Final Report - pt3 Organising

easa010 Final Report

Section Two: Organising

Section Two: Organising

Introduction Writing a Final Report is a tricky thing in so much as you want to achieve two goals, one is to document an event you feel personally very close to and the other is to provide a piece of work that is both insightful and helpful to future organisers.

In order to be helpful the report must be relevant to the problems of future organisers. If we were to simply review easa010 the text would age quickly – future organisers would find themselves in different countries, with an inherently different economic climate, social issues and local government set up, as well as different laws and restrictions. It is worth noting that one of the key features affecting easa010 was the grip of the worst recession in living memory with the looming inevitability of a new UK government introducing stringent cuts to publicly funded events as well as new measures affecting private industry.

The chapters that make up this section cover the specifics of the work the easaUK2010 team did to make easa010 happen. It outlines our plans, our discussions and our thought process. It covers what we did, what we didn’t have time to do and what we should have done. It covers the mistakes, the successes and the dumb luck.

This section covers what it was to organise an EASA in a specific place (Manchester, England) at a specific time (2008 - 2010), and it offers an insight into the attitude of the team written in their own words. [cma]

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Chapter 1 - Experience and advice Responsibility <<<<<< As early as possible the team should meet to define what your EASA is for.

It might sound odd, but EASA that meets just to meet lacks depth and can’t reach its potential. The organisers of EASA have a commitment to the network to not just organise a two week event, but to leave the network stronger than they found it. The original EASA - meant only as a one off - was organised to look at the problem of the closing dock lands in Liverpool, in 2011 the reason for the assembly is to challenge the views of students of architecture about development. The reason we hosted EASA was to challenge views on EASA itself, in many ways the theme identity came from the idea of looking at the identity of the assembly.

Of course many people have an opinion of what a summer assembly should be and it is important to state outright that we were not attempting to organise the exemplar EASA, to impose our vision of perfection, rather we felt that words can only do so much, we’d prefer to make some bold decisions, decisions we knew would cause a certain amount of controversy for us but decisions we felt would make people see the varied potential in EASA’s forms. We didn’t dare to do any one large out right change to the summer assembly format - we were not looking to change for the sake of it - so we decided that for every element of the assembly, we would reevaluate it and see if we could make it work better for the easa010 whole.

In order to be able to do this we made sure to safe guard the under laying features of the event, this gave us a framework which could inform all our other choices, as explained in the Bid Section these were the four pillars Density, Urbanity, Integration and Legacy - along with the theme - Identity.

Reality <<<<<< As the saying goes - ‘one must be supple as a reed, not rigid like an oak’.

Your team is made up of students giving their time for free, the results will reflect this. Obviously if things go wrong it can cause problems for you, but

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we tried to stick to this simple line of thought - we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mind mistakes, we do mind lack of effort. Simply put, you will get more problems from people not doing things then you will from errors made. [cma]

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Chapter 2 - Time line Organising an EASA is a linear process - you do it once and it is over - and it is stretched over a relatively long period of time in your life. More over, as will be illustrated with examples in the coming chapters, what can be organised varies depending on the length of time until the Assembly, meaning forward planning months, and in certain areas, years, in advance is essential to avoid significant problems.

For us there was the added complexity of established members of the UK team dispersed around Europe and a young team in Manchester and we realised we needed to first identify the key points in the coming months and years, things to be achieved along the way and plot a course For more on the issue of integrating new members to from INCM 2007 to INCM 2010. the team and bringing in experienced EASA members see Chapter 3.

To help with these issues we identified 6 key phases of the organisation process which we used to outline the task ahead. These were first drafted as part of our organisers pack, document number 050.

Phases To aid understanding the long process of organisation that has gone, and will go, into easa010 can be broken down into phases. These phases, though obviously notional, are periods in the process that are dominated by similar characteristics of attention and usually are divided by major moments in the organisation. Ignoring minor iterations, these phases can be seen as: Phase one: Visibility and Believability At INCM007 the decision to bid for easa010 was taken by two members of easaUK. In order to successfully bid for and organise a summer assembly a large, visibly strong team was needed. Between incm007 and easa008 the majority of the work was aimed at building a strong team though communication leading to an EASA with a great UK participation at all levels. Away from the network it was vital to the success of the bid and the hosting of the event itself that the relevant

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institutions in Manchester were supporting the assembly. These two strands lead to the INCM008 where a respected UK team presented a strong bid to the EASA network.

