New Repair Cafe in East Sussex!

Many thank to Jill from Horsham Repair Cafe for tipping me off about this forum - I couldn't have found you at a better time!!

Having  started volunteering this year  at both Horsham and Forest Row RCs here in Sussex, it was clear that there was a gap in the RC provision  in this part of East Sussex, so I have been planning to open one locally. I have been delighted by the level of amount of interest  and support for Chailey Repair Café (CRC)  project – this is just a  brief summary of where we have got to so far and what remains to be done…..

LOCATION
Our  Parish Hall has agreed that the CRC may run at the Hall one day a month at the regular user village rate. We couldn’t wish for a more appropriate  or better equipped venue!

DATES
The café will open for 3 hours on either a Saturday or Sunday once a   month – unfortunately the Hall can’t offer us the same Saturday each month, so we will be deciding  whether we should run it on a Sunday, in which case it would  be either the  1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th Sunday each month.  The alternative would be different Saturdays each month. We plan to open  for the first time in August. Grateful for any advice about the best day to run please!!

IRC
We have now joined IRC  and so benefit  from the use of   their logo and posters/banners/publicity. I am meeting the coordinator of  the very successful Forest Row RC this week  to  pick her brains about the best way to set up a RC.

PUBLICITY
The project is the subject of a piece in the local Parish Magazines i and the local paper  is running  piece about us in their "Town & Country" section which t will be repeated and updated every week.  Our MP Maria Caulfield has agreed to visit the Café and, if possible , to be there on the opening day.  We are on Facebook in Chailey Chat, Newick Talk   and in both the  Haywards Heath and Uckfield Freegle forums. I shall be speaking about the project at the Chailey Annual Parish Meeting on 11 May at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall.  We are about to bid for a small grant from the Parish Council to cover start up and hall hiring costs.

VOLUNTEERS
So far, we have an electrician, a vintage electronics expert (me - although it is clear that you can't be a repairer in the RC you run!!), a fabrics and textile repairer (with more hopefully joining us from   Stitchers of Newick), support and offers of help with catering from Chailey WI and at least two cake makers (so we won’t go hungry!!)

COORDINATORS
At the moment, there is a very small number of us involved in putting this together, with the offer of help from an accountant to help keep us on the financial straight and narrow….how many should be involved in actually managing the project? This really shouldn't be a one man band, in case I fall under the proverbial bus!!

A great deal  has happened in a very short time!  Please let me have any thoughts about how we are doing and what I have missed!!!

And – watch this space!

All good wishes,

Bryan
Coordinator
Chailey Repair Café