Present: Woll Newall, Anne Barr, Fran Kime, Isabel O’Leary, Ruth Hubbard, Mark James, Alison Teal (Chair), Helen McIlroy (Minutes), Wendy Hawksley, Sue Kondakor, Andrew Kondakor, Julian Baker

Apologies

Sally Weston, Kythe Beaumont, Asha Dube, Mark Brown, Jane Miller, Paul Selby

Agenda Items

1

Minutes of the last general meeting held on 11/12/25 were approved.

2 Tree Planting (Isabel)

Isabel reported good progress building community contacts in Low Edges, Jordanthorpe and Burngreave (Spital Hill) with a view to getting a) local agreement for planting trees in specific locations, b) making a 5% contribution to the cost c) agreement to water for the first 3 summers. 

Local environmental group Green City Action and residents who know about trees have produced a map of 19 potential specific planting locations around Spital Hill, with a further 17 lower priority locations. 

Eight specific potential locations have been found in Jordanthorpe and Low Edges. Currently it’s looking like there might be 3 trees into grass (cheaper) and the rest into tarmac.

Once the above agreements have been gathered STAG will put in up to 27 potential planting locations for approval by Amey (by end of March 2026). 

Typically, the tree planting work will be invoiced by Amey after the work has been done, so in Spring 2027 in this case. The money assigned to this batch of trees must be ring-fenced in the STAG accounts so it is available when required.

Funding further tree planting

Given the potentially high number of planting locations identified, there was discussion about using some of the STAG General Fund, in addition to the Legal Fund, for tree planting. There is currently just over £12,700 in the General Fund, and STAG’s typical yearly on-going costs for hiring meeting rooms/Zoom subscription/domains etc are approximately £500-600/year.

There was discussion on how much would be needed for tree planting. The Legal Fund of £7977 could pay for 12 trees into tarmac or 10 into tarmac and 3 into grass. If an additional £10,000 from the STAG General Fund was available, this total could pay for 24 trees into tarmac and 3 trees into grass = £17,241.

There was discussion about other potential sources of further, on-going, funding for tree planting in the future, as very successfully used by other organisations in Sheffield. For example National Lottery; Trees for Streets; S. Yorks Mayoral Authority; twinned Crowdfunders as Nicola Gilbert is pursuing between different areas eg Burngreave/Bents Green; other environmental groups in the city.

Since time is short and Paul Selby is experienced in ordering trees through Amey, he has agreed to do this for the STAG-funded trees this year; meanwhile he will help Woll, as treasurer, to set up STAG’s own channel, through Carl at Amey.

A Members’ vote will be needed to approve any spending from the STAG General Fund and the amount to retain for on-going STAG expenses.

3 Plaque

Alison, a plaque committee member, shared information from the most recent meeting with the SCC communications officer. The date and time of the plaque unveiling are now confirmed, after consultation with the Lord Mayor, for Friday 6th March at 12.30 p.m. The CEO, Kate Josephs, will introduce the main speaker, James Mitchinson, Editor of the Yorkshire Post, and “The Tree Hunter” Rob McBride will do the plaque unveiling. A reception will be held in the Silver Room on the ground floor of the town hall for all attendees following the event. A display of memorabilia will be in the glass cabinet in the entrance to the town hall. STAG will provide SCC with a QR code that links to a page on the STAG website, containing an explanation of some of the plaque elements (like the squirrels and geckos) and more information about the campaign.

4 New website

Woll introduced the new website to members.

Creating an up-to-date website has long been on STAG’s wishlist, but never quite happened for various reasons. A few years ago, a budget of £2000 was suggested for this. The new website has been created by Woll, and hosted on his server, at no cost to STAG.

The new site gives an overview of STAG’s purpose, current projects like the tree planting, news posts, how to join STAG, a short history of the campaign, and FAQs. 

The Committee is also using the site as an easier way to publish, and for members to find, the minutes of STAG meetings and the now regular newsletters.

The next stage is to work on expanding the content and creating some links between the legacy STAG website and the new website.

5 Constitutional Update

Ruth presented her proposals for rewriting the Constitution.

Ruth explained the purpose of the item was a follow-on from the last General Meeting to keep people informed about the development of constitutional change proposals (planned for the AGM in April). This is important given the lack of a group of volunteers for a big working group, but she thanked Julian Baker for his input/engaging in the issues and discussion as a member. 

