Freegle Reps Report 2014-01-31

GIVE AS YOU LIVE

Volunteer/s Needed We would like to do another member newsletter, and really need someone to volunteer to create the content for this. Please talk to Edward if you can help with this.

Recent figures show 310 shoppers; 1342 signups (not shopped yet), and about £1000 raised during the Christmas period. There is a 3 month delay in us receiving the money as GAYL are obliged to wait a period due to possible refunds. In terms of future potential revenue the GAYL estimate for 2014 based on standard figures is £7K; this could, in theory, go up to around £40K over the course of the year. We would expect our figures to be significantly lower because of the demographics. So we will cover our costs but need to do more to start getting significant sums.

Edward has done a mailshot to the people who have signed up but not shopped.

GAYL will give us another Facebook banner to replace the Christmas one. They are running campaigns on travel in 2014. Edward is asking for the marketing materials for this, because this specific one fits with our ethos (as well as earning a lot when people book flights). Edward is going for a brainstorming session with them in March about more ways to integrate within the site. They would like to use us, later in the year, as a case study about what you can achieve if you properly try to embed GAYL.

PUBLICITY

Daily Mail

Cat turned down a follow up article with the Daily Mail for early in the new year. No one else came forward to be interviewed by them.

Daily Mirror

The Daily Mirror printed a tiny mention of Freegle in relation to the Brighton Waste House - 9th January.

Women’s Institute

We gave a talk to WI in Brighton - Jan 13th. £40 donation coming via cheque as a thank you.==

Blogs

Edward wrote a blog for http://www.greenerscotland.org/greenertogether following on from Freegle groups in Scotland winning an award last year. We were unable to partake in a radio promotion opportunity as no volunteers were available.

Channel 4

Cat is assisting the Channel 4 producers and doing some work with Charis Williams (a presenter) from Kirstie Allsopp's TV series Fill Your House for Free - this will ensure we have Freegle footage in series 2 due for screening in summer 2014. Anyone who upcycles things and would like to be featured on the show can contact free@raisetheroofproductions.com

Computer Reuse

Cat met (16th January) with

http://www.ictr.co.uk/

an IT reuse, recycling regeneration company. There is the potential for unwanted/obsolete IT equipment to be gathered in bulk via Freegle and the income generated (by supplying goods to ICTR for refurbishment or recycling) to be a source of income for Freegle. Cat is piloting this in April as Microsoft withdraw support for XP on 31 March and thus many companies will get rid of XP computers in bulk. A few Brighton IT support companies have agreed to supply Brighton Freegle with computers and ICTR have agreed to trial the concept. Free warehouse space has been secured to collect the IT equipment in Brighton.

Trial of Reuse Depot in Brighton

Cat met with Willmott Dixon (a national construction company

http://www.willmottdixongroup.co.uk/

in Brighton last year who then arranged for their national sustainability managers to come down on 21st January. Freegle presentations have now been delivered to managers and site tradesmen/labourers (29th January) and the company is willing to set up a shipping container on their building site in Brighton to trial a reuse depot to redistribute their unwanted building materials out into the community via Freegle.

Social Innovation

Cat gave a talk to a social innovation business meeting in Brighton (29th January) about Freegle.

Zero Waste and Rubbish Diet

Cat plans to meet with Zero Waste and The Rubbish Diet in February in London to explore how we could together prevent more waste etc and there's some TV and other opportunities to discuss.

Climate Week Awards

http://www.nationalrecyclingawards.com/

Nominations for Climate Week Awards will be submitted in early February. We are not entering National Recycling Awards categories as there is not a suitable category this year.

A reminder that any Freegle group could enter

http://www.zerowasteawards.com/

at any time.

STRUCTURE

Conversion to Industrial and Provident Society

In their role as placeholder Directors of Freegle Limited Alison, Saira and Richard have been liaising with the Trading Subsidiary Team over the details and procedures required to incorporate Freegle as an Industrial and Provident Society. For the purposes of the transfer Alison is acting as Secretary.

Reps Term of Office

Our present Constitution was amended in May 2013 to:

At the end of each year, there will be elections for a minimum of three Reps. The vacancies will be created in the following order until there are a minimum of three:

1. Co-opted Reps,
2. Reps who wish to retire early,
3. Reps who have served the longest term.

It was also agreed in that poll that Step 3 is subject to the provision that no Rep elected prior to January 2013 will be required to stand down if they have served less than the term they were elected for. At the end of 2013 an election was not held because all the Reps had served less than the term they were elected for, there had been no co-options and none wished to retire early. However, Saira's term of office will be ending on 15th February this year. We propose that an election is not held to appoint a Rep at that time, as we are hoping to move reasonably soon to a new structure. Eight Reps still remain a quorate number for decisions and we are confident we can work as an effective team until we are disbanded.

FINANCE

http://freegle.in/accounts

Grants

http://www.forestersfriendlysociety.co.uk/

Foresters - the international financial services organisation- has let us know about the launch of Foresters Community Grants. The programme enables members of Foresters to organise and lead a volunteer activity that’s personal to them and to their own community, via a grant of £2,500. In 2013, they granted more than £1.8million for volunteer and fun family activities in the UK, Canada and the US.

OTHER

Medicines and Drugs

We have written to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to clarify whether restrictions such as those used by Ebay would be suitable for our purposes. We have also written to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to ask for advice on the position with respect to veterinary drugs.

In the meantime the Reps accept the view of the MHRA that supply of General Sale List (GSL) medicines is a criminal offence, so recommend that all groups regard these as 'not legal' under the mandatory requirements.

Wimborne Freegle

Regretfully, after following the disaffiliation procedure we have delisted this abandoned group.

Link: Freegle Reps Report 2014-03-31