Extensive discussion was had about all aspects of how Action Porty run & manage their venue including staffing structures etc. Trustees from A Heart for Duns (AHFD) shared information about our processes and structure. It was reassuring for us to hear that both organisations face similar staffing and volunteer issues but that our approach to managing these was similar. Both of us are moving towards creating an operations manager post. Action Porty shared their volunteer coordinator job description as we are hoping to also create such a post, pending funding.
It was interesting to hear their planned approach to taking on the Old Police Station in that they are not going to make any physical changes to the building initially but aim to move in and rent out space as it is currently configured. This is an approach we hadn’t considered & may be appropriate for an empty building in Duns that the community are interested in exploring with regards possible community ownership. There was a brief talk about their use of community conversations as part of their consultation process – this is something we agreed we would revisit with them at a later date.
Learning Outcomes
- Insight into the staffing structure of another organisation managing a similar community asset, and the relationship between trustees and staff.
- We know that Action Porty have been looking at taking a second building into community ownership and are interested to learn more about the community consultation and engagement process they have undertaken around this project.
- We have been trying to raise funds to undertake a large scale capital refurbishment of our building. We know that Action Porty have recently started their own refurbishment project so want to find out how they went about financing that – including their use of community shares.