APPENDIX 2

Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath Carinish School project

Outline Business Plan May 2017

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Introduction

This Business Plan has been prepared for Comhairle nan Eilean Siar by Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, (CEUT), in order to secure a one year lease on Carinish School, before this Grade 2 listed, Victorian-built property suffers any enhanced deterioration for lack of maintenance. This would allow CEUT to make detailed plans in order to prepare to move our Collection from the now inadequate CnES Torlum store into a more accessible form of Open Access Storage.

This would entail:

forming partnerships for the sustainable revenue and future flexible uses of the building, including developing modern apprenticeship opportunities an options appraisal an architect’s brief to include renewable energy proposals a funding plan for a potential Land Fund property purchase together with bidding for a Project Manager to oversee the refurbishment

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Background

Comann Eachdraidh Uibhist a Tuath, (CEUT), was formed in 1989 and has over 300 members; its activities are supported by 45 -50 very engaged and active volunteers. Its mission is to:

‘actively promote and preserve the heritage and Gaelic language of North by collecting, conserving and interpreting the culture of the area, in order to inspire a wide range of lifelong learning experiences.’

CEUT runs an accredited Museum based in Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre and Museum in Lochmaddy, in partnership with Taigh Chearsabhagh Trust. Here, a major exhibition is developed by CEUT members every year, as well as two shorter exhibitions within the shared gallery space. As a priority, CEUT fundraises to provide free lunches and reminiscence ceilidhs for older tradition-bearers and disabled community members to help plan the exhibitions. These are a critical element of our outreach work and, we are assured by this group, looked forward to, since they feel such events contribute to their sense of usefulness and well-being. For the past four years, volunteers have also worked with local schools and community members on various Heritage Lottery and HIE Funded projects, inspiring present and future generations through a range of exciting events and activities, linked to the annual exhibitions. These exhibitions and activities are now captured through immersive digital, 3D and virtual reality processes and installations in partnership with St Andrews University, ‘Smart History department, who have helped us establish the website http://ceut.scot/

As well as offering its accredited Cùrsa Inntrigridh as part of CEUT’s range of activities, Sabhal Mor Ostaig’s oral history website Guthan nan Eilean also maintains and curates our longer, bilingual oral histories.

This year CEUT has been awarded charitable status and become a SCIO, (SC047186) in preparation for funding bids to develop the former school premises. CEUT’s Carinish School subgroup is responsible for developing the project.

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Forward Plan

CEUT’s Vision, as stated in its Forward Plan of 2015, was:

‘To have our Collections at the heart of a new Open Store and Bilingual Learning Room within Taigh Chearsabhagh, which will exploit digital media and new technologies to increase access and to raise the profile of Heritage.’

Most of CEUT’s collection is currently stored in the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Torlum Museum Store on the neighbouring island of Benbecula, twenty miles away from Taigh Chearsabhagh. For over a decade, CEUT, has been seeking more suitable premises to store these collections. There have been undoubted advantages to the existing arrangements of shared storage space adopted by CEUT, but the logistics of a collection stored at a distance, difficulties of access to the store, limitations on visits by the public, the inability to display the majority of the collection and the deteriorating state of the building at Torlum are proving now to be substantial barriers to activity.

CEUT plans to continue to maintain the Museum at Taigh Chearsabhagh and to create one major exhibition a year, whilst considering the development of a second, multi-functional space for the separate storage and display of its collections, since there is no available space for these at Taigh Chearsabhagh or for meetings during the day. The initial plan was to develop storage at Taigh Chearsabhagh, and indeed in 2015 CEUT was awarded Scottish Regeneration and Comhairle funding, to be shared with South Uist’s Kildonan Museum’ and Uist Wool, towards an extension. However, sadly, issues of planning could not be resolved within the timescale available and the monies were then divided between the remaining two partners.

With the merger of primary schools into one site in 2016, Carinish School became available, and is in an ideal location to allow public access to CEUT’s artefacts. If CEUT was to be successful in purchasing and developing the school, this would allow us to rehouse our Collection more accessibly and transparently and also to develop innovative programmes of learning, Gaelic and community engagement.

