Annual Report 2002/03


	Documents Index

Formation of the Convivium

This report covers the period from September 2002 to December 2003.

Five Slow Food members met on 1st September 2002 and signed the Protocol required to form the convivium. John Fleming was elected convivium leader at this meeting. The convivium application was subsequently approved by Slow Food International and a Slow Food stand was set up at the 2002 Ludlow Marches Food & Drink Festival on 13-15 September which received much interest and resulted in several new members and a lot of serious enquiries. An inaugural meeting of the convivium took place at the Bull Hotel, Ludlow, on 4th November. More than 40 people attended, more than half of whom had already joined Slow Food or joined on the evening. We discussed the plans for the convivium, and tasted and compared four hand-made cheeses from the Marches and four different kinds of local bread, together with Italian wine. Lesley Mackley demonstrated how to make a fondue, and Alison Cundall outlined the progress of 'Living Ludlow' or Città Slow.
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Committee and constitution

A steering committee was formed by the founding members, who invited any other interested members to join. During the period from September 2002 until the first annual general meeting, the following members have attended most of the committee meetings:
Sue Chantler, Alison Cundall, John Fleming, Rosemarie Fleming, Graeme Kidd, Lesley Mackley, Phil Maile, Alex Perks, Graeme Perks, Rosemary Smith, Peter Vale. Other members have attended occasional meetings.

Allocation of responsibilities: The committee made the following appointments for the period up until the AGM: Assistant leader - Rosemary Smith; Treasurer - Alex Perks; Publicity/PR - Graeme Kidd; Funding - Graeme Perks; Slow Cities/Living Ludlow representative: Alison Cundall; Education - Graeme Perks.

The committee met on 12 occasions between October 2002 and November 2003. Matters dealt with included the administration and finances of the convivium, planning events, discussing possible educational activities, considering potential Ark and Presidia proposals, and discussing Slow Food policies and proposals both locally, in the UK and internationally.

The convivium leader and the convivium are required to hold an annual meeting and to hold a minimum of three events annually. The convivium must act according to the rules and in adherence with the values endorsed by the Slow Food International Statute and in accordance with the Protocol. An extract from the International Statute is enclosed with the AGM agenda. Copies of the full documents are available to members on request.

We are being advised to adopt a formal constitution - full details and background information about this are being circulated to all convivium members as a separate document.
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Events and activities

Our general events policy was stated in the convivium newsletter sent to members at the end of December 2002. We have tried to hold a reasonably wide variety of events, after consulting members as to their preferences. We have also tried to use a variety of convenient locations in different parts of Shropshire. Other events proposed by various members, and including locations in Herefordshire and Worcestershire have not been forgotten and we hope to cover as many of these as practicable during 2004. The following events were organised by the convivium during the period:

4th November 2002: 'Bread, cheese and wine' inaugural meeting at the Bull Hotel

26th January 2003: 'Tall Tales and Slow Food' dinner held at the Old School House, Burwarton, organised by Rosemary Smith

13th March 2003: Sausages and Mash evening at the Bull Hotel, organised by Graeme Kidd and Sally Maile

16th May 2003: Chris Woodward's Demonstration Dinner (taramasalata, skate, and more) at Hopton Court, organised by Rosemarie Fleming and Chris and Sarah Woodward

5th July 2003: Slow Food stand at the Green Festival in Shrewsbury, organised by Lesley and Ken Bird

12th July 2003: Slow Food Safari, touring places of food interest throughout south Shropshire and finishing at Hobsons Brewery, organised by Peter Vale

25th July 2003: Tour and tasting at Wroxeter Roman Vineyard, organised by Lesley and Ken Bird. Cheese for tasting donated by Appleyards, Shrewsbury.

9th August 2003: Slow Food Fair at Tanners Wine Merchants, Shrewsbury, at which eight quality local food producers had stands; the Slow Food stand gave out many samples of Cheddar donated by Appleyards of Shrewsbury and a variety of interesting bread donated by T. O. Williams of Wem that had been made with organic wholemeal flour from Pimhill Farm; much interest was shown by potential members. Organised by Lesley and Ken Bird

11 September 2003: Wendy Fogarty gave a presentation abou the Ark and Presidia as part of the Real Food and Drink Conference, held on the eve of the Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival.

12-14 September 2003: Slow Food stand at Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival attracted huge interest from the visitors to the festival. Many useful contacts were made from all over the UK, publications were sold and new members joined. Organised by Rosemary Smith, we were grateful for essential help manning the stall from members of other convivia - Michèle Barlow and her team from Manchester convivium, Arthur Cunynghame from Chipping Camden, and Wendy Fogarty from London, as well as several members of our own convivium. Several of our committee members are very actively involved in the running of the Festival, which limits their availability for Slow Food activities during this hectic weekend.

12th September 2003: Rare-breed Pork and Perry taste workshop at the Feathers Hotel, Ludlow. Held as part of the Food and Drink Festival. Expert speakers: Peter Mitchell and Tom Oliver (perry), Martin Harris (pork). Organised by John Fleming. Sponsored by the Feathers Hotel.

12th September 2003: Slow Food: the Ark and Presidia: a talk as part of the Food and Drink Festival's talks programme by Wendy Fogarty with help from George Keen (Keen's Cheddar) and Tom Oliver and Peter Mitchell.

13th September 2003: 'Sizzling Starters': Rosemary Smith gave a cookery demonstration featuring Slow Food, as part of the Festival's demonstrations programme

14th September 2003: 'Città Slow/Living Ludlow': Alison Cundall gave a talk as part of the Festival's talks programme

November 2003: We had intended to hold the AGM another event during November, unfortunately this had to be postponed until January due to the impossibility of finding a date on which the various key people were all available.

