CLAs - what happened in North Yorkshire, UK

3rd Partnership MeetingPerugia

The MRS Consultancy

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

Target Group

• Small rural town losing its identity• Squeezed by bigger brothers•On margins of media coverage•No local newspaper/radio

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

Key features• Some initiatives such as a local newsletter and web

site have been launched.• Sustainability is the central problem– Funding/income stream– Activism by all the community on the ground– Content resources– Need for more ambassadors

But GOLD MINE – 2000 homes door to door every month

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

Some issues The CLAs are volunteers, can be sporadic Illness

Family commitments Work

• Opinionated/entrenched attitudes– Need to tread carefully within the group.– Need to support the group in outside relationships with potential funders.– Be careful about competition or are they potential collaborators?– We did this in 2005 and it failed then…New media to extend customer base.

• Lower Ure News (LUN)– A news media, a community resource but also an income generator.– Editorial and business balance

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

What happened?• CLA coffee morning

o 30 people with some interest in becoming CLAs

• Sign upso 3 CLAs on board with another who dropped out

and another “maybe/maybe not”

• Introductory workshopo Course structureo Feedback to tailor course for them and their

needs.

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

Tailored training• Course structure

o Engagement o Researcho Marketingo Community reportingo Income generation

• Their needso More community reporterso Income generation through funding and revenue

• Revised trainingo We undertook all the component courses but introduced tools

which were appropriate to their situation and needs or which they would include in the piloting.

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

The Learning

EngagementUse LUN and local events such as coffee morning and school/church socials to recruit CRs

“Our team of distributors work hard to deliver 2000 copies of Lower Ure News

Every month. If you would like to join them, please let us know.

All help is welcome!”

Lower Ure News March 2014

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

The LearningMarketing

o Redesign and re-launch of LUN and web siteo Software training (WEA)

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

The LearningIncome

o Funding through Erasmus+ bid for tourismo Ratecard with re-launcho Business plan (subject to revision)

The MRS Consultancy 7th October 2014

Timetable

• CLA course finished by end of October (Life got in the way – illness)

• Community Reporters recruitment begins with re-launch in November

• Community Reporters courses probably January 2015