| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Mary-Jane |
Ideas for changing from village school to village hall...I know we've discussed this in differing forms before - Gil in particular has previously contributed to this - but after a year of uncertainty, our village school (which closed at the end of the 2006 Summer Term) has finally been handed over to the village by the County Council for 15 months rent-free (save for electricity bills) to see whether we can make a go of it. I've been asked to join 'The Committee' and we meet shortly to start planning what we can do to make a success of it. Bearing in mind we have a fairly thriving market town with a sports centre, swimming pool, rugby club, tennis courts and theatre only 2 miles down the road we're going to have to be quite creative...
If anyone has any plans/links/tried and tested ideas to contribute I'd be really grateful... 
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| sean |
What's going to define 'making a go of it'? And what's your catchment area? | ||||
| alison |
How about a farmers market once a fortnight? | ||||
| hedgewitch |
Well, I was sure someone would beat me to it but it seems not! 
You do know a naked accordion player - am sure he'd be a great hit   
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| madmonk |
Antique fairs? | ||||
| toggle |
craft markets? | ||||
| Snowball |
Art gallery/space to display local(ish) work.
Function/meeting rooms. Any scope for a bar, even if it is a couple of nights a week? Does it have the kitchen still? If so, maybe local small producers could book it and use it as their registered premises. Venuefor local clubs or organisations,like Bridge club or knitting circles. |
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| Mary-Jane |
It's a small, former village school (decent sized hard surfaced playground and very small grassed play area) set on a steep hillside with limited facilities (one large traditional school room for about 12 kids and an attached portakabin). We're about 2 miles from our local market town which has a half-decent swimming pool, plus nice sports centre (separate) and a good theatre complex. We're about half a mile from the sea thus half a mile from our local beach (very family orientated).
The village itself, much like the general area, is made up of rural/farming population (beef, dairy, sheep), a growing influx of a hippie population, a few middle class ageing retired and a substantial socio-economic deprived population. The area is mad keen on rugby, and although there are tennis courts in town it's not an organised tennis club. There is also a thriving bowls club in the town. We need to attract young and old alike, and a combination of the middle classes, hippie communities and the socially deprived. I feel our way forward is to attract local businesses and services to hold 'out reach' services in the village and combine that with classes and other social events. I hope that gives a decent overview. Thanks for your comments so far. |
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| Mary-Jane |
See above for the catchment area details. As for 'making a go of it' we have the school/hall free for the next 15 months (although I'm arguing for 18 months - 2 years) save for electricity bills. During that time we have to make it a viable business proposition i.e. make it pay for itself...or at least break even-ish. |
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| Mary-Jane |
Yes, it had to be you HW...
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| Jamanda |
I'll ask my friend who runs the village hall committee down the road if she has any advice. | ||||
| tigger |
Could you let it out for children's parties? | ||||
| sean |
IT classes? There's prolly grant money available for that sort of thing.
Would anyone be interested in running some sort of childcare/parent and toddler group/playgroup? |
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| sean |
But you could run a folk club or offer rehearsal space for bands. |
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| goldy1 |
A comunity cafe/gift/charity/craft shop. might be a good idea. Selling homemade homegrown. At a fair price not like some places that inflate the price just because it puts the word homemade on it. When ever I go any where I prefer to use the local places rather than the big chains.
A cafe can also become a comunity meeting place. |
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| mochyn |
Last year we completed the rebuilding on our village hall, turning it from a one-roomed school-house to a village hall with good-sized kitchen and loos. The community already owned the building and we got grants from the Assembly, Powys County Council etc.
We also raised a lot of cash ourselves, mainly by holding events and renting out the hall. Events were, for example, Burns' Night, St David's Day, Hog-roast and village sports, coffee mornings... Also the occasional funeral tea (!). The hall is also regularly used for Welsh classes, keep fit, flower arranging, village choir and a tune club. Where we really differ from you, M-J, is that the nearest towns are 7 or 8 miles away, so there's a greater need for a hall. We don't have a licence, although a hall a few limes away does: we just say 'bring a bottle' when there's an event on. If you need any other help I can try to find out for you: grant sources etc. |
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| Mary-Jane |
That would be great thanks Mochyn - let me know what sort of details you need from me. |
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| Mary-Jane |
Only problem with that is that we have one just beginning to thrive down in the town so it's unlikely that folks will come up to us when they can go to town... |
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| Mary-Jane |
I sat and made a huge long list of possibilities last night, including the ones that you've all made here...thanks again. I shall have to sit down and type it all out into a read-able document as I'm aware that some ideas are long-term and needed funding, whereas others are short term and could be organised fairly easily.
I had also thought of setting up a village website and/or village newsletter to start getting people interested and making them aware of what was happening. Has anyone got any experience of such a project? Or got any suggestions? Or could direct me to some on-line help? |
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| Snowball |
A newsletter is a good idea.
It does not have to be very fancy. Something that is delivered through the door will have an impact. How about a survery in the first one. What facilities do you want? What facilities would you use? Do you have any skills to contribute? That kind of thing. Is there a local shop that could collect filled in surverys. I find that you get a better response if there is a box to put them in rather than having to return them to an address. |
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| Mary-Jane |
That's a good idea...thanks Snowball
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
our village hall is used for toddler groups ( is there a need for that?) keep fit clubs of various sorts, a monthly film club ( very popular) kids judo on a Saturday morning, hire for parties, fundraising like jumble sales for local groups, old folks tea afternoon club, history society.