CEUT’s Aims within its Forward Plan 2015

1. To ensure increased collections care and access to the collections 2. To develop and extend bilingual learning opportunities and education relating to our collections and North Uist’s culture and history 3. To raise the profile of CEUT and heritage within Taigh Chearsabhagh and the wider community 4. To embed digital awareness within CEUT

Carinish School would seem to be the ideal location for CEUT to continue to fulfil these aims, especially the first two of these. In the meantime we have already managed, as an organisation, to travel some considerable way towards the second two aims. We have been actively raising our profile within Taigh Chearsabhagh. As a voluntary organisation, and although a joint founding partner of the original Taigh Chearsabhagh, heritage was

Carinish School project Outline business plan Page 4 APPENDIX 2 perceived to be very much the ‘poorer relation’ to the Arts activities, funded as they have been through Creative . CEUT’s profile is gradually being boosted within the building through three years of successive funding from:

• the Heritage Lottery, for digital and school-based outreach work, • the Gaelic Innovation Fund of HIE, • other small funding, e.g. story telling projects, the Festival of Museums and • Luminate

Central to this has been our active partnership with St Andrew’s Smart History project. Digital awareness is now firmly embedded within the ways we promote and record our learning and activities. Our Junior Comann Eachdraidh numbers 50 members, whilst our volunteers have benefitted enormously from St Andrews training sessions. Grey heads bent over X boxes, helping visitors with our digital installations, (once the youngsters had helped them to understand the intricacies) are the order of the day here.

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Development Proposals

It is expected that the development of its own open store would allow CEUT to bring more of its rich collection of objects to the fore and provide flexible use of space for:

• heritage community and learning activities/ events • family history and quality digital resource • Gaelic language and learning • provision for visitors, researchers, partner universities

Actions so far

1. Museums, Galleries Scotland Small Projects Funding

Awarded in May 2016, this enabled us to employ CMC Associates to appraise the suitability of the school as a base for our Collection. Its conclusions stated:

‘Carinish School is well suited to the needs of CEUT in many ways. The building would provide more than enough space to absorb all the functions required for the storage, open storage and display of collections, and for a higher level of interaction with visitors.’

Detailed plans and costings were included in this report and its author, Mike Spearman, proposed a 3 year development cycle:

• first year preparation and community consultation • second year conversion and construction works • third year generation of partnership income/activities, movement of artefacts, launch of summer season.

He also strongly recommended that we develop a vision for the whole building, rather than plan for a piecemeal development.

2. Registering our interest in Carinish School

The moment the school became available in September 2016, CEUT declared to CnES its initial interest in acquiring the premises. The Development Sub Group has received CEUT’s minuted decision to carry these plans forward.

3. The School House

In the latter part of 2016 the attached schoolhouse became available for sale and CEUT, on the advice of its Museum Mentor, Catherine Gillies, decided to register an interest in purchasing this also, within the Land Fund bid. This would enable CEUT to have a regular source of revenue in the future through offering a self-catering property for rent.

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4. Mentoring Support through the Brick Project

In September 2016 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Susan O’ Connor, Senior Advisor to the Princes Regeneration Trust, and CEUT to enable her to provide five days of mentoring, through this Heritage Lottery funded project, to help CEUT establish its business plan, architect’s brief and funding strategy. CEUT has so far benefitted from the first two days of this free support.

5. Working with e-Sgoil

To help fulfil our aim to educate and inspire present and future generations through a wide range of lifelong learning experiences, CEUT intends to work with the recently-created e- Sgoil to bring it’s wealth of historical and cultural material to a wider audience and create employment opportunities.

E-Sgoil is a flexible education and learning service operated by the Education Department of CnES. Using digital technology, it’s primary purpose is to broaden the range of educational opportunities across the Western Isles by sharing teaching resources, best practice and opportunities for collaboration between schools and other organisations.

The education department is also committed to and engaged with preparing young people for the modern working world, including the creation of real opportunities for employment, particularly in potentially isolated rural areas.

It is intended that two rooms within the school will be leased to e-Sgoil to provide a Uist base for a seconded teacher-manager to carry out research together with CEUT volunteers, create teaching materials based on CEUT collections for use in schools, record audio heritage (stories, songs, poems) for preservation and other activities. A Modern Apprentice archivist role will be created to provide additional resource to CEUT and expertise that can be further rolled-out throughout the network of comunn eachdraidh. One of the rooms would be adapted and equipped with sound recording equipment to enable high-quality audio recordings to be made.

