Wrap up: AGM & community get-together

Hello everyone! The sun is out and we could not be happier for it!

Thanks to those who came out for the CRA’s annual AGM and community get-together on Monday! We forgot to take pictures so there is just one, below, taken by Anna (one of our new committee members) from behind the control table (thanks Anna!)

The vibe was very much “fireside chat AGM” and we gathered in the downstairs area of The Claremont! Huge thanks to Kelly for hosting us.

Below is a video of the presentation we gave, hopefully it makes sense alongside the commentary (also below).

The main things to let you know will be our upcoming list of events!

• The Progressive Supper is on Saturday March 7th, so if you’ve signed up for that you will have your details or will be getting them shortly!

• For Easter weekend, we once again will be encouraging everyone to decorate their houses, and if you would like to put out sweets for children to find along the street please do!! It never fails to uplift. There will also be a raft of Easter activities at The Claremont so do keep your eyes out for details about those on their instagram and the board outside the pub. We will also be sending an Easter post out soon.

• Towards the end of May/beginning of June we will be organising a street-wide YARD SALE and advertising it to the whole of Bath. It’s a great chance to sell the things you no longer need (from the comfort of your own front door) and raise some money for the CRA and yourselves! More details on that soon as well.

The other main thing that happened at the AGM is that we have a adopted a new constitution! This one is much less formal and is a better fit for the direction the committee is going in. Once a year, the committee will assess it to make sure it still works, and it can be amended accordingly.

Stay tuned for some of the other activities we are both organising and promoting. And thanks again to everyone who came out!

Press play below to see the slides we presented at the AGM. Below that is our “commentary” that went along with the slides.

AGM PRESENTATION MARCH 1st 2006

7pm to 7.05pm

Hello,welcome to our annual Camden Community Get-together & CRA AGM

Thank you for coming.

The admin / Health&Safety bit – fire exits, toilets, there are suggestion cards up at the sign in table with Nigel.

We encourage everyone to spend at the bar this evening. So please drink up and have some food!! 

OK to the agenda. 

We are going to try to keep this to under an hour so that we don’t all turn into Fred the skeleton sitting here opposite Gay’s hill on halloween. 

Housekeeping to 7.05pm

First up, are the minutes from the last AGM accepted? First and seconded? OK, so it’s over to Nigel for a quick rundown of our accounts this year! 

Nigel went through accounts.

Thanks Nigel! Year ahead:  Our general goals are to break even, explore options for more predictable income stream and so that there doesn’t have to be as much personal expenditure or dipping into savings. 

To 7.10pm

We are a constituted residents’ association, but not a membership organisation. We roughly represent the areas marked on this map, the map is adjusted from year to year to reflect the officers and members of the committee itself, for example  we recently extended when our longtime treasurer Nigel moved a couple of streets over, but as many of you know we do consider the whole area when we plan our events and connect, not just the areas marked in red. 

AGM requirements are to Elect the Committee for the year ahead so here are the people standing for the committee for 2025. There are * next to Bob and Nigel’s name as they are both looking to step down at some point in the future but are very kindly waiting until someone is able to take over their very important roles. And welcome to Nigel II and Anna who are joining us. 

Our 4C Vision:

Explained the C’s. We exist for the benefit of our community. Everything we do is for you!! Explained why campaign is crossed out as we didn’t do any this year and mention our new constitution at the end is seeking to take the “campaign” out of our mission.

So let’s get on to our year in review, and what we have coming up for you! 

CELEBRATE & CONNECT

Following the success of the first progressive supper in 2024 we decided to repeat in 2025 and had another fantastic, successful evening.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of a progressive supper (sometimes called a safari supper) – it’s a neighbourhood wide dinner party where residents kindly offer to host either a starter or main course for their neighbours and the guest list changes for starters and main courses.  Everyone ends up together at what we fondly term as our “pudding party” to share stories of the evening and meet even more neighbours.  We were also delighted that Camden’s own Kombucha Queen, Louise generously share a case of her own Company’s Kombucha – the LA Brewery.  It was fantastic to see so many new residents taking part last year and this year sees our third supper taking place this Saturday with the guest list hitting almost 50.  It’s a great way to meet your neighbours and make new friends and if you’ve missed it this year we really hope you will join in next year – it really is a great night.

Here we have our easter event. This is one of our “decorate your house” events which we believe encourages people to get out and walk up and down the neighbourhood and enjoy each others company. This was started in Lockdown when there was no public Easter Activities for children to attend and as it was such a great thing to do we have decided to continue with it in future years.  Remember Easter is early this year – first weekend in April so get your creative heads on and encourage your children or just your inner child to decorate your home

Here are some photos of our third Street Party held here at the Claremont and despite the rain those who came still managed to have a great time.  There was lots of craft making, face painting and temporary tattoos, bean bag throwing, good old fashioned bingo and a cake contest where you can see here the amazing winning bee cakes made by Frances and Ameira.  Our lovely local dancing heroes Vinny and Sambi of course won “best dressed” – they never fail to make me smile with their gorgeous costumes and infectious dancing.  But the absolute highlight was hearing Zac Ware, lead guitarist for the Proclaimers playing two feet away from her.  What an absolute treat to have such a local master guitarist playing on our doorstep.  Although we won’t be having another street party this year we will definitely be returning to this event in years to come. 

