the common room prototype findings report

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ST LAURENCETHE COMMON ROOM PROTOTYPE

FINDINGS REPORT

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01. THE BRIEFThe Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) commissioned 00:/ [zero zero] and Social Spaces to create a real-world opportunity to explore ways to bring the 15th-Century, Grade I-listed St Laurence Church on St Benedict’s Street in Norwich back into use on a sustainable financial basis (01). The findings of this process, and the ideas and knowledge shared by all who took part, are to form part of an options appraisal being developed by the CCT, and to inform potential future grant applications.

This short report gives an outline of the thinking behind the project, the concept of the Common Room and Prototype Day, and recommendations to move forward.

We look forward to discussing the ideas in this report and to a collaborative development of St Laurence. You’re invited…

APPRECIATION OF THE BRIEF

One of the key aspects of our experience is bringing spaces to life by connecting them to a new purpose and to new people based on an ambitious and open approach to exploring what is valuable. Creative and engaging processes fulfil a crucial role in unlocking opportunity by enabling people to imagine new forms of value, new types of co- ownership, and new ways to conceive of the development process.

We saw the ambition for St Laurence as a highly relevant and timely opportunity. The location of the building and the Norwich context could create the opportunity to develop a project that connects both enterprise and community development. We believed this combination is a crucial one and one that mainstream regeneration over the last decades has overlooked. To grow collective prosperity and social wellbeing we must integrate them, creating new value propositions that are valuable to people within the grain of their everyday lives, and also create new sources of vibrancy to our places.

Town centres in particular, if they are to thrive in a rapidly changing context, need to offer a fuller range of functions and facilities beyond retail-driven consumption. A crucial part of our exploration is to find new ways for community, local business and public services to work together in a mutually supportive manner. From our experience in research and practice we know that there are fundamental shifts in the structure of the economy leading to an increase in the number of people working from home, the importance of start-ups and collaborative networks for creating jobs, and the number of ventures dependent on shared resources in order to survive, thrive and innovate.

Footnote 01/ Both St Lawrence and St Laurence are used for this church.

Figure 01/ Interior of St Laurence Church pre-Prototype Day.

2 THE COMMON ROOMST LAURENCE, NORWICH

Equally we are witnessing deep shifts in the public sector, putting greater responsibility on us all to shape our communities and neighbourhoods. In order to be relevant to such shifts, town centres will need to offer a range of different services, activities and spaces, and the private & public sectors and citizens at large will need to find new ways of collaborating, working, investing and creating impact. We often think of this challenge as ‘institution building’. If so much of our current prosperity is built on the shared institutions and resources we created in previous periods of dramatic change (think of the creation of professional institutions, museums, urban parks and public schools and libraries in the 19th century), what are the institutions we are creating now that will make us fit for the next century?

To connect this wider issue to St Laurence is both exciting and challenging. This wonderful building at such a central location could become a shared resource and a platform for people and organisations across Norwich - providing a shared space for community activities, enterprise exploration, collaborative innovation, co-working and more – taking lessons from a variety of innovative and successful projects and ventures created elsewhere in the UK and beyond. The physical fabric of the church no doubt provides significant practical challenges to do with the building’s age, structure and fixed maintenance and heating cost. Our starting point was to suggest that such limitations need to be taken seriously but can be overcome if a proposition was formulated that was, firstly, valuable for people’s aspirations, i.e. fits with existing or emergent ‘markets’ and trends; and secondly, if such an idea was driven by a group of people with the ability and determination to carry it forward. We understood our role at this stage to be to:

• Explore what such a proposition would look like, based on an initial appreciation of the local context in Norwich and a horizon scan of relevant economic and social trends.

• Explore who could be the people to drive such a proposition, by providing an open invitation to the opportunity, using an emergent co-development strategy, bringing people together around a shared interest in the building, and exploring through what vehicle could be used to take this forward.

• Create a playful, creative ‘open-house’ setting for a limited time period in which everyone was welcome, including potential future members, co-founders, curious passers-by, local shopkeepers, and CCT staff, so we could all experience the opportunity of this building and share ideas for its use.

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For this to work well, our approach was based on three principles: Firstly, finding ways to genuinely incorporate local information and experience by using an emergent strategy; and injecting new knowledge from inspiring projects from around the world coupled with a creative process to gathering suggestions to help spark new ideas.

Secondly, creating an unusual, creative, welcoming setting to lower the barriers for anyone to be involved – if our shared goal is to create a useful, delightful and innovative space, then our approach needs to be useful, delightful and innovative as well.

Thirdly the quality of the experience and the outcomes is very much related to the quality of the conversations and collaboration beforehand. Long before the actual prototype day, we spoke with many people in Norwich so that the concept was shaped by the context, and the day itself was co-created by a variety of people and connected to various networks and opportunities.


Other churches on St Benedict Street:01/ Norwich Art Centre.02/ St Margaret’s Church.03/ St Gregory’s Church.

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02. OUR APPROACHRESEARCH

We undertook an initial period of research – both desk based and locally, speaking with organisations, residents, entrepreneurs and shopkeepers. From our initial proposal to test the proposition of a workspace plus in-novative, shared community & enterprise space we investigated several key aspects:

• What potential and need there is for such a space, and who would use it? What other types of activities could be included to strengthen the proposition?

• What similar spaces are in operation in Norwich today?

Our research quickly led us to the conclusion that Norwich already has many spaces that offer some of the facilities core to our investigation. St Benedict’s Street itself has not just many small independent shops and enterprises, but also a remarkable number of historic churches in close proximity that are currently used as creative and workspaces: the Nor-wich Arts Centre is an arts venue with café and free wifi in St Swithin’s Church; St Margaret’s ‘Church of Art’ offers affordable exhibition and event space; St Gregory’s offers gallery space, crafts fairs, music and has a café. (It is worth noting that St Laurence is the biggest of these churches) Equally there are a range of studios, workspaces and skills centres nearby offering e.g. free wifi and affordable spaces for enter-prise: Wensum Lodge on King Street offers adult education facilities; Stew on nearby Fishergate is an artist-led gallery, project space and studio offering access to workbenches, shelving and a limited amount of power tools and other materials such as a screen print workshop; Soup Lab recently opened to the west of St Benedict’s Street offering a film lab, dark room and hot-desking space; and Business Revolution in The King’s Centre offers flexible workspace and hot-desking space as well as businesses support services. Any follow-up work on a Common Room membership proposal would likely need to include a more detailed map-ping of these spaces, their offer and pricing level.

Equally it became clear that St Laurence itself has been used over time for several activities – from a regular textile and crafts market to a 2-week circus school, with more informal use in between, such as the Bicycle Shop café owner using the space to repair his café fascia as no-where else in the area was big enough. None of these have created a business model as such but they are all examples of activities that were relevant and valuable to different people. This led us to believe that any ‘narrow-focus’ new co-working or creative space venture would likely be in competition rather than compliment other spaces nearby, but that St Laurence is still potentially valuable to a range of people. And any poten-tial uses alongside co-working to diversify the offer need be distinctly different to the existing spaces in Norwich in order to add value.


