Pre-feasibility funding

[Rachael]

Hi,

We're eligible to apply for up to £10,000 of 'pre-feasibility funding' if we're acquiring a public building via asset transfer. Details here: mycommunityrights.org.uk/community-asset-transfer/grants/

I'm having a first go at drafting an application for discussion at Sunday meetings. Trevor, Carmel, and Leah are helping out too. Drop me a note if you'd like to be involved.

If we get this we'll be eligible for up to £100,000 of 'feasibility funding' so there may be another application to do down the line.

Rachael

[Rachael and Trevor]

We just met with Karen Wood from North East Social Enterprise Partnership (NESEP) and she has offered to help us (pro-bono) with the application form. She'll try to have a draft ready for Monday for discussion at the programming meeting (I'll also post it on this thread). She seemed pretty confident that we're in a good position to get the money.

If we want we can build into the application money for NESEP to help us develop a business plan and funding application for feasibility funding (up to £50,000). Karen also suggested we meet with the council asap to talk about alternative asset management models (e.g. commercial sale, asset transfer to purchase or to lease). She is happy to set this meeting up and to attend.

If anyone wants to know more about meeting, ask. Any concern / questions / worries about working with NESEP in this way?

[Rachael]

Hi all,

I need to put some details and costs into the pre-feasibility applicaiton. Here's the possible wish-list -- if you know WHO and HOW MUCH could you add this to the thread. Also, if there's anything I've missed -- or anything that shouldn't be on there. This money is to help us prepare for an asset transfer application, rather than for post-asset transfer fun...

So, here's the list; we need now to put the name of the individual or organisation who you would want to do that work and their fee:

Surveyor -- to provide full survey and valuation of Warwick Street building
Architect -- to draw outline plans for purchasing
Planning Permission Advisory fees –
Environmental assessment – Carbon Trust
Disability audit –
Fundraising training – Louise McGlen, Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service
Project management consultant ??
Planning consultant ??


Other things we may like to think about –
support for the production of a business plan to raise the finance
Advice to look at our financial management systems now that you may be taking on loan finance etc

Thanks,

Rachael

[Rachael]

Adrin says: As far as I can remember: Valuation and surveying was £900. The pre-planning meeting fee was £180 (I think Trevor knows the exact figure).
Stephanie says: I'll give you an estimate for planning and project management tomorrow

[zaatar]

Pre-planning Advisory Fee - Newcastle City Council: £180.00
Surveyor for valuation & advice - Johnson Tucker, Chartered Surveyors: £900 + VAT
Disability Audit (I'm working on this one, will have an answer asap)
Archictect - waiting to hear from Z & D.

[Rachael]

Hi all,
I've just spoken with an adviser from SIB -- www.sibgroup.org.uk/ -- re. the p-f application. It turns out that the program is being wound up so we have only until October to apply. She advised that our focus in the application needs to be on our business planning -- basically getting sh*t together so that potential funders and lenders don't run a mile when we tell them we're non-hierarchical and volunteer only. Surveyers and architects will be part of this as they'll be needed to help us build a picture of how much money we're going to need, but also a solicitor to look at legal structure and business case, fundraising adviser, 'business development support manager'. So, we'd be asking for the money to allow us, over three months, to do a full audit of our existing structures, work out how we'd handle an asset, work out how much the move will cost us, assess our fundraising capabilities, and draw up a business plan to show that we're a safe pair of hands to take on 210 warwick street.
I think that getting together a collective to work with the 'business development support manager' to take on this discrete part of the project should be an aim at the October extraordinary meeting.
Any volunteers?
R

[Trevor]

Hi
SIB sound like they a great source of advice. I've just spoken with Norman Watson of Co-ownership Solutions Ltd, who Kevin at SES put us in contact with. They have set up a Community Benefit Society (coop) and purchased the pub at Slaley. He says they got great advice from SIB and about £15k prefeasibility funds. They received £282k in funding from a community share issue (CSI) from around 167 supporters. This emphasizes how useful these can be for fundraising.

My conversation with Norman confirmed we cannot convert our CIC or proposed CIC-coop directly to a Coop (CBS), and that a Coop-CIC can't do a community share issue. However, he suggests we dissolve ourselves and then become a Community Benefit Society (CBS) with an asset lock in our rules. Again we should be able to find an off the peg structure from Co-ops UK. That would open the opportunities for a CSI and also for funds from Co-op & Community Finance.

