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date Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:18:11 -0500
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1 <?xml version='1.0'?>
2 <?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='../../lib/xml/doc.xsl'?>
3 <!DOCTYPE doc SYSTEM "../../lib/xml/doc.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY pound '&#163;'>
5 ]>
6 <doc>
7 <head>
8 <title>Future of 7 VT working group: First meeting</title>
9 <author>This informal summary by Henry S. Thompson, Convenor</author>
10 <date>Held at 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh on 5 January 2009, 7:30 p.m.</date>
11 </head>
12 <body>
13 <div>
14 <title>Attendance</title>
15 <p>Present: Alison Burnley, Alastair Cameron, Madeleine Harding, Phil Lucas, Brian Mayes, Laurie Naumann, Rufus Reade,
16 Eileen Schott, Don Stubbings, Henry Thompson (in the clerk's chair)</p>
17 </div>
18 <div>
19 <title>Introductions</title>
20 <p>The members of the working group gave brief self-introductions</p>
21 </div>
22 <div>
23 <title>Background</title>
24 <p>Alastair Cameron, on behalf of Area Meeting gave us
25 some background:</p>
26 <list>
27 <item>What is our vision for what Quakers need as a physical presence in Edinburgh?</item>
28 <item>This includes the possibility of not having a large central building
29 of any kind. It's assumed that this would lead to a reduction in expenditure
30 and effort.</item>
31 <item>AM looking for renewal of its sense of what its presence in Edinburgh
32 should be</item>
33 <item>We are on the cusp of a number of substantial items of expenditure,
34 which are perhaps a bit difficult to motivate without a clear underlying vision.</item>
35 </list>
36 <p>Don Stubbings, who was
37 instrumental in raising some of the questions we will be considering:</p>
38 <list>
39 <item>Don has served for many years on Fabric and Maintenance</item>
40 <item>Costs coming:
41 <list>
42 <item>Toilets need renewed</item>
43 <item>Heating is a problem</item>
44 <item>The flats are an ongoing financial drain</item>
45 <item>The kitchen is scheduled for a refit</item>
46 <item>The roof is being refurbished, and is involving more and costing
47 more than expected, taking up most of our cash reserves</item>
48 <item>Children's space restructuring? Interacts with the kitchen refit.</item>
49 </list>
50 </item>
51 </list>
52 <p>The above might add up to 200K GBP over the next few years. The expense
53 of the roof repairs stimulated a consideration of whether we should be
54 more-or-less uncritically committing to maintaining an old building which will
55 likely continue to require substantial investment. This eventually led to a
56 presentation to AM in August. In the twenty years since we purchased 7VT, no
57 overall review of our use of the premises has been undertaken.</p>
58 <p>Our circumstances have changed in many ways over that time, including
59 changes in external regulation: Child Protection, Health and Safety, Food
60 Sanitation. The rental of our premises has also evolved, alongside an increase
61 in the number of other churches etc. who make premises available. The issue of
62 balance between income generated and operating costs, given our commitment to
63 charging very low rents for Quaker groups/other groups with certain specified qualities.</p>
64 <p>At the same time, the awareness of many Quaker users of the premises does
65 not extend beyond Meeting for Worship on a Sunday.</p>
66 <p>One view of the balance sheet is that we are running at a 20K/annum
67 deficit. Some members clearly see this as an acceptable cost, others think at
68 the very least the AM needs to explicitly acknowledge this.</p>
69 <p>The possibility of moving towards 7VT as the Scottish equivalent of
70 Friends House has been raised, and deserves to be re-considered, without losing
71 sight of the history of our previous, failed, attempt to do so.</p>
72 <p>Trustees have initiated their own review, and put a hold on all capital
73 expenditure until this group has reported.</p>
74 <p>Some of these issues interact with aspects of the role of the paid
75 meetinghouse staff.</p>
76 <p>One way of looking at the financial side is to see the deficit as the
77 rent that AM pays for the use we get from the building.</p>
78 <p>Phil Lucas recalled that on his and Pat's arrival as Wardens in 1994, the
79 building was running at a loss, but they were given the explicit goal of making
80 the building pay for itself. He believes that the revenue account balanced
81 from around 1997. It's the capital expenditures which provoke the deficit</p>
82 <p>Henry Thompson summarised that we have to both get clear what the actual
83 numbers are, and then decide how we are going to <emph>treat</emph> those
84 numbers, and that we have a lot of choices in how we arrive at a summary to
85 underpin our search for a vision. Rufus Reade suggested that a cash flow
86 forecast would be a tool to help in this regard.</p>
87 <p>Henry Thompson and others attempted to recall the reasons we sold Stafford
88 Street and bought 7 Victoria Terrace:</p>
89 <list>
90 <item>Meeting room itself was an awkward L-shaped space, on first floor,
91 up a narrow staircase&mdash;some elderly/infirm friends had stopped attending;</item>
92 <item>Need for larger/better children and teenagers space;</item>
93 <item>Desire
94 to share facilities with other groups</item>
95 <item>We explored non-central locations, came
96 to view a central location as not only an equal tax on everyone in terms of
97 transport, but also a value in itself as an opportunity for witness.</item>
98 </list>
99 </div>
100 <div>
101 <title>Topics for next meeting</title>
102 <list>
103 <item>Questions we might ask;</item>
104 <item>Whom we might ask, and who will take responsibility for getting
105 answers from them;</item>
106 <item>What examples might we look at;</item>
107 <item>Getting a cashflow forecast and a cashflow history</item>
108 </list>
109 </div>
110 <div>
111 <title>Next Meeting</title>
112 <p>Our next meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday 13th January at 7
113 Victoria Terrace.</p>
114 </div>
115 </body>
116 </doc>