Cameron Hall - Meeting - Minutes

On Monday Aug 17, we attended a meeting in Cameron House, opposite the Lidl on Cameron St. The meeting was called by the residents' association for Cork St and Marylands: they ensured that the ground floor of Cameron House was designated entirely as a community facility, and they made specifications which the architects of the building incorporated in its final design.

It's an extensive space. There is a main room, the one bordered on two sides by windows facing on to Cameron St & Cork St. Then there are three smaller rooms (we think) and a children's play area. It's anticipated that one room could be kitted out with computers, and another as a kitchen.

The meeting was intended to bring the community together to discuss possible uses of the space. The council has asked the residents' committee for a business plan outlining how they will use the space.

Some ideas were as follows:

The core idea is to use the main room as a boxing club. Ronnie already runs a succesful boxing club in St Catherine's centre, but only for an hour and a half once a week, and there is no space to store the equipment, so in that time the equipment also has to be set up and broken down. The committee believe that a large number of young people would avail of this boxing club if it was available for a greater period of time.

The main way that the committee can see of raising revenue for the facility is to rent out a room say every morning for use as a private creche.

They would like to organise a homework club, and activities for elderly people.
• Possibly cookery classes for kids using the kitchen.
  
They are opposed to using the space mainly as a meeting venue: they are keen to provide services.
• One of the people in the meeting was a youth worker who runs a kids' club on Thomas St; he said he could run a club once a month on Saturday mornings.
  
• Fundraising for activities outside of the centre, such as trips for kids.
• The centre would need volunteers to help coordinate, run activities, keep things clean and fundraise.
  

Next steps:

• Charlie Hammond has a list of names of people who are interested in being on a committee to manage the centre; and other names of people willing to volunteer. You can add your name to either of these lists.
• The committee will hold a meeting with local kids to see how they would like to use the space.
  
• Anybody interested will be contacted, in order to start drawing up a business plan. The business plan may include other partners who might want to establish additional services in the centre.
  
• The Council will make a decision as to whether to hand over the space to the management of the residents, or to allow somebody else to take it over.
  

Charlie has agreed to come along to our meeting tomorrow to answer questions about the centre.