I retain my slight unease over allowing where funds can come from to drive the structure we adopt, however sering as this was where thecdrive for our review of governance began in 2013, I think I have to swallow that feeling and suggest we should consider this more fully.

Norman can provide legal and financial advice to the Star should we want to go down these routes. He suggests putting a quote for £2.5k for their services in the prefeasibility application. That includes financial modeling for the fundraising effort.
He also suggested that based on their experience we should put a figure of £3-4k in for other legal advice.


Opinions on this will be appreciated! Here or a Sunday meeting.

One last suggestion I feel that with the better understanding of the prefeasibility funds, as explained by Rachael, perhaps we should shift costs of all the evaluations of SCS into the feasibility funding application. The exception should be the valuations necessary to understand the funds we need for purchase and to understand how we can raise them. My reasinning being that the prefeasibility is more for establishing the S+S as a viable purchaser than it is about SCS as a viable community venue. I hope that's right! If not please correct me.

Trevor

[Rachael]

Hi Trevor,

thanks for all this. Big thoughts re. governance -- we'll need to think carefully here and certainly something for discussion at a GM / wider forum.

re. your last suggestion, I don't think this is quite right. To demonstrate ourselves to be a viable purchaser we need to show that we have a plan for raising the money required, and for this we need to show that we've a realistic idea of the costs involved. We can't do this without the survey and so forth. Certainly we don't need numbers down to the last digit, but we should consult to get realistic ball-park figures.

Rachael

ps Debbie Lamb from SIB may be able to meet us on Wednesday morning to talk pre-feasibility. Let me know if you'd like to come along.

[robin]

Dear All,

I am uneasy about one strand of our fundraising strategy "Community Share Issue", my unease is as follows:

1. Community Share Issue, seems to be presented as something for which we need external professional help, and SES Coop have recommended Norman Watson, to undertake this for us. If this was a "one-off" involvement with no other implications I wouldn't have any problem with it. However, there seems to be a necessity to re-constitute in a different legal structure than the CIC/Coop model we were well on the road to converting to.

2. The suggestion is that we close the CIC and open up an old style coop IPS (Industrial Provident Society) using a model governing instrument, and add an asset lock. I'm happy with this just so long as there is a clause in the model that permits us to make a set of local rules, along the shape of the model we have been working on with the CIC/Coop.

3. Then there is the issue of the Community Share Issue. My initial reading tells me that individuals by 1 share. At some point they either get their money back, get their money back with interest, or donate the value of the share with all the benefits that come with gift aid, if we are properly constituted as a charity, as well.

4. My questions are:

a. Do the shareholders have any power having bought their share. Do they, not our members/volunteers elect a board, directors or trustees?

b. Are we permanently stuck with a professional type board, requiring the continued input from people such as Norman Watson?

c. Is there a model IPS set of articles that permits a local set of rules that allows us to operate on the basis of the model we designed.

d. Is the property "owned" by the ISP or does it have to reside in a separate body, meaning that if we wanted to use the asset to seek finance to redevelop the cinema in the future or is it going to be held by a separate body (e.g. a Charity or a Community Land Trust). Does this matter?

e. So far, there is a vagueness, I'm not happy.

f. There is continuous reference to what the Cube did? Are they entirely happy, would they have done it any differently a second time round, if they had the choice? I would like to hear from them.

g. Most of all I want to know in my own mind answers to all of these questions and fully understand the implications of the fund-raising method, and its implications for governance.

My reading is starting here:

www.uk.coop/biography/norman-watson

and here:

communityshares.org.uk/

and here:

www.coopfinance.coop/borrow/community-share-issues/

please join me in a "read-in" on community share issues, and achieve collective enlightenment.

Peace and cooperation,

Robin

[Rachael]

Draft answers for the feasibility application below. Please post comments / changes / additions / thoughts on this thread by the end of the week (Friday 12 September).

