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6 <doc>
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7 <head>
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9
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8 <title>Future of 7 VT working group: Fourth meeting</title>
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9 <author>This informal summary by Henry S. Thompson, Convenor</author>
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10 <date>Held at 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh on 8 February 2009, 7:30 p.m.</date>
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11 </head>
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12 <body>
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13 <div>
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14 <title>Attendance</title>
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15 <p>Present: Alison Burnley, Anthony Buxton, Madeleine Harding, Ken Jobling, Phil Lucas,
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16 Brian Mayes, Laurie Naumann, Rufus Reade,
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17 Eileen Schott, Henry Thompson (in the clerk's chair)</p>
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18 </div>
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19 <div>
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20 <title>Input from the co-Manager</title>
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21 <p>Looking back, at the time of the original purchase, of the projected
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22 250,000 GBP spend planned for upgrading the building only 150,000 GBP
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23 was spent, and again in 1993 a review suggested some major work which wasn't done.</p>
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24 <p>Lettings have gone down this year because of the loss of two major lettings: The Traverse, who
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25 moved to their own premises; and the City of Edinburgh, who have cut back on external training.
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26 Prospects this year don't look great on that front.</p>
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27 <p>At interview, we were asked to "be a Quaker presence", and that's what we
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28 try to do. Our day begins at 0745, and the Meeting
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29 House is often open until 2130 or 2200. Sue and Anthony average about 60hrs/week, although only
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30 contracted for 37.5.</p>
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31 <p>Staff costs increased this year in part because of the necessity of allowing for holiday pay for
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32 part-time staff (in arrears).</p>
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33 <p>The Buxtons' vision for 7VT is as a centre for Quakers in Edinburgh or even in Scotland. The
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34 increase in visibility we have worked for is part of this: making the entry to the ground floor and
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35 the Festival Cafe more evidently Quaker.</p>
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36 <p>The Festival venue doesn't actually net any money: we're closed for six weeks as far as bookings
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37 is concerned -- if we were not a venue, we <emph>might</emph> get income from e.g. rehersal space
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38 lettings. So overall we lose money for that six weeks, even though staff costs are lower, as we have four
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39 venue managers (Sue, Anthony, Tom and Tam [as convenor of the Festival C'ttee], one of whom is always
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40 on duty. Only when Tam is on do we have staff cover as well.</p>
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41 <p>The cooking involved in the Festival Cafe has provoked the food hygiene changes, and are leading to the upgrade. For tea and
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42 coffee only, we could do without the kitchen upgrade. A redesign there would enable a new letting
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43 space.</p>
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44 <p>The kitchen upgrade is currently estimated at 30KGBP, the toilets 50KGBP. Replacing the cookers
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45 means adding ventilation, all stainless-steel. Decontamination requires pressure hoses, with more impact.</p>
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46 <p>The kitchen does not play much into the lettings business, that is, not having a kitchen would
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47 not have much if any impact on the lettings. Anyone who wants lunch has a buffet (usually cold)
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48 catered in. The refreshment business is for teas and coffees.</p>
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49 <p>Cooking is crucial watershed: the "no kitchen" option would still allow dishwasher(s) and fridge(s).</p>
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50 <p>Alternatively, consider running a cafe continuously during the year. This would of course have
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51 an impact on the library.</p>
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52 <p>We are hopeful that the Victoria Terrace pavement will be re-opened
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53 through to George the IVth Bridge by around Easter.</p>
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54 <p>Opening up access to the creche directly from the library would be about 5KGBP, we could also
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55 look at breaking the internal wall down, adding built-in cupboards and a window.</p>
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56 <p>The toilets refit is aiming for five lady's cubicles (plus basins), two cubicles and two urinals for the men's</p>
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57 <p>Basic fabric and roof are in good state. The windows are pending. The hall is in good state,
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58 and proving attractive to lettings.</p>
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59 <p>The meetingroom itself has access issues wrt catering, and we have been trying to get most
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60 catering done on the 1st floor -- not all groups like this. There is no water
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61 or drainage on that side of the building.</p>
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62 <p>The windows project: it should be possible to get double-glazed vertically-hinged windows in the
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63 Meeting Room and Hall, which
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64 would mean we could get rid of the secondary windows and have proper ventilation. We're hoping to have
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65 this redesign done soon so that if we must do </p>
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66 <p>We could service/manage more letting with existing staffing levels if we had more rooms.</p>
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67 <p>Heating bill for the whole building was about 8KGBP last year, some heaters lack local
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68 thermostats. Solar or roof-based heat exchanger might be possible. No costings are available for this.</p>
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69 <p>Fire regulations are now becoming an issue: strictly speaking the maximum occupancy of rooms
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70 above a single staircase is 60. A safe refuge for wheelchair uses and lift sealing are also in the offing.</p>
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71 <p>The overall regulatory situation means anytime we do anything, we now have to do it to the top
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72 standard demanded by fire, safety, health etc. regulations. We are sometimes put in a difficult
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73 position by this, for example, with respect to young Quaker residential groups, to whom strictly
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74 speaking we should be saying "no". If we break the rules, and an accident happens, we will be in
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75 serious trouble.</p>
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76 <p>Staffing: Tom does 3 days a week, one of which is maintenance, and he
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77 covers for Friday (Managers' day off) and holidays. There are a further eight
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78 0-hours contract staff who fill the rest on an <emph>ad-hoc</emph> basis. We
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79 do lose money if we open the building for just one group who are only using the
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80 Bow Room, for which the charity rate is 10GBP/hour.</p>
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81 <p>The recession may be having an impact, with things quite quiet since
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82 Christmas, except for some weeks when we are over-subscribed. Wednesday is the
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83 busiest day of the week, somewhat hampered by midweek Meeting.</p>
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84 <p>We can't compete with the big hotels and conference centres, and we don't
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85 try. Our primary lettors come from the voluntary sector. Although they have
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86 been hit by the recession, and the shrinkage of Lottery funding consequent on
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87 the Olympics, we are looking at some hopeful prospects as well.</p>
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88 <p>We do have some groups with whom we have long-standing regular bookings, although not in the form
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89 of say an annual contracts -- there are weekly discounts.</p>
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90 <p>6VT have enquired about letting the Bow Room on a long-term basis.</p>
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91 <p>We're not in a position (as say Dundee is) to do commercial lettings of a part of the building.</p>
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92 <p>Possible comparators: The Methodist Church in Nicholson Square; St. Mary's RC Cathedral</p>
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93 <p>We are now considered a "Quaker Centre". Manchester, Liverpool, York,
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94 Sheffield, Manchester, Swarthmore, Woodbrooke, Oxford (but they don't come to
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95 the meetings convened to discuss common issues) are
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96 others. We are the only one in Scotland. Glasgow and Dundee do some lettings, but without the overall
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97 approach of a Centre.</p>
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98 <p>There are still ways we could be making more of the building, more signage, more window displays.
