Our meeting today was the first time I'd lead a meeting in Langport without Melita to keep me on track, eek!
The first issue that came up was that our planned venue for the meeting was closed and locked because it was Good Friday. This was quickly resolved by moving to a pub garden, so silver-linings all round.
The meeting, whilst not following the planned agenda very closely, actually went very well, early on we met with a young person who came to the meeting opposed to the project but after a short introduction to who the CCT were and why we were developing a project in Langport, they soon became a supporter and a new member of the core group, success!
Our core group, which is growing every week, enjoy a bit of progressive thinking coming up with future use ideas for the church. This really makes me happy because we're actively engaging in the idea of regenerating the church, we're exploring the wants and needs of the community, and we are a group of young people sitting round a table discussing how the grown-ups have messed it all up and what we're going to do to remedy that.
The only problem is that this part of the project development should be happening weeks and months later on, in tandem with community consultation, so that we're having informed discussions on the wants and needs of the whole community, with documentary back-up, rather than the wants and needs of 6 people around a table.
The upshot of this is that we're all getting excited (myself included) about the possibility of a music and performance venue *idea*, and coming up with very legitimate reasons why the community needs it and how it could fit sustainably and with multi-purpose effects in the church (as well as reasons that people might not like it). What we can't do is get carried away with this idea and push it forward without properly researching how it might fit into the community. Having said all this, enthusiastic young people with big ideas and conscientious thinking are not to be sniffed at!
The second half of the meeting was spent inside the church, discussing ideas of value and identifying what was seen as highly valuable and less valuable (I identified the aspect of the nave from East to West, in my eyes it would be heresy to chop the nave in half with a stud wall), other areas that were identified as valuable for different reasons were the space around the altar and the Chancel in general due to its spiritual significance, the monuments on the walls and floor slabs due to their local resonances, and the 'hunkypunk' grotesques due to their sheer number and uniqueness to Somerset. All in all some good, useful discussion.
Next meeting we're working on filling in the HLF application with young people, and coming up with a name that stands out a little bit more than 'All Saints Langport Youth Project', woooooo! After discussing today's meeting with Melita, she's going to scribe the next meeting whilst I lead it, so that I can practice some techniques for holding on to a meeting that enjoys going off-piste.
Friday, 22 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
More young people and *Action* for the project
We had two exciting achievements by the end of today. We were down in Langport again for another recruitment meeting, and we also wanted to take our current group to the church to have a first look with a critical eye.
The first achievement was a brand new young person who's enthusiastic about the project, and very Arts-minded, so I'm looking forward to having him at future brainstorming sessions for ideas for the regeneration project.
The second was that we were filmed! The CCT are so excited by the project that they want to use it in a video that will be shown at fundraising events. Very exciting indeed! Catherine and Selvyn who work for RandalFox (who have done work for the CCT before) came down and filmed a meeting and some interviews with young people, including me! Whilst we thought it was a little early in the lifetime of the project to be filming young people with big ideas about the church (we're still really at the recruiting stage), our young people really stepped up to the plate, even the one who turned up for the first time today!
Quite apart from making it a little bit different and fun, I think this also sends a message to our young people, and Langport, that we're excited about this project, and we're taking it seriously, so whilst it felt a bit rushed and a ad hoc, and took over our meeting a little bit, we got a lot out of it as well! (Plus I get to be on telly!... well, video...)
We're hoping that initial recruitment is sorted now and we can start meeting with our young people, as the core team, to start building the HLF project application, so next meeting we're exploring the church in a bit more detail, and thinking about the core team as a consolidated group ... could be interesting!
The first achievement was a brand new young person who's enthusiastic about the project, and very Arts-minded, so I'm looking forward to having him at future brainstorming sessions for ideas for the regeneration project.
The second was that we were filmed! The CCT are so excited by the project that they want to use it in a video that will be shown at fundraising events. Very exciting indeed! Catherine and Selvyn who work for RandalFox (who have done work for the CCT before) came down and filmed a meeting and some interviews with young people, including me! Whilst we thought it was a little early in the lifetime of the project to be filming young people with big ideas about the church (we're still really at the recruiting stage), our young people really stepped up to the plate, even the one who turned up for the first time today!
Quite apart from making it a little bit different and fun, I think this also sends a message to our young people, and Langport, that we're excited about this project, and we're taking it seriously, so whilst it felt a bit rushed and a ad hoc, and took over our meeting a little bit, we got a lot out of it as well! (Plus I get to be on telly!... well, video...)
