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2.Apologies ;- Cllr J Taylor (SDC), Jess + Mal Healey, Mark Brown, Tim Mander,
3.Minutes of Previous Meeting (12.05.09) circulated and approved
4.2009 REPORTS;- Chair;- MARKETA WEAVING ; Had received a letter from Arthur Cummins which she had duplicated and would raise under the secretaries report Wales trip 1.
ii)Secretary;- cllr BRIAN SMEDLEY
May 11-20 St Petersburg to discuss setting up Russian links-;-This tour had been postpopned but we retained the contacts and may try again next year
May 17 Sandino tournament;- 2 teams entered – Bridgwater International (Brian) Taunton Terriers (Richard) Teams Held annually at Ashton Vale school Bristol. Richard reported that our 2nd team (Taunton) was largely Polish/Slovak and had reached the final but lost on penalties. The Bridgwater International team did moderate to poor
May 23-30 Jan Soucek Arabska students(Prague 6) to Bridgwater ;- This annual home hosting was a success. Athough Dr Soucek was near retirement and not in good health. It wa shoped it wouldn;t be the last tour. We had held a special 'comedy political' panel evening for them at the mayors parlour
May 22-25 WORKERS BEER COMPANY;- glastonbury; 6 workers had worked 5 shifts for us at the festival raising £100 for BCSFS with remaining funds raised going to Bridgwater trades Council or as expenses to the workers. Andy Webber had led the team of Jenny Pearce,Nick Fleming,Martin Danek (cz) Klara Stachova (cz) Ondrej Zdych (cz)
June 4-9 Zdena Biggsova Kladno footballers to Bridgwater Zdena Biggsova brought a group of teenagers from Kladno to Bridgwater and played several games with the help of Rhode Lane Wanderers. However there were problems due to the wide range of the students from 12-16. There was also an overcrowding and behaviour issue at one house. It was resolved that in future we do not home host groups aged under 16.
June 13-20 Eva Kordova Ceske Budejovice group. (16-17-18 at Huntstile) Eva brought 28 students to stay at Huntstile farm for 3 days. We also took them to Ridgeway,Stratford and dartmoor. The 2 drivers were Brian Smedley + Nick Tuckwell
June 21-27 Eva Kordova.Ceske Budejovice (24-25-26 at Huntstile) Evas 2nd group was 14 adults and followed the same route as above but added in Cornwall.
July 5-15 Jana Hubena WALES AND NORTH ENGLAND trip 1. Jane Hubena brought 14 travellers from UH and we took them around Wales and North England. There was a problem with a double booked minibus and so Brian had to ask Arthur Cummins to be a co driver of the minibus while he drove an extra car. . Brian raised no problems with the trip, however a letter submitted by Arthur Cummins to Marketa was presented to the meeting complaining of the substandard accommodation at Chester backpackers and recommending that we make future distinctions between groups of 'rough and ready' youngsters and 'mature adults' Arthurs letter described Chester backpackers as 'not legally fit' accommodation and told of his personal quest that day to complain to the management there about this , plus his own decision to spend the night in a £70 Hotel instead.
Brian said that he had not intended to raise this incident at the meeting as he thought it had been settled privately. He explained the following points 1. He was the organiser of the trip and not Arthur. 2. Jana Hubena-who liased with the czech travellers- had in fact chosen the accommodation when her husband Tonda had found it on the web after Brians choice (Chester YHA) turned out to be fully booked. Brian had recommended Liverpool YHA as an alternative but the Czechs wished to stay in Chester. Brian had explained to Jana & Tonda the situation well in advance of the trip and they therefore knew of the standard (the issue was in fact that everyone would be in one room.This was again known by Jana in advance) and accepted this 3. the hostel was NOT of a poor standard by the standards of other 'Backpacker' hostels ,and DID have local authority licencing- but was obviously NOT a YHA – but the Czechs had chosen this after finding it themselves on the web. Brian said he was disappointed that Arthur had chosen to take this attitude as a similarly divisive incident had happened 2 years back when he was co-driver for a Labyrint choir trip. The meeting voted to accept the secretaries explanation and to remind Arthur that should he be involved in further trips that Brian is the organiser who liases with the Czechs and with the accommodation management and arranges all financial matters.. Brian booked accommodation at the price level asked for by the different Czech groups .
July 15-21 Vera Bobovska WALES AND NORTH ENGLAND 2 ; This 2nd trip on the same route as above was organised by Vera Bobovska and her Prague area group. There was absolutely no problem. Brian was the driver.
