Mercurial > hg > rsof

comparison 7vt/fmh_2009-02-08.html @ 9:1cbbaa5a0684

Find changesets by keywords (author, files, the commit message), revision number or hash, or revset expression.
as sent out
author ht
date Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:32:24 -0500
parents
children babbcab08626
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
8:2273fdc73cac 9:1cbbaa5a0684
1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE html
3 PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
4 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta name="copyright" content="Copyright (C) 2007 Henry S. Thompson"/><meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/><style type="text/css">
5 pre.code {font-family: monospace}
6 pre {margin-left: 0em}
7 ul.nolabel { margin: 0; margin-left: -2.5em}
8 ul.naked li { list-style-type: none }
9 ol ol {list-style-type: lower-alpha}
10 .math {font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', serif}
11 .sub {font-size: 80%; vertical-align: sub}
12 .termref {text-decoration: none; color: #606000}
13 div.toc h2 {font-size: 120%; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em}
14 div.toc h4 {font-size: 100%; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;
15 margin-left: 1em}
16 div.toc h1 {font-size: 140%; margin-bottom: 0em}
17 div.toc ul {margin-top: 1ex}
18 .byline {font-size: 120%}
19 div.figure {margin-left: 2em}
20 div.caption {font-style: italic; font-weight: bold}
21 </style><title>Future of 7 VT working group: Fourth meeting</title></head><body style="font-family: DejaVu Sans, Arial; background: rgb(254,250,246); font-size: 12pt; width: 20cm; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">
22 <div style="text-align: center">
23 <h1>Future of 7 VT working group: Fourth meeting</h1>
24 <div class="byline">This informal summary by Henry S. Thompson, Convenor</div>
25 <div class="byline">Held at 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh on 8 February 2009, 7:30 p.m.</div>
26 </div>
27
28 <div>
29 <h2>1. Attendance</h2>
30 <p>Present: Alison Burnley, Anthony Buxton, Madeleine Harding, Ken Jobling, Phil Lucas,
31 Brian Mayes, Laurie Naumann, Rufus Reade,
32 Eileen Schott, Henry Thompson (in the clerk's chair)</p>
33 </div>
34 <div>
35 <h2>2. Input from the co-Manager</h2>
36 <p>Looking back, at the time of the original purchase, of the projected
37 250,000 GBP spend planned for upgrading the building only 150,000 GBP
38 was spent, and again in 1993 a review suggested some major work which wasn't done.</p>
39 <p>Lettings have gone down this year because of the loss of two major lettings: The Traverse, who
40 moved to their own premises; and the City of Edinburgh, who have cut back on external training.
41 Prospects this year don't look great on that front.</p>
42 <p>At interview, we were asked to "be a Quaker presence", and that's what we
43 try to do. Our day begins at 0745, and the Meeting
44 House is often open until 2130 or 2200. Sue and Anthony average about 60hrs/week, although only
45 contracted for 37.5.</p>
46 <p>Staff costs increased this year in part because of the necessity of allowing for holiday pay for
47 part-time staff (in arrears).</p>
48 <p>The Buxtons' vision for 7VT is as a centre for Quakers in Edinburgh or even in Scotland. The
49 increase in visibility we have worked for is part of this: making the entry to the ground floor and
50 the Festival Cafe more evidently Quaker.</p>
51 <p>The Festival venue doesn't actually net any money: we're closed for six weeks as far as bookings
52 is concerned -- if we were not a venue, we <i>might</i> get income from e.g. rehersal space
53 lettings. So overall we lose money for that six weeks, even though staff costs are lower, as we have four
54 venue managers (Sue, Anthony, Tom and Tam [as convenor of the Festival C'ttee], one of whom is always
55 on duty. Only when Tam is on do we have staff cover as well.</p>
56 <p>The cooking involved in the Festival Cafe has provoked the food hygiene changes, and are leading to the upgrade. For tea and
57 coffee only, we could do without the kitchen upgrade. A redesign there would enable a new letting
58 space.</p>
59 <p>The kitchen upgrade is currently estimated at 30KGBP, the toilets 50KGBP. Replacing the cookers
60 means adding ventolation, all stainless-steel. Decomination requires pressure hoses, with more impact.</p>
