AGM 2013 Reps Annual Report

2013 Freegle Annual Report

This report is a very brief summary of the past year. The regular reports from the Reps and working groups throughout 2013 can be found in this Freegle Wiki, linked from http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Category:Group_Reports

The main issue we have addressed internally in this fourth year of Freegle is the need to maintain and secure our success to date.

After the AGM last year a team was formed to look into establishing a trading arm for Freegle, but on investigation into various alternatives the recommendation of the team was that Freegle should instead change its structure as a whole. The proposal was endorsed by Structure group, the Reps and Central and is now being put to national poll, as it involves a major change in the constitution and set up of Freegle as a national organisation.

Externally, the recent change of Yahoo Groups has affected the majority of our groups and has impacted on the mod plugin, which most moderators have used for years. A replacement for this, ModTools, is available to all Freegle groups for a very modest fee.

Freegle Direct, the interface that owners can choose to use for their groups, has benefitted from further development throughout the year and the majority of Freegle groups now use it.

Freegle’s profile has been kept in the forefront of the national consciousness, particularly notable in Cat’s hard work at getting us featured in a Kirsty Allsop TV series. Social media continues to be an important tool for Freegle recognition and our national Facebook and Twitter pages have over 47,000 likes and followers.

Volunteers have continued to support each other through individual help, Freegle Central and working groups, and we have been pleased to welcome new groups to the Freegle family throughout the year.

Central finances are healthy, sufficient to run a basic and minimum service for groups. We have benefitted from a one-off donation to help make our organisation sustainable, which has allowed us to take advantage of another donation of free web hosting by being able to pay for the migration to new servers, amongst other initiatives. We have agreed a partnership with Give As You Live, which we hope will raise our profile even further and generate some welcome income.

Reps

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