Forest BB

Brothers and Sisters of the Forest,

Through blood, sweat and volunteers we are able to make a small profit - which we try to spend on projects, events, revamps, arts and all the other funky stuff you can see around you at the Forest.

However, maybe there are some other things you think we could be spending some of our money on...if so...here is a forum for your ideas.

Any suggestions are welcome and will be considered by the committee.
Although no promises can be made it would be good to know what the people think...

Cheers!
Treasurer G.

i want this at the forest.

it would be incredible

_________________
God is great.
Grass is gentler.

yes, so i would like to suggest spending a monthly amount on books to expand the library. it seems like a reasonable idea, and obviously the exact amount would be decided by the committee. ideally we could purchase the books at the oxfam bookstore (or any other charity shop) - their collection isn't amazing but they've got a good variety to read from. prices are around 2-4 pounds for paperbacks, if i remember correctly.

anyway, tell me what you think.

Art*o*mat is a really cool idea.

couldn't we find a 'coin machine' of some kind, (doesn't have to be a cig machine) and refashion it into a forest Art*o*mat?

maybe a super-fantastik-spacesaving-wall mountable one!

i agree with pogo...make our own is an awesome idea, cds, tshirts, postcards, mags, frisbees!..all these things could fit in it!
they have one of these machines in the ica in london, the 'art' we got out of it was kinda crummy though..

but imagine if we made our own crazy giant one! it could be our robotic shop?... lets get ebaying!

also other things we should buy are:

video camera and shotgun mike and clip mike and tripod..

couple more good computers (for art, video, sound recording)

book binding equipment for forest publishing

another parachute

badge making machine

large A-frame ladder (to reach ceiling in cafe easily)

small library budget is good idea (for zines and books)

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Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

I agree with most of the stuff above, though I think the library budget could be a bit of a waste.

Why?

Spending £2-4 on a paperback from oxfam is ridiculous. Much better to cut out the middleman and let people donate directly to the forest. I've donated some excellent books over the past couple of years, though they have all since gone missing. So, we are back to that again! Let's stop the stealing problem before we go spending money on books....

Also, the keen eye can spot good books at car boot sale fro much less than £2-4

As for magazines, there are so many cool ones around it would be hard to choose which ones to get. But we can get free mags from Word Power anytime. When we do, they just get flung on the floor and generally cause a mess. What would be the point? Better to produce our own magazines, no?

Also, for helping people to access information, wouldn't it make more sense to have a space on our website that links to cool stuff. We're already doing this to an extent, and I'm sure we all agree that the web is a better place to go for info as it's more often free, it stays up-to-date and there's no waste of resources involved.

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http://www.ethicaladventures.org

yes this is true

when i was talking about a budget for a library i wasnt thinking oxfam books.

personally i dont think theres really any point of the forest duplicating the kind of stuff you can get in city libraries, which are pretty good in my experience. yeah donating is good. i was thinking word power... focus on books that people arent likely to find elsewhere/ directly cover stuff we are trying to do/ radical ideas/ stuff to enable people to do things/ just get zines which arent available in regular shops etc.

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theres no success like failure and failures no success at all

i agree; turning the forest library into something different to the average library is an excellent idea. however, if we rely purely on donations, i'm not sure how long we could keep expanding before we run out of 'interesting' reading material.
although it could be worth a try.

i would be happy to spend some money on a zine library. if i weren't so scared of losing my ish, i'd (temporarily) donate my collection.

_________________
God is great.
Grass is gentler.

separate volunteer exchange grant system?

we have a list of similar likeminded organisations that any forest volunteers can go and visit/ work at/ for a few days

like 'artist residencies' except not necessarily art based

forest puts up an amount of money for transport/ related costs for people/ groups of people to do this. obvously they could also go to other organisations not on this list if we dig them

also maybe some system for hosting people from other organisations where we can ensure they get properly looked after/ have a good time

originally i thought this kind of stuff should be accomodated into our existing grants scheme, and that people really need to show initiative/ motivation in setting up their own thing... but on the other hand maybe people dont know what opportunities are out there

exchanges/ networking is good for the forest and individuals

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theres no success like failure and failures no success at all

marquee, (thats a big tent by the way)

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theres no success like failure and failures no success at all

^^^^^^^^^^

YES YES YES we can show films in the meadows and cater and everything

hot hot hot

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i'd like to spend some cash on some board games for the cafe
-scrabble
-monopoly
-more chess

maybe keep them behind the bar or something to ensure they don't get killed/lost/spreadout by the masses?

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forest sports equipment for rent
-volleyball kit
-bocce ball (sp?)
-football (got it already)
-etc

_________________
God is great.
Grass is gentler.

I am a keen proponent of le basketboll.

i will donate my bball to the forest, but i think we should go for more sports that are do-able near the forest. the closest court for bball is in bellview, which, although not far, it definately isn't close either.

if you want to borrow my ball, let me know

_________________
God is great.
Grass is gentler.

table tennis is still on the cards

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Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

I saw 'Coach Carter' last night, and The Machinist. I think we could make a Hybrid game exclusively played at the Forest. We Train a basketball team and use motivational speeches which make everyone cry. Then we take pictures. Then we make eveyone leg it, like in The Machinist, in states of paranoia.Then, and only then, do we hatch the third phase of the game.....the part based on The Business, Nick Love's new film....where we move the Forest to Marbella and turn it into an 80's theme club, and we all have pink shirts (PARADISE) and slicked back hair. Then we take pictures.

Get it?

i think we should back chisolms idea.

_________________
Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.