Food Geographies Working Group 2017Wednesday 30 th August 2017 at RGS-IBG Kensington, London

Minutes of AGM

Present – Mags Adams (Chair), Rebecca Sandover (Secretary), Agatha Herman (Treasurer), Mike Hardman, Suzanne Hocknell, Charlie Spring, Eifiona Thomas Lane, Rebecca Jones, Mustafa Hasanov, Richard Nunes, Sam Ramsden, Henry Sidsaph, Lucy Jackman, Sarah Brouwer, Kim Ward, Les Levidow, Chris Blythe (Federation of City Farmsand community gardens), Michelle Howarth, Andri Brugger, Louise Manning, Vicky Wood, Roxana Triboi, Ciska Ulug, Christopher Turner, Junfan Lin, Giles O’Donovan, Sam Ramsden, Graeme Sherriff, Lopamudra Saxena

1) Apologies for AbsenceRebecca St. Clair, Chiara Tornaghi, Regina Hansda, Sarah Bowyer

2) WelcomeMags Adams welcomed all and introduced the agenda for the AGM.

3) Secretary’s Report Membership

Membership levels have grown slightly since the group was established at annual conference 2015. We currently have 37 members. The numbers we have affect the subvention we receive from the RGS-IBG and will be taken into account in our Research group membership application, so increasing membership is an issue we need to look at. We could try and encourage members of the listserve to sign up and have quarterly reminders to join.

Committee ActivityA sub committee led by Imogen Bellwood-Howard has successfully applied for funding from the RGS-IBG for the upcoming Bangor writing retreat. Thanks to Imogen and others for putting in a lot of time and work in to convening this and ensuring that this is an accessible event. We will update you on outputs from this retreat in due course. As this is a yearly award we will have another opportunity to apply for a grant with an end of October deadline and so this is something needing further discussion.

A sub committee led by Mike Hardman organised the call for sessions and papers for this AC2017 and liaised with conference organisers and participants. We have 11 sessions across the 3 days, which closely

1

matches our strong start to conference sponsorship last year. This includes Food Justice sessions this morning, Food Localisation and New Food sessions this afternoon, 3 Brexit and Agriculture sessions tomorrow and Food in Urban Africa and Food Knowledges Sessions on Friday.

Regina Hansda and Rebecca Sandover led on running the Undergraduate dissertation prize process. We were very pleased to be sent 15 1st class food studies dissertations from across the UK that have included strong and innovative research. We are currently finalising the 1st round marking process before choosing our 1st and 2nd placed dissertations.

Going Forward

Can I extend thanks to Mags and Agatha for their work as chair and treasurer. Also thanks to Sue Hocknell and Mufty keeping our group visible through online activity on our website and Twitter.

4) Treasurer’s Report(See attached at the end of the document) Summary we have a healthy amount of funds thanks to our application for RGS-IBG funding 2016 and subventions. Some of this will be used for our upcoming writing retreat. It is useful to have money in the bank that can be used for match funding.

5) Committee Structure Mags extended thanks to the current committee and all that has been achieved over our 1st two years as a working group. In particular she thanked Suzanne Hocknell who is standing down as Online Officer. Suzanne was instrumental in setting up our website and Jisc Mail account.

6) ElectionsMags introduced the posts to all present and explained some of the roles, with the help of some current officers. Suzanne talked about how we would like to see more contributions of blog posts on the website etc.

Post-graduate Rep:Rebecca St. Clair to stand again as post grad rep –nominated by Mags and seconded by Agatha.

Online Officer:

2

Henry Sidsapth –Nominated by Mufty and seconded by Charlie

2nd Conference Officer (Mike has taken on this role this year):Mark Stein –Nominated by Mike and seconded by Mags

Post-graduate Rep:Lucy Jackman –nominated by Rebecca J and seconded by Agatha

Ordinary Members:Sarah Brouwer –nominated by Charlie and seconded by Richard

Kim Ward –nominated by Agatha and seconded by Rebecca S.

Other attendees expressed interest in joining the committee and were voted in.

Therefore the new committee structure 2017-2018 is this:

Name Committee Position Term dates (start and end years)

Mags Adams Chair 2015-2018

Rebecca Sandover Secretary 2015-2018

Agatha Herman Treasurer 2015-2018

Michael Hardman Conference Officer 2015-2018

Charlie Spring Post-graduate Rep 2015-2017 2017-2018

Rebecca St Clair Post-graduate Rep 2016-2017 2017-2018

Eifiona Thomas Lane Ordinary Member

Events Coordinator

2015-2016

2016-2018

Richard Nunes Book review Editor 2016-2019

Mustafa Hasanov Online Officer 2016-2019

Henry Sidsaph Online Office 2017-2020

Mark Stein Conference Officer 2017-2020

Lucy Jackman Postgraduate Rep 2017-2020

Regina Hansda Early Careers Rep 2016-2019

Duika Burges-Watson Conference Session 2016-2019

3

Officer

Sarah Brouwer Ordinary Member 2017-2020

Kim Ward Ordinary Member 2017-2020

Veronica Barry Ordinary Member 2016-2019

Chiara Tornaghi Ordinary Member 2015-2018

Sarah Bowyer Ordinary Member 2015-2018

Imogen Bellwood Howard Ordinary Member 2015-2018

Roxana Triboi (University of Architecture and Urban Planning "Ion Mincu)

