Author Topic: starting an allotment committee (Read 17946 times)

xlynettex · « **on:** April 24, 2009, 11:09:06 »

could anyone give us information on how to start an allotment committee / association. we have a lovely guy who is the Secretary but over the years when people have approached him to see if the site could get grants etc for communal polytunnels or putting water on site etc he has not been interested even when the people have said that they will do all the work and form filling etc.
we don't wont to go over his head and make things difficult with him.
up until 2/3yrs ago very few plots were used and now there is a new wave of people coming on to the site (just the same as everywhere over the country ). but even the older people would like to see some improvements.
there is another allotment site 2miles down the road that have acquired through grants poly tunnels on every plot and new sheds and tarmac road going through the centre. this is making people on our site left feeling very frustrated.

ceres · « **Reply #1 on:** April 24, 2009, 11:16:42 »

Contact the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners and ask for their help in forming an association. They do this all the time.

www.nsalg.org.uk

Mr Smith · « **Reply #2 on:** April 29, 2009, 17:54:21 »

On our allotments we have several new lotty holders and one is very keen to set up a committee which I agree with, there are twentyfive of us and I should say that I know about a half of the lotty holders, the question is how to get the message across to everyone because people go down at differant times, :)

Unwashed · « **Reply #3 on:** April 29, 2009, 18:40:50 »

Put up a notice and invite people to a site meeting. Ask them to vote for the officers and committee, and bingo, you have an allotment association.

But xlynettex, you're really talking about moving out the moribund old-guard of an existing association. You just need to vote them off. Don't they elect their officers at the AGM?

Squashman · « **Reply #4 on:** April 29, 2009, 19:50:16 »

If you let me know which area you are in I will get the right person to contact you and send all the info you need.

xlynettex · « **Reply #5 on:** April 30, 2009, 08:37:34 »

at the moment there is no committee at all, just the 1 man and he liaises with our allotment officer.

also as yet i`v received no paper work to sign for my allotment from the council and i have spoken to others about this and one have and lots have not.

everythings seem very laps.

Unwashed · « **Reply #6 on:** April 30, 2009, 10:11:10 »

Hi xlynettex

Sorry, when you described the guy as Secretary I thought he was an officer of your site association, but I think he's what we'd call a site steward - someone appointed by the council to assign plots and tell the council when the rules are being proken.

Starting an association is the easy bit, the difficulties can be overcoming the resistance of those in power if they feel threatened. Your council might be very happy if you organised yourself, but not always. If the other site you mention is also managed by the same council then it sounds like they're receptive to the idea of site association helping themselves.

Rather than get bogged down with constitutions and the like a good way to start is just to organise yourselves around a project. So pick an improvement that lots of plot holders would like to see and post a notice inviting everyone to a site meeting to discuss it - few will actually want to be actively involved, but people feel alienated if they're not invited. Put your self forward to chair the organising committee and when you have a mandate go and see the council and see if they're happy to work with you, and then let it develop from there.

Quite a lot of the resources you find for allotment associations assume the association will be managing the site, but that swamps you with a whole load of baggage that isn't helpful. An organising committee needs very little structure, the only essential is something to organise around.

Doris_Pinks · « **Reply #7 on:** April 30, 2009, 10:36:12 »

We started one in November..............asked the council to send a note to all the plot holders (as we were not allowed to have their details cos of data protection!) and our first meeting was an open forum at the local pub! ;D
We decided to have 4 of us to collate stuff, such as liaising with the council, seed ordering etc. and yes I volunteered!
We decided to keep it very informal, no minutes, etc. as none of us wanted to be bogged down with that sort of stuff, and we wanted a more "relaxed" site.

So far we have managed to get broken posts replaced, trees lopped, chippings donated from said trees, seeds at 50% off, we have set up a swap table, and are in the process of organising a summer barbecue.
We had a Christmas get together at my house, which was great, there we people there I had never met in my 10 years on site!

We send a newsletter every so often, and camaraderie on site is noticeably different, everyone now chats to each other, and smiles , it has really bought our 50 allotments together.
The "committee of 4, meet every so often, yup, in the pub! ;D

xlynettex · « **Reply #8 on:** April 30, 2009, 13:46:45 »

hello Doris

what you have, sounds fab and what most of the people on our site would like. well hopefully now the weather is said to be getting better i`ll be able to chat alot more with the others. I`m also going to chat to our allotment officer tomorrow and see how the land lye's

Doris_Pinks · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2009, 14:18:32 »

Good luck with that!

