Action Porty is growing. We are looking for new Trustee to be responsible for our Membership.
Action Porty was set up to secure Bellfield as the first urban community buy-out, but also to be the local Development Trust for the Portobello area. Bellfield was bought in Sept 2017, opening in June 2018 and has operated successfully as a community hub since then, now operating a Friday Community Café too. Initially running Bellfield was the principal focus of the Action Porty Board but over the years other projects have allowed us to take on more of a Development Trust remit. Porty Community Fridge is an Action Porty Project, as is the project to take Porty Police Station into Community Ownership. The Board attend the Seafield development meetings as a representative of the community and other projects of different sizes bubble-away like Gardening Groups, an Absent Friends Remembrance Festival, Community Meals and more. We now have a staff of five with opportunities for more on the horizon and an army of volunteers who get stuck in too. The ‘Bellfield Big Build’ renovations of the former church side about to take place after a very successful Community Share issue earlier this year, so you can definitely say, as a Trustee of Action Porty there is rarely a dull moment.
Our monthly board meetings are good, well-run affairs and we even have a laugh. Trustees are responsible for monitoring, strategy and governance but we’re still a fairly hands on team so there is scope to get involved in different ways. As we’ve evolved we’ve asked that groups who join put forward a Trustee or two and that remains a source of new Trustees but we’re also on the lookout for new people to join. We’re a stable, well-established and welcoming board and the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer roles are all filled. There are established Funding, Finance and Operations sub-groups and slightly less establish Comms and HR subgroups as well as each project’s groups. We’d expect a Trustee to attend monthly board meetings in Portobello, usually at Bellfield and likely another meeting each month to progress whatever they are responsible for.
Action Porty was set up as a Charity and Company Ltd by Guarantee. We later became a Community Benefit Society, to undertake the Bellfield’s Big Build Community Share offer. We’ve always been a member owned organisation but the Community Share Issue brought a big increase in members and an increase in administration requirements for membership which is why we really need a Trustee with a focus on this.
If you think this might be you and you’d like to be part of a satisfying community project, please get in touch with ian@actionporty.com or jennifer@actionporty.com for an initial chat. We’d love to hear from you!
