The Community

A Paper for Council and the Annual General Meeting

New Base – joint venture with SCVO and Common Weal

Background

Over the past four years we have been exploring opportunities to establish a new House in Glasgow which would, we believe:

 Give increased visibility, profile and street level accessibility  Enhance existing work and enable the development of a ‘mainland’ programme  Be a corporate expression of the wider work of our members  Provide improved office, storage and meeting space  Enable income generation through a shop and other initiatives  Encourage partnership working with other agencies  Provide a suitable base for the development of projects and programme promoting the Community’s concern for social justice, reconciliation, , political engagement etc.  Enable provision of hospitality and programme in Glasgow for visiting individuals and groups  Create employment and bring investment to a rundown part of the city

Consultation with Glasgow based staff has shown considerable support for a move to more suitable workspace with better access and facilities, and less noise disturbance from buskers in the street below. The current lease within Savoy House runs until February 2016.

The Proposal

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has a policy of acquiring property which is then made available at non-commercial rates to groups in the voluntary sector. The latest property to be purchased is on Sauchiehall Street within the pedestrian precinct 100 yards from the Savoy Centre. The four floor property will be adapted to provide office space and support facilities at the heart of the city. Within this property there is a shop unit on three floors which could be developed to provide a café on the ground floor, a number of meeting rooms in the basement and larger venue space on the first floor.

It became clear from our discussions with SCVO that they would like to see the unit utilised as a café/venue believing this would work well alongside the office accommodation. At the invitation of SCVO we met with representatives of Common Weal, a Scottish based left wing political think tank committed to social and economic justice, which was also in discussion with SCVO about the use of the property with similar proposals to our own.

Common Weal emerged during the Scottish Independence Referendum campaign and argued for a Yes vote. However, post Referendum, since it was constituted as an organisation in October 2014 Common Weal is committed to home rule (not independence) for and has links with organisations south of the border campaigning for strong regional government across England and Wales.

Initial discussions with SCVO and Common Weal have been productive. The Council of the Iona Community agreed formal discussions on a partnership could proceed to more detailed discussion about governance, charitable status, financial matters and resourcing priorities subject to ratification by members at this AGM. Common Weal’s original business plan has been checked by Robert Swinfen and a member of the Programme Committee and it appears robust. Common Weal drew on the expertise of a number of their supporters with experience in the hospitality industry. A new business plan factoring in the use and hire of the meeting rooms etc will be created during the next phase of discussions.

Any agreement would be for three years in the first instance.

Beyond Glasgow

The original proposals for a new Community House in Glasgow were shaped by our interest in the Lion Chambers. This proposal is more modest but no less exciting given the extra emphasis that it places on programme activities which can be developed in Glasgow and then replicated elsewhere. Members of our programme team (Programme Development worker, Wild Goose Resource Group and the Youth Team) have viewed the property, and have also produced a comprehensive list of current activities, planned future activities and possible future activities which could be accommodated in a Glasgow base. The remit of the Programme Development Worker expressly states that one of the main purposes of the post is to ‘develop programme activities with regional groups of the Community, from the Glasgow base and in the Islands Centres’. Proposals for a programme of regional events are currently being drawn up with the support of the WGRG and discussed with local groups in England.

Conclusion

Partnership with SCVO and Common Weal would give us city centre accommodation at affordable rates, enable us to achieve a number of the bullet points at the top of this paper and would spread both the risk and the costs of establishing a new Glasgow base.

Peter Macdonald May 2015