Freegle Reps Report 2012-03-12

Publicity

Cat has been working on the Spring Into Reuse media campaign and has produced national and local press releases for local Groups to send out.
http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Publicity
We have negotiated support from Start for Spring into Reuse (bi-monthly blog and feature)
http://www.startuk.org/
http://www.startuk.org/about.aspx
http://www.startuk.org/products--materials/local-giving-with-freegle.aspx
http://www.startuk.org/products--materials/start-freegling.aspx
We were delighted to learn that Freegle had been shortlisted for a Climate Week Award in the Best Community Initiative category. We agreed to put a badge on our website and Cat produced press releases for Local Groups.
The badges can be put on the home pages of local Groups and can be found here:
http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Badges
Reps Cat and Saira and Liz from Enfield Freegle attended the Award Ceremony on 12 March where we were runners up in the category.

More good news came when we learned that we are finalists for the Community category of the PEA Awards. The ceremony will be held at Bankside on the South Bank in London on 21 March.
http://peaawards.co.uk/
They have asked us for a photo. In order that we can all be represented Cat asked on Central for photos from all Volunteers and Ollie has produced a photo mosaic from the 71 photos that were sent to him. Thanks to everyone for sending in pics, we now have a super Freegle photo:
http://www.ollieclark.com/PEA/FreegleHeart1024Mosaic05.jpg
Five Reps will be attending the event. Volunteers have been asked if they would like to submit their names for a place at the ceremony. Helen from Stirling will be attending.
We also entered but were not shortlisted for the Living Labs Global Awards for solution ideas for a sustainable development in Glasgow.
http://www.llga.org/

Future Award Entries

Diamond Jubilee Awards
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Honoursawardsandmedals/TheQueensAwardforVoluntaryService/DG_180942
2012 National Recycling Awards
http://www.nationalrecyclingawards.com/NationalRecyclingAwards
Observer Ethical Awards
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/observer-ethical-awards-2012
Tech4good Awards
http://www.technology4goodawards.org.uk/
Scottish charity awards
http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvo-events/0000-apply-for-the-scottish-charity-awards-2012/
Cat is attending the first WRAP Reuse Workshop on 30th March
http://www.wrap.org.uk/reuse/
Edward has been offered a free place by Holyrood.com on a Waste Conference in Edinburgh on 23 May 2012.

Legal Structure

We agreed that Edward, Jacky and Jane should produce a proposal for our consideration on a legal structure which would safeguard our assets (e.g. domain names).

Reps Remit

We agreed to change section 4.8 of the Reps Remit in order to reflect agreed policies as laid out in the Financial Management and Controls Document:
“In accordance with the agreed current Financial Management and Controls document, the Reps can raise, hold and expend funds for Freegle, and handle third party receipts and payments for Freegle affiliated groups and individuals undertaking Freegle central work.”
We also agreed with the proposed addition to section 3.4:
“If a vacancy arises mid term for a Rep, an election will be called of Freegle Volunteers.‘ addition: “unless any agreed procedures have been invoked for auto-promotion or co-option.”
and notify Central in line with the 4.1.4 of the document.

Finance

Potential expenditure for the 2012/13 financial year has been collated, and priorities discussed. The budget will be presented to Central before the end of the month, coupled with an appeal for donations to fund it.
Jane has kept the accounts up to date:
www.freegle.it/accounts

Strategy

Last year, we recommended that we adopt the Stabilisation Strategy out of a choice of possible actions. Some of the work to achieve is underway, some is not - we have been discussing how best to identify, allocate, and track the progress of the tasks required to achieve the Strategy.
http://tinyurl.com/64byk5z

Volunteer Survey

We have liaised with the PhD student from Sheffield University over his survey of Freegle members. He is delighted with the 4575 responses he has received and is extremely grateful to Freegle Volunteers for the cooperation in publicising the survey for him. We are liaising further with him over the analysis of results, which is not yet available.

Measuring Freegle's Impact

A student from the University of Cambridge is carrying out a project on establishing ways of quantifying our impact on reuse in the UK in keeping items out of landfill. This will help us greatly in producing facts and figures that can be used to gain local and national government support of our work.

Charitable Status

We are expecting to hear from the Charity Commission within the next few weeks about our application for charitable status. This will be another great benefit to us as it will mean we can claim Gift Aid on donations and demonstrate charity status when making grant applications and negotiating with local authorities.

Streamlining of the Working Groups

We discussed the work being done by Jacky and Alison on the reorganisation of Structure and Start Working Groups.

One Stop Shop

We agreed that the link to this can be removed from Central. A volunteer is going through the pages in order to identify the resources that are not on the Wiki.

Reps Observer on Geeks

Jacky has taken over this task from Sian.

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