newsletter

2003 Newsletter

CONTENTS Glenuig Shop Update Running the Shop The Shop Project Back to the Drawing Board Glenuig Community Trading Company Fund-Raising Youth Triathlon Friends of the Shop The Steering Group Contacts & Information	OPENING HOURS:
	Monday (Post Office) Tuesday Thursday Friday (Post Office) Friday Saturday Sunday	2-5pm 2-5pm 2-5 pm 10-1pm 2-5pm 2-4pm 2-4pm
	CONTACTS Phone 01687 479285 Fax 01687 470285 Anne-Mairi 01687 470229 email info@glenuigshop.org.uk Contact us by email

Thanks to all the volunteers who are donating their time so generously, allowing us to have kept the shop open as a service to the community for the last two and a half years. We have seven regular volunteers and others helping out from time to time.

The stock range is increasing and John Keenan from Lochailort has prepared a graph to illustrate the growth in turnover. However, we acknowledge that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Running the shop with voluntary staff only can be difficult, as wires get crossed sometimes and the dilapidated state of the building doesn't help. The lack of insulation means it's expensive to heat in the winter and the chocolate melts in summer!

Everyone is keen to keep the shop going until we achieve our goal of a new shop building, operating as a community business. In the meantime you will still be able to buy the basics in Glenuig - at least enough to survive on. We hope to be stocking Calor Gas too, by Easter. Let us have any needs, requests or suggestions for stock.

So how are we getting on with the quest for new a community shop? The Business Plan has been available since September to read and comment on. Copies can be found in the shop and on this website, or direct from Anne-Mairie (see Contacts).

For those of you who don't have the time or the interest to read what's quite a lengthy document (there is a summary on this website) ....

In a nutshell we have taken the café out of the plan in response to the concerns of the local hoteliers and opted instead for a community corner, with provision for people to meet and have a cup of tea or coffee.

The turnover is much reduced from that shown in the feasibility study(and, we feel, more realistic), whilst still showing a profit. The petrol station is still on the plan and having visited the community-owned petrol station in Lochaline we feel more confident about its viability.

The next stage is to get new plans drawn up. We visited the candle shop in Glenelg, which is built of green timber and has a turf roof, a design we all liked very much. We are all in favour of building the new shop using local timber as it is sustainable and environmentally friendly. The structure will be simpler than that of previous ideas and therefore hopefully cheaper to achieve. We have some photographs of the type of building we're thinking of on display in the shop, so do come and take a look. When the new plans are ready they'll also be available in the shop.

Running the shop as a pilot project has been very useful in helping us to assess the potential for the new shop and we are all learning a great deal from the process.

At present we are discussing funding with various bodies in order to put together a funding package.

The steering group have now registered Glenuig Community Trading Company Limited at Companies House and have received their Certificate of Incorporation. The directors (June 2008) are:
Anne-Mairie Clegg, Jon Kelly, Sue Cox and Pamela Connacher.

The total of funds raised towards our new shop now stands at £7,764 with 2093 voluntary hours contributed, an equivalent of £14,651 (Voluntary Sector Wage Scale) giving us a grand total of £22,415 in community contributions towards project costs.

We held a family ceilidh during the summer, the youngsters held their triathlon (see below) and contributions came from Friends of the Shop.

Thank you to everyone who helped in any way. We are presently working on an event for the Easter weekend with a band on Friday night, a Fun Day on the Saturday and a concert/dance at night time.

Keep an eye on this website for further details. Don't miss it, it should be a stoater!

On Sunday 8th September, Jacob Hunter and several of his friends held a Triathlon event to raise funds for the proposed new community shop in Glenuig.
Leaving from the old shop, they ran / walked to Roshven, canoed to and from Goat Island and then cycled back to Glenuig for a well-deserved barbecue. They raised over £200 for the shop and we all enjoyed a fun-packed sunny afternoon.
Special thanks to Bob MacLean and Ken & Jean Bowker for manning the safety boats, to Pod and Dave Reynolds who accompanied the youthful ones in canoes and on bikes (Pod), thanks to Charles & Julia Grieves (Kyleswood), Richard & Issy Winter (Shore Cottage) and Lynne & Stewart Blair of Roshven House for the use of their canoes - and again to Lynne & Stewart for letting us disturb their Sunday afternoon peace and quiet. Thanks also to Esme, Calum and Arran for the canoe-carrying and for acting as rent-a-crowd, to all the spectators who came along to lend their support, to Dot for coffee, Tich for the burgers and of course to the participants: John MacArthur, Christopher Dyer, Sean Carmichael, Jacob Hunter and, to the only young woman willing to attempt such a feat, Kirsten Connacher. Well done for all your ideas and efforts, guys and gal, and thanks for a thoroughly memorable day.

"Sustainable development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about seeking to satisfy peoples' basic needs and ensuring opportunities for people to achieve their potential ..."

The Highland Community Plan ,2000

"Friends of Glenuig Shop" was launched as a means of channelling financial and moral support and as a means of broadcasting news about the development of the project. By becoming a member you help us to demonstrate to funding bodies that there is a need for the proposed new shop. You will also be able to have an input into the way the Community Shop is run.
Currently there are 221 members, of whom 76 are from the local community and the remainder are regular visitors to the area or are resident in neighbouring communities. Contributions to the Friends of the Shop have ranged from 50p to £100 and all have been gratefully received.

As a Friend of the Shop you will receive this newsletter automatically. If you know of anyone else who supports our cause and has not yet become a friend, please check out the web site where you can download a membership form. It is not necessary to make a financial contribution - your moral support is just as important, but should you wish to, please make cheques payable to Glenuig Community Shop. We also have a Contributions Jar in the shop.

A great deal of work has been done so far by the Steering Group, who have all gained vital experience of community business in the process.

Pamela, Val and Gordon attended a conference recently on the 'Future of Community Retailing" run by the Co-op and held in Dingwall.

At the conference, Lochaber came out on top as far as public agency support for community enterprise was concerned, with folk from other Highland areas painfully aware of their lack.

The conference was very informative and many contacts were made. Knowing that we're not alone in this task, that others in similar rural locations have achieved success before, know the pit- falls and are willing to share their experiences is both helpful and very encouraging . The Co-op have launched a "buddying" scheme, which allows their larger stores to befriend and assist smaller co-operative projects. This may be very advantageous to our new shop project.

And finally, a huge thank you to Val Hunter for all her help with the business plan, posters and with the production of this newsletter.