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Next Meeting 7th March 7pm on Zoom

Our next meeting will be Zoom only to make it practical for as many as possible to join. It will be on March 7th at 7pm. Details below.

The primary purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the Charities Commission application. We will also be discussing using Maketank as a pop up hub until we get our own premises, and have an update on the property search.

As you may have heard our second Charities Commission application was rejected. The rejection letter is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yFeuMs4OJG3ffm_cXlXrBaKJapcD6_QL

We have a couple of different ways of dealing with it.

We can persevere with the approach that we really want of applying as a social justice hub using the purposes of enabling volunteers (we could possibly address the issues in the rejection but would need to have professional help with that and it would probably be a lengthy process) or
We can use the climate emergency centre template Charitable Incorporated Organisation application to set up a separate Exeter Climate Emergency Centre which is being successfully used by groups around the country. Telford just got theirs sorted in 4 weeks!!

As long as we don’t use money donated to that CIO (in option 2) for things outside our ‘purposes’ this will then be totally legit.

We can set up the ECA as a Community Benefit Society which would then use the ECEC hub for other purposes, as long as it paid its way.

On the plus side MakeTank on Paris St may well be willing to let us use their premises on a pop up basis.

The Zoom details are: Chris Wood is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Exeter Community Alliance
Time: 7pm 7th March 2021

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8960401886?pwd=UGxpTUtET20vekQyNnlVcnQ5cU44Zz09

Meeting ID: 896 040 1886
Passcode: 57

What can you do to help ?

Come along to our next meeting.
Let other people, groups, organisations know about the ECA, let us know about others that could be interested..
Let us have some information about yourself and/or your organisation to put on our website - we hope that our application to the Charities Commission is going to be looked at soon. We are aware that they will be looking at our internet and social media presence - being well linked and having evidence of associated volunteers will help their decision.
Connect to our social media - there isn't a whole lot happening there as yet but it will help with our CC application. Social media links are at the bottom of the newsletter.
Let us know if you can give us some practical help. We need to expand on our business plan, continue our property search and have volunteers with the capacity to staff the hub once we have it set up.

What is the ECA?

We are an umbrella organisation linking up a range of Exeter based volunteers, groups and organisations. The intention is to provide a high street presence in Exeter to where our members can engage with the public and provide other community based functions (such as repair workshop, art workshops, energy advice, presentations, meetings, people’s assemblies - we have a long list).
We would hope to be open throughout the day, staffed by volunteers with knowledge of all our member organisations.
ECA is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (registration pending with the Charities Commission).

We are adopting the model used by Climate Emergency Centres (the UK-wide movement championing this concept of which we are a member) whereby landlords allow us to use premises that would be otherwise untenanted and costing the landlord business rates. In return for saving the landlord the business rates and keeping the building occupied we would ask for a peppercorn or zero rent. The emphasis of the ECA is not solely environmental but for a wide range of community led initiatives.
We have over 60 people receiving this newsletter from almost 30 different groups.
You can find more information about us at exetercommunityalliance.net

There are now over 60 individuals and organisations receiving this newsletter so we have decided to use Mailchimp to design it and send it out. We hope this works for you - if you have any comments please let us know at info@exetercommunityalliance.net.

Membership

ECA has two levels of membership. If you are receiving this email and have not yet requested voting membership you are listed as an 'associate member'. There are no duties, obligations or rights expected of, or assigned to, associate members. They simply get this newsletter.
'Voting members' are eligible to vote at ECA meetings. Voting memberships can be held by either individuals or organisations (applicable when different people will be representing the organisation at meetings).
Voting membership is currently open, please let me know if you would like to become a voting member.
As a charity we do have trustees, although trustees have obligations to ensure that all the relevant legislation, rules and regulations are followed, they have no greater power than other voting members.
We currently have 20 voting members, 5 of which are trustees, and 44 associate members.