Ruth talked through the PowerPoint slides starting with the context and key relevant issues. She commented it was relatively straightforward to rework a constitution (and in light of key issues) but much less so keeping people on board. Most people are not in STAG for its governing documents yet these do need to be ‘owned’.

Key proposal areas: 

1. The governing document should be written in light of the purpose of STAG. A purpose statement should chime with STAG’s shared story/why we are all here. It is currently undeveloped/bland and an inadequate framing which needs development. An initial draft was presented.
2. STAG as a ‘small charity’ (and in terms of legal structure still an unincorporated association). Ruth went through this in a bit of detail including advantages/disadvantages and the legal tests involved. STAG clearly has a charitable purpose, and is therefore automatically a charity (without requiring registration), but the current aims need clarifying to make this clearer. One big advantage of being a charity is immediate resources/guidance/back up to support proper functioning and as a confidence-builder e.g. ‘The Essential Trustee’ publication’ (about committee responsibilities).
3. Greater clarity re members (some key things are missing e,g. right to call a meeting, quorums) including a ‘rights and responsibilities’ framing for this. (Ruth placed this in a context of different kinds of member orgs/charities and what is known about them.)
4. Realigning the working model which is based on out of date assumptions (mass active membership, working groups, committee in a monitoring role, ‘annual plan’) and divorced from realities/practice (where the Committee has been doing all the work and members have not been very active/involved).
5. Rethinking the role of an ‘Independent Trustee’ in light of STAG needs (and the difficulties of recruitment – common across the sector)
6. The overall approach was summarised on the last slide and Ruth pointed out that no constitution is perfect (and doesn’t solve ‘human’ problems), that STAG governance will remain fragile/need attention paid (as transition continues) and that issues of sustainability remain.

In discussion it was agreed:

– to circulate the draft purpose statement for comment/improvements.

– that STAG as ‘charitable’ is probably a ‘no-brainer’

– the approach/proposal areas broadly endorsed

[Further info on the slides, and a longer minute for this item is also available]

6 Sheffield Street Tree Partnership

Isabel gave a summary of the purpose and structure of the SSTP which was set up as a direct result of the street tree campaign to manage street trees better in future. The first SSTP Strategy was launched in 2021 and has been regarded as an exemplar around the country. It is now due for a refresh and is currently being discussed. The outcomes given in the 2021 document are being reconsidered:

• Outcome 1: Our street trees are sustainably and carefully managed and maintained in accordance with best practice
• Outcome 2: Our street trees are more resilient through the type and age of trees we plant and how we manage the current street tree stock
• Outcome 3: Increase the value and benefits that flow from our street trees
• Outcome 4: Contribute to a more equal distribution of urban forest across the city
• Outcome 5: Increase street tree canopy cover.
• Outcome 6: The wider community of all ages is involved in caring for and valuing street trees

The Partnership now operates through 4 working groups meeting monthly, with quarterly whole partnership meetings. The working groups are currently 1) Planting, biodiversity and engagement 2) Tree Wardens (currently without a chair) 3) Data and Reports 4) Management and third party claims.

A fifth group works outside the main partnership working to resolve ongoing issues with the streets from the Core Investment Period of the Streets Ahead Contract. Paul Selby is the co-chair of this group.

7 Voting arrangements for AGM

Woll introduced a discussion about the voting arrangements for Committee elections.

The constitution itself already specifies, in some detail, how elections should be held, eg that voting should happen before the AGM, not afterwards as has happened in the past. The constitution requires voting arrangements to be “agreed by members at a general meeting”.

The general steer collated from member input from this and previous meetings, and to realign the voting arrangements with the constitution:

• No negative voting (off-putting to prospective candidates, divisive and against the tone of the constitution).
• No publishing of the number of votes (divisive in setting up a rank of “validity”).
• The candidates with the highest number of votes will be elected to the officer posts (implicit but not actually specified in the constitution).
• Use the new voting system (simpler for Committee & members. Fewer rejections).
• Results to be announced at the AGM (as specified in the constitution).

There was a call for the meeting to indicate member’s agreement with these arrangements, and this gained universal support.

The meeting noted that the formal/bureaucratic arrangements that STAG uses for elections are not normal for similar organisations. Most just have a simpler show of hands at the AGM.

Julian Baker volunteered and was elected as Scrutineer for the upcoming elections.

AOB

None

Meeting closed 16:15