Central UK Summary - March 2016
Freegle UK Central Group: Summary of items of interest
March 2016 (530 members, 222 posts – the lowest monthly total to date)
Courier scam news
As in February, there were very few scam offers brought to the attention of Central in March – just the electric bike, but also an interesting new ‘item’ – an offer of a Siberian husky for adoption. Quite likely that most scams now are being caught in the Modtools scam trap – thanks Edward!
Media opportunities
This summer, Channel 4’s programme ‘Fill Your House For Free’ will be hosted by Gok Wan, replacing Kirstie Allsopp. Freegle has had a lot of good publicity from it in previous years so let’s hope we do this year too. See message 57892 for details of how to apply – there may still be time.
Another Channel 4 programme will be Hoarder SOS, which is currently looking for participants http://www.channel4.com/programmes/take-part/articles/all/hoarder-sos so perhaps some members out there would like to apply.
Microsoft cheque
The cheque from Microsoft was finally cleared - £35,228.63. Not bad!
====New platform – update==== (see message 58095)
A couple of extracts from Edward’s progress report –
“A lot of older websites worked by giving users a complex set of options and decisions, and expecting them to figure out what they needed to do in what order to achieve what they wanted…now what a website needs to do is simplify things right down - fewer decisions, less clutter, fewer options, less clicking from page to page. That applies to us too…”
“…to give something away, we need to know where you are, what it is, and who you are” so the new platform will develop, for example, the use of GPS and postcodes, and also the use of photos.
Go to the message itself (and the following posts) if you want to know more!
====Lending liability====(see message 58047)
Not all groups allow lending of items, but some do. The Development group has discussed this and would point out that someone lending an item may be legally liable for any damage or injury caused by use of the item by the borrower. Freegle nationally, local groups or volunteers are not liable, but the discussion concluded that responsible groups should, if they allow borrowing on their main group or on a cafe, warn potential lenders of this liability. Further info can be found in this wiki.
Samurai swords
Someone mentioned that a member had been asking for Samurai swords. It was pointed out that these are restricted under the Offensive Weapons Act and posts regarding them should not be allowed. See the Knives and Swords.
Freegling on Facebook
The question was asked whether groups should allow offers and wanted posts on their Facebook pages. There is nothing in Freegle to prevent this – that is to say you could run a Freegle group purely on Facebook but it wouldn’t link with existing Yahoo, Freegle Direct or Trashnothing groups. Edward is however looking at closer integration with Facebook within the new platform, but it won’t be for a while.
Groups that do allow offer and wanted posts on their Facebook pages might like to point people to the main group and also to the phone/tablet app.
Working group reports
Tech – Report Feb 2016 Freegle_Tech_Report_16-02-28
Development – Report Feb 2016 Development_Group_Report_2016_02
Freegle funding – Report Jan to March 2016 Freegle_Funding_Group_Report_-_2016_01/03
Other reports
Mentor Team – Report Feb 2016 Mentors_Team_Report_2016_02
Liz S
April 2016
