Maryhill Open Art Space

Meeting Minutes

Date of meeting: 29th August 2023

General Notes

The items discussed are for consideration at the meeting on how the studio should operate until March and through the move. All of the below should be revisited by the group in March (if not earlier).

Having the agenda proposed before the meeting with timings was very helpful and suggest we do this in the future – having answers from those unable to attend also very useful and meant the entire group was engaged in the discussion.

Outcomes

● Understand if we want to move to the premises on Hathaway Street

● Get a sense of how many sessions the steering group is willing to volunteer per month (until March 2024)

● Calculate how much time steering group are spending on studio maintenance, and how much time they wish to contribute per session

● Understand the allocation of paid staff time and decide if this is meeting the needs of the studio

● Make suggestions to change staff job descriptions (time, pay, duties)

New Location – Hathaway Street

We are in agreement that Hathaway is a good move for the studio. We are happy to work to the December date but we need to understand the commitment required of the Steering Committee and wider membership to complete the move. It is the preference of the Steering Committee that tradespeople are brought in for the majority of the upgrades.

Hathaway St gives us flexibility on meeting the needs of the current membership whilst also giving us options (via mezzanine space) to provide more flexibility/additional space to expand and develop the studio.

Questions and Actions:

Q. How long will members not have access to the studio during the move? Is it possible to pause the membership that period or offer a reduction in cost?

Action: We would like to see a breakdown of the moving costs to understand what upgrades will be made by tradespeople and what will be required of members. Estimates should include work required to be carried out to address Health and Safety concerns, detailed below.

Q. If the Creative Scotland fund is used to meet the cost of the move does that mean that we cannot buy a second kiln & extruder? Or are these included in the move costings.

Studio Maintenance

We believe that there is room for improvement in studio maintenance.

Some issues raised –

·       There is sometimes not enough clay for the sessions

·       We could have better tools for non-beginners (e.g. slab roller) and perhaps a system to request and approve purchase of new tools

·       There should be a system in place to ensure that painting glazes are kept full

·       Regular inventory of tool and also upgrade/repair of tools when required

The group felt that having staff in regularly helps keep on top of this but there are still improvements that could be made. Suggestions detailed below regarding Volunteering and Staffing.

Volunteering

Having the Steering group cover studio access is sustainable with the majority of the group taking on approximately 2 sessions a month – some are doing more and are ok to do so as long as the concerns of the group on staffing/maintenance is met.

The group feel that responsibilities of covering a session should be limited to opening/locking the studio, answering questions from members, essentially getting people started, and a light tidy up/clean of areas members may have missed after the session.

The session cover should not cover the jobs that the group feel should be carried out by the studio staff as it is difficult to ensure consistency in these jobs and ensure they are done in a timely manner around sessions. These include –

·       Organising reclaim

·       Stocking/Maintenance of tools

·       Ensuring glazes are filled

·       Covering pots

·       Deep cleaning

Suggestion: There could be a way for members/Steering committee to sign up for additional jobs e.g. doing an inventory of tools/ordering supplies etc. but these should not be expected. If a job needs to be done at a certain time e.g. reclaim due to clay moisture levels and a request is made to complete this to ensure smooth running of the studio, this would be deemed acceptable on a non-regular basis.

Teaching Courses and Workshops

We all felt that the current level of courses is working well with the expectation that Addison and Rachael will run more courses. Improver classes were thought to be working well and suggested that more of these would be beneficial.

We do not feel that the current level of courses are impacting the open sessions. They are also seen as a good means of income.

Some of the courses that are being taught at the start of the sessions have not been well attended.

Suggestion: Could we have a notice board in the studio publicising upcoming courses with a way for people to express interest or provide feedback on any additional courses that they would like to run. The board could also be used as a way of making members aware of any changes in the studio – maybe who is on duty for that session too.

Suggestion: More one off courses may be popular. E.g. A one day throw a pot course. Do we want any more courses? Perhaps this could be raised again once we’ve completed the move and are ready for some expansion

Kiln Firings

The kiln is fired 3 times a week – we only do it twice if there is not enough to warrant a 3rd firing.

We propose we set expectations on how long firing will take – advertise (perhaps on the notice board) when/what firings will be taking place that week.

