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Kebele General Meeting Minutes 23 January 2010
Welcome from Bob, introductions from all present about involvement with Kebele
Introduction to consensus from Spence. Flow of consensus explained and hand signals.
Group agreements for meeting put forward.
Vanessa introduces co-op.
Decisions on bi-weekly basis. Also attended by representative from activist groups. Agenda on wall for people to add to. People who wrote points to be involved with discussion and decision making.
Maff talks about financial report for last year.
Last general meeting – points raised: To continue with renovations. Work day planned within the next few weeks.
Activist group agreement which outlines Kebele’s responsibility as a co-op and also activist groups responsibilities.
Co-op to become more open for people to see what co-op are doing. Agenda and minutes on wall for people to see. Activist groups to become more involved with Kebele, paying £5 for room use or cooking at cafe.
Talked about buying a van but decided not a viable option.
Proposal for sign above front door but nothing happened with that so far.
Admin groups proposal to prioritise for next three months: finish renovating building, to provide access to building for all eg. Wheelchair access and installation of a solar powered water heating system.
Renovations to be priority. Bob from maintenance collective talks about jobs required to complete renovations. Sanding of floors etc. Wheelchair access has been explored.
Question raised about renovations, whether further works for access will create more mess and damage after renovations have been done. Response was that an accessibility report and solar panels have been looked into and costs to be considered.
Agenda to be set and proposals to be made for what co-op to concentrate on for next three months. Consensus reached on proposal to focus on renovations and access and heating system to be brought back in future meetings.
Co-ops recent activity discussed. Members who have joined and left recently. New website with wordpress which is easier to use and maintain and for activist groups to add their events. Proposal to provide information for groups and individuals to learn how to use the website and input their events.
Old email account address still in use, however new system, Crabgrass, in place which is being trialled for three months.
Consensus and facilitation workshop attended by co-op members which was found useful and new skills being used in meetings.
Welcome pack has been updated. New policy on police liason.
There was an AGM in December where roles were decided, secretary, treasurer and chair.
Subscribed to Real News – activist DVD and film collection. None received as yet. For use in library and for film screenings. Videos in library to be converted to DVDs. Looking into funds to get more DVDs for Kebele.
Co-op is Still a member of Co-Ops UK
Art collective disbanded. Use of art room to be discussed in future meetings.
Problem with drain in the back yard. Major repair work has been done.
Welcome board above counter put up.
Reminder that mice are in the building and to try to avoid feeding them in any way. Changes to floor and counter in cafe will help with mouse problem.
Deep clean and tidy for Kebele on Saturday 13th February. Cafe to stay open.
Question about whether co-op members are happy that things are working well. Stated that things are better with more representatives attending meetings and rotas being organised for cooking by activist groups.
Involvement from members of activist groups has increased which is good as not just the same few co-op members undertaking all jobs.
All activist groups asked to prepare report on their activities, encourages more involvement with Kebele.
Lots of activist groups using the space, wide range of groups. Lots of events have been taking place including film and food nights.
Proposal to go through agenda items before break to be discussed after.
Ettiquete for tidying up after use of rooms, kitchen etc. Groups to leave the place as their find it.
Alternative learning group to start soon. Open learning groups – projects running for skill sharing and to be open to all ages. To start with screen printing in the art room with family group. If there is interest, to stay later so that school children can attend. Ideas welcome for ideas on skill sharing.
Piece of masonary has fallen from roof of building. To be dealt with as a health and safety issue.
Political direction of Kebele, what it is and what it should be doing.
Art collective and future use of art room to be discussed.
Post boxes: Cubby holes for people to have post delivered to. Useful for people squatting and can also use Kebele as a bail address for activist groups. Proposal that if people to have mail delivered to Kebele then to let Kebele know through member of admin co-op. If being used as a bail address, then out of courtesy to try and let an admin co-op member know.
Minutes for second half of Kebele General Meeting 23/01/2010
We used the second part of the meeting to discuss the ‘open agenda’ items, these are the things that were added to our agenda by anyone with an interest in Kebele.
One item was more of an announcement which was that a new alternative learning group is to be set up at Kebele to facilitate skills and knowlede sharing for all ages. This will be started over the next few weeks.
The next item was more of a reminder for people to look after Kebele when they use the building and to put things back and tidy up when finished. Kebele room use agreement does ask all people that come to Kebele to tidy up after themselves and is a general Kebele ethos although the co-op does recognise this does not always happen, we didn’t feel it warranted much of a discussion, although it did tie in with our political discussion at the end of the meeting.
The next few points were discussed at more length and are as follows:
Post:
Kebele receives post for people no longer living at Kebele and does not know what to do with this post and some people have mail sent to Kebele but we do not know who they are.
Action:
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Kebele co op to organise a working group to look into the legalities and options for what to do with unwanted mail and restricting the amount of mail sent to our address.
Room use:
In light of the art collective disbanding and limited use of the health room we discussed future uses of the art and health rooms by splitting into two groups and feeding back our main points. Both groups agreed to the following:
Action:
Art room
-
Ness to consult with old art collective over next two weeks with a view to have their input on what items they want to keep so that we can…
clear unwanted items and tidy the room on one of the work days.
Kebele Co -op to look into storage options – probably use unwanted shelves from events if required.
Ginny, Yaz and Emily to arrange a way to store back drops e.g. hang on a rail as originally intended.
Computers to remain in library
Kebele co-op to change the name from the art room to the resource room and publicise this along with promote and publicise resources such as scanner and multi media PC on the website.
Health Room
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Health collective to sort through tinctures and donate onto friends of Kebele within the next two weeks.
After two weeks, if tinctures not donated to friends, put tinctures on free cycle.
Clear other unwanted items and tidy the room in next work days.
Kebele co -op to change the name of the room to relaxation room and publicise this on website.
Kebele co – op to get some large stackable floor cushions to make the room more comfortable to relax in.
The last part of the meeting was used for a more political discussion around Kebele’s place in the Bristol activist community and how we can support and be supported by the people who come to Kebele. The discussion focused on how Kebele can be more explicit about its politics so we can make it more clear that Kebele as an anarchist group is not just to be consumed but a resource to be actively involved in and added to. The discussion ended on the following action points:
Action:
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Kebele co-op to set up a working group by inviting members of the co-op and non co-op members to meet with the view to:
set up skill sharing sessions
begin a discussion group on a Sunday to discuss anarchist views and how they fit in with our lives.
Co-op members and hosts to be more vocal at peak times such as cafe in promoting our reciprocal ethos, collective events or meetings such as the general meeting.
Not to leave the political discussion to the last part of the meeting at the next general meeting so that it receives the attention and time that it deserves and doesn’t get squished into the last fifteen minutes.
We ended the meeting by summarising what we had discussed and agreed on during the whole meeting.
Next general meeting due end March 2010.