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Minutes of Adapt Meeting Saturday 2 August 2008 at The Casino, San Pedro del Pinatar Present: Jane Cronin/President Valerie Gilbert/Vice President Jenny Corfield/Secretary Gwen Thomas/Committee Hazel Tranter/Committee Tony Weedon/Committee Apologies for absence received from committee members Ken Simcox and Kim Kendall There was an excellent turnout for the meeting considering many members return to the UK during August. Jane opened the meeting by going over the objectives of The Adapt Association. She mentioned the importance of integration and mutual understanding between the different nationalities and the benefits of sociaslising in the Spanish community. San Pedro del Pinatar Town Hall was a great believer in "Citizen's Participation" and it welcomed and supported the growth of the Adapt Association that led to more people being involved with activities in the town. Jane told members about the two new projects that had been put forward for funding from the Town Hall. The first was the Christmas Concert. This would involve singing carols both in English and Spanish and also visiting various municipal centres, schools and occupational centres. The second was the environmental project. this would involve four sessions of talks and activities. Events would include local agriculture with social and economic values, local fishing techniques including meeting with the head of the local fishing association, urban nature together with folklore and local customs. A meeting with the Red Cross Organisation would be included as well as cleaning of the beaches and canals around the town. The course could accommodate up to thirty five people and would start the end of October or early November. Adapt would know if they had been successful in their application for funding during the first half of September. Ray Marsh then gave an interesting talk on the four weekends spent with the Cluster Foundation. Members were shown various pictures of the volunteers which included cleaning the beaches, ringing the birds and ending the month with a celebratory meal in a restaurant in El Carmoli. Jenny then read out an e-mail received from Brian and Sylvia Tanner who had taken part in the project giving their complimentary views on the project. Debbie Brealey then brought the members up-to-date on the Summer School and spoke of how the local Spanish children were enjoying the various games and activities arranged for them by the Adapt volunteers. Press releases had been sent out to both the Spanish and English local papers. Valerie spoke next about the walking club and singles/friendship club. Due to the hot weather the walking club now went out in the evening. Pictures of the local town train were shown and information on the pick-up points and cost were discussed. It was suggested that the friendship group awarded points to various places they visited and the results be put on the website. Due to ill health, another leader of the Board Games group was wanted but this was not urgent and could wait until the cooler weather and longer nights came to organise. Hazel then spoke about the cycling group that had just had its first meeting. the first trip out would be on 18 September and they would meet the fird Thursday of every month after that. The formation of the camera club was finally on its way with Diane Hamilton offering to help organise it. The first meeting will take place on Monday 11 August and anyone interested in joining can telephone 611 600 921 for more information. Ray Marsh told the members that an approach had been made to the priest in Pilar de la Horadada who said that expats could help out with the existing floats in the Semana Santa procession. Ray asked anyone interested to contact him. Peter and Janine Banks asked about the possibility of starting a book lending library in San Pedro. Valerie was to talk to them after the meeting about it. Jane would up the meeting by telling the story of the ongoing dispute over the piece of land at El Mojon. The dispute could lead to the alteration of every map of the area being changed to show the new boundaries. Jane said that she would look into the costings for Adapt tee-shirts. She also said that from 1 September the membership fee up to the end of the year would be 5 euros. The next Adapt meeting will be on Saturday 6 September 2008 at 11.00 hrs in The Casino, San Pedro del Pinatar. |