Your Proposal
2. Please describe the asset/s your organisation is planning to manage including how this asset will be used and how it will meet specific community needs?
(299/Maximum 300 words)
Build on an ethos of cooperation and inclusivity, the Star and Shadow Cinema (SSC) has been at the heart of Ouseburn arts and social scene for 8-years. We have over 500 local volunteers, who have created an internationally renowned venue for films and arts, and a home for numerous community and volunteer groups.
We are relocating to 210 Warwick Street, which we will transform into a cinema, gig space, library, arts centre, gallery, and social space. We will use volunteer labour where possible, and will invite local people and groups to help, learn, and teach us on the build.
We embrace open programming, and over 100 volunteers have programmed films for over 1000 audience members. We have deepened film culture in the North-East by showing films not otherwise screened. We are unique in the North-East in projecting 16mm and 35mm film.
The community surrounding Ouseburn is distinctive in Newcastle; it is a mix of artists, professionals, migrants, students, and families, and includes the Byker housing estate. By combining training, open programming, free membership and entrance to those who are unwaged or unable to pay, and family-friendly events, the SSC is unique as a venue in which these communities can meet each other, and share their knowledge, interests, and projects.
Our Conversation Group provides free English language classes to refugees and asylum seekers and is a safe place where local residents can meet with volunteers to explore each other’s cultures. The group is a gateway to services for many migrants arriving in Newcastle.
At the heart of the SSC is a DIY culture and consensus decision-making exercised at open-access weekly meetings. This works effectively in managing the work of Star & Shadow and our current building and enables us to be guided in what we do, by our community’s needs.

3. Please describe the benefits that will arise from the Community Ownership and Management of the asset.
(305/Maximum 300 words)
SSC in its eight years has transformed an empty warehouse into a place with a local, national and international reputation for the extraordinary. In 2006 we took over our current building—an abandoned warehouse—and turned it into a cultural and social hub using volunteer labour and energy, with many local residents involved as volunteers. We need to relocate so we plan to repeat this feat on Warwick Street, which has been empty for several years.
As a community and art space, SSC provides low-cost to no-cost space for many groups. The Language Group provides free English classes for refugees and asylum seekers; environmental, LGBT, theatre, poetry, sewing, and mental health groups all use the building regularly.
Arts organisations who use the cinema include NAGAS, Wunderbar, Film Hub North, Kino Climates, A Bit Crack Storytelling, Jazz North East. We have film-making equipment and a community of film-makers who share their skills and train community groups. We have an open-access dark-room and screen-printing workshop, and hold regular training sessions. In the last year alone we have provided training to over 250 people.
We host album launches for local bands, charity gigs, alternative music, touring artists. We are the first place for many bands, artists, and promoters in the North-East (including Maximo Park and Josie Long).
We host many festivals including: AV festival, Wunderbar, TUSK, NARC, Vamos, Short Film and Film and Food festival, Environmental festivals.
In our new home we would continue to offer all this and would also be able to: add a healthy-eating cafe and kitchen; host simultaneous events; make a community garden; become energy efficient and carbon neutral and a place to learn about green buildings; increase the number of seats in our cinema; add digital cinema projection; offer unique training in film making including simultaneous live film and music transmission; offer a bespoke theatre.



4. What do you need the Feasibility grant for? Please specify how you intend to spend the funds and the timetable for completing these steps.
(208/Maximum 200 words)
We have a working business with an established organisational and governance practices, and a detailed business plan for Warwick Street. The main cost is for an architectural firm, who will work alongside our pro-bono architect, to manage the project up to planning permission. We are keen to make the new building carbon neutral, and so require an environmental assessment. This will include all relevant surveys, drawings, etc. We also need legal advice, and advice about community share issues and V.A.T. As we are an entirely volunteer organisation, we would also like to engage an external advisor to oversee the project and offer friendly advice and guidance.

[1] An architect to take the building up to planning permission including (a) outline plans for purchasing (b) detailed plans (c) commissioning and managing requisite surveys, including acoustic survey
[2] Environment assessment
[3] Disability access survey
[4] Legal fees including (a) contract negotiation and drafting (b) constitution and charity
[5] Community Shares legal advisor
[6] Project development manager
[7] V.A.T specialist
[8] Planning application fee
[9] Council legal costs
[10] Fundraising training course
[11] Fundraiser

The timetable for completing the feasibility steps is 6 months from funding result. We have identified the personnel (see Q8 below) so that work can begin immediately.