One of the biggest opportunities for economic growth – and one which will be retained on the islands for the benefit of the community - lies within our unique heritage and culture. It is intended that a by-product of the work to properly archive CEUT’s collections and create interpretive, educational materials, is that CEUT will be better able to sell its services and any derived ‘products’, thus deriving a source of revenue income.

6. Community Consultation Exercise

CEUT devised its Community Consultation Questionnaire Dè do Beachd? in September 2016 and obtained a grant towards its evaluation by consultant Robin Patel.

The first, important finding from Robin Patel’s evaluation of Dè do Beachd? was that 97% of those who responded to the survey clearly wanted the school to be made available,

Carinish School project Outline business plan Page 7 APPENDIX 2 inclusive and welcoming to community use in the future. ‘Exhibition and display space’, ‘café’, ‘family history research’ and ‘Gaelic resource and learning space’ were the top priorities chosen from a list of options. Beyond these major preferences, choices tended to reflect the age range of the respondents, demonstrating to CEUT how vital it will be to continue to consult the needs of different audiences at every stage of its planning and testing of the viability of proposed uses.

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Summary

CEUT’s key proposals to ensure sustainable income generation from the development of Carinish school are illustrated in the following projected figures and tables:

• sublet of the kithchen/eating area • sublet of two rooms to e-Ssgoil • a small convenience store • a launderette • provision of flexible meeting and conference space, let by the hour • self-catering in the adjoining house • programmes of after school activities for children, using the all-weather pitch • regular programmes of guided walks to places of historical interest

Finance, projected costs, funding strategy and sustainability

Projected capital costs:

Item Cost Comment Purchase of school £11,000 building Purchase of schoolhouse £65,000 Market value Alterations to school £1,500,000 Initial estimate, based on projected figures for building and similar projects at Carloway and Eriskay. More schoolhouse detailed estimate to be determined by architect Planning & building £10,000 Estimate warrant fees Legal fees £10,000 Estimate Professional fees £15,000 10-15% of capital cost Equipment for £20,000 Based on costs of £16,314 at CECAL, Balallan launderette Furniture and £79,353 Source: CMC Storage Audit report, August 2016 equipment for storage area Furniture and £75,000 Estimate equipment for family history area Total £1,785,353

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Projected annual running costs:

Item Cost Comment Building maintenance £3000 Estimate Source: CMC Storage Audit report, August 2016 Alarm maintenance £1500 Estimate Source: CMC Storage Audit report, August 2016 Power £5500 Based on previous use. Source: CMC Storage Audit report, August 2016 Water £1000 Based on previous use. Source: CMC Storage Audit report, August 2016 Insurance/liability £2500 Estimate Source: CMC Storage Audit report, August 2016 Total £13,500

Funding strategy

Capital funds

95% of the purchase of the building from Scottish Land Fund, together with a grant towards the building’s development and business plan development.

Other grant sources will be approached as part of our funding plan to fund development of whole building once the architect’s brief has been accepted: Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, applications to trusts, crowd funding, Prince’s Regeneration Fund.

In order to estimate projected annual income CEUT has contacted groups responsible for similar facilities elsewhere in the Western Isles, including Comunn Eachdraidh Nis, Comunn Eachdraidh Cheann a' Loch and Ravenspoint Centre. Our estimates will be researched further during the course of the lease.

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Projected annual income

Item Income Comment Visitor income £1250 The Moffat Centre’s Visitor Attraction Monitor (2013) details visitor numbers to attractions within the . On Uist in 2013, visitor numbers to Kildonan Museum were 5929, and to Taigh Chearsabhagh 24,193. If CEUT’s facility at Carinish School attracted a modest 2500 visitors a year, generating an income of just 50p per head (via donations or profits from purchases), it would provide income of £1250 towards the running costs. Use of meeting space £1000 Conservative estimate with internet for conferences, evening events Accommodation income £5148 based on 50% occupancy of two self-catering bedrooms at £600 per week, generating 33% profit Launderette income £3000 Conservative estimate, based on figures for 2 washing machines averaging £100 profit per week during first year at CECAL, Balallan; similar facility at CEN with six machines generates £9000 profit per year. Sub-let of kitchen/eating £3120 Conservative estimate of minimum figure, area equivalent to £60 per week. CEUT has already been approached by a local businessman who has a firm interest in the facility. Figures are still to be discussed with him. Profits from £200 Conservative estimate convenience store Sub-let of office and To be classroom for e-sgoil use determined Total annual income £13,718

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