We're hoping that initial recruitment is sorted now and we can start meeting with our young people, as the core team, to start building the HLF project application, so next meeting we're exploring the church in a bit more detail, and thinking about the core team as a consolidated group ... could be interesting!
Monday, 4 April 2011
Meetings meetings meetings, Go&Sees go&sees go&sees!
Today was spent cramming as many meetings as humanly possible into a day in Bristol. I met with Circomedia, Heritage and Community, and The Station. Circomedia and The Station have been earmarked since very early stages of the project as potential Go&Sees to take our group of young people on and meet people from nearby exemplar projects, so these meetings were crucial to get right! (and there was no Melita this time to ask all the experienced and informed questions!)
These Go&Sees will be undertaken by two groups of people (the first being Melita and myself, the second being Melita, myself and the young people), and fit into three categories (Heritage, Community, and Youth), a lot of which overlap. We aim to provide the project with as wide a range of research and inspirational visits as is viable, so these Go&Sees are undergoing some fairly extensive research!
I've already written about The Station here. Circomedia is a Circus School that is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. It recently started using St Paul's church (the first Regeneration Taskforce project) as one of its venues and training spaces. This soon became the Regeneration Taskforce's flagship project, fulfilling its' roles of securing and maintaining the building, and making steps to regenerate the surrounding community.
Whilst this picture does look great, it doesn't really do justice to the experience of watching a performance with trapeze artists swinging between pillars, people climbing 30m high ropes to the ceiling, and generally using the whole space so creatively. At today's meeting I managed to convince Circomedia that they wanted our young people looking round during one of their BTEC classes, which is fantastic because that huge space is going to be a hive of activity. This will undoubtedly get some creative juices flowing around ideas for All Saints'! Hooray.
The meeting at The Station had the same good conclusion - they were happy for us to bring our young people to see the site and talk to the people involved in planning their project (which includes some Bristolian young people, ooooh). The difference with this Go&See is that The Station is currently derelict, and when we visit it, it'll be an enormous building site. We're going to make the most of this opportunity to see a restoration and regeneration project mid-development (rather than see shiny pictures of one that's yet to commence, or a shiny building thats already been completed), so this summer/autumn our young people are going there!
John from Heritage and Community is no stranger to the CCT and its' exploits, having covered posts during maternity leave in the past, so it was very useful to have an informed but external point of view on the project. He also recommended another local project for a Go&See, that he worked on - Tyntesfield is a National Trust property, which utilises young volunteers in similar (and different) ways to our project, so that's definitely one to keep fresh in our minds. It was certainly good to pick John's brains about his experience of that project - what we should watch out for and what we don't need to be panicking about just yet!
A very long day, but very very useful, and with some great outcomes!
These Go&Sees will be undertaken by two groups of people (the first being Melita and myself, the second being Melita, myself and the young people), and fit into three categories (Heritage, Community, and Youth), a lot of which overlap. We aim to provide the project with as wide a range of research and inspirational visits as is viable, so these Go&Sees are undergoing some fairly extensive research!
I've already written about The Station here. Circomedia is a Circus School that is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. It recently started using St Paul's church (the first Regeneration Taskforce project) as one of its venues and training spaces. This soon became the Regeneration Taskforce's flagship project, fulfilling its' roles of securing and maintaining the building, and making steps to regenerate the surrounding community.
The meeting at The Station had the same good conclusion - they were happy for us to bring our young people to see the site and talk to the people involved in planning their project (which includes some Bristolian young people, ooooh). The difference with this Go&See is that The Station is currently derelict, and when we visit it, it'll be an enormous building site. We're going to make the most of this opportunity to see a restoration and regeneration project mid-development (rather than see shiny pictures of one that's yet to commence, or a shiny building thats already been completed), so this summer/autumn our young people are going there!
John from Heritage and Community is no stranger to the CCT and its' exploits, having covered posts during maternity leave in the past, so it was very useful to have an informed but external point of view on the project. He also recommended another local project for a Go&See, that he worked on - Tyntesfield is a National Trust property, which utilises young volunteers in similar (and different) ways to our project, so that's definitely one to keep fresh in our minds. It was certainly good to pick John's brains about his experience of that project - what we should watch out for and what we don't need to be panicking about just yet!
A very long day, but very very useful, and with some great outcomes!