July 21-27 Kath Pearce CANAL TRIP 1 Kath Pearce + family went with Brian at the helm for a 7 day trip on the Kennet & Avon canal
July 27 Shepton Mallet 'somerset international football tournament' organised by Rafal Skarbek. Richard Weaving had taken a BridgwaterInternational team there which reached the Quarter Finals.
July 29-Aug 6 Vera Fabianova IRELAND TRIP Brian drove a small group of 3 Czechs around Ireland staying at An Oige hostels. The route was Belfast> Donegal > Galway> Killarney> Dublin
Aug 7-10 Nick Tuckwell CANAL TRIP 2 Nick and Brian took a small group on the kennet and Avon canal – this time finally conquering the 27 Caen Hill locks!!
III)Treasurer;- cllr Kath Pearce ; Kath said we had £278 in the account which hincluded £100 from WBC (Glastonbury) and £93 (Bridgwater international). Brian explained that this was severely down from last years 'membership' contribution as several UK groups planning to travel abroad had cancelled – this was probably due to the 'Staycation' factor. It was noted that we would be receiving £300 from Bridgwater town Council shortly and £100 from the reading festival
5.SDC rep'-cllr Julian Taylor ;- apologies
6 Bridgwater Town Council rep;-Cllr Dave Loveridge- said there was some money available on County at the moment for twinning but that he feared the new Tory adminsitration were introducing a cut and slash policy and this would go quiclkly.
7 Plans for 2009 season;- to be run by Bridgwater International as below
Aug 20-25 LABYRINT choir visit to Somerset (40). cancelled
Aug 26-30 WBC Reading festival (6)-Mark Brown would lead a team fo 6 including Andy Webber, Cat Smedley,Tom Stanley, Marketa Weaving, Marketa Cisarova
Aug 30 Marek Delongs All Day Czech beer event at Labour Club;- Marek said this event would be self financing. Milan Hajster would make Gulash for 50, and Radegast beer would be sold for £1.50. Alec from the Labour Club would take 10%. The event would start at 4pm on Sunday August 30th. EVERYONE was invited to attend.
Sept 1-6 RHODE LANE WANDERERS football trip to Poland & Slovakia (30) cancelled
Sept 10-13 UH CIVIC LINK UP including the UH wine and monuments festival:(4) ;-The Mayor of Bridgwater Cllr Ken Richards + mayoress Margo and town clerk Alan Hurford, would travel with Brian to UH to sign a new twinning document with a definite contractual base to it.It was noted with dissapointment how the UH council had continued to inaccurately use the private home address of Cllr Philip Smeed as the official address of Bridgwater Town Council. This had been notified to them on several occaisions that it was wrong, that Smeed was not Mayor and that this post changed each year.
Sept 14-20 PRIBYL SCOTLAND TRIP -(39) David Pribyl Brian,Kath & Nick would drive 3 minibusses full of czech students around scotland with a trip organised by David Pribyl
Sept 19-23 SEDGEMOOR UNISON football trip to Bosnia (30) cancelled
Oct 2-3-4 Altech to Bridgwater -Antonin Machalas UH team (38) The UH footballers would visit Sedgemoor in October and stay at Cheddar YHA. They would play Sedgemoor Unison on evening of friday 2nd october at Bridgwater towns ground – kick off 5pm – everyone invited. On the saturday they wished to see a premier league game and had settled for West Ham v Fulham. On the sunday morning they should play Bridgwater international.
Nov tbc Rock Tour of Europe – Ash Hale had offered to help us organise bands for a 2009 rock tour – possibly to happen in November.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS;-
INNER SPACE;- The Czech jazz band was interested in touring Somerset. Marketa was asked to put them in touch with Brian directly.
IRELAND;- Brians brother Alan Finlay ran a Footbal lteam in Northern Ireland and was keen for either Sedgemoor Unison or Bridgwater International to go over and tour there with his help. It was also suggested that this could be done in conjunction with a Dublin tour with the help of Karen Daly from Mullingar.
CZECH EMBASSY;- had written to us advising any czech members that elections were to be held in october and asking to contact them on advice to register to vote www.MZV.CZ/London
email;- LONDON@EMBASSY.MZV.CZ
TEL 020 7243 1115
DATE OF NEXT MEETING; Tuesday 29th September 8pm Unity Club
