Chief Executive Paul Chandler gave his review of the year outlining some of the achievements of the past twelve months, and reflecting both on how far we had come in the past three decades (in this, our 30th birthday year) and on how we were planning to address challenges for the future.
This was followed by a response to the 2009 Social Accounts from Margaret Masson, representing the Traidcraft Foundation, and led into a question and answer session. The formal AGM followed and concluded before lunch with a presentation of the 30th Birthday Traidcraft cake, which supporters were then invited to share with us over lunch.
The afternoon started with several interactive sessions on our work with Fair Trade Schools, Sustainable Tourism and promoting Responsible Purchasing. The Fair Trade Schools and Responsible Purchasing workshops both allowed supporters to test out our games whilst Sustainable Tourism looked at the work of Meet the People tours.
Mid-afternoon tea allowed for mingling amongst supporters and a look at the autumn catalogue range. We regrouped in the warehouse where an introduction was made to Team Traidcraft, our staff runners at the Great North Run.
Melissa Duncan (Head of Communications) then explained the forthcoming Tea Campaign, which she urged all supporters to get behind. Rob Donnelly (Head of Africa Programmes) gave a stimulating presentation on Traidcraft Exchange’s work in Africa focusing particularly on honey projects as examples of how we carry out our work.
Joe Osman (Sourcing Director) and Larry Bush (Marketing Director) then introduced the story of Fair Trade Rubber – a new area which we have pioneered in the past year.
The event closed with a moving 30th Birthday reflection video; a collection of wonderful clips from well wishers on our 30th birthday year.