DEVELOPING A PROPOSITION FOR ST LAURENCE

Three opportunities became apparent in the course of initial conversations.

Firstly, despite the current semi-commercial and commercial offer in the city, there is still a lack of spaces that people have some ownership over and that can be used for productive activities: making, repairing, learning, exchanging ideas and skills and innovating in collaboration. There are venues or studios to rent, shops to buy goods in, galleries and cinemas to view and consume culture – but a social space that brings a wide range of people together around a series of shared productive activities is lacking.

Secondly, many people remarked that the very size of the building offers unique possibilities when compared with other venues, both for multi- use and for larger projects.

Lastly, a number of local traders, such as Pick-a-Lily Florist, House cafe/restaurant, Jack White Music, and The Bike Shop cafe/bar, showed interest in using the building as a collective resource for activities related to their trade and a way for shopkeepers along the street to work together more closely.

This matches the wider research that 00:/ and Social Spaces have undertaken over the last years, such as captured in publications as ‘Handmade – Portraits of Emergent Community Culture’ (Social Spaces 2010), the ‘Compendium for the Civic Economy’ (00:/ 2011), the ‘Community Lover’s Guide’ series (produced by Social Spaces, started in 2012) and ‘The Empathic City’ (00:/ 2012 – in Dutch only). The collective research into examples of innovative local community and enterprise project development; the study of cultural-economic trends towards co-production, collaborative creativity and tacit knowledge exchange and the emergence of a ‘maker movement’; plus the hands- on work with over 80 communities across the UK offered strong clues to where a valuable proposition should focus.

This led to the development of The Common Room and the Prototyping Day to offer a tangible, real world experience of living and working in a different way.

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Central to The Common Room concept are five key ideas:

1. THE ECONOMIC REALITY OF ST LAURENCE

The CCT have tried from some time to find a single tenant or use for St Laurence. The textile craft centre and circus school saw good potential for using the space, but could not support themselves financially in the long run. Although it is possible to imagine singular commercial uses for the space, we judged it unlikely in the current economic climate that a single occupant with both commercial and social remit could afford to use the vast space on its own. Hence, maximising value through multiple use and shared ownership seems a more viable avenue.

2. THE WIDESPREAD DESIRE FOR ‘COMMON’ SPACES

Through our own first-hand research around the UK and elsewhere we know that increasingly people would like more ‘common’ spaces in which to develop and execute ideas together. New types of social infra- structure are emerging that create connections, offer resources and build networks across the intersection between community and enterprise. There are a range of mixed value models and funding sources which we can learn from: Men’s Sheds (Australia), FabLab (global), PieLab (US), The Remakery (London), Repair Cafes (The Netherlands), Makerhood (London), Trade School (global) Granny’s Finest (The Netherlands). The Living Room (The Netherlands) and Sunday Soup (global) are just some of the examples of such resources - often collaboratively owned and managed, occupying spaces permanently or on a temporary or recurring basis.

3. THE BLURRING OF THE LINES BETWEEN ENTER- PRISE AND COMMUNITY- LED PROJECTS

Our studies show evidence that many of the new types of projects that are initially driven by volunteer effort frequently grow into enterprises – e.g. Granny’s Finest (The Netherlands) or LOAF (Birmingham). This trend towards iteratively developed projects, using an emergent approach that evolves the business model over time through live prototyping, show that complex and interesting ideas are often grown from small beginnings.


P i e L a bPie + ideas = conversation. Ideas + design = social change

PieLab was an experiment by a group of friends in Alabama who decided to offer free pie as a way for more neighbours to meet and chat. From these small beginnings, PieLab now occupies a space on the highstreet. But it is still more than your average café –with bike repairs, catering apprenticeships and an open community space.

www.pielab.org

T h e L i v i n g R o o mA communal, welcoming, neighbourhood space.

The Living Room is a community run space in a former shop. Residents joined together to redecorate and now offer £3 a month to keep it running. People from the neighbourhood share meals, hold events and look after their children together, in a shared and open living room – a place where everyone can do what they are best at and feel comfortable.

www.dewoonkamerinfo.blogspot.com

T h e R e m a k e ryCultivating skills of repair and making.

The Remakery is a shared work and learning space in Brixton. It houses and supports local enterprises and projects based on the re-use, repair and upcycling of resources that would otherwise go to waste.

www.remakery.posterous.com

A b u n d a n c eHarvest and use seasonal gluts of local fruit.

Sheffi eld Abundance helps harvests both private and public fruit, and redistributes the excess amongst the community on a non-profi t basis. For example, fruit for meals with homeless people at the Sunday Centre; or shared allotment meals.

www.growsheffi eld.com

R e pa i r Ca f eFree meeting places all about repairing things together.

Repair Cafes have tools and materials, and repair specialists to help you make any repairs you need. On clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery or toys. Visitors bring their broken items from home. Together with the specialists they start making their repairs in the Repair Café.

www.repaircafe.org

L o a fCookery school and community bakery.

Loaf is building community through good food – with a community supported bakery. People join the bread club and pay a set amount each month. This creates a guaranteed income for the baker to invest in equipment, supplies and labour. In return, you get fresh, locally made, bread each week.

www.loafonline.co.uk

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m e n ' s s h e dBlokes and sheds have always been a winning combination.

Making, fi xing, building.

Men’s Sheds are community owned and run workshops – permanently resourced with tools and materials for building and making. They offer a space for men to gather and talk, get involved in their community and retain a sense of dignity and self-worth through practical projects.

www.mensheds.org.au

G r a n n y ' s F i n e s tDesigned by the new, produced by the best.

Granny’s Finest creates knitwear fashion accessories by pairing young design talent, with older experienced knitters. This offers socially isolated older people opportunities and purpose to use their skills together, and up and coming fashion designers gain experience.

www.grannysfi nest.com

p o t l u c kWe all have food in common.

A Pot Luck is a communal meal, where everyone brings something to share. People join in by bringing something requested by the host, for example an ingredient, a cooked dish, cutlery or help with setting up. It only works if everyone helps out - and with everyone bringing a little bit each, it soon grows into an amazing feast!

www.potluck.so

m a k e r h o o dLocal making meets the web.

Makerhood offers online stalls for local makers to promote their goods; and hosts workshops and activities to help people develop new skills and connections, and support local makers in setting up and running their businesses. The inspiration was a traditional town marketplace: a space that is open to all and supports community life, where sellers and buyers have a relationship which goes beyond their immediate transactions.

www.brixton.makerhood.com

H a c k n e y B i k e w o r ks h o pCommunity bike mechanics.

The Bikeworkshop runs classes in how to repair your bike. Rather than offer a free maintenance service, they train people in new skills to keep their bikes on the road, and offer use of specialist tools. The social side is just as important, with tea and cake or trips to the pub alongside a load of bicycle knowledge.

www.hackneybikeworkshop.com

Fa l l e n F r u i tNew connections and conversations through experimental fruit jams.

