TMAEG has just reached a key milestone – we now have one hundred Two Mile Ash households as members. That is quite an achievement after just three years – and in the face of there being so many other competing priorities in people’s lives.
Our ‘century’ was achieved in the run up to our Third Year Celebration and AGM held at Holy Cross Church on Saturday 20th September. It was secured through the membership of Fairways’ resident Mary Parker. In presenting her with a special award at the Celebration, our guest, the Deputy Mayor for Milton Keynes, Keith McLean acknowledged that this was an important milestone for TMAEG. And he commended us generally for our activities. ‘You ooze enthusiasm’, he said.
Mary Parker receiving a Four Seasons mug from the Deputy Mayor Cllr Keith McLean
We should note that the 100 households equate to over 180 people, so our next milestone to aim for will be that double century in terms of individual members! We have Pavla largely to thank for this success; going forward she would very much appreciate ideas from our existing membership on new people who might like to join us – just give her a ring on 561365 if you know of anyone.
The Photographic Competition
The Celebration also enabled us to show the results of our first Photographic Competition and thanks are due to Dave Barratt who organised it and to Ann and Tom Gaunt and Rita Barratt who judged the entries. There were 27 in all. The Deputy Mayor announced the three senior and one junior prize winners who were awarded a coffee mug bearing their own entry. Here are the winning entries:
Photographic Competition Winners
Thanks are due to all our entrants for their great photos and their enthusiasm.
Open Gardens 2014
The Deputy Mayor also met a number of our members who had opened their gardens in the second Two Mile Ash Open Gardens event. A display was on show at the meeting and we hope to place a version of this on the website shortly.
This year our event was spread over two days, involving 12 gardens in total. Despite the torrential downpour at the start of each session, we attracted 148 visitors and there were 1,179 individual visits. A further benefit was that a total of £400.75 was collected for charities supported by the individual gardeners.
Smita and Harshad’s garden
Smita, who with Harshad has now displayed her garden on two occasions, spoke passionately about the therapeutic benefits of gardening at a time when many of us are overstressed by the pressures of modern life. So our work with TMAEG is not just about improving the environment, it is about us, our happiness and our well-being.
Thanks are due to our gardeners and to Mercure Milton Keynes Abbey Hill Hotel and TMA Gas & Heating Ltd for their valuable sponsorship. Also to Pavla, Bill Forster, Dave Barratt and others for their work in organising the scheme and in publicising and displaying it, and to everyone who visited the 12 homes and thus supported Open Gardens 2014.
Other Achievements
The TMAEG team gave a brief presentation of the many other things accomplished by TMAEG – notably, the work that we (and individual residents) did in response to the school expansion planning application, on the Big Tree Plant, the golf course (in conjunction with MK Green Gym), Milesmere Woodland Path, the Park Gateway, and at Kepwick, as well as the bulb planting by Ashbrook school children.
We were also involved in Britain in Bloom, the judges viewing three of our environmental schemes as part of their tour of Milton Keynes. It was gratifying to learn that the city received a Silver Gilt Award.
We also mounted three social events – an evening at the Calcutta Brasserie in December 2013, a visit with Green Gym members to the recycling plant (MRF) and a social evening at the Golf Centre.
Catering for the Third Year Celebration
Special thanks are due to Corinne and Andrew who, with Lin, organised the afternoon tea. And we are grateful to all those who provided the splendid cakes.
The Annual General Meeting
In the more formal part of our gathering, Liz Ruthven as Treasurer presented our accounts which were approved by the meeting. Thanks are due to Liz for her diligent work in managing the finances of our expanding organisation.
Members also resolved to support the concept of a business membership for TMAEG and they approved changes to our Constitution which enable this and some other small changes to be made. The revised Constitution appears on our website here.
In his final remarks as TMAEG Chair, Chris Gossop thanked all the members of the TMAEG Committee for their hard work over the year. Two committee members were standing down, Tom Gaunt who had served from the start and also Ferial Hyde who had to stand down for personal reasons – both had done invaluable work for TMAEG. Thanks are also due to our webmaster Chris Monk, to our environmental volunteers and to all our members for the support they have provided.
A new Committee was elected, with Dave Barratt as Chair, Chris Gossop as Secretary, and Liz Ruthven as Treasurer. The other members are Ann Gaunt, Corinne Hay, Pavla Gossop (as now) and Peter Blyth who also joins us. In his statement to members as the new Chair, Dave said that the group was looking forward to another great year of environmental achievements.