(no subject)

[skelneth]

Having been to the meeting last night, and having made our presence known and a few of our opionions and plans for the year, we were able to take a tour around Bells Farm and have a look at what remains of the damage.

It seems that the damage to the main house was mostly water damage and some rather chared beams up in the roof, the arson attack had been at the back in the old scafolded area. The tarps there had caught fire and it had then burnt across the unused parts before it had started to burn through into the main house.

Down stairs had been refloored and replastered, waiting on the wall heaters to be fixed, and a final health and safety check.

Upstairs at first glance looked ok but still in need of a new carpet, and heaters are ok unlike down stairs, but there is basically a hole in the celling running the length of the back hall. The attic has got some beam damage, and no floor under the eaves, it looked worse but its an area that is least likely to be used by the general public.

Slightly worried that the living history bloke looks a lot like I expect Chris Hill to in 20 years or so
All in all, downstairs should be available again fairly soon and upstairs as soon as they can. One of the main problems in doing the renovations is waiting on the insurance money as between the council and Bell's Farm they have very little spare money.

We left the meeting to have a froth and plot in MacDonalds as to the possibility of a fund raising event and by the time we got home, we'd got a basic outline of a free form 1 night event, based period wise on 14-16th century with an East meets West intrege sort of theme to be run a Bell's farm later in the year.(hopefully)

Edit:

recycledgoth has also done a write up of the meeting on her journal, and summed it all up a lot more clearly than me.

Comments

[thefluffyfae.livejournal.com]

Sorry I couldn't get over to the meeting. Please let me know if I can help with any fundraising.

[damianobf.livejournal.com]

so were their objections made to LRPer's still using the site raised at the meeting? Or more looking for us to contribute more to helping maintain it as a community rescource?

[skelneth.livejournal.com]

No objections were raised, although we weren't really expecting them to as we'd been told that the people who moaned tended not to do it to people's faces, and the other matters tied into the whole bag of worms that seems to be there and were going to be raised were put off, because we all turned up.

The 8 of us doubled the size of the meeting. It seems that they were not used to user groups turning up for the open meetings, only the trustees. Next meeting is the Monday after Easter Monday.

We did contribute to the meeting and in doing so politely and quietly oppossed the opinions of the youth group that is trying to push their weight around. They want to 'tech' the place up, and we are of the same opinion as are most of the committe that it is the building itself that selling point rather than having lots and lots of stuff in it.

From comments made after the meeting I do think that they would like us to contribute more, even if it is just turning up to meetings. I was quite shocked that their finances read like Twisted Tales's for events which lead to the idea of the event.

[badgersandjam.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the chair said that we need a Lrping trustee

[uncanic.livejournal.com]

Ermmm technically their finances our worse than ours as soon as you bank this events bookings we almost had what they had in the insurance / inital bookign fund. Its very silly.

I shall talk to Mr C and we will put out a warning notice re: East meets West the freeform sometime later next week.

The idea is currently about £10 per head all profits to go directly to Bells Farm if we fill the site thats about £1K for them a significant poke in the eye of the 'user group' that think Larper's are evil and contribute nothing.

[damianobf.livejournal.com]

can you make it viable at £10 a head? surely you will still have some costs!

[skelneth.livejournal.com]

Admin costs mostly, as we have a lot of the kit needed already. Site costs will depend on the proposal we are going to put to Bells Farm and are very cheap as sites go. We were thinking of adding food costs on top rather than including them in the price.

[damianobf.livejournal.com]

cool well let me know if you need anything as I can always look in the stash of stuff we have in coventry to help supply and reduce the cost.

[uncanic.livejournal.com]

Offered noted and appreciated. Do not be surprised if you recieve a call.

[uncanic.livejournal.com]

And admin costs if we use email etc for as much as possible are very low the rest of the stuff even for admin we probably already have.