getting everyone on board with the vision

we had our church small group meetings (which we call 'huddles') last night. Good chance to talk some more about the vision behind the business project.

People are coming from a variety of starting points and I guess a lot has to do with personality. Some people are by nature risk-resistant and others are more comfortable with risk. Both need each other in my view and one isn't necessarily any better than the other. It's what you do with it that counts.

We've got to keep working hard at communicating this vision and trying to keep in step with each other. Not an easy thing to do as a community - people travel at different speeds. But there was some really good conversation last night.

Getting the costings done

Had a very productive meeting at the potential venue again this morning. Two hours with a guy called Steve Newman (who I stupidly called 'Paul' on the phone - very embarrassing but I bet he gets it all the time!).
Steve is a surveyor who specialises in refurbishing and fitting out commercial property.
We spent two hours walking around the building talking about what needs doing. We should get his report back next Tuesday.

I also had a very helpful telephone conversation with a guy called Bruce Houlistan. Bruce has great local knowledge of the Cowley Road area and also ran a bar/pub in the area for 10 years so has specialist knowledge of the bar/cafe business market. Very helpful initial chat and I'm hoping that he and Jim and I will get together for a meeting early next week to use his knowledge to tighten up our business plan.

more meetings...

We are now setting up a meeting with an 'architectural design team' to come and start costing out the work that needs doing on the place.

I am also trying to arrange a meeting with a business consultant with specialist knowledge of the cafe/bar scene in Oxford to help with our business planning.

Good meeting

Jim and I met with the agent - Paul Chaston - and two guys from the surveyors we are using - Richard and Rob - at the potential cafe venue yesterday.

It was a good meeting and progressed things further I felt.

site meeting today

We are currently talking to one agent about one property - I won't say which one at this stage - although we are 'monitoring' other properties too.

Anyway - we have a site meeting this afternoon at the property that is the current favourite.

Jim and I are meeting the agent and the two guys from the surveyors we are planning to use, to look at the building - at what needs doing as well as what we'd like to do, so we can begin to get some sense of what this is all going to cost.

introduction

Hi - this is the first post on the blog which we have set up for people who are interested in the development of this project (or who are supporting us financially) to track with us as things progress.

We are a small community of people - currently called 'hOME' - who are being formed as a spiritual community in the Christian tradition and connected to the Church of England and the Diocese of Oxford.
We have existed for about 3 and a half years. We currently gather on Sunday nights in the East Oxford Community Centre but we are a community who value our interactions throughout the week as much as our time together on Sunday (or at least that's what we aspire to).

You can read more about the community at our 'official' site.

The vision is to open a cafe/arts space/spirituality centre on the Cowley Road in East Oxford - and that's what this blog is about. Here you can follow the story as it unfolds.