25th February, 2010

So what 's been happening since I last wrote... Well, on Tuesday I went to the Newbiz10 conference in Perth. It had a particular emphasis on social enterprises this year - definition of Social Enterprise: "a business with primarily social objectives which uses its profit to reinvest in the business or in the community, rather than making money for shareholders".  Another definition would be a charitable or not-for-profit business. In many ways the Centre fits that description as we don't rely solely on donations to keep going and keep serving our target groups in training, enabling and refreshing, so we are a business as well as a charity and can learn a lot from this newly coined category to help us serve people better. There were inspiring talks from people who had set up their own small businesses and then seminars on Social Enterprises and E-marketing - really useful stuff. There were also plenty of opportunities to "network" i.e. talk to other people in the same boat, share experiences & maybe discover you can help each other.

 This weekend Morningside Alpha are coming (hopefully the snow won't be a problem) and during the week we've had our usual lot of day groups with enquiries from more. The girls from "Food for Thought" have settled into the kitchen about 3 days a week - makes your mouth water - and Clement from France has now gone home, richer for his Scottish experience. We asked him what he had learnt & he said "a lot about Scottish history".Well, we did take him to a display at Perth museum all about the 5th centenary of the founding of the City of Perth and he managed to do a day trip to Edinburgh , doing the city trip and taking in the castle and the Royal Yacht as well as other things. Oh and he had a day - or was it 2 - at the farm of a family who've been living there for 5 generations - I think - a couple of hundred years or so anyway. He made a lovely job of painting the flat (so if you're staying there it's lovely and fresh) and was able to second Chris to get scaffolding up in the kitchen and give the fans a good clean and that part of the ceiling a fresh coat of paint. He was really welcomed by the church folk going to both house groups and the football and being invited to lots of homes for his tea and it was good to feel the church support in looking after him and making him feel at home. We continue to support the church by having their children's and youth work in the Centre every Sunday and various church groups in during the week. Last week in the dining room was the funeral tea for Mary MacDonald, who died aged 87 and whose funeral was a testimony to a life of faithful service both abroad in India and Pakistan and at home through Girl Crusaders.

Through emails we're being encouraged to display our green credentials, so you'll be pleased to know we've been composting our kitchen waste for some time now and now have a rich compost which Chris is using to make a small herb patch for the kitchen (Bob the chef will be pleased!). Perth & Kinross have now introduced a new recycling scheme, so we'll be saved a few trips to the recycling Centre as more will be collected by the bin men. Progress on the new boiler is still slow at this stage, but we're looking forward to our new heating and hot water system which will vastly reduce our carbon footprint. Did you know the waste from the new boiler (woodash) can be used as fertiliser? If you want to know more about the boiler or how we got help to find a greener solution to our energy needs please email us - we're happy to help.

5th February, 2010

2010 and I'm getting round to the blog again at last. Sorry for the delay. Happy New Year! Well, Christmas was quiet with a few families self catering at the Centre and most of our day groups off for the holidays - not the church of course - that would be weird. Now we're well and truly into the new year and have had a few residential groups in. Reality Scotland training (teenagers) had a great week last week. They did a huge walk to Killiekrankie - makes you jealous they're so fit - and have enjoyed lots of other outdoors activities.This week it's ministers'  in-service training (if that's not a pun). I think they'll mostly be stretching their brains rather than their muscles - not that the two are mutually exclusive. Teaching English as a foreign language has started up again and adult literacy, mental health and other regular day groups. Last week Perth & Kinross Council's adult learning had an open day in the Centre dining room with various activities on display from wii sports and dance mats to photography and family trees. The church supported this by providing soup and sandwiches, so it was a successful excercise in teamwork which was rewarded with a lot of interested visitors. Talking about co-operation, a local deli is using our kitchen to prepare their food 3 days a week at the moment, which is added income for us when we are not using it all the time and when we have got small groups they prepare food for us as well. Our newest arrival is Clement from France who is volunteering at the Centre for 3 weeks and hoping to improve his English in the process. He was able to get a slot in the English teaching lessons, so was very pleased and has already gone to church football and survived to tell the tale.
The quest for a new boiler is progressing - rather more slowly than we had hoped - but it was the tortoise who won the race in the end, so not to worry. Initial sketches have gone to planning and then they tell us what to do next. It may take some time to process, but it will be great when it all comes through. Meanwhile we're busy fundraising to cover the cost. Any ideas from you? Actually I'm looking back and wondering how much I've told you about that...not a lot on a quick scan. OK, so our  gas boiler is very inefficient and very old so we think "let's get a new one". When we start asking we find out that not only can we get a much greener boiler if we go renewable biofuel, reducing our carbon footprint to use jargonese, and generally being more responsable with our planet, but we can also get a lot of government help on this. After a lot of investigation and meeting with very helpful people we have decided on a wood pellet boiler supplemented by solar panels for the hot water. So now we need to get everybody's agreement to go ahead and everybody's money as well, since it's not cheap. Good news is that we are already likely to get a sizeable grant towards it, so now we need to raise the other 10 - 15K from other places.