61 <p>The kitchen does not play much into the lettings business, that is, not having a kitchen would
62 not have much if any impact on the lettings. Anyone who wants lunch has a buffet (usually cold)
63 catered in. The refreshment business is for teas and coffees.</p>
64 <p>Cooking is crucial watershed: the "no kitchen" option would still allow dishwasher(s) and fridge(s).</p>
65 <p>Alternatively, consider running a cafe continuously during the year. This would of course have
66 an impact on the library.</p>
67 <p>We are hopeful that the Victoria Terrace pavement will be re-opened
68 through to George the IVth Bridge by around Easter.</p>
69 <p>Opening up access to the creche directly from the library would be about 5KGBP, we could also
70 look at breaking the internal wall down, adding built-in cupboards and a window.</p>
71 <p>The toilets refit is aiming for five lady's cubicles (plus basins), two cubicles and two urinals for the men's</p>
72 <p>Basic fabric and roof are in good state. The windows are pending. The hall is in good state,
73 and proving attractive to lettings.</p>
74 <p>The meetingroom itself has access issues wrt catering, and we have been trying to get most
75 catering done on the 1st floor -- not all groups like this. There is no water
76 or drainage on that side of the building.</p>
77 <p>The windows project: it should be possible to get double-glazed vertically-hinged windows in the
78 Meeting Room and Hall, which
79 would mean we could get rid of the secondary windows and have proper ventolation. We're hoping to have
80 this redesign done soon so that if we must do </p>
81 <p>We could service/manage more letting with existing staffing levels if we had more rooms.</p>
82 <p>Heating bill for the whole building was about 8KGBP last year, some heaters lack local
83 thermostats. Solar or roof-based heat exchanger might be possible. No costings are available for this.</p>
84 <p>Fire regulations are now becoming an issue: strictly speaking the maximum occupancy of rooms
85 above a single staircase is 60. A safe refuge for wheelchair uses and lift sealing are also in the offing.</p>
86 <p>The overall regulatory situation means anytime we do anything, we now have to do it to the top
87 standard demanded by fire, safety, health etc. regulations. We are sometimes put in a difficult
88 position by this, for example, with respect to young Quaker residential groups, to whom strictly
89 speaking we should be saying "no". If we break the rules, and an accident happens, we will be in
90 serious trouble.</p>
91 <p>Staffing: Tom does 3 days a week, one of which is maintenance, and he
92 covers for Friday (Managers' day off) and holidays. There are a further eight
93 0-hours contract staff who fill the rest on an <i>ad-hoc</i> basis. We
94 do lose money if we open the building for just one group who are only using the
95 Bow Room, for which the charity rate is 10GBP/hour.</p>
96 <p>The recession may be having an impact, with things quite quiet since
97 Christmas, except for some weeks when we are over-subscribed. Wednesday is the
98 busiest day of the week, somewhat hampered by midweek Meeting.</p>
99 <p>We can't compete with the big hotels and conference centres, and we don't
100 try. Our primary lettors come from the voluntary sector. Although they have
101 been hit by the recession, and the shrinkage of Lottery funding consequent on
102 the Olympics, we are looking at some hopeful prospects as well.</p>
103 <p>We do have some groups with whom we have long-standing regular bookings, although not in the form
104 of say an annual contracts -- there are weekly discounts.</p>
105 <p>6VT have enquired about letting the Bow Room on a long-term basis.</p>
106 <p>We're not in a position (as say Dundee is) to do commercial lettings of a part of the building.</p>
107 <p>Possible comparators: The Methodist Church in Nicholson Square; St. Mary's RC Cathedral</p>
108 <p>We are now considered a "Quaker Centre". Manchester, Liverpool, York,
109 Sheffield, Manchester, Swarthmore, Woodbrooke, Oxford (but they don't come to
110 the meetings convened to discuss common issues) are
111 others. We are the only one in Scotland. Glasgow and Dundee do some lettings, but without the overall
112 approach of a Centre.</p>
113 <p>There are still ways we could be making more of the building, more signage, more window displays.
