Managing yourselves, managing a community building

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Managing yourselves, managing a community
building
CTAC Community Technical Aid Centre
CTACs telephone contact no. 0161- 234 2950
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Introduction

• 1.  What is Community Architecture?
• 2.  Who is CTAC
• 3. What we do

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Manage yourselves !!

• Why?
• to make managing your centre easier
• To ensure you and your centre are sustainable
• To be prepared for a crisis or a change
• To ensure enough resources are in place
• To improve the services you provide

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Common pitfalls in management

• 1) Maintenance is forgotten
• 2) Assumed or long term funding dries up
• 3) Key staff leave (you in the lurch)
• 4) The same old faces do all the work
• 5) Communication doesnt exist
• 6) Changing legislation

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Common pitfalls continued

• Some Solutions--
• Plan ahead
• Tackle problems before they become a problem
• Evaluate your success and your failures
• Dont do work in isolation - network

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Problem Building Maintenance

• Prepare a maintenance schedule, and make sure
  you use it
• a stitch in time saves nine.
• Commission a condition survey (from a
  professional building surveyor),
• when you take over a new building,
• every few years, or
• when you sell or give up your building.
• Use volunteers, and look out for sources of cheap
  materials such as paint and equipment.
• But dont assume you can do it on the cheap.

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Building Maintenance continued

• Undertake regular risk assessments
• Disability discrimination and health and safety
  laws, for example, require you provide safe
  facilities, appropriate for the activity or
  facility you provide.
• Keep a list of qualified or approved tradesmen
• Beware of using the cheapest, look for trade or
  professional standards, ask for evidence of
  public and other liability insurance, take up
  references.
• Put adequate funds into a repairing or building
  improvement budget.

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Problem Funding

• Keep your business plan up to date.
• Think about non-grant income.
• such as through charitable trading, fundraising
  events, or even by match funding against existing
  resources.
• Take up free training or advice.
• Keep control of costs, and budget effectively.
• Be realistic about what you can manage.

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Problem Key staff leave

• Keep employment policies and practises up to
  date.
• Consider how you respond to conflicts before they
  happen
• Institute regular supervision sessions for staff.
• Get staff to record what they do
• through timesheets, in a log book or centre
  manual, and record where vital information is
  kept.
• Celebrate your successes

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Problem The same people do all the work

• Think about job sharing and shadowing
• (partner experienced and new people.)
• Record how much time essential task are taking.
• (Volunteers need timesheets and supervision too.)
• Review management roles regularly.
• Look out for burn-out.

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Problem Communication

• Create more informal opportunities to meet and
  talk together.
• Publicise all meetings well ahead.
• Buy and use a good forward planner.
• Use newsletters and notice-boards,
• or new technology, such as email, if appropriate.
• Use plain language, and recognise jargon.

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Problem Changes in legislation

• Join an appropriate network for up to date
  information e.g. Community Matters, National
  Associations, Trade Unions.
• Ask for advice from the Planning Department and
  other departments of your local authority.
• Charity Commission website
• Changes to the DDA, October 2004
• Training courses

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Evaluating yourselves

• Most meetings are dominated by only a few voices
• A SWOT (Strengths, weakness, opportunities and
  threats) is a way of getting lots of people to
  contribute. You may be surprised how differently
  other members of your group see things

1) draw and label a cross on big paper such as a
flip chart 2) write a question at the top, such
as Will we be here in five years time? Should
we begin a new project? Do we listen to
ourselves and others? How accessible is our
building?
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Evaluating yourselves cont.

• 3) hand out lots of sticky notes and ask people
  to write down what they feel about each of your
  swots, and then stick them to the appropriate
  part of the diagram.
• 4)Talk through the results and agree actions for
  the most important.
• Your can re-do your SWOT regularly to see how
  things have changed.