Sir John Stirling Maxwell Allotment Gardens

Stunning images captured from the main paths at the plots over the summer by our own resident photographer Siananne Boylan of Plot 121. See if you can recognise any from your own plot

Thank you SO much to our Open Day visitors who kindly donated to local foodbanks at the gate. You raised an amazing total of £712. It was such a pleasure today to meet Audrey and Claire, managers of Glasgow SE Foodbank and Glasgow South West Foodbank who do such invaluable work with their teams in the local community. The donation will be divided equally between the two organisations. Thanks everyone!

In case you’ve not seen the sign at the noticeboard yet, enough people have asked for more compost that we’re putting in another order. Let us know by Friday (17th June) before 5pm how much you want, and we’ll phone it in to their order system before they close for the weekend.

Delivery probably is about a week, so the sooner we can get the order in, the better!

Speak to Scott, or email your order to treasurer@sjsmallotments.co.uk

NB: Prices have gone up slightly since the last time we ordered

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We have submitted Planning and Building Warrant applications to Glasgow City Council for the new gazebo. As we are in a Conservation Area, we are required to apply for planning consent for this permanent structure. The gazebo will be a great addition for members to enjoy socialising and will also be used for scheduled visits by local community groups to take refreshments following talks and tours of the plots. We received Area Development Funding towards this facility from the Council, along with the future conversion of Plot 3 into a wheelchair-accessible plot.

Progress for the Planning application, which normally takes around 2 months for decision, can be viewed online at the Glasgow City Council List of Planning Applications

If you have any questions, see Helen on plot 72, who’s managing the day-to-day parts of the project and who created the architectural drawings, and William on Plot 7, from the Committee.

Sunday 8 May, 2pm

Tea and coffee outside pavilion from 1pm

Invitation

In case you’ve never been to the AGM before: it’s your chance to discuss how things are going, and how we could develop the site for the benefit of all. Everybody’s warmly encouraged to come along to the pavilion next weekend at 2.

We’ll have tea and coffee outside the pavilion from 1. Come along and meet some people you’ve never met, and have a chat about the points on the agenda (below) before we get started.

It’s also where the current Committee stands down and a new one is elected (4 office bearers, 1 groundskeeper, 2 auditors, plus up to 9 others). If you’d like to stand, you just first need to be proposed by a member and then seconded by another. It might be helpful if we know in advance who’s interested in standing, or if you just have questions about the job – contact us here. We’ve created some are role descriptions to help you think about it. Fresh perspectives are always welcome!

Each Member (i.e. the one single person who signed the membership form for your plot – contact us if you need to check who that is) has a right to vote on any resolutions. We’re happy in principle for plot-sharing partners to come along and listen / discuss their relevant experiences so we can feed that into the eventual votes by the Members. If we’re pushed for space inside the pavilion, though, we’ll need to ask that partners give up their seats. If it’s nice, we could even move out to the tarmac…

If you’re not coming to the AGM, I’ll take this chance with the last official message of the year from the secretary’s seat to say that I (and the whole committee) hope you’ve had a good growing year this past 12 months. It’s been good to meet even more of you than I did back when I was Treasurer. I’m excited by the new gazebo project taking shape as we wrap up the Committee year, and you can see the plans for that in this other post.

All the best

Scott
Acting Secretary (Plot 38)

Agenda

For a reminder of all Rules & Regulations / Constitution as they currently exist, see the Documents page.

1. Chair’s opening remarks
2. Minutes of last AGM (attached, below)
3. Secretary’s report (to be tabled)
4. Treasurer’s report (to be tabled)
5. Auditor’s report (to be tabled)
6. Spending decisions deferred from Committee meetings throughout the year
   (Details of the following spending proposals are attached, below)
   a. Defibrillator
   b. Chemical toilet
   c. Match funding for accessible plot / gazebo project
   d. Removal of overgrown Leylandii (Plots 66 and 68b)
7. Motions
   (Details of the following motions are attached, below)
   a. Amendment to burning season (Proposer: Committee)
   b. Increase of late levy (Constitution part 2 & Rule 5) (Proposer: Scott)
   c. Plot-clearing deposit (Constitution part 2 & Rule 4) (Proposer: Scott)
   d. Procedure for approval of £300+ spends (Constitution part 7 / New rule?) (Proposer: Scott)
   e. Use of external pavilion power socket (Proposer: Marie)
   f. Formal ratification of Constitution (Proposer: Scott)
8. AOCB
9. Election of committee (see role descriptions, below)
10. Vote of thanks

One last chance to get your hands on some of the stock from this year’s online Potato Day from the Glasgow Allotments Forum!

Everything will be out on tables this weekend 2-5pm both days, outside the pavilion. Everything is reduced from original prices. 2kg bags are £3.50, and everything smaller is £2.50. Onions are £2 for 50 sets, and shallots are £3 for 12. Flower and veg seeds are individually priced – usually between £1 and £1.50.

If you prefer to pay online first, put your order through on the GAF webshop and just head over to the plots to pick it up!

New road gate and parking permits

We wrote to everyone in November about the new gate the council gave us to help manage traffic with the Burrell Collection opening this week. We’ve already had a few days this month when it’s been difficult to get past general park visitors parking at the end of the lane, so we’re going to try closing the gate over for a few weeks. It doesn’t have a padlock yet, and the committee are looking at whether we can get one made to fit the same gate key we already all use.

Wardens are also about to start giving tickets to anyone who’s parked without paying at a meter, so we’ve agreed with them that we’ll start handing out new SJSM permits to our members again to keep us from getting any and then having to bother with an appeal.

If you come to the plots in a car, just contact us online or speak to Scott (plot 38, Acting Secretary), Marie (plot 1A, Chair) or Angela (plot 27, Acting Treasurer) and we’ll get you sorted with a new permit to put in your window.

Rent collection

Rent is due by the AGM on the second Sunday of May, and Angela (Acting Treasurer) is ready to start taking payments. Details have been sent out by email and posted on the notice board. Please send any rent questions direct by email to Angela, or drop by plot 27 to see her.

We get some resignations every year at the end of rent season when the deadline comes around. If you’re thinking this might be the year you hand back your key, we’d be sorry to see you go, but get in touch early and we can help save you the effort of turning over the soil for an extra few weeks. We’ll help you get the plot handed on to someone on our waiting list so they can do the work (and they can get a good crack at things from the start of the season), and we can sort out an early refund for you. Just reply to this email and we’ll be in touch to help you see if it sounds right for you.

Seed potatoes / onion sets / seeds for sale

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Need some inspiration?