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Second meeting with Young People, and the idea of a Fundraising Video
Today we were down in Langport again, at the lovely Art Tea Zen café. This was our second attempt at recruiting local young people to be part of the team (at our first attempt one person turned up). We had high hopes when about 15 people in school uniforms trooped through the door, but it turned out they were just there for a cup of tea.
Instead we met one more young person, and another young person's mum (as well as Annie and Jack). We still treated this as a success - young people can tell their friends, and parents can persuade offspring. I should also say that parents are welcomed and encouraged to sit in on meetings and even take part - that sort of communication embodies the idea of young people developing an asset for the whole community, speaking to other residents of Langport so as to collect as broad a base of information as possible. Absolutely.
Two days before this meeting, Peter passed a message on to me saying that Langport had been picked as a potential project for a fundraising video to be made for the CCT. This is great news for the project (which will be displayed to wealthy would-be sponsors across the country), but its also very early in the project to be able to find something that will look interesting on a screen! After a short emergency meeting with Melita we agreed to go ahead with the filming and present the plan to whoever turned up at the meeting!
News of the filming got mixed reactions - there were some young people who definitely didn't want to be on camera, and others were pointed out who might turn up just to be on camera. Generally the feedback was positive, so a date was arranged for the next meeting, at which there will also be a camera crew and someone wanting to interview me! It will also be a good (if early) mechanism to get the young people to start thinking creatively about using the church. Hope it works!
Instead we met one more young person, and another young person's mum (as well as Annie and Jack). We still treated this as a success - young people can tell their friends, and parents can persuade offspring. I should also say that parents are welcomed and encouraged to sit in on meetings and even take part - that sort of communication embodies the idea of young people developing an asset for the whole community, speaking to other residents of Langport so as to collect as broad a base of information as possible. Absolutely.
Two days before this meeting, Peter passed a message on to me saying that Langport had been picked as a potential project for a fundraising video to be made for the CCT. This is great news for the project (which will be displayed to wealthy would-be sponsors across the country), but its also very early in the project to be able to find something that will look interesting on a screen! After a short emergency meeting with Melita we agreed to go ahead with the filming and present the plan to whoever turned up at the meeting!
News of the filming got mixed reactions - there were some young people who definitely didn't want to be on camera, and others were pointed out who might turn up just to be on camera. Generally the feedback was positive, so a date was arranged for the next meeting, at which there will also be a camera crew and someone wanting to interview me! It will also be a good (if early) mechanism to get the young people to start thinking creatively about using the church. Hope it works!
Friday, 25 March 2011
The dreaded budget meeting
Today I had a difficult meeting. This meeting was between Me, Melita and Peter, to plan out the costs for the project so that we could define how much we think the project will cost and how much we need to ask for from funders.
To give you some background, I have steered well clear of maths since GCSE, and blissfully forgotten everything I knew up until then. I've never shown an ounce of interest in finance or accounting, my money management is not to be held up as an exemplar. Budgets are not something that turn my cogs.
Peter had asked me to plan an agenda for this meeting so that we could get the ball rolling and start meating out our plans for the project, the problem with this was that I didn't have the tiniest clue as to how to start planning a budget for a project - up until 6 or 7 months ago I was considering being a volunteer on a project that spends the money, not the employee who's in charge of raising the money!
Fortunately for me, Melita seems to enjoy this sort of planning (which I will never understand), and had prepared not one, but three, mindmaps that presented the myriad of things on which to spend money (the vast majority of which I could never have even thought of before today's meeting).
This complete ignorance was also not helpful during the meeting - Peter and Melita, who have both had involvement in project budgets before, were spouting finance jargon which was alien to me (I wouldn't know an FCR if it shouted at me), so I sat tight until there was enough room to ask what everything meant. This is not the best way to act in a meeting.
The silver-lining is that I now have some very pretty mindmaps that tell me what goes in a budget for next time, and a bit of a footing on some of the terms that I can learn about, so that I don't look entirely stupid in the next budget meeting, hooray! Melita also suggested I aquaint myself with businessballs.com, which is proving a highly useful ornament to my rollercoaster of a learning curve!
To give you some background, I have steered well clear of maths since GCSE, and blissfully forgotten everything I knew up until then. I've never shown an ounce of interest in finance or accounting, my money management is not to be held up as an exemplar. Budgets are not something that turn my cogs.