What about local medical services, blood donations, health visitor baby clinics? Our local council has an 'art's dept for want of a better word that subsidise travelling plays and other entertainment that the village can book. All the posters and tickets etc are handled by the council. This is a bit about it Is the parish council of any use, as they have to have a community plan ( I think) so adding an extra ammenity to their portfolio might be of interest? |
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| Mary-Jane |
Oooh - good idea, I hadn't thought of that... And thanks for all the other info too Mrs.F
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
its amazing what sticks in the brain after a short stint on the Village Hall Committee.
Does your area have one of these - http://www.oxonrcc.org.uk/index.php I remember they came and gave advice on setting up a community shop and had ideas for other events and uses for our hall ( I think they could lay their hands on a mobile skittle alley we could have hired!) Also there's a community village shop website - http://www.virsa.org which might be worth a look at if you decide to go down that route. |
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| hedgewitch |
Thought I'd slipped under your radar for a little while there....
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| hedgewitch |
Do you have a shop in the village? If not, is there anything you could buy in bulk and sell on, either at cost or for a small profit with the profit going to find the hall? You have quite a diverse population, but maybe you could ask people what they would want to buy and see if that would be feasible. Maybe take orders up front then you don't have to carry stock you wouldn't sell?
And what about a rehearsal space to hire out to local bands at a reasonable rate? The bands would get somewhere they could afford to practise and the money would be put back into the hall fund. |
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| Mary-Jane |
Got your 2nd suggestion on the list already.
First one is a good new idea - probably a long term one. I like that though...thanks HW. (Off my radar? Tish and pish) |
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| hedgewitch |
Is there any funding in your area for the Citizens Network? I'm wondering about having internet access for the community based there. You could use laptops so they could be easily stowed away when not in use - good for security too as you can keep them in a secure place.
There's quite a lot of funding about for this, just don't know who it is available to outside libraries. Might be worth asking around, though. And it could be useful for everyone in the community, potentially. Once you have the computers and a network, you can then really open up on the kinds of courses and training you can offer for both fun and vocational stuff. |
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| gil |
If you're going to do questionnaires, we got ours back (re wind farm money) by sending the committee members round in person to distribute and later on collect completed forms / discuss ideas, rather than return by post or box in shop (got no shop here).
That depends on what your local population is, number of households vs number of committtee members. And how well-known people are to each other. We did a handful each. |
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| Snowball |
Have you thought about a credit union?
Seems the ideal demographic for one to work. |
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| gil |
BTW, balancing different social groups interests not always easy. A nearby community are in a similar position to you (wanting to turn former school into community centre - they already have a hall, but it is just a hall, and may belong to the British Legion or something like that, not the parish [??]).
They want to turn school into cafe selling locally grown and produced food and drink, craft centre with studio space, cultural centre (writing, art, dance, craft, music etc). To bring some life to the valley. Some opposition from people who moved there because it was remote and very very quiet. Will let you know how it proceeds. Problems starting any kind of project as there are major structural issues with their school building (it was allowed to run down, as the council figured they would end up closing it). I've been very disappointed with the council's plans to address our rural cultural deprivation - what do they give us ?? Tots etc exercise classes (at a time when the primary kids are still in school), and music and movememnt for the older folk. This was part of a one size fits all programme of activities that were arranged without community consultation. Oh, and an extra bus journey that leaves the nearest town just before 5pm, making it useless for people trying to get back from work by public transport. |
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| tigger |
yoga should appeal to the hippies and retired if there aren't already classes in the area.
our church hall was used by the youth club too, parents are glad to know where there children are in the evenings. |
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| Helen_A |
What about finding out if the local CAB would like to run a session there? Tax office to do a tax/self assessment clinic. Both could probably pay for their use of the space as well (although in the case of the former maybe not a great deal).
Helen_A |
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| Mary-Jane |
Actually that's a good idea Helen...although once again the local CAB is very local being only a couple of miles away in town. However, perhaps a once a month stint might be helpful and I love that tax office idea. Thanks for that. |
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| dpack |
playscheme in the hols ,youthclub , both get the folk with an interest in community active
local is hard work but please do it if you can build on that |
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| Mary-Jane |
Well, we seem to be almost up and running with the project now. I attended my first meeting with the Core Group Committee last night and presented my ideas (thanks again everyone for your wonderful contributions) and also a case for legally taking the Village School back from the County Council depending on the terms of the original Deeds (circa 1885) which I'm going to see next week.
But in any event, the County Council have agreed to let the village have the school on a 21 year lease, with the first 3 years rent free save for basic running costs. I've found a good on-line pro-forma business plan designed for community projects, which has to be drawn up and presented to the Council. Then I'm making a presentation to the Sub Committee...all 22 of them ...to put the case for Charity status and explain the concept and responsibilites of being a trustee.
If anyone has any other thoughts, bright ideas, signposts to useful on-line resources...they will all be gratefully received.
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| Cho-ku-ri |
Our old village school funds itself and is used for excersise classes, nursery, meetings, dances, parties, summer/Christmas fetes, sports, cubs, brownies, scouts, chess club, etc etc. "But it is the only hall in the villiage"
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| Nick |
Does your hall wear a skin tight PVC pouch? | ||||
| Cho-ku-ri |
(I hate that program BTW)
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| Nick |
I'm with you. | ||||
| Mary-Jane |
Yup - we're hoping to do the same (but minus the PVC pouch). It's getting it all off the ground which is taking up the time at the moment. |
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| LynneA |
Indoor Car Boot Sales? (Basically Jumble Sales, but given a name that might attract outsiders)
Does the Workers Education Association run classes nearby? If not, maybe you could see if they would be interested. Two miles is no distance to travel for an esoteric and unique evening class
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