BUDGET: see earlier notes below - currently showing a loss - still open to donations -full report follows:

EARLIER INTRODUCTORY NOTES
REGARDING THE SOLIDARITY VILLAGE PROJECT

Why?
First of all, to answer the obvious question - Why is this an independent Venue? The answer is that when we attended meetings hosted by GLA to launch the ESF in London, it rapidly became clear that if we were being asked to commit our organisations to contribute financially to a process where it would be very difficult for them to participate in decision-making. We therefore diagnosed that a way for us to engage was by hiring our own venue for a parallel conference called LETS Co-operate, following a previous event in November 2002, which brought together alternative and mainstream social economy organisations. We networked with many other organisations in London who had reached similar conclusions, and became part of a loose collective called "The Horizontals" (ie self-organising unhierarchical) in contrast with "The Verticals" (top-down organisations) in order to support ourselves in the position of being part of "the opposition" in the process of organising the ESF. The website which links to this wide range of organisations is www.altspaces.net. Later we discovered that in the 2003 Paris ESF there had been a similar initiative called the Village Economie et Sociale Solidaire, which inspired us to call our project The Solidarity Village.We were delighted when the organiser of VESS came to London to meet us and discovered that in contrast with our situation, their venue was entirely funded by the official processs, yet they had autonomy in organising it, but later we were dismayed to find that they wanted to dissociate from us because of the challenging nature of the publicity material produced by organisations with whom we had become associated through The Horizontals. When LSE joined us with additional venue space we were able to offer this widely to anyone who had not succeeded, for whatever reason, in getting space in the official process. We have responded to all genuine appplications in a bottom-up manner, and are proud that our event is shaping up as a coherent, professional event in two venues, each with its own character.

Who?
The Solidarity Village is a joint project of members of LETSlink UK, LETSlink London, Partnerships Consulting, Pathways Information Service, London Social Forum and London School of Economics.Venue costs at Conway Hall for the five days amount to almost £8000 which has been paid in advance via Pathways Information Service. London School of Economics has kindly donated teaching space at Clement House, with some small cost to pay for security. We estimate a minimum of £1000 for printing and £1000 for postage. Work has been done on a voluntary basis: we would welcome reimbursement of our expenses. LETSlink London is co-ordinating the event and acting as booking agent. Funding bids to Camden Council's Community Chest and the Co-op Divident Fund were unsuccessful. We therefore seek to fund the event in the following ways:

1. ROOM HIRE: The obvious way would be to charge room hire. However much of the space is being allocated in ways that benefit the whole project, eg an ongoing Cafe and Creche, so the hire fees would need to be greater than the actual cost of the room for Conway Hall to be self-sustaining. Furthermore it is difficult for us to charge people for space to meet who are campaigning on a voluntary basis or presenting their projects at their own expense. Therefore we have decided to fund the event on the basis of stakeholder participation.

2. STALLS: LSE is allowing us to use part of the space for stall space for which we may seek sponsorship for the project as a whole. We have allocated rooms adjacent to the Hong Kong Theatre on the ground floor to an exhibition called SUSTAIN for organisations in the co-operative and local economy. We propose a sliding scale of £50-£1000.

3. DISPLAYS: Pathways information service will be handling commercial leaflet display at a concessionary cost of £10 per hundred, £100 per thousand at an appropriate location in either or both venues. "Poster Displays" can be mounted on lightweight boards supplied by us (approx 16" across x 32" down - they can accommodate four A4 sheets of paper plus a decorative header). We suggest a voluntary contribution of £10-£50 for these - leaflet displays can be incorporated. Story Boards can be used to support your presentation in an Openspace Event and later displayed in your home-area or in the SUSTAIN area, as appropriate. We are using this website to back up and support all participants by providing pages and downloads from the material contributed - please submit items beforehand in digital format.

4. STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION. We want all co-organisers at this event to feel they are working with us to make a success of it. Therefore we are asking all vendors to become shareholders by contributing an agreed percentage of their takings. We will manage this with an Event Currency in links, using vouchers equivalent to one hour = five links. One voucher will be given for £5 and two vouchers for E3. Stallholders will give change in tokens worth £1 and 50p. Further supplies of vouchers can be exchanged for cash or cheque at our Bureau de Change. Periodically we will settle up with stallholders at the agreed rate by exchanging their tokens and vouchers for cash.

5. MEMBERSHIP: The fact that many people will have paid fees to attend the official ESF and only later discovered our venue makes it difficult for us to charge them the normal fees that would be appropriate for a conference of this calibre. We are therefore suggesting that those who are sympathetic can contribute by becoming members of LETSlink UK (organisations) and/or LETSlink London (individuals) - which will entitle you to run a trading account.

6. ENTRANCE FEES & DONATIONS: We suggest a door-fee per day of £5/£10 for which we will return you one five-link voucher - at the lower rate that means FREE. All donations over and above this will be gratefully accepted will balance out those who really can only afford the minimum, or volunteers who we would like reward by not charging them for food. Advance bookings by cheque to Letslink London therefore start at £50 = four days and £30 = weekend only.

7. SUPPORT THE BENEFIT GIG: There will be a Benefit event on Friday evening at Conway Hall called LETS Dance (and Laugh a Little)! Acoustic Performers are welcomed at any time during the event in the Land Cafe, but particularly from 6-7.30pm on Friday evening. No Sweat is organising the evening from 7.30pm and have arranged for stand-up comics, including Mark Thomas from 7.30pm. At 9.30pm a Basque street band will join us at 9.30pm as a final attraction, but the early part of the evening is open to participation of all kinds, particularly those who can lead Country Dancing and/or Circle Dancing - please put yourself on the programme by calling us - we will publish the running order beforehand on this website.

8. VOLUNTEERING: When you participate, if you are a member of LETSlink London you will be able to credit excess links to your own account. All volunteers can use links you have earned to fund your own participation or donate them to a fund which we can draw upon to give vouchers to those in need who may come from the local neighbourhood or from further afield. You can also offer accommodation to guests, bring food to share, coloured fabrics to drape the tables and balconies, equipment we can use for computer access, play music, show videos, etc. You can help to take care of children in the ARTSPACE FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES, facilitate meetings, help presenters to make up their storyboards, download and photocopy papers for sessions, sell items for links, register people at the door, steward, wash up, sweep floors and anything else you can think of that we have forgotten!

NB SETTING UP - all welcome.
Conway Hall: Wednesday 13th Oct 6-9pm. LSE Clement House: Friday 15th Oct 6-9pm.
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SECURITY AT L.S.E. download