People should be aware that it will take 10 days approximately for firing (best endeavours basis).

Some issues with firings have been raised (some should have been addressed by the new thermocouple)

There have been some explosions but generally there haven’t been issues with the slow bisque.

Suggestion: We could have members date their work so that it has properly dried before it gets put into the kiln.

Suggestion: Should we set a time limit for collecting work that has been fired – this is most likely a duty of the staff members.

Suggestion: Cones for the kiln would be a good idea to potentially identify any issues with the kiln.

If we identify that there is a pattern of work coming out the kiln with issues then the costs should not be passed on to members. A suggestion might be that there is budget set aside to cover these costs (a reserve fund).

Health & Safety

There were a number of health and safety concerns raised for both the current space and also Health & Safety should be a key consideration when fitting out the new location. The number of points below signals that there should further discussions on Heath & Safety/Move considerations.

·       A COSHH form should be completed and members of the group are happy to help with this.

·       Risk assessments should be completed for kiln and pug. The new studio should be set up with these in mind.

·       We should not daisy chain electrics & overload sockets/extensions

·       We should review use and management of PPE – respirators should not be shared. Clarity needed around messy jobs that risk air-borne particles and whether these should be done in the studio even if others aren’t around?

·       We should consider water management in the new space and have a three stage filtration in place as we believe that this is a legal requirement

·       Electrical outlets should have water covers

·       We should consider carefully electrical outlets (number and location) as part of the move to the new location

·       There are concerns that glaze needs to be disposed of as hazardous waste (the way that paint is disposed in local waste centres)

·       We need venting for the kiln – an extractor would be helpful

·       Nobody under the age of 18 should be allowed to use the equipment

Suggestion: Should we pay for waste management/would this help with our waste (both hazardous and general)

Communication

Most of the time Whatsapp is useful for communication but should really be limited for simple questions/requests to cover pots. Where there a number of points being raised/discussed then putting this in a mail is easier to digest and respond to. Whatsapp is a good way of letting people know that they have sent a mail for the group to read/respond to. In some cases, for the steering group, an in person meeting may also be preferable

If more meetings were required then they could be kept on track by using the format for this meeting. Questions submitted before and timings kept on track – those unable to attend could contribute via mail.

Most likely we need a new channel for the move when there will be lots of questions etc.

Creative Scotland

The group feel that the full amount from Creative Scotland money should be used to improve the studio.

If we plan to use the money for something different (such as fitting out a better studio but that comes at the expense of no new kiln or extruder) then we need to make the membership aware and get feedback.

There was some feedback from members to the steering group members about how the money was raised with some feeling pressure to do so. Some concerns had been raised with the group that the expectation of £150 per member was a sizeable commitment for members. Although the group is aware that it was made clear there was no expectation for members to commit any money to the campaign.

Some of the services that were bought have not been fulfilled and the group felt that ideally we should seek to ensure that these services were provided ahead of the move.

Action: A summary of the services that still have to be fulfilled would be helpful to understand scheduling of sessions/services.

In the future we should investigate other methods of fund raising as crowd funding has its drawbacks despite it enabling the move. At the moment the group does not think that a new round of fund raising needs to be embarked upon.

Staffing

We believe the Studio requires an additional role to cover teaching and studio tech – providing more cover and flexibility (especially over holiday periods/sickness absence). This role would help cover the tasks that are detailed in the Volunteering session and the postholder needs to be able to provide wheel teaching cover should it be required to prevent potential loss of income. The studio would operate more efficiently if there was someone in every day to ensure the studio was fully stocked/clean. This will allow the volunteers to cover the sessions without taking on the responsibility of additional work.

In order to understand the number of hours required in this role, we need to understand the number of hours currently being covered by the managing director to do these tasks.

The group would like clarification on number of hours and salary of the managing director role and the Teaching/Studio Technician role. The group would also like to understand if a new role was created what the rate of pay would be. Both points would help the group understand if a new role is affordable.

The group feel that we should not have all members of staff on holiday at the same time, the experience during this summer was that this put too much pressure on the Steering Group and ideally should be avoided.

General

Suggestion: Could WIX be kept up to date to ensure that the person who is covering the session is accurately noted.