*Sumac Meeting 3rd Feb 2014*
Present: Jack (facilitator), Tom G (minutes), Chan, Tom H, Rosie, Tasha, Camille, Kate, Tim G, Henry, Pat
Apologies: Andrew, Dom, Laura, Rob (NG7 Foodbank)
Big-ups: Andrew and all involved for sorting new boiler! Trayén and Marcus for plastering! Dean for getting of his car! Pat for shifting wood to Neds yard! Tasha for organising Safeway alarm check! ESOL group for using the Sumac for a great project!
Qualms: Bins weren’t collected couple of weeks ago because they were overfilled, main room, toilets and kitchen being left in a mess on Thursday evenings when Foodbank happens next day.
_*Matters Arising*_
Dom to print off and put statement about kids on wall.
Kate to reorganise mail drawers plus add forwarding addresses as necessary
Trayén continuing on with mural.
Café security
Bar security
Lights in yard
_*Feedback from Collectives and Working Groups*_
*Residents
*Rent has been set to new figures reflecting the needs of Sumac finances
Ben’s Housing Benefit has been suspended but he’s getting it sorted out – /*see email from Ben for more detail*/
Pete moving out 1st March – 3 people interested in the room so far.
* * Kate* to add FAQs/relevant info to flat notices e.g. no cars in yard, rent due beginning of each month, etc.
Pete requested deduction from his rent arrears because he has been overpaying for past few months – Yes thats OK but Sumac could do with the money – *Tom *to pass on this info.
*Garden
*New plan from *Jen* to hold 4 well advertised gardening workdays/visionings in April hoping to bring together a new garden collective.
Sumac tree – Jen wants to get a professional to look at it, and advise. Also plans to plant an opposite sexed tree are ongoing.
/*Request*/ from Jen and Bob to consult them with new ideas for garden, because many beds have been intentionally planted up with perennials meaning many beds are low maintenance and productive, but might not appear so.
*Bar
*Money is tight – recovering slowly
Rent will be in on time
Prices have gone up again
Look into getting Skills Exchange vols.
/*Paid worker discussion*/ – can’t afford to pay anyone at the moment. The workload has been spread out among more people now making it slightly less of a burden but its still not ideal.
*Bar collective***to look into the numbers (business plan?) for running the bar with some paid hours.
/*Decided*/ – that the decision shouldn’t be made by this meeting (contrary to decision at last meeting) and request will be made asking if Sumac Assembly collective could make it a topic for discussion.
*NG7 Foodbank
*Donations for room hire are appreciated.
Concerns about the state of the centre on a Friday have been noted.
*Finance
*Cash flow problems are predicted Feb/March time so plan to borrow from reserves. Its due to a lot of large bills being due. Things will improve after spring.
Thanks to the various Sumac institutions for increasing rent and donations, especially to Veggies for their support.
Putting out and official call-out for Finance Group volunteers. (bearing in mind the role was created to be a 1 year long rotating commitment)
*ESOL
*Going very well – lots of women learning English
Needs volunteers mainly for childcare role but also teaching role.
*Homework Club
*Still due to start end of Feb.
CRBs are all being sorted.
*Veggies
*Co-hosting Animal Rights day rally – using Sumac as a postal address.
Summer Tour is finally over – its been busy!
**_*
Main Agenda:
*__*Maintenance & Cleaning*_
*Roof – **Kate*
* * Kate* to get more quotes for fixing the roof. Henry may offer a quote for a more DIY job.
Ben’s room is getting drier so the repair work that happened in late Autumn was a success.
*Compost Bins – Tasha
*Fundraiser booked in for 1st March to raise money for this job.
Plan to do most of the job during a workday session – Jen and Bob will be consulted on where they will go.
*Tom & Chan* plan to work on the outdoor lights.
*Tim G *plans to steam clean the carpet (Chan has a cleaner he will bring in)
*Toilets
** * Tim *is up for cleaning and repainting the mouldy areas. In meantime it would help if everyone regularly sprayed the mould with white vinegar. /*Anyone got any anti-mould or bathroom paint they want to donate?*/
** *Cleaning rota has been created (see below)
*Wall
*Not covered by insurance after all!
Some discussion about whether we even want a gate, seems to be going well without one so far…
*Tom H* and *Pat* to speak to James Tricky to see if he is still willing to coordinate a work party to at least tidy up the wall as it is and also ask if he can give an estimated time frame for a re-build of the gate if that’s still on the cards.
_*Radical *__*Routes*_
Nobody turned up to the RR meeting called by Kate…
Kate’s only point was that Andy & Rhiannon seem to be setting up a co-op between the two of them and thought the minimum was 3 people?
Sumac to stand aside from all decisions based on the fact that no collective decision making process has been able to occur.
*Tom H* to rep for Sumac.
Our work commitments have been forwarding RR mail and publicity display.
Radical Rumours report written by Maja.
_*People’s Kitchen
*_Booked up for fundraisers until 5th April.
/*Still need to fill rota for other 2 weeks in a month when its for the benefit of Sumac.*/
Money leant to Calais will be repaid soon.
Jan and Feb rent will be paid soon.
Proposal for “what is an appropriate fundraiser” has been written by Tasha and Rosie and will be sent out on email for discussion.
_*Bin Rota
*_6th Feb Recycling – Tasha
13th Feb Green Bin – Tom
20th Feb Recycling – Tom H
27th Feb Green Bins – Tim G
_*Emergency Checks
*_Checked emergency lighting and that exits are clear – recorded in log book
_*Next Meeting
*_*Jack* agreed to take responsibility for prepping for the next meeting – *Mon 3rd March*:
Roughly that is: Asking for agenda points on email
Compiling and sending out agenda on email
Checking post
Checking diary
Checking phone messages
Printing off previous minutes
Finding someone to facilitate the meeting
ps
*_Cleaning_*
The meeting decided to take on the responsibility of making sure that the Centre is clean and tidy ready for the Foodbank on Fridays.
And also the responsibility of cleaning the toilets once a week. Both responsibilities are in the below rota, but the toilet cleaning job can be done at any point during the week they are responsible (before Fridays if possible.)
This month’s rota is:
7th Feb – *Rosie & Jack *
14th Feb – *Tom G*
21st Feb – *Tom H*
28th Feb – *Tasha & Tim G*
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