Future of 7 VT working group: First meeting

1. Attendance

Present: Alison Burnley, Alastair Cameron, Madeleine Harding, Phil Lucas, Brian Mayes, Laurie Naumann, Rufus Reade, Eileen Schott, Don Stubbings, Henry Thompson (in the clerk's chair)

2. Introductions

The members of the working group gave brief self-introductions

3. Background

Alastair Cameron, on behalf of Area Meeting gave us some background:

• What is our vision for what Quakers need as a physical presence in Edinburgh?
• This includes the possibility of not having a large central building of any kind. It's assumed that this would lead to a reduction in expenditure and effort.
• AM looking for renewal of its sense of what its presence in Edinburgh should be
• We are on the cusp of a number of substantial items of expenditure, which are perhaps a bit difficult to motivate without a clear underlying vision.

Don Stubbings, who was instrumental in raising some of the questions we will be considering:

• Don has served for many years on Fabric and Maintenance
• Costs coming:
  • Toilets need renewed
  • Heating is a problem
  • The flats are an ongoing financial drain
  • The kitchen is scheduled for a refit
  • The roof is being refurbished, and is involving more and costing more than expected, taking up most of our cash reserves
  • Children's space restructuring? Interacts with the kitchen refit.

The above might add up to 200K GBP over the next few years. The expense of the roof repairs stimulated a consideration of whether we should be more-or-less uncritically committing to maintaining an old building which will likely continue to require substantial investment. This eventually led to a presentation to AM in August. In the twenty years since we purchased 7VT, no overall review of our use of the premises has been undertaken.

Our circumstances have changed in many ways over that time, including changes in external regulation: Child Protection, Health and Safety, Food Sanitation. The rental of our premises has also evolved, alongside an increase in the number of other churches etc. who make premises available. The issue of balance between income generated and operating costs, given our commitment to charging very low rents for Quaker groups/other groups with certain specified qualities.

At the same time, the awareness of many Quaker users of the premises does not extend beyond Meeting for Worship on a Sunday.

One view of the balance sheet is that we are running at a 20K/annum deficit. Some members clearly see this as an acceptable cost, others think at the very least the AM needs to explicitly acknowledge this.

The possibility of moving towards 7VT as the Scottish equivalent of Friends House has been raised, and deserves to be re-considered, without losing sight of the history of our previous, failed, attempt to do so.

Trustees have initiated their own review, and put a hold on all capital expenditure until this group has reported.

Some of these issues interact with aspects of the role of the paid meetinghouse staff.

One way of looking at the financial side is to see the deficit as the rent that AM pays for the use we get from the building.

Phil Lucas recalled that on his and Pat's arrival as Wardens in 1994, the building was running at a loss, but they were given the explicit goal of making the building pay for itself. He believes that the revenue account balanced from around 1997. It's the capital expenditures which provoke the deficit

Henry Thompson summarised that we have to both get clear what the actual numbers are, and then decide how we are going to treatthose numbers, and that we have a lot of choices in how we arrive at a summary to underpin our search for a vision. Rufus Reade suggested that a cash flow forecast would be a tool to help in this regard.

Henry Thompson and others attempted to recall the reasons we sold Stafford Street and bought 7 Victoria Terrace:

• Meeting room itself was an awkward L-shaped space, on first floor, up a narrow staircase—some elderly/infirm friends had stopped attending;
• Need for larger/better children and teenagers space;
• Desire to share facilities with other groups
• We explored non-central locations, came to view a central location as not only an equal tax on everyone in terms of transport, but also a value in itself as an opportunity for witness.

4. Topics for next meeting

• Questions we might ask;
• Whom we might ask, and who will take responsibility for getting answers from them;
• What examples might we look at;
• Getting a cashflow forecast and a cashflow history

5. Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday 13th January at 7 Victoria Terrace.