can download any of our grant application forms from the member’s area of the website.





Special Projects Fund

The maximum application to the special projects fund is £500 per annum. This doesn’t mean you have to limit your projects to £500 – there are plenty of potential funding bodies out there and we can help you put together an application. Please contact us for further details.





Insurance

Your group is eligible for subsidised insurance to ensure that your projects, volunteers and the members of the public attending events are covered. This is an umbrella policy that means it is much more cost effective for each CAG. As last year, unless you inform us otherwise, the CAG contribution of £50 is automatically taken from your annual maintenance grant.



If, for any reason, you are unsure as to whether you need insurance, or whether your group’s activities are adequately covered, please contact us. If you already have your own insurance policy, please let us have a copy of your cover note.



We will send you a copy of the insurance document when you apply for your annual grant. If you have any further questions relating to the policy, activities insured, etc., please do not hesitate to contact the CAG Network officers.





Website

Please could you take the time to review your page on the CAG website and check that it says what you want it to. It’s always good to update the page with new photos and text to keep it fresh for those visiting the site. Remember that this is often the first impression a local resident may have of you. Send any content to Frances Buckel by replying to this email and also please inform her if you would like your public contact details changing in the newsletter. You can download the last version from the website.





Training, Visits and Networking

So far this year we have planned the following future events:



Wed 26th May Introduction to Defra’s ‘ZERO WASTE PLACE’ standard:

A short evening on how to apply for this UK best standard & associated funding. Features presentation from BREW / WRAPand case studies / Q&A sessions from Dorchester Carbon and other UK projects.



June (date TBC) Visit to Ardely In-Vessel Composting facility:

A chance to visit and find out more about the facility that will be treating a large proportion of Oxfordshire’s food waste collections.



Sat 10th / Sun 11th July ‘Carbon Coversations’ facilitator training:

A full weekend of training on how to run these courses in your local area. Cited by the Guardian as one of the top 20 solutions to climate change.



September (date TBC) PAT testing training:

By popular demand, a repeat of last year’s event to train groups on how to test small electrical items for re-use


November (date TBC) Successful marketing for community groups:

How to maximise your impact on local people and how to engage them on climate change by drawing on what’s important to them.



November (date TBC) Big Climate Event 2:

Following on from the success for last year’s event, we will be working with Climate Xchange and Oxfordshire Rural Communities Council to run another day of networking and skills sharing.

More details of these events nearer the time but please inform your members and make a note of the dates in your diaries.


We will also be facilitating an annual meeting between yourselves and your local District Councils, thereby giving you the opportunity to discuss aims and objectives and to highlight areas in which you would like more help. We hope this will also help the DCs to fully understand the needs of the local community.



Simon Kenton | CAG Project Manager