Agenda
Sol Kitchen wind down plan
Discuss the plan laid out here:
https://testing.forum.cooperationbirmingham.org.uk/t/urgent-meeting-thursday-30th-july-18-30/469
As per my action, draft leaflet for recipients is below:
https://pad.riseup.net/p/a6cnKfq6PgWRw7GXT8QY
I’ve tried to keep my language very simple since some of our recipients don’t speak English as a first language. That does make the whole thing sound a little like a children’s book of course, if anyone is able to edit to make it sound better while staying simple to understand please go ahead.
I’m rubbish at writing “feel-good” text, but there really does need to be something in there to soften the blow and let our recipients know that we value them. If anyone is good at that sort of stuff could they add something in where I’ve put asterisks? If no one can, then can Sean remove the asterisks bit before sending to print?
Cooperation Birmingham 2020_07_02 Minutes
Present - Ben, Amelia, Kae, Sean, Leo
Solidarity Kitchen wind down Plan (in time order)
* Agree date on Sunday (1st September?)
* Leo: is it reasonable?
* Amelia: Will fall apart whatever we try
* Leo: Everyone ok?
* Ben: Seems sensible.
* Sean: About 6 months already
*
* Inform (primarily leaflets and some phone/email) participants of date (1st September)
* Signpost parps to other orgs
* Write leaflet
* Print leaflet
* Deliver to kitchen
* Effort to contact organisations which can help participants (AWS and others)
* Joint session to write email - organise
* Write email
* Agreement on how to deal with response
* Contact drivers/backroom/kitchen to let them know what’s going on (email)
* Check in with Chef Paul about feasibility of Monday solidarity cafe proposal
* Decide whether solidarity cafe could start from Monday 31st August
* Write up press release/blog post for general public
*
* Restart plan (if necessary
* Leo: Potential of 2nd wave
* Ben: Nothing wrong with saying that having tried it for 5/6 months it's fair to say we've done this already and will build on it in future. Not a strategy we can keep using in the long run
* Sean: Use it as learning experience and write up our thoughts about using the resources we had, but next time we would use them in a different way.
*
* Ben: Need a plan for a graceful exit. THe discourse of transferring services is the playbook you'd use if you were doing a charity and doesn't have much in common with the principles of mutual aid organising. Hopefully you'll have empowered people and that's not a realistic aim. But can we think about what we can do which is more positive and a continuation of mutual aid reasons we got into in the first place.
* Leo: Not sure how to do that.
* Amelia: Understand. But we've already spoken to the challenge of keeping up it going. Not really in one community because across the city. We all understood that the way this was running was not really a mutual aid model. Not sure how we can empower people in the space of a month. People we feel guilty about leaving are already at the margins and would need a lot to change that ourselves.
* Sean: Agree, but think a better way is saying 'we tried to do what we could. although we tried to structure differently and have a hierarchy but we developed a hierarchy between participants and recipients. Because we found people via social media, and we had no time to find how to help. Not bad, but useful for people to hear from that, since we're one of the most active remaining ma groups providing regular stuff.
* Amelia: Not sure it's realistic to acheive this in the space of a month.
* Leo: About how we frame it. Would come into public facing review of project, but not a priority.
* Amelia: Are we saying we don't want to signpost? Our participants will ask this as well.
* Sean: Part of what calling AWS would be about. That's why it's an important step. Also need to know whether we can do Mondays, which we have the capacity for.
* Leo: How would it work in the context of tougher lockdown. Is it appropriate?
ToDo to make this plan happen
* Meeting this Sunday 2020_07_02 18:30 with this plan as main agenda point
* A chef needs to be there (ideally Paul who can speak to the solidarity cafe proposal)
* Speak to kitchen people
* Speak to Paul about Solidarity Cafe idea
* Feedback on the forum to the plan
* Assign tasks to willing folks
* Get drivers and backroom to help with this process
* Let recipients know as soon as possible. Might be overwhelming in one go. Get the wording of this document down. Backup plan if not possible to print at the cafe.
Message to Parps for release Wednesday 5th delivery
* Last delivery 31st August
* Info about other services in a note with the next delivery
* Contact us if we have any questions
* Extra info and signposting: Acorn, IWW
* Try to recruit recipients to organise the future form of CB (BH) info@cooperationbirmingham.org.uk
Resources for next message to parps