MEETING NOTES

Saturday 7th February 2004

10 adults and 4 children present

Group decided to ask Patricia Tricker, from the Vegan Society UK, how to go about starting a group from scratch and any legalities involved - especially in the use of the Vegan Society Logo and published information. Patricia has been invited to the next meeting in Ireland at the co op on Saturday 6th March.

Will discuss various other queries which we want to raise via the Vegans_Ireland email group.

A room and information stand have been booked for the meeting on 6th March with Patricia.

2 members of the vegan group are going to set up the stand at 9:20am, and other volunteers will take over from 11am - 1pm. We have leaflets and booklets left from the December 6th stall, and the Vegan Society UK have offered one or two books and leaflets as well. We also hope to have vegan chocolates for sale. We have plans to organise fundraisers at the stall in the future to help with the expenses of running the group etc. Hopefully we can continue with the stall at least once a month to coincide with monthly meetings.

After the stall is closed, we will have the meeting upstairs.

Members individually took on the job of publicising this meeting via posters in health food shops and other likely places in their area. Meetings will also be mentioned on this website, the Vegans_Ireland email group, and the Vegetarian Society magazine.

On structure of the group. we decided to have a revolving chair person and note taker. We discussed what we want the group to be/do. It was suggested having a theme/topic to discuss for each meeting. This was thought to be a good idea. Themes could be publicised in advance so that others interested could come to take part. We discussed pushing for vegan items in shops and supermarkets. Individual managers seem to be the best contacts for this, from experience.

The use of gelatine in photographic film and paper was mentioned. It was suggested to contact one of the suppliers/manufacturers to see if they could be persuaded to use an alternative. Fruit pectin was suggested as an alternative to gelatine.

We talked briefly about the difficulties and successes of having vegan children in school and playgroups. Parents in the group may contribute their views and experiences of this to the website. Other topics to be considered as well.

Wexford vegans are arranging a vegan picnic on the beach at Courtown near to the May day weekend, date to be decided. It will be on the north beach, where Courtown woods come down to the sea, in bluebell time.

Discussions on whether to be a vegan society for Ireland and/or a vegan group, and on how much to be a part of the vegetarian society, and on a newsletter, to be continued.

MEETING NOTES