MEK Meeting 2024-08-29

3.1. Problems

A number of missing or broken items. Consumables were often missing; loo roll didn’t arrive until 15/8, soap often missing. E.g. one Sunday when no loo roll in any of the loos.

We had to do some emptying of bin bags.

WiFi - This impacted our own ability to do our own work, because of low bandwidth and/or ‘no internet’

Kitchen - Not our cleaners job, did CV expect it? MEK cleaned it from time to time: sweeping and wiping surfaces. Performers in there? Gap(s) in the licence. Food out, so mice flourished. Fridge available? “You have to name and date your food, or we’ll through it away”. Buckets left with dirty water in.

Use of kitchen by them as an office made cleaning difficult.

Weekend cleaning is necessary, doesn't appear to have been happening, we did some cleaning on Sunday and/or Monday morning (kitchen, loos, loo seats in particular).

Some emergency lights were completely blacked out, H&S violation

Staffing level seemed low in general, and several venue managers resigned in the early weeks.

A fair amount of wall scarring from use of blue-tack

3.2. For next time, if there is one

Paper hand towels? We didn’t this time, worked OK? Probably some use of loo roll for drying

Should we require use of our own consumables suppliers next time: fits with ethos, fits our containers.

Start and end of day procedures – define/clarify, who’s responsible for what. E.g. turning on the emergency lighting is our job.

Clarify who repairs things. We do a daily inspection and fix things/bill for getting them fixed

In general if there are things we agree are are responsibility that we are going to do for their benefit, we will have to charge for that, not clear how e.g. lump sum vs. timesheet.

Leave less cutlery/plates etc. out for them

Ask for kitchen counters to be cleared away each night?

Clarify who is going to empty bin bags, get agreement on how does/polices triage (recyclable/food waste/rubbish). Do we have to be responsible for all this so it can be done as we would like?

We need to spend more time up front preparing the building and flats. Should we do a complete set of photos? What is 'complete'?

Emergency lights can’t be completely covered, dimmed, e.g. with gel overlay, is OK

We need a designated contact person, who is on site most of most days, for niggles (E.g. shoes in the kitchen :-). If this changes, or is a shared task, continuity needs to be ensured.

Better policing of companies wrt care of the building in general, e.g. blue-tack

3.3. General comments

One negative comment on the first Sunday about the meeting space, but most feedback on that was positive.

In general Sundays went well. Mid-week Meeting also worked well, bar steps for Tony Peach, Margaret Anderson and someone else with limited mobility.

As an ethical workplace, how do we feel about the way C Venues treats their staff, both volunteer and paid?