Members from all round our core area met at the Pavilion Cafe in Albert Road recreation ground for a very pleasant evening, chatting about local things, and discussing what the Alexandra Park Neighbours had achieved to date and where we should go from here. Susie Holden summed up our current position, saying that there are now 587 members, and that the amount of discussion of local issues, as well as offering and requesting information or help is increasing. We’ve also helped give birth to a new local group, the Friends of Ally Pally Station, who’ve begun their work with some beautiful new plant displays on the platforms, and who intend to go on to be an effective link between the community and the railway. Running the website has taken a leap forward with Judi’s revamp of the Facebook page, which has raised its content and attractiveness a great deal. There is a new door-to-door leaflet drop planned for September to increase membership again. For official purposes, mainly to do with finance, we have to have a committee responsible for decisions about running the site, and this now consists of Annabel Gregory, Susie Holden, Alex King, Ellika Mcauley and Ruth Miller.
Finance of the website is in a reasonable state, we are on track to have a regular income stream that will cover out expenses (in particular, an annual fee of – currently – £216 for use of the Ning software). We have received £171.66 so far in donations and £690 from advertising. We are also due to receive a grant from the budget held by our ward councillors to help with promotion of the site and membership.
Ruth and Susie, who have been producing the Newsletter regularly, wanted to know what people thought about it, and everyone agreed it worked well and its format was suitable. We also looked at some new departures for things to post on the site, such as short articles about interesting people in the locality, and at promoting the website in the local press when an opportunity occurred. These ideas seemed promising.
If you have any other ideas or questions about the way the site is run or what could be on it, please do add them as a comment to this blog. And if you’d like a full copy of the AGM minutes send me a personal message through this site.