5. Please describe what work your organisation has already completed to date in relation to this proposal.
(354/Maximum 300 words)

We are currently negotiating with the local authority to acquire 210 Warwick Street. Ideally this would be an asset transfer at nil cost. However this is commercial property which is not currently on the asset transfer list. Councillor David Stockdale, who chairs the asset transfer committee, is supportive of this proposal and an in-principle decision on whether the property could be asset transferred is expected by mid October. Our fall-back position is that we would seek to purchase the property.
Our pro-bono architect has drawn outline plans for the site and we have discussed these plans with XXX architects. We have a pre-planning meeting with environmental health and John Rippon from the planning department. They were impressed with our initial designs and environmental management and community engagement strategy. We have been in touch with Alison Beatie from the responsible authority for licensing to discuss tranferring our current licence to the new venue.
We have been investigating funding sources in conjunction with reviewing our governance structures in preparation. With guidance from Kevin Marquis (SES), Norman Watson and Debbie Lamb, we are drawing up a constitution to become a co-op with asset lock. The cooperative governance structure mirrors our practices, we are adopting a model that allows us to fundraise via community share issue and sustains our asset lock. We are also working with Giovanni Spatuzzi to explore options for an associated fundraising charity. We are in discussion with the Arts Council about funding options.
We have formed a Warwick Street working party, which meets weekly to discuss issues relating to the asset transfer and future project. This includes Sam Grant, a representative from Blank Studios, who will sublet space in Warwick Street and lead on putting in place a fully integrated live recording system and studio (see business plan).
As well as our open-access weekly meetings, we have held one extraordinary meeting – and have another scheduled for October 6th, to consult the wider Ouseburn community. At the last meeting there were over 50 attendees, including representatives from Ouseburn Futures and the Ouseburn Trust.
We have identified parties and costs in relation to [1]-[11].


6. Please outline what further actions would need to be undertaken post the feasibility work to seeing the overall project realised. Also detail the timescale you anticipate being able to complete your overall project post the completion of the feasibility stage.
(182/Maximum 300 words)

SSC needs to vacate its current premises by 13th December 2014, so aim to complete / near completion on 210 Warwick Street before that date.
During the feasibility stage and following it, a key element of work will be raising funding for the refurbishment works. As noted above, we intend to carry out as much as possible with volunteer labour, but we will need to fundraise for materials (where these cannot be salvaged from our current home) and those elements of the work where we do not have volunteers with the necessary skills. An element of the feasibility work will be to identify the cost of materials and any building work so that we have a clear fundraising target.
The initial aim would be to complete refurbishment of a small bar area capable of screening films in order to earn income and sustain SSC while the rest of the building work progresses. We aim to have raised funding for this work before we complete on the premises.
We expect to raise funding and complete the refurbishment of the building within 18 months.


What Will The Investment Be Spent On
7. Please provide a breakdown of expenditure for the full project.

[1] An architect to take the building up to planning permission including (a) outline plans for purchasing (b) detailed plans (c) commissioning and managing requisite surveys, including acoustic survey
£
quote

[2] Environment survey
£3,150.00
quote

[3] Disability access survey – Steve Hudson, Gateshead Access Panel

[4] Legal fees including (a) contract negotiation and drafting (b) governance advice
£5,500.00
Advise

[5] Community Shares legal advisor
£2,000.00
quote

[6] Project development manager

[7] V.A.T specialist, Martin Booth, Sunderland Bangladeshi Centre

[8] Planning application fee
£380.00

[9] Council legal costs
£7,500.00
Letter from council

[10] Fundraising training course

[11] Fundraiser
£2,000.00
estimate


8. Please explain how this work will be managed internally and whether you will need to work with external providers to help you achieve the outcomes. If you have already identified the external provider(s) please include details here and why you have chosen to work with the provider(s).
(168/Maximum 300 words)
For the project we have organised into a working party made up of members who want to co-opt their relevant skills. The working party will oversee the management of the feasibility study. The working party meets weekly and report back to SSC members also on a weekly basis.
SSC will issue detailed briefs to each of its professional advisers and will ensure that the work is completed to a good standard and which puts our DIY-ethos at the forefront.
David Dobereiner, our pro-bono architect and volunteer, will work with the architects and act as a liaison between the working group and the firm. A building group will be established at the October 6th general meeting. They will work with the feasibility working party and—through David Dobereiner—with the architects to ensure that the project develops in a way that will enable us to maximise volunteer labour and skills. This party will include Mat Fleming and Ilana Mitchel, who are part of the group who built the SSC in 2006.