Another highlight on the CRA calendar is Spooky Camden – our very own Halloween event for everyone but a real hit with the local kids – far and wide.  Last year there were well over 200 kids out trick or treating and 48 houses were decorated.  This coming year we are aiming for over 50 houses and we have a lot of big plans for 2026 including Richard from Bath Guitar School suggesting taking his students to do a busk-in-costume at a few places along Camden Road during the trick or treat hours which will be amazing.  And of course the night always ends up here at the Claremont for those who want to continue the fun.  This year Halloween falls on a Saturday night so no excuses not to join in.

And we are always so happy to have the Claremont in our neighbourhood as a hub for many of our events.  The new landlady, Kelly has been working really hard to bring the community together and has a host of cool, ongoing events taking place.  Open Mic night which happened last night is hosted by Ash on City View and so if you fancy taking your act on stage in front of your neighbours the next one is …. There’s also a craft club, knitting night was last Thursday and next one is coming up. There’s the famous Claremont Quiz held bi-weekly on a Tuesday and – plenty of book clubs meet here and you can always come along and watch live sport especially the rugby with friends and neighbours

We will always do our best to let you know what’s happening with good notice but the best way to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Claremont is to follow them on Instagram.

7.30pm

CONNECT

Instagram – we share this instagram account with Camden Meadow and its a great way to both connect with the community but also celebrate it! Primarily a visual medium – Very much about conversation, comments – fostering a sense of an active community. Our two most popular posts from the past year are up here. Take part – send ideas – send us photos (email or DM)

There are various other Comms channels – each serve a slightly different purpose / audience…

Website, Blog, E-shots/Newsletters, door-drops. There is a noticeboard that belongs to a resident on Prospect Place where we sometimes have the latest flyer or notice pinned up. We are also in talks with Kelly here at the Claremont to put a larger noticeboard on the outside of the pub. There is one at the moment over on the other side of the bus stop but we feel it can be moved to a more prominent location or upgraded to one in glass where flyers can be posted and generally made more of so that’s something we’re going to be working on. 

CONTRIBUTE – this one is really important to us. We work hard to contribute in as many ways as we can to the neighborhood, our whole goal is to create community. As always, we are limited by the time we have as committee members which is why we want to extend the invitation to as many people as possible to get involved and work together. Go over photos.

THE YEAR AHEAD

Some of the things we get up to regularly…. 

And some of the things we would like to bring in, or back in, to our remit in 2025.. Something which contributes to the community can also celebrate it and connect us to each other. The beauty of our mission is that the c’s overlap. Some of these might also be great for fundraising which we always need so that we can have better events. 

One of the things the CRA does is work to make sure that we are operating efficiently and for the good of the whole neighborhood. These are some of the things that will be on our agenda in the coming year. 

CONTRIBUTE WITH OUR FRIENDS – in addition to the CRA there are a handful of great organisations in the community worth checking out. Many of us on the committee are involved in these as well. 

First up, our wonderful friends at camden meadow. They look after the meadow so beautifully, are busy planting fruit trees, and a great team of Camden Goat herders- working with Street Goat in Bristol – goats on land 3-4 times a year. There are the christmas lights that the meadow sponsor which adds a great festive feel.

Here we have a wildlife cam that was installed by a member of the CRA and Camden Meadow, you can find these videos on the Camden Meadow website, they are really cool. 

Honey! Camden Meadow honey is just now gearing up for production. The first batch went to volunteers. The second batch was sold at the Camden Meadow Busk. The busk is an annual event that is invite only, for members of the meadow and their friends. 

St Stephens Steps – organised by Tracey a local resident. The idea is to keep the steps clear of leaves and debris, to keep the weeds and brambles cut back, and the group is now looking at planting something low-maintenance and low in height to keep everything back and make it more attractive and less scary, and will require less clean up of the steps. This is good for everyone in Camden, not just the people who use the steps or park on bird** alley. Which is what we call it in our house. 

And on to our brilliant friends at Friends of Hedgemead Park – they look after, plant, prune, and create an extraordinary green space for this area. last year they were awarded a Green Flag award for the 6th year in a row. Working with locals, students doing DofE, been involved in the parks4All initiative, In the RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ scheme they were awarded a Level 5 – Outstanding. Can’t say enough good things about them. 

MOTION – 

Jonathan talked about the wish of the committee to simplify the constitution and make it more fit for purpose. Taking out some of the unnecessary admin and focussing on the 3 C’s We voted and it was passed. 

Q&A

• Local councillor Oli was present and talked about the various initiatives he and the other councillors are working on. 
• We talked about the Fix My Street app and how well that has worked. 
• We talked about encouraging people to create whatsapp groups for their immediate group of houses i.e. the one that Upper Camden Place and Eastbourne Ave use. How it is easy to then communicate with the whole neighborhood quickly in the case of any emergencies like when the water mains were out a few weeks ago. 
• We talked about the possibility of getting a red phone box with a defibrillator installed somewhere near the Camden Crescent end of the neighborhood that could also be used as a little library. 

Thanks to everyone slide.