Newsletter 3

 Hello Allotmenteers!

We hope this email finds everyone really well. The sun has been shining and so it has been lovely to see everyone up checking on their plots. Growing starts soon and I know everyone is keen to get stuck in.

We have some important news in our update today, so please take a few moments, grab a cup of tea/coffee/wine and get stuck in – this will be a long-ish read!

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FORMATION OF CIC

On Thursday the 10^th of March, the committee sat for an important meeting to move forward with the purchase of the property. At this meeting, the committee voted unanimously to move forward with the creation of a CIC. This is an acronym for  “Community Interest Company”. As you may be aware, we have previously been being run as a unincorporated club. However, an unincorporated club cannot purchase or own land. So we need to restructure into a group organization which is capable of owning land and then managing the ownership and all the legal obligations involved. They investigated many different types of organization structures and after very close investigation and a lot of advice and assistance from support agencies which help with endeavours like ours, they have decided that the best and most efficient way to move forward is as a CIC.  

If you have an objection to the formation of the CIC, you may be heard for the next 7 days by e-mailing your objection to: admin@recreationroadallotments.co.uk

BOARD MEMBER OPENINGS

Our new structure will require that we have both a Board of Directors as well as a Committee. Broadly, the responsibility of the board members will be to oversee that the CIC meets its legal obligations. They will also help structure the larger goals and vision of the property as well as give oversight to the committee. We will also have a committee. This committee will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the property much like the committee that you are familiar with now.

In order to form the CIC we need to recruit 5 board members and only a limited number of these should be from our own allotmenteers. The remaining board members should be people from throughout our community or people who are not in our local area but who are interested in seeing that our allotments continue to thrive.
The positions are voluntary (unpaid) and require approximately 15 hours per year of volunteer time.

Being a volunteer director of a CIC looks excellent on a CV and is a very important and respected position. 

If you would like to be considered for the board, or you have a friend or family member who would like to be considered for the board, we would very much like to know ASAP. Without board members, we cannot form the CIC. The board must not be made up of primarily committee members as there would be a conflict of interest.

Please visit this link to read more about the duties of a board member and to register your interest (or share this with people you believe might be interested in the role).

https://www.recreationroadallotments.co.uk/director-vacancy/

CLEARING PARTIES

The committee has identified a select number of plots to be cleared of bramble. Please rest assured there is no intention to clear the entire property of all bramble. We know this is important for our local ecology. However, in order that we are able to maintain financial health and keep the allotments open, we will have to clear some of the plots as presently almost 1/3 of our property is bramble.

We are organizing clearing parties for the following dates & times:

Wednesday 16^th March 10am – 1pm

Sunday 20^th March 10:30am – 1pm

Wednesday 23^rd March – 1pm-5pm

Sunday 27^th March 10:30am – 1pm

Wednesday 30^th March 10am – 1pm

During this time we will be cutting back bramble as well as strimming and tidying and we would very much appreciate your help. If you are able to come, please bring any equipment you think may be of help (loppers, strimmer, brush cutter, etc.)

We are sensitive to the needs of nesting birds and other wildlife. We understand that these measures may disturb our feathered and furry friends. We will be carefully checking any bramble areas before work is begun, we will be stopping and checking regularly as we work and we will complete our bramble clearing by the end of March and not begin again until August as this is designated nesting season.

SELBY TIMES

Our feature came out in the Selby Times yesterday and it was, unfortunately, a mixed bag. Whilst we are super glad that they took the time to highlight our project we were very disappointed to see that they did not use any of the images of the plotholders that they requested that we provide. Additionally, I was a bit taken aback that they focused the story on me (Jaye) and not the tremendous group effort that everyone has put in. This was certainly not how it was framed to the reporter and unfortunately, does our cause a bit of misjustice. This is not a one person crusade but rather the work of many people – yourself included. Additionally, the article wrongly indicates the plots are individually for sale. This is obviously not the case. I have reached out to Selby Times and spoken with Joshua Hinchcliffe (the reporter who wrote the article) and he has chosen to stand by his article without further consideration to correction or re-feature.

PLOTS AVAILABLE

We presently have plots coming available in the next few weeks. If you know of anyone who would like a plot – please have them get in touch ASAP as our list of interested parties is growing.

If you will be giving up your plot (or one of your plots) and you are happy for someone to take possession of it early, please just let us know. We are keen to get “bums on seats” so to speak.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE

We are officially at the one quarter mark for our fundraising efforts. This is a massive achievement in a short period of time.

We would again just like to nudge everyone to share our fundraising efforts with those you know.

I am including an attachment which explains how you can make the most out of your efforts to help us fundraise.

Just a little note that there is a misconception that has been expressed to me that we simply need every allotmentholder to donate only £50. At present, we have 45 allotmentholders (but many more spouses and family that work the land alongside). Should each allotmentholder donate that £50, this would bring us to only £2250 (and many will not be able to donate the full amount). This is why it is very important that we continue to reach out to the wider community for help as much as possible. We have already made huge strides which shows that this effort is entirely achievable – but we all need to continue to put in efforts reaching out beyond just our plotholders.  

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

We are looking to reach out to local businesses to seek sponsorships. We are able to offer a variety of publicity/advertising in exchange for these sponsorships. If you know of any small to medium sized businesses that might be interested(perhaps you or a family member have a business like this?) please let us know.

GRANTS/FUNDING

Many people have been in touch to suggest funding options from grants & larger businesses (Tesco, Lottery Fund, Morrisons, RHS, etc.) We are so happy that everyone is excited to offer up suggestions but we wanted to quickly update why these options cannot presently be a primary source of our funding:

• Many of them preclude purchase of land.
• Many take a significant time to reach a decision to even consider funding (eg – Tesco takes up to 18 months to decide if you can even get funding and a further 6 to pay out).
• Many have huge application burdens which we will not be able to complete in time.
• Many of them require that we service a specific part of society as a primary part of our function (eg – people with physical disability).
• Many of them may be a good fit for the future when we are looking at specific projects (eg – a disability accessible garden) but we are likely to be declined for now as the funding we need is for general purchase of the land.
• Many require that the CIC be at least 2 years old.

As you can see, this is not as easy as simply writing up a paragraph and asking for money. We are certainly exploring applying for as many grants as might be appropriate for the purchase but we want to really encourage people to take a “boots on the ground” approach to helping us reach out to the local community for support.