Public Fruit Jam invites everyone to come with homegrown or street-picked fruit and make jam together. People who have never met before sit down to make experimental jam combinations. Working without recipes, so every jam is a negotiation among its makers.

www.fallenfruit.org


p o s t c o d e h o n e yMapping meets beekeeping.

The taste of honey is affected by the placing of beehives – because it depends on the fl owers that are growing in the landscape. Imagine a place that had so many beehives, that each area of the city could produce its own fl avour honey. A local fl avour defi ned by the types of fl owers growing in gardens, civic planters, or parks.

www.iabr.nl

fa b l a bEveryone can get engaged in product design and development.

A Fab Lab (or fabrication laboratory) is a modern day manufacturing workshop, with equipment that ranges from a 3D printer, to a computerised embroidery machine. It reverses the traditional approach to producing goods, by encouraging the creation of everyday objects and new ideas, and empowering people to do it themselves.

www.fablabmanchester.org

T h e T e l l i n g R o o mThe Telling Room is a not-for-profi t writing centre in Portland, Maine.

Dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellersFocused on young writers ages 6 to 18, the centre seeks to build confi dence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for their students. They believe that the power of creative expression can change communities and prepare young people for future success.

www.tellingroom.org

L i t e r at u r h a u sBethania Methodist’ Church, CopenhagenLiteraturHaus is home to Denmark’s fi rst live venue for literature.

LiteraturHaus is located in a deconsecrated church, where the high-ceilinged interior of the nave and the cosy café in the basement provide a unique atmosphere for the many events the venue hosts every week. Experience writers in all shapes and forms, be our guest and visit LiteraturHaus, open your heart, and let its pages voice and be voiced by the universal dialogue between one word and another, giving life to the new home of literature in Copenhagen.

www.literaturhaus.dk

S u n d ay S o u pInternational network of meals and micro-grants.

Sunday Soups are a grassroots model for funding small to medium sized projects through community meals. Groups host a meal and invite neighbours to enjoy a social event, and everyone decides together how to spend the money left over from ticket sales, helping to generate independentfunding.

www.sundaysoup.org

Ya r p o l eCommunity Shop & Post Offi ce, Saint Leonard’s Church, Herefordshire

The Yarpole Community Shop in Herefordshire is a co-operative owned enterprise that was fi rst set up in 2004, when the last remaining village shop closed. It fi rst moved into a leased Portakabin in the backyard of a local pub where it was joined by the local Post Offi ce. In 2009 it moved into the local St. Leonard’s Church where a gallery, café and dry cleaners were added. The shop is open full time and is staffed by more than 30 volunteers.

http://www.yarpoleshop.co.uk/

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4. THE GROWTH IN COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE

Over the past few years there has been a remarkable growth in cooperative enterprise – rediscovering the relevance of the ‘Industrial & Provident Society’ (IPS), a 19th century company form, for 21st century purpose. Coops unite users of resources (whether pubs or football clubs; renewable energy or childcare; telecoms, workspace or local shops) with the co-ownership and management of the resources they use and look for collective cost-reduction instead of extractable profit. Following the Government-supported Community Shares Pilot there has been a growth in both for-profit and not-for-profit IPSs (the latter being called Community Benefit Society) raising capital and building business models through the principles of membership, democratic governance and withdrawable shares capital – for more information, for example see the Practitioners Guide to Community Shares (Co-operatives UK 2012).

5. CREATIVITY OCCURS IN ENVIRONMENTS OF STIMULATION, ACTIVITY AND CONVERSATION

Our work in testing methods and tools to spark imagination and stimulate activity has shown that the most successful collaborative projects develop from a mix of injecting new knowledge; finding ways to surface and connect skills, ideas, and resources; co-developing strategies to incorporate local knowledge (rather than consultation to ask opinion); and facilitation or support to navigate existing social and organizational structures. Increasingly the research literature provides evidence that increased co-location leads to increased collaboration.


The Common Room was developed as an emergent concept, designed to a stage one proposition based on extensive body of research. Our approach is based on the premise that such a stage one concept needs a process of testing and co-developing in a live context, with real people, through a series of several iterative cycles.

The concept for a inspirational, productive and collaborative community gathering space seemed well in line with the ethos of church’s former civic and spiritual role as a religious gathering place. As we described it on The Common Room website:

WHAT IS THE COMMON ROOM?

The Common Room could transform St Laurence’s Church into a new type of shared space, made and shaped collectively by the community, and run on the principles of collaboration, connection and resourceful- ness. Working through a co-operative membership model you could have access to the space, to meet people, experiment with ideas and start new projects.

More than a coffee shop, restaurant, gallery or theatre alone - more than a traditional community centre, club house or office. You might pop into make yourself a cup of tea have a chat and read your emails. Bring a dish and share a meal with others. Learn how to fix your bike, or the toaster. Or try and build your next big invention.

The idea of the Common Room is that it could be a social engine room for developing your ideas and projects.

03. THE COMMON ROOM CONCEPT

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WHO MIGHT USE THE COMMON ROOM?

Great ideas, projects and enterprises seldom originate from a single person working in isolation.

For stimulation, enthusiasm and collaboration we need to work in an environment full of people, ideas, learning, conversation ... And lots of cups of tea.

The Common Room could be just such a space. If you are a ...

Local shopkeeper or business - innovate your business model, start a collective project, integrate more social benefit, grow local loyalty and connectedness. Selling musical instruments? Host a Trade School lesson teaching more people to play. Selling vintage clothes? Join the Sewing Room and help create a whole town of fashion designers and recyclers.

Grower of plants, networks or ideas – plant for a local harvest, nurture relationships with meals at the long table, test ideas in the greenhouse meeting space.

Young person looking for inspiration & enterprise knowhow - join a project, come to a discussion, ask questions, try teaching something, and explore what interests you.

Freelancer or home-based worker - get out and seek inspiration and conversation, set a regular time for a tea break, pop in to check your emails, club together and buy the A3 printer you’ve always wanted!

Retired, but not tired -start a new project with new friends. Share your experience in building, sewing, cooking, writing...

Maker, designer, crafter, artist or fixer - drop by to use equipment, prototype your ideas, tinker with repairs and bring electrics back to life.

Parent looking after young children - create some precious moments to develop your ideas with others, pop on the kettle and chat while the children use the play area. Include your kids in a new type of dynamic and creative community as they grow...

Come and find out about the potential of The Common Room, you could meet people and have fun while you are doing things: learn, make, share, grow, eat and more.

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The idea of The Common Room had not been tested before and while it was informed by both local and wider horizon scanning research, it was impossible to predict the response or level of interest. Before developing a business and governance model, collaborative prototyping seemed crucial to assess whether the concept had relevance, connected to people’s aspirations and purpose living nearby, and could be of sufficient interest for a group of people to work together to take it forward.

The Prototype Day was in line with both Research&Development prototyping, ‘lean start-up’ and action research approaches, which all advocate iterative live testing of new propositions instead of focusing on detailed business plan development and product design before feedback has been obtained. Early testing of the value propositions of new ideas should happen through clear hypotheses: do people see the point of the Common Room? Can they connect to it, how would they want to use it? Will anyone be interested enough to participate, or join as members? Can we agree on the concept of multiple, overlapping uses for the church building?