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99 We don't have a permanent place for worship, which is unfortunate. Not enough use is being made of the
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100 Meeting House <emph>by and for Quakers</emph>.</p>
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101 <p>Trading Company to run the business: Friends House have done that, the Priory Rooms (Poole
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102 Street, Birmingham) have done this. Anthony would not like to go that way:
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103 there is real tension in Poole Street, for instance, between the needs of the
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104 AM and the business.</p>
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105 <p>Dundee Property Trust own the tenement with the Dundee Meeting House, and the property agent
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106 on the ground floor. Laurie Naumann has just become a trustee.</p>
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107 <p>Deciding what the right funding/ownership/management model is depends on
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108 what footprint we want, whether we want a presence or just a venue for Meeting
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109 for Worship.
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110 Setting up a trading company when we're running at a deficit seems like a non-starter.</p>
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111 <p>Why aren't we running more Quaker study groups here? Why aren't more of our members doing more of
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112 their Quaker-related business here? Our regular bookings do stop us being adventurous: we could have
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113 had the whole Middle-Eastern festival here, if we hadn't had the load of our ongoing bookings. We
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114 could change the way we do bookings, shift from regular slots to blocks.</p>
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115 </div>
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116 <div>
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117 <title>Input from the Convenor of Fabric and Maintenance
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118 C'ttee</title>
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119 <p>Ken is a Trustee as well. Trustees have decided that no major spending commitments can be made
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120 (except for urgent matters) until this Working Group has reported and AM has come to some conclusions.
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121 This puts real pressure on getting recommendations and decisions out of this review exercise as quickly
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122 as possible.</p>
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123 <p>Trustees have passed two things as matters of priority to F&M:</p>
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124 <list>
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125 <item> ongoing roof access above the flat (e.g. wrt
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126 gutters);</item>
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127 <item>priorities arising from the quinquennial review, i.e. things which had to be done very soon, for
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128 example some of the West windows.</item>
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129 </list>
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130 <p>At a Quaker Centres meeting last week we heard many similar stories to what Anthony said above.</p>
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131 <p>The possibility of establishing some official Scotland GM use of building was explored in 1995. The
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132 operation of Quaker Link Scotland from 7VT also happened around then. The appointment of an admin.
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133 assistant to GM was at first thought of as feeding into this, but partly because of the IVS lease on
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134 the Bow Room, and partly because of opposition from elsewhere in GM, nothing came of it.</p>
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135 <p>There is a danger of getting bogged down in costs, while losing sight of the benefits of the place.</p>
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136 <p>We have been running on low reserves since, roughly, the establishment of the Kelso Meeting
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137 House. We can't look at the Meeting House in isolation.</p>
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138 <p>Other Quaker Centres have emphasised the need to have a clear vision in service of which the
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139 financial plans are framed.</p>
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140 </div>
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141 <div>
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142 <title>Questionnaires</title>
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143 <p>Anthony was dismayed at the questionnaire which was headed for lettings, at a time when the
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144 client base is delicate, indeed frightened that it might scare people off. None of the questionnaires
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145 included anything about who the group is and what our remit is, or included the question of vision.
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146 Eileen mentioned that the goal was to find out more about what made people come
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147 back, or not. Anthony pointed out that there
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148 already is a satisfaction evaluation for letting clients.</p>
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149 <p>Brian suggested that the timing might be better once we have a better sense of what path we are
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150 going down.</p>
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151 <p>Anthony thought that asking about alternative visions is the best way to get people's input.</p>
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152 <p>Anthony recommended only having <emph>one</emph> questionnaire, so that the results are
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153 comparable. Alison agreed that many of the questions should be the same, but the some questions were
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154 only appropriate for some groups.</p>
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155 </div>
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156 <div>
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157 <title>Future topics</title>
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158 <p>Need a tour of the building, next time (when Rufus is here).</p>
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159 <p>Developing alternative visions</p>
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160 </div>
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161 <div>
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162 <title>Next Meeting</title>
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163 <p>Our next meeting will be on Sunday 22 February, 7:30 p.m. at 7 Victoria
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164 Terrace. We have tentatively set Sunday 8 March, same time and venue, for the
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165 meeting after that.</p>
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166 </div>
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167 </body>
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168 </doc>
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