21st December, 2009

Sorry it's been a while - a whole month in fact! I do have an excuse. For the last 3 weeks instead of my usual job I've been writing a draft business plan and pursuing quotes for a building conditions survey and a consultant to help us make the business plan properly. This is following advice from a funding clinic at Perth and Kinross Voluntary Services. Hopefully we'll get help with covering these 2 sets of professional fees and will end up with the basic building blocks for assuring funders that we are worth giving money to. When you get caught up in all this background stuff, it's essential to remember that we're doing all this so we can serve better through training, bridge-buiding and refreshment, so it's great to still have our regular groups coming in e.g. adult literacy, English as a second language, four ways mental health etc. as well as having quite a few people using the flat (including a group of Students from Queen  Margaret's in Edinburgh preparing to go to Malawi). Bob has been in the kitchen making Christmas meals and there have been negotiations for the kitchen to be used by a group for training adults with learning difficulties how to cook. 2 local nativities have used the Centre to practice in and both went down a treat Having angel costumes on the coat rack makes you feel really Christmassy. Still having people coming in and needing our help helps us focus on the real goal of making a difference in people's lives even when we have to do the planning and the background work to keep the building going and take the work forward.

 Anyhow have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Anne

19th November, 2009

Mon: Iain & Anne went to Battleby today to a conference put on by Visit Scotland called connect to compete. It was all about different companies and organisations talking to each other and combining their strengths to help each other, strengthening their local community. There were a lot of useful points to take home and think about and a lot of good examples of co-operation enhancing enterprise. On top of that we learnt more about what kind of funding we might be eligible for in our search for a greener source of      heating and hot water. So, all in all a good day to be digested carefully.

Tues: Iain went to a Pitlochry Partnership meeting tonight. This is a group of local businesses who are trying to see what they can do together for mutual benefit, including presenting a joined up picture of Pitlochry to prospective visitors. Really it's beginning to put into practice what was talked about on Monday. The lift repair people came today and actually did the right job this time. So £700 down but a lift in full working order at last!

Wed: Today was an encouraging day with lots of people wanting to make bookings for the winter months.  We've now had our third company coming to give us a quote for the boiler, so things are progressing. Also we had the gas man in to service our current boiler - £800. No wonder we want to change to a new fuel! The "University of the Third Age" (senior citizens education) met here today and had a lecture from Visit Scotland (very busy people!)

Thurs: Today the printer got fixed. Yey! this is important because our photocopier has crashed and while we wait for an in-budget replacement we are having to photocopy by scanning and printing. The WA (church women's group) is in today in the dining room with a local retired consultant as their speaker and a Leprosy Mission stall and Four Ways (mental Health) are in the TV room.

Fri: How's this for resourcefulness? A singing group from Holyrood Abbey are coming today for a self-catering weekend. Because they are quite a small group most of them are staying in our self-catering apartment (sleeps 4) and are using that kitchen to cook their meals. The rest of them are sleeping in bedrooms in the main Centre. This keeps their prices low and frees the Centre kitchen up for other groups to use. One of our bank chefs is planning to use the kitchen to cook ready meals for sale over Christmas - very enterprising of him and extra income for us.

Sat: Time to breathe for the staff. Self-catering is quite low maintenance so staff can have some time off. It's been in-sevice at school this week making for a long weekend, so Iain & Anne are glad to have some family time.

Sun: Today the church is making full use of the public rooms with creche, Sunday Club and MAD (Making a Difference - Teens) group meeting in the Centre during church. Sunday Club are looking at the story of the Philippian Jailer this week and the concept of freedom.