Peter had asked me to plan an agenda for this meeting so that we could get the ball rolling and start meating out our plans for the project, the problem with this was that I didn't have the tiniest clue as to how to start planning a budget for a project - up until 6 or 7 months ago I was considering being a volunteer on a project that spends the money, not the employee who's in charge of raising the money!
Fortunately for me, Melita seems to enjoy this sort of planning (which I will never understand), and had prepared not one, but three, mindmaps that presented the myriad of things on which to spend money (the vast majority of which I could never have even thought of before today's meeting).
This complete ignorance was also not helpful during the meeting - Peter and Melita, who have both had involvement in project budgets before, were spouting finance jargon which was alien to me (I wouldn't know an FCR if it shouted at me), so I sat tight until there was enough room to ask what everything meant. This is not the best way to act in a meeting.
The silver-lining is that I now have some very pretty mindmaps that tell me what goes in a budget for next time, and a bit of a footing on some of the terms that I can learn about, so that I don't look entirely stupid in the next budget meeting, hooray! Melita also suggested I aquaint myself with businessballs.com, which is proving a highly useful ornament to my rollercoaster of a learning curve!
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
So many things!!
This post is just going to be a general catch-up of everything that has happened last Friday, yesterday and today, because there's a lot!
So, to start with, last Friday I had a meeting with Peter to show him where we'd got to with the project planning, and for him to advise on next steps. One of the strongest effects of this meeting was my realisation that I'm a conservation nazi! I'm one of those people who puts red rope banners around historic houses so that mere human beings can't touch the precious history! This has got to stop immediately!
I need to take off my 'Don't Touch That' hat, and put on my 'Wahey, Lets See What Happens If We Do This' hat, which is a much more exciting hat anyway.
Part of this is in the way I pitch the project to the young people - less talking about the limitations of a listed building and more of the opportunities that this project provides.
Another part is the way I write documents. Peter used the word 'boring', I prefer the term 'grown-up', but neither of them make for an exciting public document!
Peter also shouted at me for not having made proper contact with the Heritage Lottery Fund yet, so today I've downloaded the Pre-application Form for Young Roots funding, and have started filling in the bits we definitely know about our project. Once Melita's had a go too we can send it to the SW HLF team and see what they think about our project, woop!
On Monday, Melita and I were in the South West for two meetings - one for us to visit Yeovil Foyer Foundation, and the other to meet Langportian young people who might be interested in being involved with the project.
The YFF was a good meeting, Chris showed us around the converted church and gave us details of the building manager for us to ask more indepth questions. He also made a nice little offer for the YFF to deal with all the paperwork if our young people wanted to use our project to work towards an ASDAN Award. We haven't decided whether this is the route for us, or whether other organisations might be able to offer the same, but it has highlighted to me how project partners can still offer useful resources without them stumping up funding.
This ended up being the first of our Serendipitous Connections in that Melita hadn't known about YFF before, and I hadn't realised the extent to which it could be useful, but because we turned up and made the connection with Chris and got details for further connections, we can now use this project as an exemplar further down the road, hooray!
The second meeting was at Art Tea Zen (fantastic name for an unorthodox cafe/teashop).
The original plan here was for Annie to have rounded up 3 or 4 young people for Melita and I to lightly pitch the project to, to see whether they were interested. Out of the original 3, 1 turned up.
I don't really mind this - I'm not so out of touch with young people as to expect them to drop everything and come running when someone says 'church conservation'.
It also led to another Serendipitous Connection; Jack owns Art Tea Zen, he overheard the topic of our meeting and joined in! (he's a young person too). And there was me worrying about enthusiasm levels! Jack seemed very interested in getting involved, and has helped to organise another meeting next week where Melita and I can pitch the project to a larger group so that we can start the ball rolling proper, like.
From this, I learnt that all* the fuss was over nothing - young people aren't that scary, even when some of the young people aren't as young as me. Melita commented on my growing confidence whilst I was speaking, so next time I can build on today's experience and "sparkle" as Melita put it.
*(most of)
Finally, today's work included sorting out some Go&Sees for me and Melita in the near future. One of which is The Station, what I done already blogged about, and the other is the CCT's very own Bristol St Pauls, home of Circomedia, about which you can read in this blog which I wrote in a past-life.
I'm actually really looking forward to next week now, hopefully within a fortnight we will have got our group sorted and can begin doing things! Wooo!