114 We don't have a permanent place for worship, which is unfortunate. Not enough use is being made of the
115 Meeting House <i>by and for Quakers</i>.</p>
116 <p>Trading Company to run the business: Friends House have done that, the Priory Rooms (Poole
117 Street, Birmingham) have done this. Anthony would not like to go that way:
118 there is real tension in Poole Street, for instance, between the needs of the
119 AM and the business.</p>
120 <p>Dundee Property Trust own the tenement with the Dundee Meeting House, and the property agent
121 on the ground floor. Laurie Naumann has just become a trustee.</p>
122 <p>Deciding what the right funding/ownership/management model is depends on
123 what footprint we want, whether we want a presence or just a venue for Meeting
124 for Worship.
125 Setting up a trading company when we're running at a deficit seems like a non-starter.</p>
126 <p>Why aren't we running more Quaker study groups here? Why aren't more of our members doing more of
127 their Quaker-related business here? Our regular bookings do stop us being adventurous: we could have
128 had the whole Middle-Eastern festival here, if we hadn't had the load of our ongoing bookings. We
129 could change the way we do bookings, shift from regular slots to blocks.</p>
130 </div>
131 <div>
132 <h2>3. Input from the Convenor of Fabric and Maintenance
133 C'ttee</h2>
134 <p>Ken is a Trustee as well. Trustees have decided that no major spending commitments can be made
135 (except for urgent matters) until this Working Group has reported and AM has come to some conclusions.
136 This puts real pressure on getting recommendations and decisions out of this review exercise as quickly
137 as possible.</p>
138 <p>Trustees have passed two things as matters of priority to F&amp;M:</p>
139 <ul>
140 <li> ongoing roof access above the flat (e.g. wrt
141 gutters);</li>
142 <li>priorities arising from the quinquennial review, i.e. things which had to be done very soon, for
143 example some of the West windows.</li>
144 </ul>
145 <p>At a Quaker Centres meeting last week we heard many similar stories to what Anthony said above.</p>
146 <p>The possibility of establishing some official Scotland GM use of building was explored in 1995. The
147 operation of Quaker Link Scotland from 7VT also happened around then. The appointment of an admin.
148 assistant to GM was at first thought of as feeding into this, but partly because of the IVS lease on
149 the Bow Room, and partly because of opposition from elsewhere in GM, nothing came of it.</p>
150 <p>There is a danger of getting bogged down in costs, while losing sight of the benefits of the place.</p>
151 <p>We have been running on low reserves since, roughly, the establishment of the Kelso Meeting
152 House. We can't look at the Meeting House in isolation.</p>
153 <p>Other Quaker Centres have emphasised the need to have a clear vision in service of which the
154 financial plans are framed.</p>
155 </div>
156 <div>
157 <h2>4. Questionnaires</h2>
158 <p>Anthony was dismayed at the questionnaire which was headed for lettings, at a time when the
159 client base is delicate, indeed frightened that it might scare people off. None of the questionnaires
160 included anything about who the group is and what our remit is, or included the question of vision.
161 Eileen mentioned that the goal was to find out more about what made people come
162 back, or not. Anthony pointed out that there
163 already is a satisfaction evaluation for letting clients.</p>
164 <p>Brian suggested that the timing might be better once we have a better sense of what path we are
165 going down.</p>
166 <p>Anthony thought that asking about alternative visions is the best way to get people's input.</p>
167 <p>Anthony recommended only having <i>one</i> questionnaire, so that the results are
168 comparable. Alison agreed that many of the questions should be the same, but the some questions were
169 only appropriate for some groups.</p>
170 </div>
171 <div>
172 <h2>5. Future topics</h2>
173 <p>Need a tour of the building, next time (when Rufus is here).</p>
174 <p>Developing alternative visions</p>
175 </div>
176 <div>
177 <h2>6. Next Meeting</h2>
178 <p>Our next meeting will be on Sunday 22 February, 7:30 p.m. at 7 Victoria
179 Terrace. We have tentatively set Sunday 8 March, same time and venue, for the
180 meeting after that.</p>
181 </div>
182
183 </body></html>