The diagram on the opposite page shows the proof of concept stages that we could envisage testing the idea, with this project taking us through Proof of Concept stage 1.

THE COMMON ROOM PROTOTYPE DAY

Through the Prototype Day on 10 November 2012 we aimed to make the idea of the Common Room tangible: the objective was to create a light-touch ‘microcosm’ of the Common Room as it could function in the future, with a good idea of how the space could look, feel and function. This would give us the opportunity to:

• Open up the Church and create an unusual and delightful public setting for creative thinking about its future role;

• Offer a tangible experience of a potential future for the church and test people’s responses and feedback;

• Showcase a range of future possible activities and test whether they connect with people, and what ideas they have for the space;

• Bring a diverse group of potential co-founders and future members together, to discuss various development models, and what roles and commitments we all could have in order to take the next steps;

• Gather more practical ideas for what purpose and how the space could be used.

04. LIVE PROTOTYPING AND PROOF OF CONCEPT


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PREPARING FOR PROTOTYPE DAY

The preparations for the day focused on creating an identity for the project, building a programme of activities, spreading the word, and connecting a community of future co-founders and members through conversations with people who had an early interest. The visual identity is bold and makes reference to visibility (sign) conversation (speech bubble) and place (place marker). Promotional material explained both the Common Room concept and the idea behind the Prototype Day. In particular we:

• Built a micro-site – a platform for presenting the concept and information about the project, the events schedule and inspiring project examples http://thecommonroom.so/;

• Began to meet and connect to a network of interested people through researched contacts, other existing networks or organisations and ‘snowballing’ (contacting people suggested by others in the course of conversations);

• Invited people to take part in shaping the day – local tech start-up group Sync Norwich held talks and website workshops, local residents offered to teach classes at Trade School, ‘bread angel’ Sarah from Virtuous Bread baked fresh loaves throughout the day, and Marc De’ath from Creative Coop in Colchester and Austen Cordasco from the Cooperative Assistance Network led a conversation on cooperatives;

• Phoned and visited shopkeepers along the street to explain the concept, ask them to display a poster about the prototype day and invite them to a conversation specifically with other shops;

• Encouraged people who agreed to host conversations or classes to invite their networks along, thus increasing our collective ability to encourage people along;

• Contacted local press, bloggers and twitterers to share information and invites to attend. And received coverage from the Eastern Daily Press and local radio station Future Radio;

• Installed large poster boards outside the church 2 weeks before

the event – St Benedict’s Street has a high level of footfall and the boards were designed to be colourful and eye catching to passers-by.

02/

03/

This page and opposite:01/ Micro-site www.thecommonroom.so02/ ‘I want a Common Room’ Badges03/ The Common Room Balloons

Next page:04/ Poster boards outside churches05/ Artwork for poster boards06/ Posters displayed in local shops


04/

05/

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01/

02/

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ELEMENTS OF PROTOTYPE DAY

The preceding and following pages show the delivery of Prototype Day. The day itself included the following elements:

• Long table conversations – short informal presentations by the CCT and the 00:/ & Social Spaces team and invited guests (such as Rob, the initiator of a Norwich FabLab proposition and Marc and Austen, cooperative enterprise experts) exploring questions relevant to the development of the Common Room idea.

• Meetings with shopkeepers – to introduce the idea to neighbouring businesses and explore the appetite for shared space and collaborative business innovation.

• Drop in café – to welcome visitors

• Activities – bread baking, tech group +Trade School Norwich – to bring the space to life with real examples of the types of activities it could house in the future

• Installations – a vertical garden, and an exhibition of inspiring case studies – to help reimagine the space and potential uses

• Feedback activities – ideas, interest in membership, conversation notes – to gather responses to the concept

We opened the doors from 4pm to 7pm on Friday 9 Nov for an initial conversation with shopkeepers, and from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 10 Nov.

Where possible, materials were locally procured, for example, we bought items for the afternoon tea from nearby cafes and filled the water tank from the florist shop – to support local business and make more connections. Everyone who helped produce the day, including neighbouring cafes that offered their toilet facilities, were given a small gift to show our appreciation for their generosity and openness.

Overall, we welcomed around 200 people into the Common Room throughout the day. The following pages give an overview of the evidence obtained.

03/

04/

01/ Long Table Conversation withGarden beyond.02/ One of the plants that make up the Garden.03/ Presents.04/ One of the St Benedict Street sourced cake for tea.


01/

03/

02/

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01/ Cafe02/ Hanging Garden

03/ Exhibition Polytunnel with Trade School classes either side

04/ Feedback forms05/ Ideas Cards

06/ Bread baking07/ Hosted conversation

08/ Light at night

02/

04/

05/

06/

07/ 08/


01/ Trade School class: Practical origami.Barter: sweets, smiles, life stories, jokes, all

things handmade

02/ TechHack with Sync Norwich:Building a web app

03/ Trade School class: How to weave with recycled yarn.

Barter: old blankets, wicker basket, SEO advice, local veg, saucepan

04/ Trade School class: Herbs for resilience.Barter: white plates, seeds, organic produce, a

surprise, a generous spirit

01/ 02/

02/

04/

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FEEDBACK SUMMARY

20-2923%AGE

30-3933%

40-4913%

50-597%

60+13%

<2011%

6 0

5 7 % 4 3 %

Gender:

Number who left feedback:

Age:


Drayton Rd

Aylsham Rd

Heig

ham

St

Dereham Rd

A147

Newmarket Rd

Ipsw

ich

Rd

Thorpe Rd

A140

The Common RoomThe Common Room

500m0

Key - diameter relates to no. of person from postcode

1

KEY

4

Postcode:

27

00:/

“Norwich really needs a centre for all of its many creative people to come together & support each other & benefit from each other’s experience.Count me in!”

“Even in itself today has been a great networking opportunity and a demonstration of what is possible.”


“I am also interested to run or help to run an improvisation orchestra – exploring music – communication from a perspective of so-called inexperienced musician. This is not about blasting electronic guitars but exploring sound & communication.”

“Make use of outdoor space for community gardens.”

“Hula hooping / physical activities / gym. Tool workshop. Peer to peer education.”

“I think it is important to work with all that the space offers but with its limitations too. Activities involving movement, such as dance, karaoke, circus would work well. Otherwise static activities might work well within little huts / greenhouses for writing / cafe / restauranty things. What about a promo - build-a-shack out of found materials to set up future spaces. Other ideas: clothes swap / art spaces / food swap / farmers market.”

“Craft + educational activities. Ready to contribute where I can.”

“Practical skill sharing sessions. Bringing local groups together.”

“Trade schools. Shared meals. Creative writing workshops. Talks / debates / lectures. Book swap. Artists’ products.”

“Crafting – could run beading group, fairs for local craftspeople.”Catherine Dunford

“Community space, a hub where people can meet for free, organise workshops & events, combined with more business-like enterprises that help with the funding. I’d be happy to help in the form of a steering group / coop to organise the space & activities & business plan. I am also involved in community groups that might make use of the space for meetings & events.”

