Document revision

A revision of the document will be sent out for review before tomorrows meeting. If all could look through it and send through their draft information before the meeting that would beneficial to the discussion.

Promotion of ARCH event

Promotion of the ARCH event in community centres

Today I went to Leeds to tie up a few loose ends, speak to some community centre representatives and promote the ARCH event to local enterprises. Whilst doing this, I was speaking to a representative of the Woodhouse Community Centre who was enthusiastic about the work we are doing and that evening was meeting representatives of the LUU to discuss volunteer dispersion throughout the ward, she then offered to out discuss the work we are doing with the university activity groups in relation to possible voluntary activity within All Hallows. During this discussion we talked about some of All Hallows members joining the 'community transformers' scheme which she stated would be the most sensible step for All Hallows in relation to the implementation and progression of the live project.

Group meeting

The meeting today with Carolyn today and subsequent group meeting provided some further confirmation of specific roles for the university presentation and handover criteria along with the a series of future dates for these events. We have confirmed that the handover to the client will be a table meeting with the PCC, talking about the processes involved in attaining the information and the reasoning for the design choices that have been made, this meeting will last for approximately 1hour and the size of group that will attend has not yet been discussed.

Consensus has been achieved on the document style, it formatting and that it will be a singular document, conceived as a narrative of the progression of the design process.

ROLES CONFIRMED

Gris - Uploading of information to the universities website (attendance of lecture on Monday)

Tim - Production, printing and binding of document for hand-over

Question time

It would be great if everyone could email questions they wish to be asked or points they require clarification on to their relevant group representatives (Sarah, Qi and Vas). This is obviously the last chance that we will get to speak to Steve and any members of the PCC before the final handover and accordingly is of importance.

Along with this it would be good if, at the group meeting on Thursday that people could come along with ideas for the university presentation, its format, the areas of focus that were considered in relation to the amount of time we have to present, what should be presented and who / how this will be done. Everybody should be thinking of this!

KEY DATES

• Thursday 28th - at 4pm in the studio to discuss the document, its legibility and coherence
• Sunday 31st - at 10am at the IC building in a meeting room which has still to be confirmed
• Thursday 4th November - University presentation
• Sunday 7th November - PCC Handover date
• Saturday 12th November - ARCH exhibition

Voluntary Community and Faith Sector Learning in Leeds

I just stumbled across this document - and was wondering why All Hallows is not included? any ideas?

http://www.leedsvoice.org.uk/about/publications/leeds_learningdirectory.pdf

Also, what about Third Sector Leeds?

Third Sector Leeds is a partnership group of voluntary and community organisations, charities, faith groups and social enterprises working in Leeds. It aims to be the point of engagement with the third sector in Leeds, working together to: develop third sector policies; engage with and influence decision makers and co-ordinate representation of the third sector on statutory partnerships and boards.

They are having an open event on Monday 1st November 2010 9am -12pm Leeds Civic Hall, (in the wake of the Government’s comprehensive spending review) to discuss how the voluntary, community and faith sector responds to the coming budget cuts. 

Alan Gay and Sandie Keene from Leeds City Council’s corporate leadership team will be speaking. There will also be a question and answer session with Alan, Sandie and LCC’s Chief Executive Tom Riordan.

This will be your chance to quiz Leeds City Council on how the budget cuts will affect your organisation and to decide how to work together as a sector. You’ll also get to hear about the work Third Sector Leeds has been doing to represent the sector in its first year of operation. Please note the last hour of the meeting will be for Third Sector representatives only.

Places are free but booking is essential. You can book online here.

If you have any questions please email info@thirdsectorleeds.org.uk or call 0113 213 2592

Download the TSL Interim Terms of Reference

Voluntary Action Leeds

Doing some contact research for All Hallows I have come across an organisation called Voluntary Action Leeds who provide funding assistance for Voluntary Community Faiths Sector organisations (of which All Hallows is) along with paid training events such as fundraising, governance; management, skills development, volunteering, finance, employment along with providing help on finding volunteers within the area. They seem like an organisation we should make the PCC aware of as membership would be free to the community centre side of the church.

Materials libraries

Catherine Douglas - Fine art photographer

Some of the guys were asking earlier of the whereabouts of textures and materials so here are some free resources for people, trees and materials.

Trees and people:

http://www.vyonyx.com/index.php

http://www.kropped.com/groups.html

Materials:

http://www.accustudio.com/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=1&Itemid=77

Enjoy

Activity possibilities

There is are endless possibilities to what could happen internally to within and around All Hallows. From the previous research on the provision of surrounding community facilities it seems wise to approach the arts and crafts market although it should be dependant upon the available skill-set of the existing members of the church, along with suggesting a few schemes that do not necessarily require prior training, but solely involve sensitive social interaction. I formulated a quick list of possibilities for discussion tomorrow, some classics are in there.

Documentation of community centre activity

A list of the current provision of social activities within the area from the various centres. Some interesting thoughts can be had from this as all other community centres have significantly more staff than All Hallows (20 - 40 members generally), of which the majority are full or part time staff. It suggests one of three things to me (or quite possibly a combination of the three),

1. All Hallows is overstretching their limited resources by providing a plethora of activities or,
2. the activities provided are quite unique in the area and therefore are not advertised adequately or,
3. the community is unresponsive to this provision of these activities

There does seem to be a lack of creative resources in the area, a distinct lack of greenery in the urban realm (therefore no gardening skills or requirement thereof), no knitting circles, no public art, a lack of cultural facilities and as Li commented, no cooking or baking classes.

Business plan example?

From the heated discussion on Friday about, who pays for the resource? All or none, the Woodhouse Community Centre has an interesting business model which is worth a quick peek, where some pay for membership to certain classes, others use the facilities for free, some volunteer for work on a casual and long term basis whilst others, permanent staff are paid flat rate per hour.

Skills sharing

© John Ward : Woodhouse Community Centre Leeds _ Gardening Collective

I was just thinking that possibly we should be considering the skills sharing as a tool for engagement with other community and religious organisations? If a member or members of the All Hallows was capable and willing to participate in an event such as the "Community Transformers Scheme" (looking at how to undertake community research, consultation and organisational strategies) in the Woodhouse community centre they would have more empathy to this centre and also gain National accreditation in community development. From this All Hallows could then collaborate with Woodhouse Community Centre or form its own scheme for environmental, social and economical sustainability. Seems pretty sensible and would fit into a longer term vision for skills sharing and networking of the community centre.