Intro
Ryan introduced the meeting. The purpose of these new monthly open
planning meetings is to keep the forest running in an exciting and
diverse way, keep events and projects happening. This is the first of
these meetings. In the future, meetings might have different themes
depending on what's coming up or what needs to be done, e.g. a festival
meeting before August.
Events
ONE COOL EVENT EACH MONTH
(To be planned by the events team at these monthly planning meetings,
and then organised by the same people during the month).
Brainstorming: jam, mega joke swap, readings, avant-garde, DIY days
May's big event: Ceilidh – already booked by Mark upstairs on May
20th but now, with the help of more volunteers to be bigger. Ideas:
include more folk/ traditional dancing such as Occitane, Balkan etc.
Anyone interested in helping out, contact Mark: mise@markneilly.com
Action Points:
- Zuri to look into Occitane bands/ music/ dancing and contact Mark.
- Cat to book downstairs on the night as well – done!
- Nix to check with Portnawack and the Woo to play downstairs
- Mark and Zuri to look into organising language workshops during the
day - Mark to get in touch with Black Cat see if they want to play
- Mark to put Zuri in contact with Morag
as organisers? + Nachos!!!
To be discussed further at the May planning meeting.
If anyone has any ideas until then, contact Catalina:
catalina.i03@gmail.com
MEADOWS FESTIVAL
3-4 June, 12-5pm
Forest will have a bar + stage
Whoever wants to get involved, we need volunteers to work on the day –
they will need alcohol license training so in order to be able to do
that, contact Kata: arizonadreamer@gmail
For any logistic help, especially on the day (carrying, setting up,
taking down tents, fence etc.) contact Nix: paint@theforest.org.uk
Action Points:
- Cat to try and apply for a license for the Forest on that weekend
(Fri and Sat) - Dai to organise the afterparty at the Forest on Sat night – if you
want to help, contact Dai: boliviadarling@hotmail.com - Nix to keep in contact with the committee, and Jamie for the bar and
handle logistics - Cat to meet with Dai, Ed Stack and Birgit to discuss bands,
performers etc.
I will ask Harry to fill us in on this because I was too lazy and spaced
out to take appropriate notes!
AUGUST
Still far away but needs to be amazing so any crazy ideas, good bands,
awesome parties you see/ experience/ hear of, let us know:
events@theforest.org.uk
Promo/Media/Outreach
WE TALKED ABOUT
- Website
- Media
- Event Photos & Videos
- Reaching Other Organisations
- Social Media
- Flyering Team
- Chalkboards
- Listings
- Sean is currently the website administrator/editor, but is leaving
Edinburgh at the beginning of June so is looking for others to take on
some or all of this role. If interested send email to
website@theforest.org.uk - A couple of people here were tentatively interested
- Action Point Sean to organise a website meeting in May, and
post about this on the BB. The meeting is for: technical programming
(HTML, CSS, Javascript), writing and editing of text content, photo and
video content for the website. - Action Point Brittonie Once a date for the website meeting
has been set, email people who might want to do text, audio, images or
video for the website and ask them to come to the meeting.
- We have a small media team which sends out regular press releases
and talks to journalists, which improves coverage and awareness of
Forest - We're looking for more people to get involved!
- Action Point Harry to keep Martin in touch with future
media meetings
- We're looking for better documentation of our events, which helps
with promotion - Whenever someone takes photos, videos, recordings or writes about an
event, this should be sent to website@theforest.org.uk - If you use Flickr, you can also use our pool at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/forestcafe/
- The idea here is for Forest to get better at collaborating with
other arts/voluntary/political organisations, advertising our services
to them, encouraging their involvement, and running events with them - As well as working on the huge Ten Tracks projects, we've got
upcoming collaborations with Meadows Festival, Voluntary Arts Week, and
Leith Festival - We have some history of being involved in European sopcial centre
networks -- but this tends to be dependent on interested individuals
following it up - If we end up moving into a new building, we'd be keen to share space
with other organisations, so we need to be getting this on our radar - Action Point Kata to draft a standard "outreach letter" for
other orgs and post this on the BB - Action Point Pes to post contact details of possible
political groups we could collaborate with on the BB - Action Point Martin to start a thread on the BB about possible
future space-sharers
- We have a Facebook and a Twitter: how could we use them better?
- Birgit wanted feedback on the current level of Facebook usage: some
people want more, some less. Our feedback was that she's hitting the
right level about now, witha fortnightly programme and extras only for
special events/news. - There's a worry that the info on Facebook doesn't always match the
website so more feedback was that we could get better at editing the
fortnightly programme with updated info. - Harry is currently running the Twitter account, with Birgit joining
in sometimes, but would like more people to get involved - Action Point Harry to run a Twitter Skillshare on Thursday
4th at 2pm in the café, and to organise future skillshares if it goes
well
- We've set up a regular flyering as a result of Roofraiser work.
Anyone is welcome: it's every WEDNESDAY at 6PM, meeting at Forest: it's
fun, social, and you get rewarded with alcohol - We also have a monthly big flyerin session and shop drop: the
nextone will be Friday 6th May
- Kata is trying to make the chalkboards function better: get updated
more often, and rubbed out less! We suggested we offer a free tea/coffee
to any volunteer who does this nicely for us - Action Point Kata to make a "COFFEE 4 CHALK" poster
- We want to get better at sending our events listings to websites and
magazines. This is a regular job that takes an hour or two - Action Point everyone with suggestions of listings websites,
send to Birgit at events@theforest.org.uk - Action Point Sonia to help Birgit with submitting all
our listings
WE TALKED ABOUT
- Q&A
- Sponsored bike ride
- Using the kitchen
- Widget for websites
- Raffle
- Busking
- Tithing
- A new flyer
- Other ideas
- Harry began with a quick summary of the financial situation so far,
and answered a few questions for clarification
SPONSORED BIKE RIDE
- Lien and Anne-Sophie have been working on a plan for this
- It could run possibly to or from Glasgow, with an event at the end
- Perhaps it could go along the canals as part of the canal festival?