“Art & Craft orientated activites. Conversations & debates. Networking between like-minded people. Encouragement of activities & projects within the local community, shaped by the local community. I would love to both teach & be taught here by obviously wide spectrum of skills / expertise.”

“Community fashion activities, exhibitions / shows / collaborations.”

“Vertical gardening (gardening for city living) as not much outdoor space. Bike maintenance. Making good, quick, nutritious food. Breadmaking / fruit bread etc. Hot yoga classes (to keep warm in winter months). Swopping clothes.”

“Workshops, fairs etc. floristry workshops.”

“Bakery – would help heat the space. Space to run ‘start up weekends’.Modelmaking workshops. Shop selling products made by the users.”

“Would like to see creative / social activities – skill sharing, socialising, small creative business hub. Shop selling users’ goods.”

“Community workshop / makerspace – though I realise woodwork and welding would be difficult. Plumber and heating engineer – willing to do trade school.“

“Educational practical activities – all ages. Space for sharing ideas, conversations, sharing great inspirational work. Festivals.”

What sort of activities would you like to see here?What could you use the space for yourself?

“Community space, a hub where people can meet for free, organise workshops & events, combined with more business-like enterprises that help with the funding.”

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00:/

“Very interested in a maker space. For my business currently have to get others to make the components I need but would love to use a space where I could do it myself.”


“Art, craft, herbs, local history talks/walks. Exercise e.g. chi kung, hula hooping, circuits. Active stuff as it’s cold in here! Bicycle workshop. Internet access – especially in evenings. Shared meals, cafe, discussion groups. Open mic, spoken word, musicians, comedy. Can do cheap, easy nutritious cookery.”

“Circus school, workshops to learn to make things, floristry workshops”

“Arts based/ social & shared activities. Discussion/debate.”

“Workshops – craft. Floristry workshop. Activities for families– games / crafts.”

“Well being events; how to stay healthy, how to deal with chronic pain, parenting workshops, photography workshops, children’s activities (that parents can join in with). I am a physio & quite interested in sharing my knowledge about wellbeing, function & coping with bad health.”

“Discussions of important issues for young people & on how we move into the future.”

“Weaving, spinning. I can knit, crochet, bead. I have friends who teach yoga & do art work; maybe I could get them interested.”

“A social area for creative types. Music, arts discussions, teas and coffees etc.”

“Social area to come to & have a drink, share views etc. meetups with creative types, arts music. Art exhibitions. Support for local arts students (NUCA).”

“Norwich really needs a centre for all of its many creative people to come together + support each other + benefit from each other’s experience. Count me in! Would like to take part in art making because personally I have a passion for art (drawing painting and generally making stuff), I would like to offer an art class. I am convinced that other people will have ideas for other things. I would like to learn about using the internet to grow a business.”

“Community hub for conversations, networking, becoming less reliant on internet. Increased value in face to face conversation. Potential venue as permaculture courses. Permaculture garden / intensive salad growing space / see patchwork farms at growing communities in London. Compost toilet. Tradeschool – yeah! Trading space / community shop / local freecycle exchange centre. Fablab sounds great.”

“Norwich UNESCO city of lit – hub for literature, writing workshops, poetry reading, play performances, theatre rehearsal space. Book clubs etc. Tradeschool definitely, crafts + technology side by side.”

“I produce aerial photography so would be interested in displaying/selling work.”

“Communal dinners. pop up restaurant. workshops.”

“I would love to see this place bring together the art community. Allowing people to work here - sharing ideas, getting feedback & possibly community exhibitions.”

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I could organise ‘no power’ candle-lit acoustic music nights.

I could help people build or repair skills with English language for 1hr sessions once weekly.

I could help people with Spanish language.

I could organise permaculture courses to be hosted here. Make links with Norwich FarmShare. Preserving workshops, meeting spaces, space for social events.

I could helping people about space.

I could run a swaparama - bring together public + fashion designer-makers students to make + customise old clothes - upcycle - share skills.

I could learn to paint like Jackson Pollock and start a French conversation club.

I could swap shop of football ideas and facts.

I could offer plumbing - help setup make space or Men’s Shed.

I could help people to write stories.

• Tool workshop• Peer to peer

education• Skill sharing• Socialising• Small creative

business hub• Shop selling

users’ goods • Dance, chi kung,

hula hooping, circuits, gym

• Circus school• Community

Kitchen• Clothes swap• Art spaces• Food swap• Farmers market• Maker fair• Repair cafe• Men’s shed• Creche• Floristry

workshops• Vertical

gardening• Bike maintenance• Breadmaking• Hot yoga classes• Enterprise start-

up weekend• Meet up space• Trade school• Shared meals• Lectures• Film nights• Book swap• Craft groups• Local crafts

market• Improvisation

orchestra• Community

garden• Networking• Community

workshop/makerspace

• Sculpture - making of ‘big’ things

• Scottish dancing• Debate / big

meeting space• Wifi – wispire

project

• Bookstore • Reconnecting to

faith groups, eg vineyard church

• Working with city of literature status

• Working with colleges eg in combination with prince’s foundation craft skills programme

• Permaculture garden

• Intensive salad growing space

• Compost toilet.• Trading space /

community shop• Local freecycle

exchange centre• Fablab• Pop up restaurant• Art exhibitions• Support for local

arts students• Art, craft, herbs,

local history talks/walks.

• Open mic, spoken word, musicians, comedy

• Well being events• Parenting

workshops• Photography

workshops• Language

classess• Children’s

activities• Permaculture

courses - make links with Norwich FarmShare

• Upcycling• Working with

the CofE on its redefining pilgrimage ambition to connect the cathedral to Walsingham Church

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES MENTIONED:


‘Norwich really needs a centre for all of its many creative people to come together + support each other + benefit from each other's experience. Count me in! ’

‘Allowing people to work here - sharing ideas, getting feedback & possibly community exhibitions.’

‘Encouragement of activities & projects within the local community, shaped by the local community. I would love to both teach & be taught here by obviously wide spectrum of skills / expertise.’

‘Activities involving movement, such as dance, karaoke, circus would work well.’

MAKING22%

OUTDOORS9%

SOCIAL33%

ENTERPRISE4%

LEARNING18%

HEALTH14%

‘Make use of outdoor space for community gardens.’

‘A community workshop would allow people to learn new skills and do things for themselves. It could have so much potential, for businesses too.’

Analysis of types of uses participants suggested:

“Fascinating constructive initiative – would like to see it blossom and be kept informed of developments.”

“This has been a very interesting & stimulating experience – which I would v much like to be involved in in the future as the shape of The Common Room & Trade School evolve...”

“This is a brilliant idea, long needed in a city like Norwich where the sense of community and support is hard to find.”

“Possibly collectively a street payment for any of the business to use space when free / available?”

