The Bishopston Society has issued an urgent appeal for help to keep the organisation going in some form, in the face of the threat of closure.
Despite lots of support in principle being offered at a recent, well attended special meeting, it still faces a crisis of leadership, in the form of a big gap between those wanting its work to continue in some form in principle and those prepared to make it happen in practice. The mid-November meeting voted to explore options for continuing, but nobody is available to lead us forward.
Can YOU help?
Operations suspended - wind-up meeting likely
Meanwhile the very small outgoing committee has suspended all TBS' main operations, though as you can see it is still keeping this web site going for the moment. And its next step will, by default, be to call a wind-up meeting to close down the organisation.
Can you help prevent this from happening? There are huge rewards to be had in carrying forward the work of the society, or even just selected aspects of its work, as an important voice in Bishopston's communities. Much community support is available, as judged from the attendance and enthusiasm voiced at the November "viability" meeting.
Furthermore the outgoing committee has resolved to support whoever can lead us through a transition to a new form if enough activism emerges.
Making "lite" work
It's also worth noting that some great ideas started emerging at the special meeting for revamping the society in a new, "lite" format, which would entail a less formal structure and a looser amalgam of action groups formed around TBS' key interests and existing achievements.
This sort of model shows promise in leaving a core organising group a relatively small amount of general coordination work and graft, with power and intiaitive left in the hands of semi-autonomous activists already committed to pursuing their own specific causes.
This model would mean in turn that those stepping forward from now on wouldn't get lumbered with onerous committee duties.....
So can you help, in one way or another?
Paid-up members please note that your membership period has been extended for now, in order to preserve and protect your right to vote at a future formal meeting.
What can YOU offer?
If you can help in some (any!) form, or contribute to this debate, please use our Contact form to let us know as soon as possible.
Further information:-
The situation that TBS is in has been reported prevously on this web site in some detail, so if you are new to this issue and what has been said (or just want to recap), it's well worth backtracking to previous coverage, including:-