Present: Alison Teal, Helen McIlroy, Paul Selby, Ruth Hubbard (online), Kevin Folger, Isabel O’Leary, Woll Newall, Mark James
    Observer: Dave Dilner

Apologies: none

Minutes of the Meeting 18th August
    Agreement and matters arising postponed to next meeting

Communications

STAG Newsletter –  Isabel reported another newsletter was almost ready to go to members. She would like to develop a template (of headings) that could be used to support the newsletter – ACTION: Isabel/Woll  
Paul commented re the expectation of frequency in relation to the NESST newsletter.  AGREED: STAG newsletter to be as frequent as possible – Isabel suggested monthly.

The brevity of committee minutes was discussed with essentially only actions/agreements noted.  Some commented on the need for members to see key points and so that the reasons for decisions could be properly understood.  One suggestion was that if minutes were to be so brief then committee minutes might be formally noted at general meetings and member questions taken there. AGREED: discussion ongoing – there are different views across the committee. 

Tree planting – deadline for spending legal funds 

Paul explained some of the many processes/variables involved in successful street tree planting, including tree choices, locations, working with Amey, and the importance of community buy-in.  (Paul agreed to circulate a paper on all this to the committee with more detail – done at the end of the meeting).

IL and others summarised current actual and known potential links with community groups linked to ‘areas of high deprivation’ who might also be interested/supportive. 

Overall the committee was concerned, given the complications involved, that it wouldn’t be possible to deliver with any certainty on the requirements of the member vote by the given deadline of March 2026 – the vote was already too late for this. Nor did the committee want to see STAG monies diverted to Trees for Cities (which would mean no guarantee this would be spent in Sheffield) if the arbitrary deadline was not met.

AGREED (with one abstention): that we needed to go back to members to seek an extension to the deadline so that implementing the motion could be properly secured.  This would mean tree planting in the next planting cycle (2026).
Paul proposed a member vote via online Google Forms  as he has used this system many times successfully and it is more accessible/efficient and less resource-intensive than the system used to date appears to be.  Other committee members have no actual or potential access to vote info.
ACTION: IL (as membership secretary) and Paul (to verify) to jointly administer a member vote on a deadline extension proposal. 

Setting up a STAG tree planting working group was also raised in discussion and the committee agreed this would likely be important given the complexities/time involved.  
AGREED: to come back to this following a member vote on deadline extension. 

STAG Public Facebook Group

No response has been received to the committee’s latest efforts and communication to progress to a meeting with admins (and mods) who claim ownership of the STAG Public Facebook Group. It appears those involved are now seeking to avoid meeting with the committee despite claiming they were willing to do this.  Informal legal advice suggests that the committee could be seen as negligent if it does not continue to seek to recover a key asset of STAG.   The committee may therefore have no choice but to pursue formal legal action. It was agreed by all (with one abstention) that on behalf of the committee Paul will make one further effort to secure a discussion with one or more of the individuals involved to try and avoid legal action (ACTION)

Street Tree Partnership issues 
A longstanding vacancy for a third Tree Inspector has just been filled by Amey. This should allow for more recruitment and training of volunteer tree wardens – some concerns about the current functioning of the scheme were voiced including the fact that coordination is currently undertaken by a volunteer only.  Discussion is needed with the SSTP on how, going forward, they will effectively a) manage tree warden work, b) use geographical information systems to analyse data on city’s trees, and c) engage properly with local communities. 

It was agreed Isabel and Helen will represent STAG at the upcoming SSTP awayday.  RH reminded the committee of the need for a member vote on the draft proposal about deciding on STAG reps to the SSTP (which, if passed, will also need a constitutional amendment before the committee election cycle) – the proposal should go to the next general meeting.

In general terms RH also reminded the committee of the organisational development plan agreed following the Members Emergency Meeting. In her view it remained unclear the extent to which time and effort should be devoted to progressing all items (e.g. especially the work that would be involved for a constitutional review) given the uncertainties remaining about STAG overall – it was agreed to return to this.  Despite this, some items are clearly progressing. 

Interactive website – for discussion at next meeting

Any Other Business 

Event: Dave Dilner (observer) had previously offered to investigate possibilities for a STAG 10yr anniversary event – however, he outlined that he was sceptical about the scale of any event and that securing a venue had proved problematic to date.

Appointment of a Trustee: It was previously agreed to try and get more of a handover completed before addressing a Trustee appointment (and to try and make this a more viable ask of someone).  The committee raised questions about what, in particular, might be being asked of a Trustee at this point, and also that their independence was important (rather than continuing with a ‘friends of friends’ approach).  Despite the continuing difficult situation for STAG following limited handover it was agreed that the Trustee was a formal position and that we should act to try and progress this.  Several names were mentioned and it was agreed that Alison as Chair  would approach Paul Grimshaw to ask if he might be willing to be put forward to the membership as Trustee (ACTION)

Subject Access Request for personal data held by STAG: we have delayed action on this due to incomplete records/gaps in information handed over from the former committee. Despite the significantly incomplete record, it was agreed to now send the response as it seems unlikely further records will be provided/secured (ACTION).

Meeting with SCC/Kate Josephs: it was agreed that Alison seek a meeting with KJ despite the committee having almost no information or records on previous discussions.  It was suggested these were likely about general post-Lowcock follow-ups. IL offered to be part of any meeting (ACTION).