13th November, 2009

Mon: Today we had a long wait for a local tradesman to come in and measure up for the woodstore we'll need if we get our woodpellet boiler. We're itching to get going with it but need a number of estimates before we can proceed to request funding. We also had an estimate for insulation, so it looks as if that stage can go ahead soon (making sure the building is as heat efficient as possible).We'll also need planning permission for the woodstore - hence the need to find out how big it needs to be.

Tues: Today English as a Second Language is teaching all day. They're also preparing for and HMI inspection next week, so lots of nervous tension floating around. However, they got a really good report last time, so hopefully they'll find their new premises in the Centre an asset. Adult literacy is also meeting today.

Wed: Today we had a surprise visit from Health and Safety inspectors. Fortunately they were generally pleased and sometimes even impressed by the way things are at the Centre. They did however uncover that a repair to the lift we thought had been done had not been completed. The workmen who came had done another job instead! Unfortunately that means another £700 for keeping the lift functioning, but it shouldn't take long to get the work done at least..

Thurs:Today was the annual Blythswood Christmas shoebox appeal. Volunteers from the local churches came and had a bring and share tea in the dining room then went upstairs to pack and label about 100 shoeboxes for Roumania. Afterwards the church/Centre liaison group met to discuss the proposed new heating and hot water system.

Fri: Today Crew 2000 (drug counselling) have arrived for the weekend. There's lots of laughter going on at coffee break. Dave, one of our "on call" chefs is cooking their main meals for them this weekend and taking into account some special diets too. Iain's been busy with a huge shopping list.

Sat: So, we're really busy this weekend looking after the group, sorting out any multi-media stuff they need, cooking top meals, keeping everything clean and pleasant, advising them where they can go to have fun in their free time and generally making sure they have everything they need. It will be an important time for them this weekend as they share, learn and relax together. Please pray for them.

Sun: Today the church will be using our premises for their children's work. Creche will meet in the reception lounge and Sunday Club will be in the TV lounge this week as Crew 2000 are using the main conference room upstairs. It might be a bit of a squash as some weeks they have had over 20 kids. We'll make the bottom of the dining room available to them too for their craft work. The teens group is meeting at a local cafe as the Centre is full this week.

3rd November, 2009

For the last 2 weeks at the Centre we have been open for B& B while we hosted the Atholl Gallery and Craft Fair in our dining room. The Gallery is a display of various works by local artists and also crafts and cards for sale. Over the 2 weeks this artists co-op not only hope to make a little money for themselves but to raise money for charity. During the sale we ran a cafe and between the cafe and money donated by the Gallery we raised about £475 for our subsidy fund which helps disabled and disadvantaged guests come to the Centre at a discount.

This week:
Mon:  Iain went to Arbroath to visit the Windmill Centre. The Windmill Centre is a very large former hotel taken over by local churches and run as a charity to provide accommodation for groups wanting a getaway to study the Bible together. It has been in need of massive refurbishment and recently installed a new heating and hot water system based on a wood pellet boiler and solar panels. We are eager to learn from their experience as we are having to renew our heating system and are actively investigating eco fuels.

Tues: This morning we have the Living Bible fellowship meeting in the TV room. This is a group of ladies from the adjoining Baptist church who meet fortnightly to study the Bible together. Also during the day we have people coming to learn English as their second language and an adult literacy group. These groups are very pleased with the training facilities we have to offer and we are pleased in turn to be serving our local community in this way.

Wed: Today is a quiet day. Iain's taking the opportunity to have a day off but Chris will be around to take phone calls and carry on with daily maintenance.

Thurs: "Four Ways" mental health group meets today at the Centre and the church's "Women in Action" group has a talk about the Bethany Trust's work amongst the homeless.

Fri: It's another quiet day guest-wise, but the office is busy. Time to catch up on admin and look to the future. Anne will do some work on fundraising and marketing today and we'll also be planning the next steps as we look into replacing our heating system. Chris will be preparing rooms for B& B tomorrow.

Sat: Today we welcome a group of singers who'll be performing at the Perthshire Amber festival. The festival seems to be as popular as ever this year in spite of the credit crunch. At the theatre they have a display of beautiful photographs from a new book of scenes from around Scotland inspired by Dougie Mclean's songs. Worth a look. We'll also be open for B& B tonight so if you fancy a trip to Pitlochry for the festival or for any other reason, why not stay here?

Sun: Today is Armistice Day. There will be a procession down the main street to the war memorial and then the Armisitice Day service is at the Baptist Church next door. Their creche, children's work and youth group meet in the Centre. Could be kind of busy with all the uniformed organisations as well!