I am surprisingly enjoying volunteering a lot more than I thought!

Old bird · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2009, 14:45:29 »

I think that what you are trying to do is brilliant xLynettex!

It only takes a few like minded people to work together to improve the quality of life play and whatever for loads of other people.

It is amazing how much difference you can make! On my allotment I became site representative 2 years ago - out went the old guard - fair bit of criticism on the way polytunnels "they'll never catch on"! deep beds - nah "traditional was good enough for my grandfather & will be good enough for me"

The site is now vibrant we have two lots of chickens - none before - 3 polytunnels - none before - 4 sheds - yep you guessed it - none before.

The plots are being worked - some deep beds others traditional - the whole place has a vibrant atmosphere. Everyone is taking care of the appearance of the site (bar one!) and it looks really good. All are friendly, chatty and helping each other - now we appear to be more of a community - which is great!

Best of luck - I am sure the Council will be very pleased to have some people like yourselves to take care and sort out the site!

Old Bird

;D

xlynettex · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2009, 16:21:29 »

awww thank you oldbird,

u brought a tear to my eye. it just feels that alot more could be done with just alittle communication. i also heard last night from a neighbouring plot that a few years ago when the council were putting up a new fence because of vandalism ( this is the only thing the site has had done in all its years) that the 1 guy who seems to run the site wanted to make the site smaller by cutting off the top half of the plots that would of reduced the site from 24 plots to 10 plot :o

but thank god the council did not do what he wanted

bradders · « **Reply #12 on:** June 26, 2009, 12:34:33 »

hello,

as you can see i`m new to the site, but, i have had a allotments now for 3 years. Reading all that has been put on this post, we are now in the exact same position at our site ! we even have the site (commandant) local council person !
so, now is the time for a revolution, everyone on our site wants to form a committee, but, just as you were, we aint got a clue !!....

how did you fare in forming yours, and any tips for us ??

bradders

betula · « **Reply #13 on:** June 26, 2009, 13:01:34 »

Doris Pinks..................we are doing the same as you.We have informal meeting of all plot holders....in the pub.............we report back to the parish council and we have a good thing going now.

I do not like the chairman,secretary thing and happily all the plot holders agree with me.

I send out letters to call meetings but I reckon I do not have to do that now as we got to the point of making a date for the next meeting at the meeting.

We have agreed a date for a work party to spruce the site up and one guy said he chats to everybody now as before he did not.

It has worked well so far......long may it continue.

Mr Smith · « **Reply #14 on:** July 09, 2009, 20:30:21 »

On our allotments in the last few weeks we have been looking into forming an allotment association which I'm all for but I have my doubts about being affiliated to any national organisation when in our particular case the council is our landlord. but to obtain grants from the lottery fund do you have to be a member a national association, personally I like Betula's way and informal meetings down the pub :)

manicscousers · « **Reply #15 on:** July 09, 2009, 21:20:18 »

we've just applied for a lottery grant, nothing on the forms about belonging to a national association, we've also had one in the past and it didn't ask then, either :)

radar ears · « **Reply #16 on:** July 09, 2009, 21:54:59 »

I'm the Secretary of our allotments and I've got a list of everyone's name and address.
I send out quarterly newsletters to all the plot-holders to let them know what's going on.

tonybloke · « **Reply #17 on:** July 16, 2009, 23:05:19 »

I've just returned from a meeting where a new allotment association was formed, and affiliated to NSALG. the council will be the landlord. ;)
get in touch with nsalg, they will help sort out all your issues.
rgds, tony:)

Mr Smith · « **Reply #18 on:** July 20, 2009, 10:08:59 »

Just back from a meeting with the council about various issues and the setting up of an allotment association, a positive meeting and things should be moving forward in the near future, :)

Mr Smith · « **Reply #19 on:** July 23, 2009, 17:37:40 »

Just had a reply from our council and they are all for it for us allotment holders to have an association but we then take on the day to day running of the site, do I smell a rat and do we go down this road?, ;)

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Author Topic: starting an allotment committee (Read 17946 times)