Dorchester Deanery Children's Group - Meeting Minutes

NOTES from Planning Meeting held on Tuesday, 7th December, 2004

Present: Allen Knott, Chris Brown, Phyllis Brown, Gill McCourtie, Richard Cox,
Lydia Hampshire, Lauretta Kerridge

Mel Durrant sent his apologies.


 The majority of the meeting dealt with final preparations for ‘Carols on the Green’ to be held on Friday 10th December. Chris, Lydia and Allen had distributed flyers in the Fordington area. Durnovaria Silver Band had been booked and St. John Ambulance would be in attendance. The Loyal Order of Moose would serve soup and the Police would arrange for the stretch of road between St. George’s and the Green to be shut off to vehicles. Hand bell ringers would play at the event. Collecting tins would be labelled with the group logo and used on the evening for donations. New hymn sheets had been printed and were collated and folded by a team of willing volunteers!

 There followed a discussion on the Church Taster Day at Martinstown planned for Saturday, 14th May, 2005.

- A working title put forward was ‘O’ taste and see!’.
- St. John Ambulance had agreed to attend free of charge and would be sending a booking form for completion.
- The Village Hall had been booked at £6 an hour from 10 – 4. The Booking Secretary had offered an hour either side for preparations and clearing up. There would be no charge for this.
- Lunch: there was an equipped kitchen at the Village Hall although it was felt that purchasing fish & chips may be easier. Gill would see if the Village Pub would be interested in providing take-away lunches.
- There was every possibility the group could make use of the Village Green. Lauretta would confirm this in writing with Mr Slade of Winterbourne St. Martin Parish Council.
- A badge making machine could be hired and used as people arrived.
- A draft outline of the day was as follows:

10 a.m.– 1 p.m. WORKSHOPS
1.30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m. LUNCH/GAMES/QUIZZES
2.30 p.m. – 3.30 p.m. SERVICE (incorporating skills learnt in the morning)
3.30 p.m. - TEA

- Suggestions for likely workshops and people to lead them were as follows:

* Prayer Janet Delaney – (to be confirmed)

* Stained glass John Callum

* Organ playing

* Hand bell ringing Lydia Hampshire

* Art and Craft Archdeacon Paul Taylor had expressed an interest in this workshop but it would need confirmation

* Brass rubbing There are no brasses at Martinstown.

* Flower arranging Rosemary Bassett has a contact who may lead this.

* Bell ringing Trevor Bassett (to be confirmed)

* Drama

* Singing

* Instrumental Music

* Banner waving Rosemary Bassett has a contact who may lead this.

- Volunteers to help with or lead any of the above would be welcome. Lauretta would speak with Revd. Rosemary Bassett (Martinstown) and Janet Delaney (Diocesan Children’s Adviser) regarding the availability of helpers for the day; this would be reported back to the next meeting.
- Lydia raised the importance of CRB checks for volunteers. This would be discussed further at the next meeting.
- Letters would need to be sent to parishes in January so that numbers wishing to attend each workshop could be returned in good time. For this reason, the next Deanery Children’s Group meeting would take place on Monday, 24th January, 7.30 for 7.45 p.m. at Lydia’s, 14, James Road, Dorchester. The majority of this meeting would be spent in planning for the May event.

Allen thanked everyone for attending this planning meeting and in particular Gill for her valuable ‘local knowledge’ of Martinstown!

The group is again grateful to Allen for his kind hospitality.