Meet the new Board.
At our recent AGM, our members elected a new board to represent them and guide the Forum's direction throughout the next three years.
The Scottish Fair Trade Forum welcomes its new Board!
Board Members re-elected by members from our Interim Board are John McAllion (former MP, MSP and Oxfam Scotland campaigner), Robin Stewart (UK Co-operative), Rachel Farey (One World Shops), Jenny Fausset (Edinburgh City Council) and Bruce Stuart (Fair Shares Trading).
New Board Members are Denis Robert Shovlin (disability campaigner and Co-op member), Ruth Anderson and Hilary MacKay (jointly representing the Highland Fair Trade Group), Tracy Mitchell (East Dunbartonshire Fair Trade Steering Group), Martin Meteyard (standing as an individual with broad experience in fair trade companies over the last 20 years), Liz Cotton (Rainbow Turtle shop) and Malcom Fleming (Media and Public Relations Manager for Oxfam Scotland).
The Scottish Fair Trade Forum Board is comprised of up to 12 people elected by Forum members from each of 4 membership categories -- Individuals, Small Organisations, Medium-sized Organisations and Large Organisations.
“We are delighted to have a good mix of Interim Board members and new Board Members bringing their experience, perspective and skills to this Board. They will provided excellent strategic leadership for the Forum as we work to achieve our Fair Trade Nation criteria and tackle the exciting question of 'what comes next?' The next three years will be enormous in terms of progress for making Scotland a Fair Trade Nation and a society that understands and embraces the values of fair trade' said Betsy Reed, SFTF Coordinator.
FAIRTRADE FORTNIGHT For a full list of events as part of the SFTF Fairtrade Fortnight Roadshow with Malawian Towera Jalakasi, see our website. For a snapshot of what's going on, we will be in the following locations:
Monday 23 & Tuesday 24th February: Edinburgh
Wednesday 25th February: Stirling
Thursday 26th February: Fife (south)
Friday 27th February: Cupar & St Andrews
Monday 2nd March: Oban
Tuesday 3rd March: Skye
Wednesday 4th March: Ullapool
Thursday 5th March: Inverness
Friday 6th March: Ellon, Inverurie & Aberdeen University
Saturday 7th March: Aberdeen & Dundee
Also coming during Fairtrade Fortnight:
* February 23: Scotland-specific Fair Trade figures released by the SFTF
* March 4 in Edinburgh: the 'Great Trade Debate' sponsored by the Fairtrade Foundation and chaired by John McAllion (Chair of the SFTF) and including Ann McKechin MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Scotland Office), Ian Bremner (Deputy Director of the Fairtrade Foundation) and Malcolm Brown (Head of Communications for Scotmid). For more information click here.
* March 6 &7: a World Record-Breaking Banana Eating Contest, coming to a Fair Trade event near you! For more information, check out the Fairtrade Foundation website.
* NEWS FLASH * Congratulations to Renfrewshire, Scotland's newest Fairtrade Zone. They have done an extraordinary job of promoting fair trade and supporting local fair trade activity and their achievement is well-deserved. Thanks for taking us one step closer to becoming a Fair Trade Nation!
To read more about their achievement, click here.
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Fancy a cuppa, Ma’am?
Edinburgh University People and Planet, in cooperation with the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, kicked off a petition to ask the Queen to drink Fairtrade tea when two of thier members dressed up as Her Majesty and her butler and giving out free Fairtrade tea and cake to studentent outside the University's main library.
People and Planet originally decided to launch the petition as a way of raising awareness of Fairtrade and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum proposed rolling it out to all of Scotland to support.
Ruth Cape, co-convener for Edinburgh People and Planet said
'Awareness of the Fairtrade Mark is up to 70%, but it should be something the whole country is thinking about, aincluding the Monarchy! We hope this petition will prompt more people to buy tea and other products with a view of how it impacts other people, helping to 'tip the balance of trade' in favour of those in poverty. And, of course, it would be fantastic if the Queen demonstrated her support by pledging to drink Fairtrade tea!'
The petition and the Queen's response can be viewed on our website. Plans are in the works to host a highly visible Fairtrade tea-party in Edinburgh in future to launch the send-off of the petition to the Queen herself.
ADD YOUR NAME TO THE CAMPAIGN!
SIGN OUR PETITION TO THE QUEEN BY CLICKING HERE.
We want your stories! We would love to hear about what you have been doing for Fairtrade Fortnight. Please email the editor with stories of your events, explaining what you did and how they went. The best stories from each region of Scotland will be featured in next month's newsletter and many of the others will be posted on our website.
Announcements
Put your Fairtrade Fortnight events on our website! Sign up through the login box and, once approved, put up your events. We'll approve them and they'll go straight into our Events section.
If you're interested in helping in our Edinburgh office or with Special Projects that come up from time to time, please be in touch via info@sftf.org.uk with the title 'Volunteer' and we can chat about how you might be able to help with Scotland's Fair Trade Nation campaign! Keep an eye on the Volunteers Sectionof our website as well. |