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05. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCEPOSITIVE FEEDBACK

The concept of the Common Room was enthusiastically received. Despite the wet weather, and the unfortunate coincidence of an English Defence League march through Norwich town centre, approximately 200 people visited the church on the Prototype Day. Many of them stayed for a long time and participated in multiple activities, so that attendance at any moment varied from 30 to 60 throughout the day. Responses to the concept of the Common Room, to the values and principles behind the approach, to the activities offered and conversations hosted, and to the exhibition of inspiring projects were also very positive. Many people mentioned they had previously had little exposure to the range of projects ideas being shown in the exhibition but could connect to them.

The overview of quotes and suggestions shows that the Prototype Day appealed to people and that it set off their imagination and aspiration to use the space for a wide range of activities in line with the overall concept – with many people suggestion events or activities they could see themselves undertaking here in the short term. The focus of the Common Room on making, sharing, exchanging, collaborating, debating and building new networks and crossovers between existing networks chimes with the interest of the people attending.

Equally well received was the idea of creating a cooperative membership organisation as a way of enabling individuals, groups and local businesses such as shopkeepers to share the space. Appendix 2 gives an initial indication regarding people’s willingness to pay for membership. This confirms our first hypothesis that the multiple, collaborative use proposition would be of value to people even in a city with many places offering some co-working facilities and shared ‘making’ resources.

The second hypothesis to be tested was the possibility of establishing an initial group of people, perhaps already connected with existing networks, who were keen to explore the possibility of establishing the Common Room in St Laurence church. Working with such a group would be crucial to progressing the Proof of Concept process beyond this first stage and continue to co-develop the concept together. A partnership could be formed between the co-founding group; the CCT, 00:/ and Social Spaces for the exploration of next steps as well as the co-founding group of a cooperative that could become a more permanent user of St Laurence.

Since the Prototype Day, a group of people have met again to discuss the project and have submitted an initial expression of interest. This group could be the start of an open group formation process unfolding over the next months.

“I think it is important to work with all that the space offers but with its limitations too. Activities involving movement, such as dance, karaoke, circus would work well. Otherwise static activities might work well within little huts / greenhouses for writing / cafe / restauranty things. What about a promo - build-a-shack out of found materials to set up future spaces.”Kristian McKeon

“Depends on size of space – This is rather big, cold and full of echoes! Small spaces needed for closer interaction.”Liz


NOTES OF CAUTION

Many people have noted some of the evident issues in taking propositions forward: the limitations of St Laurence church in its current state are well known. Access is difficult because of the level differences on the site; there is has no toilet or running water, let alone catering facilities; there is no heating. All of these would be necessary for a long-term occupation to be considered, and the costs would clearly be considerable. In particular, the lack of heating would be an impediment to some activities in the short term. It is widely recognised that the funding requirements for addressing these issues could limit future occupants of the building so that additional fundraising would be required.

Equally, whilst this did not seem an issue to most attendants on the day, some people expressed concern about the use of a former religious building for ‘productive’ activities insofar as they could be (however infrequent), noisy, detract from the experience of the space or hamper other activities. Some of the activities, it was noted ‘could equally take place in other types of buildings.’ Even so, people giving feedback of this type generally still supported the ethos of the Common Room as a place for ideas exchange around the intersection of enterprise and community, and new ways of creating value to communities.

The practical testing of what activities will be appropriate in the longer term and what kind of uses can co-exist or conversely exclude each other is an important one to be had on a continuous and iterative basis.

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Based on the positive reception to the Common Room concept, we believe there is ample potential for the CCT to move forward with the process initiated through this initial project. We would suggest that there are two main options available:

• Firstly, the CCT could apply for more extensive funding for building works to enable long-term use and revisit The Common Room idea when and if the funding comes through. The evidence from the Prototype Day should provide a strong basis for a formal feasibility study to inform a successful bid process.

• Secondly, the ‘lean start-up’ process is continued to enable concept development and testing of the emergent use in practice. Temporary use of the church could be offered to the co-founding group and partnership, even before any physical investment has taken place, to build support, test the membership proposition and governance model further, and continue to develop the activities in and potential of the building as second phase of prototyping and evidence gathering. This in turn can feed into a future membership offer or bid-writing.

OUR RECOMMENDATION

Our recommendation is to proceed swiftly with option 2, and to establish a 6-month period for the initial co-founding group to work with CCT, Social Spaces and 00:/ to develop future options in practice. In particular, in this period the co- founding group could:

• Stimulate further activities to take place in the Church, including Trade School Norwich, adopting and possibly adapting other successful models tried elsewhere as described in the report elsewhere;

• Develop the ‘presence’ of St Laurence on the mental map of Norwich through maintaining the current website, using Twitter, Facebook and other online presence;

• Develop the cooperative and/or membership model and test it in practice as a revenue-generating model. Different types of revenue share agreement with the CCT could be established in order to contribute to the CCT’s significant on-going cost of building upkeep and possible further investment, in exchange for free use by the co-founding group for its activities. Appendix 2 develops some initial thoughts regarding membership as a basis for further discussion, which could also inform CCT membership development options for other churches;

• Co-develop a governance model by testing the possibilities offered by the cooperative model and/or alternatives;

• Create a genuine partnership between CCT, co-founders, 00;/ and Social Spaces with open discussion and agreement around shared ownership, equity and investment of time, money, or expertise;

06. MOVING FORWARD


draft founderPAPER

N O V 1 2 d e c 1 2 j a n 1 3 f e b 1 3 m a r 1 3

PROTOTYPEDAY

10 NOV 12

TCCT00:/Social SpaceNorwich Co-founder Group (CF)

Event

Regular Activity

Test Events(Some developing into regulars)

INCEPTIONMEETING

MEMORANDUMOF UNDER-

STANDINGInformalunderstanding

websitetwitter etc.

ACTIVATIONNETWORKS

OPEN DEVELOPMENT OF

CO-FOUNDING GROUP

update & curate the website

WWW

> Update and curate website

> Memebership drive and model development

> Develop Revenue Model

> Develop Governance Model

> Develop Social Return on Investment Model

> Unlock potential of the church for income generation > revenue share

> Guarantee space maintance and other liabilities

> Guarantee diversity and accountability of Founder Group

> Activation of network (websites, twitter etc)TCCT00:/SOC

CF

TCCTCF

TCCT

00:/SOCCF

CF

CF

CF

PROTOTYPING OF USESLead by Norwich Co-founder Group

Examples of Use

wwwCF

TCCTCF

Prototype Day 02

Trade School Norwich

Art Curation Community Workshops

Makers Fayre

SEEDING THE COMMON ROOM THE NEXT 6 MONTHS

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a p r 1 3 m ay 1 3 j u n 1 3 F U T U R E

PROTOTYPEDAY

10 NOV 12

founderPAPER

FUNDINGAPPLICATION

captialFUNDING> Hlf etc.