- Could we decorate the bikes? Have a nicest bike competition? A race?
A tall bikes joust? - Action Point Sonia to send an example sponsor pack to
Harry/Lien - Action Point Lien to recruit volunteers and organise a
meeting on the BB
- Lucy is keen to exploit the kitchen more for fundraising
- She has an idea for cooking workshops (that would charge)
- We could possibly do more selling of food at the festivals we
collaborate with - Action Point Harry to ask Leith Festival about food
- Action Point Jamie to ask Meadows Festival about food
- Mark is keen to get a widget made that friends and artists can put
on their website soliciting donations - Sean suggested we should wait until we have an online monthly
donations system up and running - Action Point Lucy to make a lit of Edinburgh- and
Forest-related artists and websites whom we could ask to host such a
widget - Action Point Harry to continue work on setting up new monthly
donations systems
- Raffles are low effort with lots of gain!
- We decided we would incorporate a monthly raffle into our new big
monthly event plan, the first being a ceilidh on May 20th - Action Point Catalina to make sure this is discussed at next
event meeting
- Mark is keen to get regular Busking for Forest sessions happening
- Action Point Mark & Lucy to meet and make this happen,
possibly with Danny Mullins - Action Point Buskers to ask Birgit about flyers to
distribute at these sessions: they should be promotion as well as
fundraising
- Mark thinks we could encourage musicians to tithe gigs to Forest --
such as giving proceeds from every tenth gig to Forest. Harry thinks
this would make get press copy! - Action Point Mark to find two or three bands willing to say
they'll do this - Action Point Harry to write a press release about this when
the bands are confirmed
- We need a new, attractive postcard flyer that both advertises Forest
and doubles as a standing order form. - Action Point Birgit to try and find an artist for this, and
liase with HARRY about design and printing
- What about a Forest Sports Day? Could we get sponsorship from a
sports group / venue? - What about using a website like charitygiving.co.uk
- What about joining in The Big Lunch?
- Action Point Sonia to forward charitygiving.co.uk details to
Harry, who will research - Action Point Harry to forward Sonia's Big Lunch email to Lucy
Freeshop
The free shop is the greatest thing the forest has ever done
Two of the three people currently running the free shop are leaving soon
There is a bb topic about the free shop, check it out
The freeshop happens once a week on Sundays
There is a problem with communication
The freeshop should be organised a bit differently:
- The storage room should have boxes with pre-sorted stuff that can
then be taken downstairs or outside on freeshop day - There should be a pre-storage area somewhere for stuff to be put
before it is sorted into the storage room - On free shop Sundays there should be a box for new donations to the
free shop. New donations could be sorted on the day or taken to the pre-sort - The pre-sort cannot be a fire hazard by blocking the staircase.
Needs to be a drawer or something
There is enough good stuff, but also too much bad stuff
How do we tell people not to bring huge obsolete TVs, stereos, sewing
machines? These kind of things should go on gumtree
KMs should be aware of this, look at things and then say No or Yes
Maybe a poster upstairs next to the storage room
No one wants to do the freeshop, it's dirty, messing, boring, good for OCDs
You can get some free food from the kitchen for doing the free shop, Pes
did not know about this until today, he thought Stevie was just being
nice to him
Kata has made a rota for people who might want to run the freeshop, it's
in the kitchen
Brittonie to organise a freeshop fashion show
The freeshop is good PR, outreach, surprises people
Can get consistency by having a good system setup well
Sign up sheet was passed around
Front of House
Great! To get involved speak to Kata, get on her email list
What we do not like about how the forest looks:
- The cafe space needs work
- The cafe doesn't all work together, more consistency
- Dust, old lampshades
- Run-down feel, couches too old
- Wooden chairs shite
- Main room very dark when summer comes
- Too chaotic, not controlled enough
- Want to change lampshades, furniture, tables and chair, toilets...
- Often when he is in the cafe Harry goes ARR! and takes down the
posters that are in the wrong places. People should do this and create a
big spectacle about it.
- Magda's mural
- The red room, because everything works together
- Hodge podge gives character
- Advertise at the ECA degree shows, let artists know that we have
space to use for installations. Outreach and engagement. - Make some storage space to store materials while prepping projects
- Advertise for artists to take on particular aspects of the space for
a period of time. It's okay if we don't all like it because it will only
be there for a limited time. Change is good. - Zuri and ? to work on lampshades
- Zuri to take on table-making project
- There will be a maintenance day for touching up, repainting, etc.
- Make friends with talented people
- Weekly scheduled tidy up/make nice: flowers, remove ugly posters,
spend an hour tidying and making it look good. If you're interested in
helping to do this then sign up for Kata's email list
Voluntary Arts Week is 6th-14th May. Forest will have stalls, do
outreach.
The Roofraisers (two months of live events in the hall) are currently happening.
Save The Forest Art Auction is 14th May at AXO Gallery, Leith. If you are an artist, give us art! We need more art donated for this auction. Email auction@theforest.org.uk
The next one of these monthly open planning meetings will be organised
by Catalina and will be on a Tuesday in mid May.