February has been a busy month as the project gains momentum.  The work on generating evidence to progress the Community Asset Transfer and funding applications has been a major driver.. 

The Asset Transfer Request will be presented to CBA for final approval at their next meeting in March. We want to thank the Community Ownership Support Service (COSS) for their support and advice.

A pre-planning application has been submitted for the access bridge to allow safe crossing of the burn.
Village organisations and businesses are being invited to confirm their support of the Project. We want to thank all those who responded. 
The Management Plan, Zero Carbon Policy, Risk Assessment  and other supporting documentation is underway and thanks to those who vetted the documents and gave feedback.

The Plants and Planting Team have been doing their research and are organising online and site  meetings with key experts in Orchard Development.  

2 volunteers went to the Viewfield Orchard in Nairn to meet up with the Volunteer and Events coordinator, offer some help with maintenance and get some valuable information for our project.  Networking with other Orchards is key and one of the team has undertaken research on other that sites that we plan to visit at various times across the seasons.

The Finance and Fundraising Team are coming together and tenure over the site is key to securing  funding.  2 volunteers attended a Fundraising  Masterclass run by Highland and Islands Climate Action Hub and this will directly influence the aspiration for inward investment to the village.  Carrbridge Community Orchard became a member of Highland and Islands Climate Hub who have a lot of help to offer, including small grants.

 Carrbridge is classed as Geographically isolated in the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation this and our Zero Carbon Policy will be  part of our funding applications.

The first Grant application was submitted by the due deadline of 28th February for infrastructure projects. We expect to find out more by the end of May.

This website we hope will be an interim measure until we establish a Communications team, and the Facebook Page is also a work in progress at this early stage to document the journey for all stakeholders.

One of our Comms volunteers attended a Mail Chimp workshop organised by VABS which means that we can communicate directly via email with those who 'don't do Facebook' to be as inclusive as possible.  We thank our subscribers for supporting the project.