Freegle Reps Report 2014-05-31

GAYL

Freegle has received £415.99 in the last two months from GAYL which is encouraging. We would like to do another member newsletter so that we can encourage people to use GAYL during the holiday season on travel websites or for booking train tickets etc. If anyone is able to help with collating information and writing for the newsletter please contact Edward.

Conversion to IPS

The Co-op have now submitted the paperwork to the Financial Conduct Authority for approval to convert Freegle Limited to an Industrial and Provident Society. The ‘Board in waiting’ have a discussion group, but so far there is little they can do as they haven’t been appointed to the new IPS. This transition period is quiet for the Reps and the potential Board, although information is being exchanged about possible future grant sources.

Courier Scam

Jacky continues to collect reports of the courier scam and liaise with the police. Edward has put in place measures on Freegle Direct to reduce the impact. We strongly advise all groups to continue to send out regular admins to warn their members. Cat was interviewed on Radio 4 You and Yours on 12 May about the scam.

Research

We have been approached by a researcher at the Open University, Chris Martin, who has also volunteered to help moderate on Leeds and will be joining Central. Cat and Edward are liaising with him over his proposed research.

Server Upgrade

Edward, with help from Paul and Chris, has completed the work on moving our system over from VPS to Bytemark. We will now have better and free hosting. They have also significantly improved the reliability of our database system. There is still more work to improve reliability even further and Edward, Paul and Chris have this in hand.

Personnel

We remain a group of 8 Reps, as there hasn’t been an election to replace Saira, whose term of office came to an end in February. Saira has remained on our discussion group for this transition period which has been especially helpful with Richard absent through suffering an accident and ill health.

Sustain Eden Project

Chris has given us an update. The core numbers are looking good ie they should exceed our target of 500 people involved by the end of the 3 year project. http://www.penrithact.org.uk/grow-your-own The Visiting Edible Gardens visit programme has got off to a good start although the numbers attending have been fairly low. A short film and the list of events: http://www.penrithact.org.uk/veg There's a nice trickle of ideas coming forward eg a housing association in Penrith that wanted advice on establishing a growing patch for tenants, the start of a community polytunnel at Appleby Railway Station, someone wanting to start a community garden in Greystoke, and PACT helping some charity clients get an allotment. Chris continues to attend Sustain Eden project partner/evaluation meetings as well as liaising and working on developing the project.