Potential investment in:> Facilities> Fit-out> Start-up Capital

FUNDINGAPPLICATION

TCCT

00:/SOCAL spACE

COOPCO-FOUNDER

GROUP

thecommon room

cooplaunch

> Goverance Model> Membership Model> Revenue Model > Coop Founding

Ongoing Stimmulation For Ideas Generation & Social Connections

Commuity Kitchen

Repair Cafe

Shared Meals

Scottish Dancing

Open Mic

Floristy Workshop

Parenting Workshops

Plumbing Wkshop

Debates

Hackathon

Dance Classes

Clothes Swap

Norwich Car Share Launch

Installation Prototype

Bicycle Repair Whshop

Weaving & Spinning

Cookery ClassesBook Club

YogaWriting Wkshops

Food Swap

Theatre Rehearsals

Space Installations

Freecycle Exchage Centre

Good Gym

Pop-UpCreche

Permaculture Courses & Garden

Market Day Coop Launch Party


• Develop a Social Return on Investment model on the basis of which future funding could be unlocked;

• Initiate conversations with possible funders and supports in Norwich and elsewhere;

• Expand the co-founder group and partnership to develop a broad base of different skills and talents;

• Co-develop a financial and funding model that fulfils the objectives of the CCT holistically and enables on-going use of the building, and explores what financial ‘sustainability’ and ‘viability’ ought to mean in this context;

• As a secondary option, consider whether and how to test the potential of St Laurence to generate income through hire for events and activities to complement the membership model. It is worth noting that the church is not being actively marketed at the moment, and so the extent to which it is actually marketable and attractive as a hired space is has remained untested. ‘Test-trading’ therefore could be appropriate and practical. However at this stage this ought to be a secondary priority when compared to the membership model, as we see the value of the lean start-up process particularly in testing the cooperative and/or membership model to develop an innovative and collaborative approach to building usage beyond commercial use. More importantly, we have seen instances recently where a focus on ‘quick-win’ rental income has stifled a more innovative and collaborative approach. Equally, our research showed the likelihood of competition with very similar spaces in close proximity. These factors are to be considered, and crucially, the development of the membership model itself will determine whether or to what extent a category of ‘non-member’ space hire ought to be developed.

• The role of the CCT and 00:/ & Social Spaces could be to support and partner the co- founding group in this period; in particular, the CCT would continue to maintain overall responsibility for the building and any liabilities occurring beyond what is agreed with the co-founding group, and both would be involved in supporting the governance and development of the emergent start-up process.

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MANAGING RISKS

Following the event the enthusiasm for the Common Room concept is clearly very strong. There are a range of risks that should be managed in the recommendations outlined above:

• Initial enthusiasm may drop off if nothing else happens relatively quickly. There is a ‘window of opportunity’ for everyone to make the most of the opportunities collectively generated so far. If nothing were to follow up soon, the opportunity to build on the event by doing a membership drive quickly could be lost, or the concept may find another suitable space to be housed in. Hence we recommend immediate continued development, and regular dialogue.

• The co-founding group and partnership might not be large or diverse enough in terms of skills or profile, hampering potential to appeal to a wide range of future members and connect to different funding sources. Or existing community and organizational norms and expectations might reduce productivity or create antagonistic situations. All partners need to be able to discuss this honestly and openly so that an inclusive and entrepreneurial co-founder group is formed.

• The current enthusiasm of the co-founding group could be dampened by a shift away from emergent development into a request to commit to significant responsibilities before further testing. This can be managed by being clear about the roles and responsibilities on all sides (perhaps prospect of free usage and revenue share) and by an overall commitment to collaborative working.

• No long-term viable proposition is formed, despite the co-founders’ and partners’ enthusiasm. All involved are keenly aware of the challenge posed by the need for building maintenance and investment, particularly because there are significant unknowns about the cost of physical investment beyond the current maintenance schedule. Therefore the ‘lean start-up’ period should involve an element of business model generation, fundamentally testing the different potential models for achieving the CCT’s and co-founder group’s aspirations holistically, and exploring funding models.

We are confident that these risks can be managed in the spirit of the collaboration achieved so far.


Information displayed about The Common Room for prospective members

Rotating showcase/exhibitions of The Common Room members and their “works in progress” in the form of photographic exhibitions, displays of prototypes, multimedia displays etc

TYPICAL WEEKDAY

Porch - Entrance

Nave - Free Space

Vestry - Workshop

Stair

Open Workshop Norwich Maker Group

YogaClass

North Aisle - Room 1 Open working space

South Aisle - Room 2

StairYard - Garden

Local shopkeeper uses space to fix

awning

TYPICAL WEEKEND

Web appTrade School

class Weaving

Workshop

Lunchtime SeminarSocial Media Open working space

Creche Session(supports parents going to seminar & working)

Graduates Enterprise

Supported Drop-in

Local Business LaunchSculptors use space

Common garden

RefectoryDrop-in space with kettle and tea and coffee

Lunch Clubtoday with conversational

french & book swap

- Kitchen- Cafe

Start-Up Bakery booked kitchen to test recipesKitchen supports

event

Jam makingTrade School

class

Information displayed about The Common Room for prospective members

Rotating showcase/exhibitions of The Common Room members and their “works in progress” in the form of photographic exhibitions, displays of prototypes, multimedia displays etcPorch - Entrance

Nave - Free Space

Vestry - Workshop

Stair

Bike Repair workshop

Maker’s Demo Open workshop

North Aisle - Room 1 Open working space

South Aisle - Room 2

StairYard - Garden

Communal Meal

PermacultureTrade School class

Children’s activity room

Maker’s Fair

Common garden

RefectoryTea and coffee

(No food as direct people to local cafes)- Kitchen- Cafe

Test pop-up restaurantprovides catering for Communal Meal

7am 9am 11am 1pm 2pm 6pm 9pm 11pm

EXAMPLE DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE COMMON ROOM

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LEAN START

KITCHEN / CAFE

Kettle and cups >>> Mobile kitchen cart >>> Small commercial kitchen

COMMUNITY WORKSHOP

Tool Share >>> Workbench & tools >>> FabLab

THE COMMON GARDEN

Planting boxes >>> Window Garden >>> Allotment

Examples of how facilities and uses of The Common Room could start small and evolve:


GOVERNANCE AND IP – THE ROLE OF 00:/ AND SOCIAL SPACES

00:/ and Social Spaces are open to a discussion with the CCT and the co-founding group about ways to form a shared vehicle to develop the Common Room concept further and have on-going shared ownership over emergent governance arrangements.

00:/ and Social Spaces would consider it unrealistic and undesirable for the IP of the Common Room as it currently stands be kept proprietary, especially as 00:/ and Social Spaces are currently developing a number of concepts associated with common spaces and membership structures in different contexts e.g. Library Lab in Brent and People Made Estate in Brixton. The concept is now ‘out there’ and as outlined in the risks section it could be developed outside of St Laurence’s Church. To note, this is also a strength of the development model: if successful we would have shared ownership and experience to replicate it in other churches or locations.

