Fair Trade PHL: 13th Meeting, July 16th, 2014 MINUTES (by Yoko)
Present: Bhawna, Bryan, Joe, Madeline, Poonam
and Yoko
Regrets: Brit, Laura,
1. We talked about how much we, Bhawna, Bryan, Poonam and Yoko, enjoyed the day in Media
when FTPHL received the Media FT Award. We appreciate their warm encouragement and their
constant support. ( For example, Ira from Media FT kindly came to our meeting in April and
offered his wisdom as a member of Media FT Town, America's First FT Town, 2006.)
2. We talked about how we can prepare ourselves for the Media meeting on July 31st which
some from FTPHL plan to attend. We will be meeting people from the funding source for which
Media FT applied (in one sense, on our behalf).
Poonam listed up the items we need for our campaign including banners to go forward. The list
was an outcome of the conversation Poonam, Bhawna and Bryan had on the day of Media FT
Award.
3. Madeline and Bhawna reminded the group that though we have carried out only one event of
our own since we formed our group in August, last year, we have other accomplishments:
(1) We have been meeting regularly with some core people of diverse backgrounds. We just met
for the 13th time.
(2) We started listing up the stores where people can go to to purchase FT products in
Philadelphia.
(3) Many of us were active participants in the Mid-Atlantic FT Conference in April. Bhawna was
responsible for bringing the conference to Philadelphia. Bhawna and Bryan were among the
presenters.
(4) We now have active Web sites: Facebook ( managed by Bhawana), Web site ( created and
managed by Poonam) and FT Town campaign page ( initiated by Yoko), and a Twitter ( created
by Victoria).
4. We agreed that a structure to appoint various positions among us is not needed for this group
at this point. Madeline: Instead, since each one of us has a different talent and is passionate
about a different aspect of the campaign, it would be helpful to make that clear and known to
others. Poonam said that she would like to be responsible for the PHL Web site. Others will take
time to decide. We will put this on the agenda for the next meeting.
5. Yoko: It would be good to hear each member's own personal story how the FT issue has
become important in her/his life. Joe agreed and talked about his experience to testify how
powerful a personal story could be.
6. Bryan: we all need to look at "Welcome to Chicago FT" web page,
http://www.chicagofairtrade.org, a successful big city campaign from which we can learn a great
deal.
7. Poonam gave Yoko access to the FTPHL website and urged her to add our previous minutes,
so new people would be able to understand the history of FTPHL.
8. Joe's own business site has listed the places where his Philly Fair Trade Roaster coffee has
been sold. Yoko will list them on the campaign web site.
9. Planning for events in the near future:
Madeline: It would be more effective if we joined the Green group. People who gather would be
interested in FT issues.
Yoko will check the Oct. Native American event and see if FTPHL could set up a table.
10. Joe will let us know events he goes to which might make sense for us to join.
When the FTPHL brochure is ready, Joe can take it to advertise our
group.https://twitter.com/FairTradePHL
11. We need brochures to place in all the cafes where FT items are being sold.
12. Bryan: FTPHL logos, we should ask high school students to enter a contest where students
will be given a reward, chocolates, etc. Everyone likes this idea.
Ex. Science Academy
13. Events: possible events for us to put up our tables are at Manayunk and Headhouse.
14. Madeline: rather than spending time on thinking about the mission statement, we should plan
and carry out events; some concrete actions would be good for morale and through that the
mission statement will come out.
15. Bryan referred to the July 15, 2015 music event scheduled all over the world for us to get
involved in the way that would make sense.