Ordinary Member 2017-2020

Ciska Ulug (Groningen University)

Ordinary Member 2017-2020

Junfan Lin Ordinary Member 2017-2020

Giles O’Donovan Ordinary Member 2017-2020

7) Committee Updates

Writing Retreat: This has been organised with a lot of hard work and time given by Imogen Bellwood-Howard. It is taking place in Bangor on the 12th and 13th September. 10 participants have shared with a partner a piece of work for feedback. Feedback and further exercises will take place during the workshop plus a social event. We are hoping that this process will eventually lead to finished journal articles and PhD chapters.

Dissertation Prize: Again a lot of time take by a handful of committee members and organised by Regina and Rebecca S. We were delighted in having 15 1st class dissertations submitted from across the UK. All have been marked through the 1st round and a decision needed to be made regarding the 2nd round process. 5 dissertations were marked at 80% or higher and 3 at 84% or higher. As some markers had to mark alone due to a lack of contact from their paired marker, it was agreed that the winner and 2nd placed would be chosen out of the top 5 dissertations. This will be conducted via a skype chat with those who marked them before the end of September. Rebecca S. will then contact all participating Universities.

Online Update: Mufty said that online engagement is growing via Twitter, with currently 461 followers including scholars/students who are

4

now asking for advice via the platform. Mufty has been increasing our visibility by tagging in Universities when replying. There was a push to get more people sending in blog posts for the website but this hasn’t really happened. A question was posed do we need a facebook group? Some think that it is not necessary and might be difficult to make our presence felt. We had intended to create an online literature archive but this has not yet happened.

Conference Session Update: Mike said that we were pleased to see an increased spectrum of sessions concerning food scholarship including the sponsorship of internationally focused sessions. He was pleased to see sessions creating collaborations beyond human geography. Looking to next year there is a suggestion to do a pre-conference symposium considering that we will be based in Cardiff.

Book Review Officer: Richard has been in touch with Earthscan and has 3 books on offer for review. Richard will give the reviewer guidelines and then this can be loaded onto our website. These books were circulated during the AGM and 3 reviewers found. Rebecca S. suggested that existing food studies related book reviews might also be shared on our website.

8) Looking Ahead

Mags reflected on the items suggested for our 5 Year Plan and asked if there were any actions that members wanted to take forward.

Eifiona would like to progress work around Schools and Food, particularly in North Wales and would be happy to lead on some work. A sign up sheet was sent around for those interested in working with her.

Several committee members –Agatha, Rebecca S. and Mike felt that running another pre-conference symposium at next year’s RGS-IBG in Cardiff would make sense given its food related research and rich food culture. Agatha sent around a sheet for people to sign up if they are interested in being involved in this. We will apply for RGS-IBG research group funds to support this event –deadline is the end of October.

Chris Blythe from The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens invited us to collaborate on research and future events. In particular, they would be happy to have a Food Research forum allied to their annual conference.

Mike mentioned the European Food Geographies suggested that we link up with the AAG Food and Agriculture Speciality Group.

5

Henry S. would be interested in being involved in some mapping activities.

It was agreed to have an events calendar linking our events and external events on the website.

Mags outlined the process for applying for Research Group status. We will use the resources that we’ve created over the last couple of years to highlight our activity and the vibrant nature of the growing group. Mags has been in touch with Sarah Evans about the process and we would need to send in our application in late January for feedback. It would then be assessed at the March committee meeting. Our application will need 40 official RGS-IBG members to be considered (at the time of writing we have 41).

The Chair, Secretary and Treasurer positions come to an end in 2018 and we will be electing new officials next year.

9) No other business –Thanks to all attending and contributingDate of Next Meeting: AGM – RGS-IBG Annual Conference, August/September 2018, Cardiff. Notes - Financial report: 

6

Research Group financial reporting form

Research Group NameFood Geographies

Working GroupPeriod 30/12/16-17/08/17Receipt and payments account Unity Trust Bank

INCOMERGS-IBG subvention £240.00RGS-IBG grant(s) £400.00Other grants £0.00Subscriptions £0.00Conference income £0.00Meetings income £50.00Royalties £0.00Interest £0.00Other income (please give details): balance carried over from previous year £0.00

EXPENDITURECommittee expenses £0.00Conference costs £0.00Meetings costs £0.00Newsletter costs £0.00Grants and awards £0.00Other costs (please give details) Bank Service Charges £54.00

Total payments £54.00

Net surplus/deficit £636.00

Opening balance(s) - 30th December 2016 £482.00(or alternative date)

Closing balances - 18th August £1,118.00

Closing balances comprised of:treasurer accountdeposit account

It would help if you gave the additional information for BACS paymentsAddress of branch where accounts are heldAccount number(s)Sort code

Name of treasurer Agatha HermanEmail address of Treasurer HermanA@cardiff.ac.ukPhone number of Treasurer

7