Meeting on next Saturday, March 18th at 11 am in The Yeats County Hotel in Curry.
Am not a meetings/committee woman, but we do have to have a quick look at:
1- Where we are at in terms of what has been done (Quick Power Point Presentation on this)
2- We must go through the ´Donor´s Charter´and ´Guiding Principles of Fundraising´ and most importantly, we have to ´sign off´on these documents. We will run through both documents quite quickly as they are not difficult. We cannot apply for further funding or set up a crowdfunding page until both these documents have been signed by committee members.
3- Discussion on how and when to approach different groups within the community.

I promise you all, this won´t take too long. I´m mindful that it´s a Saturday, but I think it´s so much better than a 7pm or 8pm meeting mid-week. It means that after the meeting, the day is our own :)

Just got fantastic news!!! In January, I applied for funding i/a/o 2,500 euro to Energia´s ´Get Ireland Growing Fund ´sponsored by AIB. Today I got the following email... Am over the moon!!! We´re getting funds in amount of 2,000 euro. That brings our funds to date up to 3,600 euro (500 of this has been promised, and will tell you all, when it´s in our account)... It´s all good news tho!!! :)

Congratulations!!

You and your group are one of our Harvest awardees of the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund! Your application was absolutely fantastic and we are delighted to give you €2000 to help you and yours realise your growing dreams.

So here's the plan once you've done your happy dance, shouted woohoo and told someone the great news!

1. Put March 21st in your diary for the Energia Get Ireland Growing Awards Ceremony at GROW HQ in Waterford (provisional time for the event is 11am - 1pm but we'll confirm shortly)

2. To make payment we need either a copy of your group's bank statement from the last three months so that we have the correct IBAN Number for a bank transfer or we need your group's account name (bank, post office, credit union) and postal address for a cheque. We can't make a payment to a personal account for obvious reasons... Email Elaine with those details and she will sort it out.

3. Do another little jig to celebrate - it's brilliant news after all!!

4. Take 2 mins to complete this short questionnaire - this is our way of giving back to our great partners Energia, who understandably would like to know what you think about the campaign and without whom there would be no Get Ireland Growing Fund so your help is much appreciated.

5. Shout your news from the green rooftops! Tell everyone on Facebook and Twitter your good news and do please tag us and use the hashtag #ENERGIAGIG so that we can share the lovage too.If you haven't had a chance to do so already, connect with us via social media and we’d love you to sign up to our ezine which will most likely feature our Energia Get Ireland Growing Awardees over the coming weeks.

Congratulations once again, we hope we've made your day as reading your application made ours. We’re really glad to have you as part of the GIY Community and are here when you need us!Karen (on behalf of the GIY and Energia Get Ireland Growing Team)

Karen O'Donohoe
Community Manager
086 2312899

Committees. There will be two committees. A Steering Committee and once the garden is up and running, a Management Committee. Right now, the most important thing is the Steering Committee. This is how it stands at the moment. Chairperson: Mary McIntyre, Treasurer: Richella O´Connor, Secretary: Ann Marie O´Neill. Sally Harte has expressed an interest in being on the Steering Committee and I will be shortly be asking one of the CTown´s Mens Shed if he would like to join us. I am also keen to have someone from Active Retirement, and ultimately I think Bellaghy needs representation on the Committee. It would be ideal if we had a tech head on the committee also. Please let me know if you are interested in becoming a Steering Committee member.

Because we want to set up a crowdfunding page, the Steering Committee will have to sign up to Statement of Guiding Principles for Fundraising, as set forth by the Charities Regulator. In the interest of financial accountability and transparency, it is important to do this. Therefore, we are going to have to meet as a Committee ... and sooner, rather than later!

Sally Harte has also suggested that we get in contact with Celia Greubert from Foxford. This lady has a lot of experience in setting up community gardens, and will be able to help us plan the garden properly, and advise us on what to grow the first year. I will contact her tonight, and invite her to talk to us at a Steering Committee Meeting.