9. If your proposal entails using the services of an external provider please tell us how you/your organisation will benefit in a sustainable way from this work and how it will help to build your internal capacity?
(106/Maximum 250 words)

The ethos of the organisation is around collective decision-making and sharing skills. We aim to enable those involved with SSC to build their skills around acquiring and refurbishing a building. We have a wealth of experience in this kind of skill-sharing; each August the SSC closes for a month-long 'Building Festival' in which volunteers and locals come to the cinema and help with renovations and repairs. Projects have included the bar and the ticket booth.
As noted above, all information will be shared with the working party. Information will also be shared with everyone involved in SSC through open meetings and via the SSC future forum.

Your Organisation
10. Please describe the services / facilities provided by your organisation at present and any new services that you will be able to deliver if you take on a new asset.
(229/Maximum 250 words)
SSC is an entirely volunteer run community enterprise. We are a cinema, arts and social centre within a co-operative governance structure that epitomises the values of diversity equality, creativity and choice. SSC was built on these values as it focused the vitality and energy of volunteers to pull itself up by its bootstraps and create a space in which: “ALL AND EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE”.
As well as all the arts and social facilities outlined above, we are also an important place for training and skill-sharing for our community of volunteers. We offer training in: Projecting (including heritage: 16mm, 35mm; current digital); customer service skills, programming, administration and office skills, audio-visual technical skills, a range of arts, social skills, marketing, fundraising and much more. At our building festival volunteers learn construction-based building and maintenance skills.
We have a DIY-ethos. Anyone can come to a meeting, pitch an idea – for a film (to show or to make), event, workshop, season, training event, ANYTHING! – and if we can we will help them to make it happen. The new building will offer additional flexibility and increase the number of things we can do! Being able to host simultaneous events will increase flexibility. We will also improve and increase our office and studio spaces, our gallery, and our library. The cafe and kitchen will allow us to run healthy-eating and cooking courses.

11. What experience does your organisation have in relation to asset management and development?
(146/Maximum 300 words)
We took the lease for our current building in 2006. The building was an empty warehouse, comparable in size and condition to the Warwick Street building.
Everything you see in the cinema was built by volunteers over eight months between April and November 2006 (and ongoing!). This includes all the internal walls, the cinema, bathrooms, and bar. Each year we spend any profit from the year on a building festival in August, during which volunteers build, tidy, fix, and create. The building maintenance is, where-ever possible, done by our volunteers.
We will use the same model – and many of the same volunteers – to transform Warwick Street. We will move the cinema, bar, fixtures and fittings from our current venue to the new one.
In the 8-years we have been in business we have been financially secure and have met the requirements of our tenancy.


13. Please describe your financial management controls as follows:
i) How often do you produce management accounts? (16/20 words)
We produce Quarterly Management Accounts for internal examination. And Externally Audited Financial Accounts are presented annually.
ii) What statements are included in your management accounts (i.e. Budget, Income & Expenditure, Balance Sheet, Cashflow Forecast)? (12/50 words)
We produce a Profit & Loss account, Balance Sheet and Cashflow forecast.
iii) How are management accounts reviewed within the organisation? (26/50 words)
Quarterly they are presented and circulated at a Monday general meeting. They are circulated by email beforehand to enable questions to be asked at the meeting.

14. Please describe how local people exercise control over the direction and priorities of your organisation.
We have a weekly Monday meeting at which all decisions relating to SSC are made. Anyone can attend any meeting, participate in discussion, and take part in consensus decision making. We have two inductions a month for members of the community who want to find out about the SSC and volunteering; these are advertised on our website and anyone can attend.

The Warwick Street premises have large plate glass windows which will allow the interior to be viewed making the venue more open and inclusive to the local community. The new premises will also allow us to continue our tradition of providing full disability access to all areas.

We have a DIY culture that encourages community members to develop their own projects with the support of the collective.

Recent examples of community led projects at the SSC include:

[1] Hotspur School Takeover: The HS took control of programming and events and running all aspects of the venue for a week in July 2013.

[2] The Speak and Sew Group: A group of volunteers including migrants recognised the wellbeing and language development opportunities of skill-sharing for sewing. They collaborated to obtain second-hand sewing machines which they repaired themselves (and with the help of other volunteers within the Star and Shadow community), and to obtain materials. The group meets weekly and is open to all.

[3] Community film making. We have paired five expert film makers from our volunteer base with local community groups to empower them in film-making. Each group will learn to produce their own films and will have ongoing access to film-making facilities at the SSC as well as learning film and event programming.

[sam]

in additional to architectural costs, costs for acoustics survey and structural survey will be ready asap..