The concept comes with some inherent governance challenges that can be seen across the country in any number of share spaces and community centres. Traditional ways of managing spaces frequently leads to power struggles and increasing levels of formality and lack of flexibility to manage these typical dynamics. These would be counter to the Common Room concept and could lead to long-term failure of the idea. 00:/ and Social Spaces would like a continuing role in helping to design new ways of improving governance arrangements going forward. This project has been made possible so far by a collaborative partnership spirit between all involved, unlocking a significant amount of time investment by 00:/ and Social Spaces beyond a narrowly defined ‘consultancy’ approach. We look forward to discussing how this approach to co-production can be built upon in the next phase.

IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS

A meeting between the initial co-founder group, the CCT, 00:/ and Social Spaces is planned for January 2013. An email update has been sent to all who left their contact details with us throughout the process. People from Norwich who continue to come across the project online or through word of mouth are being introduced to Jeppe Graugard to support the development of the co-founding group.

This report will be sent to all who participated on the day as an open invitation to engage with the process started on Prototype Day.

Please get in touch with us via email to:[email protected]

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APPENDIX 01ORGANISATIONS PRESENT DURING THEPROTOTYPE DAY INCLUDED:

Transition NorwichFoodcycleNorwich Farm ShareThe Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (UEA)Sync NorwichSustainable BungayNorwich HEARTFuture RadioEastern Daily PressNorwich Evening NewsLow Carbon Innovation Fund (UEA)Start Up NorfolkNorwich Maker Space GroupNorfolk NetworkSlow Food NorwichVirtuous BreadArk Studio

Organisations engaged with before event, but not represented on the day:

Grapes Hill Community GardenNorwich Arts CentreHot Source NorwichNorwich Makers MarketNorcaartsInner SpacePrimCookesPress to PlayNorLETSThe Soup LabLove Norfolk

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APPENDIX 02THE ECONOMICS OF THE COMMON ROOM CONCEPT & MEMBERSHIP MODEL

The repair schedule for St Laurence for the period 2012 – 2021 is estimated by the CCT as £428,038. This is £42,000 annually and £3,500 per month. Currently there is no income expectation set against these costs, save for occasional one-off events. Any additional income would be welcome but could be ringfenced for future investments.

This could come from one-off events and memberships. We have not explored the pricing and potential for one-off events, but it is worth noting that the Hos-try Festival in Norwich Cathedral is said to be paying £900 per day for a 6-day festival.

The initial, open question asked on the feedback forms suggests that indi-vidual would be prepared to pay between £10 - £50 per month for use of the Common Room for a range of purposes; and organisational membership could range from £30 - £100 per month. Whilst the membership model is still to be developed and provides a range of complexities, we have worked with an initial estimate that £20 per individual £30 for a family and £50 per organization would be a reasonable initial offer for membership. Based on our preliminary explora-tion, a monthly income from membership could amount to the following (see table) . These are outline estimations only, to be tested in a subsequent phase of the project.

Number Type of membership Rate per month

Subtotal Total

Year 1

70 Individual £20 £1,400

20 Organisation/enterprise £50 £1,000

20 Family £30 £600 £3,000

Year 2

120 Individual £20 £2,400

40 Organisation/enterprise £50 £2,000

30 Family £30 £900 £5,300


APPENDIX 03

• Local authority funds e.g. Social Impact Bonds in the future based on a SROI model.

• The Community Construction Fund Norfolk County Council has created a brand new £3.5m investment fund to enable communities across Norfolk to bring to life building projects that will make a real difference to local life.http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/Community_and_living/Grants_and_funding/index.htm

• Small grant from the European Regional Development Fund Interreg IVA 2 SEAS are available to develop an innovative new project on the re-use of heritage assets, and an event which explored this in more detail was planned for St Laurence.

• Heritage Lottery Funding. Comes out in April 2013, currently no confirmable details available publicly.

• Co-operative funding streams are currently available, such as applying to the Co-operative Enterprise Hub for funding for support to get a co-op reg-istered and set up. This would be after the project has a functioning steer-ing group and a reasonably well developed and researched plan, including financial modelling.

• Cooperative share capital.

• Renewable energy – The CCT has recently obtained planning permission for the placing of photovoltaic cells on the roof of a Grade I-listed church in King’s Lynn.

• WI Spire project - uses a combination of exchanges and parish churches across the county as the platform to deliver high speed, reliable broadband and leased line internet access. Providing bespoke bandwidth options, fixed IP addresses and IT support we are able to help support schools, business and residential customer requirements.

POTENTIAL OTHER SOURCES OF FUNDING

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PRESS COVERAGE

APPENDIX 04

The Common Room in St Laurence's Church, St Benedicts Street, Norwich. Laura Bilings in ' the Garden ' 'Photo: Steve Adams

Community project shows possibilities for Medieval Norwich church David Freezer Sunday, November 11, 2012 2:58 PM

Origami, weaving and bread-baking are just some of the activities which have gone on offer at a new community project launched at a Norwich church.

The Common Room in St Laurence's Church, St Benedicts Street, Norwich. Nine year old Jimmy Mayhew investigating the venue.Photo: Steve Adams

In the lead up to the event The Common Room was featured on Future Ra-dio, a Norwich community radio station. http://future-radio.co.uk/files/audio/BLifePodcast_1Nov2012.mp3

The event was also reported up the Eastern Daily Press on Sunday 11th November 2012:


A prototype project at St Laurence’s Church, in St Benedict’s Street, was launched on Saturday in an effort to explore new ways to use the 15th-century church.

The Common Room project temporarily transformed the church into a type of community space in an attempt to entice people to explore the Grade I listed Medieval church.

The project has been developed by Social Spaces and 00:/ (Zero Zero) in collaboration with The Churches Conservation Trust, a national charity which protects historic churches at risk and cares for over 340 buildings around the country.

St Laurence’s is one of three churches which the charity looks after in Norwich, alongside the 500-year-old Church of St John Maddermarket and St Augustine’s Church, which boasts the only 17th-century brick tower in Norwich.

Sarah Hollingsworth, from 00:/ strategy and design practitioners, said: “We had at least 200 come in and have a look at what we were doing and some stayed all day.

“We had lots of different things on offer and people were just getting to know each other and exploring the different activities.

“There were opportunities for people to engage with us and give feedback and we had lots of people very excited about the possibilities who were telling us about how they would like to be involved.”

The aim of the project, held between 10am and 4pm, was to explore the idea of creating a more permanent local community centre at St Laurence’s, where local residents can pop in to take a class, have a chat, read their emails or share a meal with others.

Ms Hollingsworth added: “People liked the idea of group meals and experimenting with pop-up restaurants, so it was all really positive, a good first step to take.”

Matthew McKeague, regeneration taskforce manager at the Churches Conservation Trust, added: ”The Churches Conservation Trust is always exploring new ways to put beautiful buildings like St Laurence’s back at the heart of local communities, and this pilot is an exciting example of how this could be done.”

For more information about the Common Room project, go to http://thecommonroom.so

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00:/ Social SpacesHub WestminsterNew Zealand House80 HaymarketLondonSW1Y 4TE

tel: 0207 739 [email protected]://www.socialspaces.org/

the common room prototype findings report

Documents

new people

new purpose

new ways of collaborating

listed st laurence church

st lawrence

new forms of value

new value propositions

new sources of vibrancy