This garden has grown legs and it´s popularity on facebook attests to the fact that there´s a need in the community for it, not just for food security, but as a place where people can reconnect with each other and with nature. I´m really excited about it and I hope that you all are as well. My email address is [email protected]. If you email me, I can give you my landline or mobile. Change wont come easy to Charlestown, but with passion and commitment, I think we can do it.
Kindest regards,
mary mc

Hi everyone, Where do I start?! So much has been happening behind the scenes. The Facebook page is going great, with posts this week reaching over 2,500. My last post on ´How to build a Hoop House´reached 1,064 people. So if you haven´t looked at the facebook page, please do. It´s important to like and share, ´cause we have to have to get word or the garden out there!!! We were contacted today by Paul Kirwan from The Roscommon Herald. He writes a monthly article called ´The Secret Garden´and guess what?! He wants to write an article about our garden. I did tell him that we were waiting for the legal contract to be finalised before we go in with the digger :) He will wait until that is underway, and then wants to meet up take pics, and interview us. Paul is the second journalist who has expressed an interest in writing an article about the garden. All this is very positive.

On the funding side, we have secured local funding of 1,000 euro, Seamus Bermingham kindly gave us a donation of 100 euro and Maureen McEntire has promised us 500 euro (Thank you Maureen). We have also applied to Leader for funding to the tune of 4,376 euro to cover the purchase of a 50 foot polytunnel from Turlough Nurseries and a garden shed from O´Brien´s Sheds. I´m in the process of applying for charitable status so we can then set up a crowdfunding page. Once again, getting the word out... and keeping our name out there will be paramount to getting funding down the road. Next post will be about the Steering Committee. Welcome to Active Retirement and Charlestown Mens Shed :)
Kind regards,
Mary Mc

Check out fb page

Hi Everyone, I haven´t forgotten about you all. Have been busy building a website for the proposed garden. Here it is.... as it is!!! It´s not finished and I´ve lots more to do with it, but needed to get a face out there. Jim Garvey is a Master Gardener from Charlestown!!! He´s kindly allowed me to write a ´blog´about him. Jim was one of the first people to support the idea of a garden. He´s an expert in vegetable gardening and although he´ll be busy this summer with his own garden, we will surely be looking to him for expert gardening advice. Here is the link to the web page and to the blog on Jim. xo mary mc

Ariel view of garden

So here´s what´s happening! We haven´t forgotten about our wonderful new garden, but we´ve been working behind the scenes to ensure that we get our hand´s in the deep dark soil before too long. We´ve applied to the Energia Get Ireland Growing Fund and have requested the maximum of 2,500 euro (Whether we get it or not.... is another story!!!) I´ve been in touch with the council and have scheduled a meeting for next weekend. We have been assured that the council will level and clear the land, as well as erecting a perimeter fence. We´ve secured the services of a pro bono solicitor who will draw up legal contract between ourselves and the Swimming Pool Committee who manage the land on which we´ll have our garden.... This guy will legalise everything. We´re currently looking at public liability insurance to indemnify all members of the community garden. We are also trying to register as a non for profit charity with the Charities Regulator. Reasons for doing this are as follows. Many former Charlestonians, now living abroad have expressed an interest in donating to the garden and in the interests of transparency, we thought it was important to be registered as a charity. We have opened two bank accounts with AIB, one is a checking account, while the other will be linked to an onlne fundraising account. Having a charitable status will mean that we will not have to pay exorbitant bank charges for online banking..... I nearly fell over when I heard that without charitable status, we´d have to pay in excess of 240 euro a year for online banking. When we set up the account for the Charlestown Organic Garden Committee, we had to name Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. I am now the official Chairperson, Ann Marie O´Neill from Bellaghy is the Secretary while Richella Clarke has accepted the post of Treasurer. I think that when you are dealing with the public, with fundraising issues and monies received and spent, one has to be totally transparent and above board... and while all this legalise is boring and a bit of a ´head-wreck´.... it´s important in the interest of fairness and transparency.
So.... I know we haven´t been in contact in quite some time, we have been working towards making this garden a reality. I will attach a link to the proposed site and if anyone would like to see the rules governing the powers of the committee, I will be delighted to share them. Wonderful to see the wee stretch in the evening.... perks a body up a bit , doesn´t it :)
Talk soon,
mary mc