UKWIN April 2008 Annual General Meeting (AGM) Summary [draft]
23 participants attended UKWIN’s 2008 AGM, which took place in London on Saturday 12th April. A further 27 sent their apologies (some accompanied by a campaign update). The Chair of UKWIN, Stephen Eades, welcomed all to the AGM, and introduced the UKWIN Steering Group (SG) members and Shlomo Dowen, the newly appointed Network Coordinator.
Membership Secretary John Beattie outlined membership statistics and displayed a map showing the location of members throughout the UK. As UKWIN’s Treasurer, Neil Pitcairn delivered the Treasurer’s Report. This was followed by discussion about fund-raising led by David Levy. David also introduced some fund-raising ideas from The Air That We Breathe Group for wider consideration. Various procedural matters were then decided (membership remains free of charge, with members invited to donate according to their means) and the Steering Group (Stephen, Neil, Andy, David, Max, and John) were unanimously re-elected.
Discussions also took place about the future of the Network. David introduced a proposal from The Air That We Breathe Group that UK WIN should move to Stage 2 as soon as possible, because open campaigning is essential and urgent in the face of the Government’s drive for incineration. Max pointed out that many activities included in Stage 2 are not campaigning activities as such, and should commence in the near future.
Further point raised included:
- Stage 1 expresses the intention to establish the Network on a sound foundation, to recruit member groups and to establish a good information base (the Knowledge Bank) and website, before making campaigning statements.
- Charitable status does not preclude campaigning if such activities are less than about 40% of
- the organisation’s total activity.
- Charity status may be problematic with the current constitution, and the Network can inform potential funders that we are working along charitable (not for profit) lines and/or apply for formal charitable status.
- Several Stage 2 activities count as raising issues and facilitating national debate, not ‘campaigning’ as such.
- Discussion among member groups and an EGM is needed to support any changes to the constitution and to the organisation’s status.
The afternoon session was taken up with campaign updates and sharing ideas for the UKWIN website. We received a presentation from Michael Warhurst entitled: Incineration – why it is being pushed, why it is a mistake & how to stop it. Topics included: The challenge of sustainable development (We must act urgently to reduce our climate impacts and improve resource efficiency); Sustainable waste management; Drivers for incineration and how campaigners can respond; Alternative ways to meet LATS targets; Key arguments against incineration: Incineration – is a climate problem, destroys resources, limits future improvement; The key role of the PFI process – provides opportunities to intervene Expression of Interest (EOI), Outline Business Case (OBC), Planning, etc.; Recent legal successes; What’s happening at EU level; Friends of the Earth’s support for activists.
Copies of the presentation, and draft AGM notes are available to members upon request to: coordinator@ukwin.org.uk
