South East Edinburgh Greens

This report covers South East Edinburgh Greens' (SEEG) activities over the
period June 2021 to June 2022.

Edinburgh 2022

The focus of our activity this year has been the 2022 Edinburgh Council
Elections.

We were confident that Steve Burgess was secure for Southside-Newington (SN) and
so we decided to focus our efforts on John Nichol in Liberton Gilmerton (LG),
particularly through canvassing. Although we realised that winning a seat in LG
was highly unlikely, we were aiming to build the vote up for a win in 2027.

In the end we surpassed our expectations and came within 150 votes of winning a
seat in LG, and came a comfortable second in SN. The LG campaign also helped to
build up the team in that ward enormously.

Below are some numbers for canvassing and deliveries.

Liberton-Gilmerton

We canvassed 556 people in the whole ward from 1 October 2021, and dropped in
'We called today' canvassing cards along the way.

In LG we delivered around:

• 4,250 autumn newsletters

• 2,500 'We called today' canvassing cards

• 5,800 spring newsletters

• 6,600 candidate leaflets

• 3,900 eve of poll cards

We also delivered around 100 window posters to supporters and members and put
out A-boards at 9 polling stations. We stuffed over 600 envelopes with 'warm'
letters for postal delivery.

Southside-Newington

In SN we delivered around:

• 13,000 autumn newsletters

• 10,000 spring newsletters

• 10,500 candidate leaflets

• 230 'warm' letters

• 5,500 eve of poll cards

We also delivered 200 window posters to supporters and members and put out A-
boards at 8 polling stations.

Helping other wards

Our volunteers helped out with deliveries and canvassing in Inverleith ward, and
we supported Forth ward with data entry and producing canvassing sheets. We also
did some envelope-stuffing for Linlithgow and Sighthill-Gorgie.

Fundraising and Finances

Again no capitation income was forthcoming this year. However, with Covid
restrictions still ongoing, we did not need this for meeting room hire and event
expenses. Next year we plan to resume in-person meetings, and so we hope that
capitation income will return.

We decided to have another Auction of Promises in Nov/Dec 2021 as an election
fundraiser, and have been raising funds through crowd-buying.

Auction of Promises

Building on our experience of the first auction of promises, we streamlined the
process by setting up and running the auction on Edinburgh Greens website. The
selection of promises was even more impressive than in the first year, and
included chocolate tasting, sailing lessons and room-painting (see end of report
for full list).

We raised £657 – well up from £270 raised in 2020. The auction had a good social
aspect to it as well giving people the opportunity to meet the people behind the
promises and bids.

Next year, the branch have agreed to take the auction over to make it a wider
and bigger event.

Crowd-buying

For a couple of years, SEEG member John Palmer has been running a crowd buying
initiative for friends and other members as a fundraising initiative. He noticed
that a group of farmers in Spain had organised to sell their produce direct to
consumers. They all work on very organic, ecological and sustainable principles.
They sell in larger quantities, so John organised with friends to buy co-
operatively and then divvied up and delivered the fruit to the buyers.

This financial year the initiative raised £300 for Edinburgh Greens, and crowd
buyers also donated £300 of crowd-farming fruit to food banks in Poland for
Ukrainian refugees. The idea has attracted the attention of the Eco-committee of
Mayfield Church, who have asked John to give a presentation.

Membership

Our membership has increased from 220 to 233 members in our two council wards.

Meetings and Socials

Meetings

Our monthly sub-branch meetings have been focussed on the practical detail of
running a branch and consequently haven't been encouraging members to attend.
So, we decided to change the agenda and start the meeting with a topic, leaving
the business matters until the end. So far we've had:

• Reflections on COP26 – a group discussion

• Sheriffhall Roundabout plans, with Cllr Claire Miller

• 20 Minute Neighbourhoods and Cameron Toll, with Cllr Chas Booth

• Tree Protection, with Ellie Mills, Midlothian Council Tree Officer

We also had a surprise visit from Ariane Burgess MSP. She spoke about Scottish
Greens in Holyrood and in co-operation with the Scottish Government, and the
National Planning Framework.

We now have a Slack workspace for discussion and decision-making in between
meetings.

We plan to return to in-person meetings in July at the Charteris Centre.

Social events

Following the both the Holyrood and Edinburgh elections, we had a thank-you
social for volunteers at The Salisbury Arms. These were a great success.

We've also had a couple of successful joint events with South Edinburgh Greens:

• Astley Ainslie tree tour - Maggie Carson from the Astley Ainslie Community
Trust gave a very engaging tour and we had a bring-to-share picnic in the
grounds

• Meadows Festival picnic – in lieu of our usual stall which we didn't have time
to prepare for this year, SEEG and SEG hosted a picnic with Scottish Greens flag
flying

Appendix 1 - The Promises

Thanks to all who promised and bid in the Auction of Promises:

• Exploring Edinburgh’s Volcano – a guided tour for two

• Hand Woven Double Loop Snood

• Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey

• Knitted Tea Cosy

• Nc’Nean Organic Single Malt Scotch Whisky

• Pacari chocolate gift set

• Pacari Chocolate Tasting for four households

• Paint a Room

• Peace Lily

• Peeriegal Tote Bag

• Positive News Subscription

• Grow your own Raspberries

• Three sets of Reusable Gift Wraps

• Sailing Lesson and/or Sailing Trip

• Three pots of Money Plant Cuttings

Appendix 2 – Office Bearers 2022-23

The following people were elected as office bearers at our AGM on 9 June 2022:

• Ola Olsinova – Co-Convenor

• Guy Johnson – Co-Convenor

• Branch Committee Representative – Breck MacGregor

• John Palmer – Minutes Secretary

• Steve West – Membership Secretary

• Alison Neathey – Admin Secretary*

• Caroline Barr – Social Secretary*

*new roles