Help is needed in all aspects of running the common place, everything from accounts to recycling is done by unpaid members. If you want to get more involved then the easiest ways of doing so are by getting in touch with a working group or by coming along to one of our bi-monthly general meetings. Some of the user groups also run good stuff that is reliant on volunteers so check them out too. Common Conversation and Women's Group could really do with some more volunteers!

Help cook Sunday Brunch....love cooking? Want to learn how? Brunch is served in the café from about 1-3pm every Sunday (help needed from about 11am). There is often a skillshare or film on as well so it’s a nice time to hang out at The Common Place and meet other people. What is cooked depends on what food is there – we get a delivery of free organic veg weekly and keep a stock of dry stuff, spices etc. If you’d like to help out e-mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it so that someone knows you are coming to help out. You don't need to have subscribed to the list to send an email, but if you want to send a blank email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Help make the place beautiful and fix stuff ...love cleaning? Good with your hands? Want to learn how to fix stuff better? Come along to Thursday meetings (see below) where practical tasks are shared out and keep an eye on the home page of the website where we advertise adhoc times where we get together to do bits of common place beautifying and improvements.

Skillshare Sundays...wanna learn something new and cool? Have a skill to share? Skillshares are like informal workshops…take a look at the skill share programme to see if there is anything you are interested in learning or even offer a session or put on a film.

Help out at an event...fancy serving beer, helping out on the door or generally helping out? Loads of fantastic events happen here! Have a look at the usergroups section or calendar and pick something that sounds like your cup of tea then contact the coordinator and offer your help (if there’s no contact details just e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Help is generally needed on the bar, door, cooking, setting up and clearing up at the end, you get a free drink and tis fun!

Join a usergroup...All kinds of groups use The Common Place for meetings, socials, advice drop-ins, English classes, film showings, licensed events (gigs and that), talks and discussions and much more. They are all completely open to new members, have a look in the usergroups section for details, get in touch and see what help they might need.

Join a working group... want to help one part of The Common Place keep running and be brilliant? Working groups and collectives sort out the everyday nitty gritty running of The Common Place and are all totally open to new members. Some involve more work than others and they involve different skills. Have a read and get in touch with the contact person for the group/s you are interested in and they will be able to tell you more.

Come down for a chat...you could come anytime the building is open (see calendar), but particularly good times might be Sunday afternoons and Climate Chaos Café (every other Wednesday) when lots of people who are familiar with the building are likely to be around to show you round and have a natter.

Thursday meetings...come and experience how collective, non-hierarchical working, er, works! Because The Common Place is run non-hierarchically, ie without leaders, this is the sole decision making forum. If you are interested in helping to keep our social centre running please join us in one of our collective meetings, held on the first and third thursday of each month at 8pm, for about two hours. Decisions are made by consensus where everyone gets a say and all views are respected.

We've been using the following format for the majority of our meetings since the spring of 2007. The idea is to make the meetings focus on what actually needs doing (split into individual tasks) rather than what different people and collectives are doing. People will come to the meeting with ideas of things that need to be done or that they would like to see happen. They then ask ask for volunteers to either help them do it or to simply take the task on and arrange it themselves. The tasks could be simple and short term like re-stocking the kitchen with washing up sponges and kitchen roll to longer term things like building a secure and beer proof lock-up for the PA. The idea is that you can turn up to as many or as few of these meetings and be a real asset to the centre by simply helping out with a task without having to sign up to a longer term commitment of joining a collective. Of course some collectives still need a continuity of personel with the time to commit but much of the work about the place can be carried out as and when required. 

   


8:00 Meeting start

It is a small point but we all sit around a table rather than chairs in a circle. It makes it a bit more informal, especially if there is a pile of beer in the middle of the table. Tea and coffee is of course always available and there is often food left over from the womens asylum seeker group which meets before us.

1. Introductions and requests

We all introduce ourselves, and then the facilitator will ask if there are any requests. Any one who has a request to put to the meeting (usually because they want to use the building for something) but doesn't have the time to sit through the meeting wondering when they should speak should speak now. After their request has been delt with they can go if they have to, but we would prefer if they stayed. It often happens that when people stay they realise that they have skills or things that we desperately need that they can offer.

2. Tasks that need doing, issues that need discussing, proposals for change.

This is just a brainstorming round, write up on board but no attempt made to discuss issues. This will effectively become the agenda for later on in the meeting .

3. What's happening in the next two weeks?

A run through all the events happening before the next meeting so people know what is going on and what they can volunteer for or may wish to attend. After the run through the bookings collective also highlight any possible future problems like events that need an experienced co-ordinator to help out the promotors on the night or evenings that require a sound engineer for example.

4. Sharing out tasks and problem solving

The issues that were written up in stage 2 are now gone through. The facilitator will probably start with the easier things so we can cross stuff off and feel like it is all going well. Hopefully it will all be done by 9:30 or 10 and usually we'll either head home, hang around a bit and take advantage of the reduced price beer (did I mention that we the beer is discounted at common place general meetings) or head to the Angel.