We have supported the activities of the 'Living Ludlow' group, which was set up to explore the possibility of Ludlow becoming involved in the Cittaslow, or 'Slow Cities' concept - which is itself a spin-off from Slow Food, and we are delighted that Ludlow's application to become a 'Slow City' has been approved.

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Contacts with other convivia, and Slow Food internationally

The committee invited Wendy Fogarty, Slow Food's UK Governor, to a breakfast meeting at the Bull Hotel on Sunday 16th February. Wendy outlined the history of Slow Food in the UK, and described current goals, aims and initiatives, including proposals to form a UK association and to establish a staffed UK office. In turn we outlined to Wendy the convivium's short- and medium-term plans. This was a very useful meeting and we are grateful to Wendy for the time and effort she invested in this meeting. Wendy has given considerable help, advice and support to the convivium throughout, and I am most grateful to her.
    Rosemary Smith is in frequent contact with Margaret Rees, leader of the Carmarthenshire convivium, Manchester convivium provided much useful support on our stand at the Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival, and occasional exchanges of e-mail take place with other convivium leaders. We hope to develop our relationships with other convivia during the coming year.
Local Slow Food members participated in an expedition organised by Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival and Ludlow-San Pietro Twinning Association to Ludlow's Italian twin town, San Pietro in Cariano (near Verona), at the end of April.
     A Slow Food UK Congress was held in London on 2-4 May at which convivium leaders from around Britain met with Carlo Petrini, president of Slow Food and other people from Bra, and discussed the strategy for developing the UK organisation. Rosemary Smith, Rosemarie Fleming and myself participated in this useful event.
     I attended the International Slow Food Congress in Naples on 7-9 November as one of eight UK delegates.
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Slow Food in the UK

Since September, I have been a member of a small working group whose initial task was to produce concrete proposals for increasing Slow Food's effectiveness in the UK. Amongst other things, the group considered (and sought advice on) the legal status of Slow Food in the UK, the legal liability of convivium leaders and convivium committees, insurance, methods of increasing income other than through membership subscriptions, and the general management and development of the UK movement. The group has now presented its conclusions to a meeting which was held in Manchester on 7 December, to which all UK convivium leaders (and other convivium committee members) had been invited; also present was Renato Sardo, the International Director and two other staff from Slow Food International in Bra.

In particular the group has proposed that:

Slow Food UK Trust be set up as a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. This will both aid fund-raising and other income-generating activities by the Slow Food movement in the UK and will provide a legal entity which will clarify the status and liability of Slow Food convivium leaders, members, volunteers and employees (if any) in the UK. It is intended that in due course (and subject to the approval of Slow Food International) members of Slow Food in the UK will be members of the Slow Food UK Trust rather than members of Slow Food International. The proposal was agreed by the meeting and implementation should happen soon.

Convivia should be encouraged to adopt a model governing document or constitution to govern their activities so that the members may know that their convivium is a properly run entity in which they are encouraged to participate and in which responsibilities are shared.

To provide a National Administration Office to be the primary contact point for Slow Food in the UK (for general public, journalists, government officials, etc). This would be staffed initially on a part-time basis by an employee who would answer directly all matters within their scope and refer other matters to the appropriate members the Executive Management Committee or to Slow Food International. Offers to house the office have been received from both London and Ludlow (courtesy of Ludlow Town Council). This matter is still being considered by Slow Food International.

To develop a greater degree of autonomy in the UK: by 31st December 2003 the National Executive Committee to be formed and fully functional and a 'National Association' to be created as soon as practical.

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Ark and Presidia

I made an application on behalf of the convivium for perry from the 'three counties' (Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire) to be included in the Ark of Taste and for it to become a Presidium, which means that Slow Food should devise initiatives to help preserve and protect this threatened product. The application was accepted and we have been having preliminary talks with three perry producers about what practical help Slow Food can give. I expect this to become a major long-term project. More news will be available about this in the early part of 2004.

Education

The convivium endorses, and made a small financial contribution to, the Young Chefs project which is being masterminded by Graeme Perks and others in conjunction with Ludlow Chamber of Trade and Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival. Further information about this is available on request from Graeme. We shall be considering other education initiatives in the new year.
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Conclusion and thanks

We have lots of exciting plans for the future, and would welcome discussing others with anyone who is interested. Our major problem has been that all of the present convivium committee (who are all, obviously, unpaid volunteers) have other commitments and cannot devote as much time as they would wish to Slow Food activities. We urgently need to hear from anyone who would like to be actively involved either as an active committee member or by helping in practical ways, such as help with organising events, or administration, which takes up a surprising amount of time. Our thanks are due to Ludlow Town Council for their interest and support in Slow matters, and to Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival for its support, help and encouragement. Finally my personal thanks to the committee for all their help and support, to Wendy Fogarty for her practical help and encouragement and for the enormous amount of unpaid (and often unrecognised) work she puts in to building the Slow Food movement in the UK, to Lesley and Ken Bird who tirelessly organised several events in the Shrewsbury area, to Chris and Sarah Woodward of Hopton Court for their help and encouragement, to Hobsons Brewery for their great hospitality on the Slow Food Safari, and by no means least to Phil and Sally Maile at the Bull Hotel for providing us with a meeting room free of charge on many occasions, not to mention the great slow food and drink. Especially that breakfast!

John Fleming
December 2003

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