Give and Take

A give and take is...

This is a great opportunity to meet some of your members, interest new people to your group, have a bit of fun and gain some good publicity. You’ll need a venue, some volunteer helpers, good forward planning (you’re making the best start by reading this!) and enthusiasm and energy. Have a go, enjoy yourself and save even more stuff from landfill!

First Things First

• Start planning at least a couple of months before announcing your event.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help:, from your local mods, regional modsquad, and most importantly your members. There may be people with experience in events organisation, publicity, people who can help transport things, people to lend folding tables, people to design/put up posters, people to help on the day etc.
• Either do the planning in your mods group (if only mods) or in a separate, custom group (that all volunteers can join) so that you have a record that all relevant volunteers can see, of who said what, who’s doing what etc, and storage of information. It’s also useful to look back on if you want to hold another give and take.
• Will you have enough volunteers?
• Have you got a Freegle banner? you may be able to borrow one, instructions here.
• Think ahead about other publicity stuff – publicising your event and also publicising Freegle on the day.
• Is your local council doing a give and take that you can join with? If so, many of the activities below will miraculously become easier and/or be done by them <grin>.

Date

When is convenient for the venue, other organisers and your volunteers? If it’s going to be out doors, how will you handle rain on the date (hold next week, next month, never, later)?

Finance

No buying/selling, charging for entry or cash donations allowed. You might incur some expenses yourself so give some thought about how you intend to cover these for you and your volunteers. Is everyone happy to bear costs themselves? If you are lucky enough to have received a grant that is going to cover your event, make sure you keep receipts and follow the guidelines agreed with Freecycle UK.– no charging for entry.

Public Liability Insurance

Are you covered by your venue’s public liability insurance?

Location

• Is it free (remember, you can’t charge for entry)?

• Indoors (safer for rain) or outdoors?

• Is aAccess suitable for people with disabilities?

• Is there easy transport for those without cars?

• Is there suitable parking if no public transport available?

• Will the venue’s Public Liability Insurance cover you?

• Are there tables and/or display boards or will you need to bring your own?.

• If it’s a free car boot sale, is there sufficient space? (for items and information/publicity)

• Have you got traffic management?

What items to allow

Unless you have a large area and suitable means to dispose of the goods immediately afterwards, don’t allow (large) furniture or you may get lumbered.

Let people know beforehand, and print on the posters/flyers, what they can and can’t bring!

Also, Make sure you have some guarantees of items to start the event – don’t stand with an empty table! Electrical items:

These MUST all be PAT tested by a qualified electrician. If you allow themse you MUST someone qualified who is willing to undertake this for all electrical items. Leftover items

Have a plan for what to do with your left over stuff. Possibilities are:

• Take home and offer on Freecycle

• Store for a future give and take (if you have suitable storage space)

• Take to a charity shop(s)

• Arrange with a local charity to collect them from the venue at close of play (beware of them being selective – specify if they must take it all or you may get lumbered).

Clearing up

Take a bunch of old carrier bags (or whatever) for people to carry stuff away in. Better still, see if your local council/businesses will give you free, reusable material bags. Many of them produce them for publicity these days.

Be prepared for a big cleanup afterward. Ask for volunteers on the group beforehand. Remember to have brooms and bin liners. Promotion

• Publicise the event in plenty of time and ask neighbouring groups to do so too (if they’re close enough).

• Specify what items may and may not be brought!

• Put a poster(s)/flyer(s) in the group files and ask members to put them up in workplaces, community notice boards, libraries, local shops, church halls etc.

Do your local papers have free/cheap ads?

Useful sites to enable youModerators to print large posters on your home (A4) printer

http://homokaasu.org/rasterbator/

http://www.blockposters.com/default.aspx On the day:

• Signpost the immediate area to help people find you (if possible, waterproof the signs in case of rain, you can reuse them for your next event)

• Have a big sign at the entrance.

• Have you got a banner? you may be able to borrow one Can you borrow one?

• Have you got flyers/cards with the UK website / your group(s)’s website?.

• Set-up time takes awhile and so does clean up. People will interrupt your set-up to chat, so have help and arrive early.

• Give volunteers a logo tag, and/or Freecycle t-shirt so folk can ask them questions. Name badges/stickers are also useful.

Information stand/table

It’s a good idea to have a moderator ‘manning’ the stand.

Try to have a display board with information about Freecycle, and maybe pictures of some of the items given away. Maybe aA folder of screen shots/info posters in plastic sleeves for people to leaf through (or to store them if you’ve put them on the noticeboard) is useful..

Have screen shots showing people how to join and how to post.

If you have enough volunteers, have you got a laptop you can bring, with screenshots, to show members how to use Freecycle? Better still, any chance of WiFi to sign people up on the day offer them help? LABEL the laptop that it is NOT part of the give and take, and with your name and contact phone number, just in case, and don’t leave it unattended! Signing in

Have someone counting in the attendees. If you have enough volunteers, you may also want to weigh in the goods that are brought (have you got suitably big scales?).

These may produce useful statistics to post on the group afterwards. Members will like to hear how it went, and maybe post some photos from the day or of items on the group or cafe. It may also be useful if applying for help from local councils. Tables

Are tables provided? Do you need to bring your own? Wallpaper pasting tables/trestle tables can be useful here!

Have different areas for different types of goods so that they’re easier for volunteers to put out and for members to take. Label the tables (hang posters from the edges or on the wall over the tables)

e.g. books, women’s clothes, men’s clothes, children’s clothes, videos/dvds/cds, brick a brack, kitchenware

Other activities

If you want other activities on the day, make sure you have planned for them in advance. Examples might be:

• Something for the kids (making puppets from recycled bottles, paper and material),

• Making kites from recycled materials.

• Scrap paper and crayons/colouring pencils for drawing.

• Screen-printing on old t-shirts and fabric bags.

Media

• If you want to, invite the media (local newspapers, TV, radio)

• Ask newspapers for permission to use/post/quote any articles they print and for copies of photos

• Set you VCR/DVDR beforehand to record the local evening news so you won’t need to remember to do it when you get home!

Your stuff

Keep clean-up items and things you don't want taken in your car (brooms, rubbish bags, tape, staplers, coats, handbag).

And afterwards?

First, pat yourselves on the back for doing so well!

• Thank everyone who contributed to the event – volunteers, venue, people who attended (via your group, use the media, e.g. letters page in newspaper, personal letter/email).

• Advertise your success – notice on your group, modsquad, inform your local council, media (include some stats if you collected them – weights, number of items and participants etc – and some photos if you have some).

• Share your tips with others – how it went, what worked and what didn’t, pitfalls and successes – on your regional and/or UK modsquad.

• Book a date for your next one!

Good luck and have fun! Let us all know on the modsquad how it went, and any problems you had or tips to share.