We had an excellent turnout for our November meeting, including representatives from Brighthelm, BMECP and Tarner who joined us for the first time. We were also joined by Hazel from Community Works, who also attends a similar meeting which covers the Worthing and Adur areas. We will be keeping in touch with Hazel to ensure we don’t miss out on any future opporutnities to share knowledge across a wider area.
The main theme of this meeting was to focus on areas of work which many members will have in common, and to share knowledge and pick up ideas from each other. We discussed three specific areas – Trustee recruitment, Fundraising, and day-to-day Finance activities.
Local newsletters and social media were recognised as good places to advertise for external trustees, and face-to-face chats with centre users and groups to encourage applications from those who already have an interest in the centre. We recognised the challenges which can arise from bringing new trustees into a long-serving trustee Board, we also discussed succession planning.
On the fundraising front, members have had success with a number of sources including National Lottery, Veolia, Chalk Cliff Trust, Sussex Community Foundation, Bernard Sunley Foundation, Rampion, and Sussex Masons. The Business Centre at the Jubilee Library offers access to the GRANTfinder database for library card holders. B&HCC have recently obtained a pot of government Levelling Up funding, grants will be available for community organisations – information will be circulated when it becomes available.
Most centres rely on room bookings as their main source of income, and there are a variety of different booking methods in use – some more paper-based than others. IT packages include Skedda, Avalon and Artifax. We all recognised the challenge of balancing income and outgoings – keeping low room rates for community groups whilst utility bills and other costs are increasing significantly. Some centres make use of the Resource Centre – this offers lots of information and equipment, it also has a membership scheme (with qualifying criteria), additional services including accountancy are available to members.
Everyone also gave an update on their own current priorities and issues. Perhaps not surprisingly at this time of year, winter bills and weather-induced repairs were high on the agenda for many. This also highlighted the issues that some centres have with a lack of clarity over financial responsibilities in their lease. Whether the landlord is a council, church, or private landlord, it can be difficult to agree contributions for repairs.
Dates for 2024’s CBN meetings, all are 2pm-4pm :-
• Tuesday 12th March (St Richards)
• Tuesday 9th July (Cornerstone)
• Tuesday 12th November (Community Base)