It’s been a lovely few days and good to feel the sun on our backs at last.  Do you think we have just had the summer?

This is just a quick update as we did not schedule a public meeting this month and we just felt you might like to know what we are doing and our progress so far.  We are still working hard looking at all avenues for funding, hoping like mad that the Community Ownership Fund reopens soon and we can present our application.  However, we have not been idle or put all our eggs in one basket.  We are applying to other funds and they all need information from different angles depending on the criteria for the fund.  Whilst we do have a script they all need adapting to fit the bill and it’s a lot of work and our management team have worked tirelessly on them.  We have also been going through all the necessary policies we need to publish for our website and to comply with our CBS (Community Business Society) rules which are governed by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority)

For those of you who use the shop and visit our website you will see our share barometer is up to just over £150k which is fantastic and blooming marvellous as we are only just over a month into our share offer which closes at the end of August.   However, we do need to keep the red rising on the barometer so if you haven’t already done so and are able to do so, please can you pay your share money in as soon as possible so we have a strong backing when our grant applications can finally be submitted.

We have had a reprint of our share prospectus so we could send them to businesses and suppliers to the area.  For anyone who does not have one and would like one please let us know or collect one from the shop.

We are still looking for volunteers to help run the shop and tearoom when it opens and are very excited at the opportunities ahead of us.  If you have a skill or fancy doing anything in the shop or tearoom then please let us know, we really want to have people on board so on day 1 we can set off with a full team. One of the community shops I visited had people who only wanted to make scones and people who only wanted to shelf-fill and others who were very happy behind the till.  If you fancy yourself as a bit of an Albert Arkwright or a Granville or even a Mrs Slocombe or Captain Peacock then please let us know.  It’s going to be such a great community effort and will be good fun along with some hard work.

Our next community shop meeting is on August 13th at 7pm at Caldbeck Parish Hall and hopefully by then we will have even more in place

Look forward to seeing you then if you can make it and if not we will always keep you informed with our reports which we always forward within a few days of the meeting.

I will just take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed with donations and shares so far, it’s been a fantastic boost to us all to see the support coming in.  We are not at the top yet, but we are getting there, the summit is not quite in view yet, but we know it’s there!