Community Meeting 20190919

Attendees: JP, AM, ZZ, MG, JT, Nuclear S, PH, AL, JR

Review of/actions from last meeting

SG to make media mailouts a quarterly thing (Carried over - 2 months)

SG to create a list of publications we could send things to - (Carried over - 2 months)

MG and SG to go through boxes on the storage shelves to get rid of any old ones and make sure everyone who has a membership has a box - (Carried over - 2 months)

SG to work with laser team to collate ideas for laser room tidyness and small scale maintenance after a couple of weeks, then create the poster.

SG to update our mailing list of counsellors and the like.

ZZ to buy whiteboard gaffer tape for people with long-running prints to leave their details on 3d printers.

JP to apply to Awesome Liverpool for funding for Festival of Maintenance.

JP to ask Cathy about Fashion Hub involvement in repair café – DONE – She’s going to attend.

JP to speak to Arthur about how Plastic Playgroup could be involved in repair café – DONE – They want to be there on the day, but JP hasn’t heard any more than that.

SG to "come up with options" re: adding copy to the mugs to say what we do.

SG to find out whether anyone would be interested in trying to sell makery stuff at London Road market.

SG to email Jason and find out whether there are plans for the light on the landing, immediately outside our front door – ZZ and JP interested in making a statement lampshade for it, but only if Jason doesn’t already have any plans for it.

Recent Events

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Upcoming Events

Theory of Change workshop with Helen and Zarino – 6pm Friday 27th Sept – ZZ will be putting together a Facebook event page and an email for the Google Group imminently.

Festival of Maintenance is on Saturday 28th September:

• Tickets are available now – about 80 sold so far.
• Also, please help publicise.
• Looking for volunteers too. Contact organisers for more info.

Repair Café – Sunday 29th September:

• Facebook event
• Facebook page
• MG has bought a starter kit from repaircafe.org which includes lots of useful resources and guidance.
• Still looking for more volunteers, including someone who’s happy to run a "reception desk" to welcome people and get them filling in their form.
• SG wants help doing an audit of materials that we’ve already got, that’ll be useful, and what we might need to get.
• SG to decide on a date for the second one, so we can tell people when they turn up to the first one.

Synthesiser Meet – Saturday 12th October (Maker Day)

Liverpool Open Studios – Saturday 12th October (Maker Day) – DoES Liverpool will already been open for Maker Day, but this specific day, we’ll be taking part in LOSt, so we’ll be in their guide, and new people might turn up. JP suggests that people might want to use it as an opportunity to sell some crafty items?

Finances

Our finances were quite good, making roughly a profit of £1000 a month, until we got our business rates bill. Unexpectedly, we’re paying significantly more per square metre than we were in Gostins (and more than other buildings nearby), and since our new space is bigger than the old space too, we’re no longer getting Small Business relief. We also need to pay back-dated rates. JM, SG, and AM are working to reduce the financial impact of this, including discussing payment plans, meeting the local councillors, applying for discretionary relief, and contesting the valuation. We’re coordinating with the other tenants in the building, since they too have been shocked at the high valuations for their units.

Promotion

Repair cafe has generated a lot of interest – especially on Facebook and Instagram.

AOB

We’re organising a Global GovJam at DoES on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th October (during the day).

We’re looking at hosting or running a jewellery workshop.

Paul from the Fashion Hub bar has invited DoES to display something pretty during their monthly club night. First one is this coming Saturday. JP was thinking of taking the Fernanda Wing.

ACTION: AL to do a run to the tip with spare stuff off the "stale, last chance" table.

Confirm time & date of next meeting

7pm Thursday 17th October