Scotland: National Rural Network
This is the second part of the report from the Scottish National Rural Network event in Shetland. In this part, you can get information on two project presentations and facilitated discussion session. In Part One, you can find out about information updates on the Rural Network, LEADER and Rural Priorities.
After questions and once everyone had been topped up with tea and coffee we heard from two inspirational projects, one from the local area and one funded by the Highlands Rural Priorities programme.
Pat Christie from the Cunningsburgh History Group told the story of their experience building a new History Hut which they decided was needed after they started to out grow their original facilities and resources.
The Cunningsburgh History Group started in 2003, and was very much just a group of people interested in collecting and researching the history and heritage of Cunningsburgh who would meet up in the local hall. Their membership steadily grew, and the group got involved in several local projects, including the Home Front Recall project which they got some funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to complete, the Place Names project, talks from experts and local people, research in to family history, and organised walks to sites of interest.
During this time, the group became a victim of their own success as the need for building facilities increased. They now needed somewhere to store their archives and other group equipment, somewhere to research, with access to computers and the internet, and increased security.
The group carried out a feasibility study looking at all their options, including sharing other community buildings, and decided that building new premises was the most suitable solution. Initial design plans soon escalated to the point where the budget almost doubled and the group started looking at providing a museum and heritage centre function. However it was decided that this would not be sustainable in the long term, and so eventually plans went back to the basic requirements of somewhere to meet and research.
A piece of land was identified and the group started the process of applying for funding from Shetland LEADER, the Shetland Isles Council and Community Council, as well as planning their own fundraising activities.
Ms Chrisite went through all the different things that they had to do to get the new building done, including lots of different project management aspects of the building and planning process, business planning, changes to their constitution and trustee agreements, organising utilities and insurance, and liaising with all the people and organisations involved. She also explained all the different fundraising events and activities that they did to contribute towards the £6,000 of funding that they were required to put forward themselves, including a Box Social, raffles, Sunday teas, concerts, calenders, auction sales and donations.
Finally, Ms Christie explained what they had learned as a result of all this, explaining the importance of things like team work, planning, good leadership, meeting deadlines, keeping people informed and having set roles and tasks. She emphasised that funders will provide help if asked, and promoted the need to keep things simple, play to your strengths, and never give up!
You can find out more by downloading the Cunningsburgh History Group presentation from our documents library.
The final project presentation was from the Highlands. Kirkhill is a small community near Inverness with a dispersed population of around 1500. Sandra Hogg from the Kirkhill & District Amenities Association told us about the development of Kirkhill's Multi-use Games Area.
The idea to create a Multi-use Games Area (or MUGA) arose from two directions at once. A Youth Survey carried out by the local Development Trust, which identified the need for an improved outdoor facility, coincided with the Amenities Association recognising that the tennis court adjacent to the Village Hall was in need of improvement before it became unusable.
Lots of community consultation was carried out on the back of these two aspirations and lots of options were considered. A small working group took the plans forward and looked at all the options for a facility useful to as many groups as possible including sports clubs and the village primary school. They also looked at how their plans fitted in with local and national strategies and where they might be able to apply for funding to add to what the community groups could invest themselves.
Once the design had been decided upon the group managed to get funding from a range of sources including SportScotland, Rural Priorities, Highland Council's Ward Discretionary Fund and the Inverness Sports Council. Pulling the funding together took lots of detailed work and as a result the group learnt lots of lessons along the way, one of which was every project takes longer than you think!
Work started in March 2010 and the group have started claiming the funding awarded. They are hopeful that this will go well and that all the work put into the application stages will help in the future.
You can find out more by downloading Mrs Hogg's presentation from our documents library.
Following a networking lunch, delegates took part in a facilitated discussion session about things that are working well in Shetland. At the end of discussions, participants were asked to identify the themes that had run through their conversations. The themes were:
The Shetland event was one of a series of 20 that took place in the first year of the Regional Coordination Service of the Scottish National Rural Network. You can get information, event reports, presentations, photos and video from events in our Rural Network Regional Events archive.
Join the Network Now!
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Google
StumbleUpon
Technorati
Twitter