So, to start with, last Friday I had a meeting with Peter to show him where we'd got to with the project planning, and for him to advise on next steps. One of the strongest effects of this meeting was my realisation that I'm a conservation nazi! I'm one of those people who puts red rope banners around historic houses so that mere human beings can't touch the precious history! This has got to stop immediately!
I need to take off my 'Don't Touch That' hat, and put on my 'Wahey, Lets See What Happens If We Do This' hat, which is a much more exciting hat anyway.
Part of this is in the way I pitch the project to the young people - less talking about the limitations of a listed building and more of the opportunities that this project provides.
Another part is the way I write documents. Peter used the word 'boring', I prefer the term 'grown-up', but neither of them make for an exciting public document!
Peter also shouted at me for not having made proper contact with the Heritage Lottery Fund yet, so today I've downloaded the Pre-application Form for Young Roots funding, and have started filling in the bits we definitely know about our project. Once Melita's had a go too we can send it to the SW HLF team and see what they think about our project, woop!
On Monday, Melita and I were in the South West for two meetings - one for us to visit Yeovil Foyer Foundation, and the other to meet Langportian young people who might be interested in being involved with the project.
The YFF was a good meeting, Chris showed us around the converted church and gave us details of the building manager for us to ask more indepth questions. He also made a nice little offer for the YFF to deal with all the paperwork if our young people wanted to use our project to work towards an ASDAN Award. We haven't decided whether this is the route for us, or whether other organisations might be able to offer the same, but it has highlighted to me how project partners can still offer useful resources without them stumping up funding.
This ended up being the first of our Serendipitous Connections in that Melita hadn't known about YFF before, and I hadn't realised the extent to which it could be useful, but because we turned up and made the connection with Chris and got details for further connections, we can now use this project as an exemplar further down the road, hooray!
The second meeting was at Art Tea Zen (fantastic name for an unorthodox cafe/teashop).
The original plan here was for Annie to have rounded up 3 or 4 young people for Melita and I to lightly pitch the project to, to see whether they were interested. Out of the original 3, 1 turned up.
I don't really mind this - I'm not so out of touch with young people as to expect them to drop everything and come running when someone says 'church conservation'.
It also led to another Serendipitous Connection; Jack owns Art Tea Zen, he overheard the topic of our meeting and joined in! (he's a young person too). And there was me worrying about enthusiasm levels! Jack seemed very interested in getting involved, and has helped to organise another meeting next week where Melita and I can pitch the project to a larger group so that we can start the ball rolling proper, like.
From this, I learnt that all* the fuss was over nothing - young people aren't that scary, even when some of the young people aren't as young as me. Melita commented on my growing confidence whilst I was speaking, so next time I can build on today's experience and "sparkle" as Melita put it.
*(most of)
Finally, today's work included sorting out some Go&Sees for me and Melita in the near future. One of which is The Station, what I done already blogged about, and the other is the CCT's very own Bristol St Pauls, home of Circomedia, about which you can read in this blog which I wrote in a past-life.
I'm actually really looking forward to next week now, hopefully within a fortnight we will have got our group sorted and can begin doing things! Wooo!
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Preparing for Monday's meeting
I've had a final flurry of activity today as I realised that I won't be at work again properly until Monday when the meeting with the young people is happening! Eek!
Fortunately I've got a catch-up with Melita planned for earlier on Monday, where she can reassure me that we are prepared and that young people aren't really that scary...
This afternoon's been focussed on preparing documents that establish the roles of individuals and organisations within the project, after asking the Regeneration Taskforce for some advice I've been given lots and lots of information with about 20 minutes before I go home! Lots of note-taking and keeping things at the top of my mind!
I've been drafting organograms for the project and trying to find an up-to-date one for the Trust. I've also been discussing Memorandums of Understanding, and trying to work out the best method to keep in touch with the young people once they've committed. Good strong business philosophy stuff!
Fortunately I've got a catch-up with Melita planned for earlier on Monday, where she can reassure me that we are prepared and that young people aren't really that scary...
This afternoon's been focussed on preparing documents that establish the roles of individuals and organisations within the project, after asking the Regeneration Taskforce for some advice I've been given lots and lots of information with about 20 minutes before I go home! Lots of note-taking and keeping things at the top of my mind!
I've been drafting organograms for the project and trying to find an up-to-date one for the Trust. I've also been discussing Memorandums of Understanding, and trying to work out the best method to keep in touch with the young people once they've committed. Good strong business philosophy stuff!
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