Phase two: foundations Following the success of the bid in Cyprus the team needed to change dramatically. The team needed to grow, gain legal status, secure an office and put in place the systems and processes that would allow for a smooth organisation. This phase also saw the first of the easa010 events, with links being forged with artists and educational groups.

Phase three: all hands on deck The 20th September 2009 marks the day that those UK based members of the team not from Manchester, will move to Manchester permanently.

This will see full occupation of easaHQ and a more rapid progress in the organisation process.

Phase four: the assembly The two week assembly stands alone in the organisation process for obvious reasons. It could be said that phase four begins a week before the participants arrive and ends a week after, thus encapsulating the main periods of on site preparation and cleaning.

Phase five: documentation The end of the assembly does not signal the end of the work, but the start of the final phase. As organisers it is a responsibility to produce a final document for the network, charting the organisation of the assembly. Beyond this, phase five will also cover the production and curating of exhibitions within the city, and also the publication of books and journal texts covering the event.

Phase six: exit strategy Following the assembly EASA as a network will go on, as will the involvement of easaUK. This involvement will include participation at future assemblies and INCMs, though with the added responsibility of being a former organiser. Balanced with this is the ultimate legacy of hosting a summer event, the increased interest from students in the UK. easa010 is a huge opportunity to present EASA to the UK student population, and following the assembly it is vital that this interest is

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maintained and fostered.

Organisers document: 050

These six phases served as a basis for our early preparation and a framework for our planning, but in reality the phases from INCM 2007 to INCM 2010 could easily be broken into ever smaller iterations. [cma]

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Chapter 3 - Pillars of the Bid Leading up to the bid we discussed what features had defined previous EASAs and, in turn, what we wanted easa010 to be. Out of this long discussion and thought process we were able to define 4 key points which we called ‘Pillars of the Bid’. The Pillars were a distillation of a lot of ideas - EASA is a many faceted beast - and became one of our successes. Once written down, the Pillars provided a reference point for the team in times of disagreement, doubt or confusion while they also worked as a simple set of concepts to use when explaining either EASA or easa010 to the uninitiated.

The easaUK2010 bid was based on four Pillars, which we believe reflect the ideals of the network as well as establishing firm foundations upon which to build our assembly.

Urbanity: To allow the assembly’s participants to experience the excitement and diversity of life in Manchester, as well as to provide an appropriate setting, it is essential that the sites for accommodation, workshops etc are as close to the city centre as possible.

Density: As a rule, participants commute on foot. For practical reasons, as well as to create a good group atmosphere, all sites should be as close together as possible.

Integration: To make the most of this opportunity of bringing such a an event to the city of Manchester, easaUK2010 is committed to integrating the event with city in an engaging, creative way.

Legacy: EASA presents an opportunity to create a lasting impression on Manchester; there are many ways this could manifest.

Organisers document: 050 [cma]

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Chapter 4 - Theme Each assembly runs under the umbrella of a theme, it is from this theme that potential tutors draw up proposals for workshops to run. The theme will draw on contemporary issues facing the profession of architecture.

The choice of theme goes hand in hand with the choice of location for the assembly. The location will have a strong and specific connection with the theme, thus allowing for relevant output from workshops.

The theme for easaUK2010 was Identity. This theme drew on the issues facing architecture in the modern world, where information technology and are a number of transportation systems have reduced the time There articles expanding on the distances between global locations, forcing theme collated in Section Five. locations to compete on a deeper level then geographical birthright.

Manchester is a city with a broad history for innovation in many fields; since its explosion in growth during the industrial revolution it has been the home of, and renowned for, many subsequent advancements in science, culture and technology. None of which, however, have singularly defined the city in the consciousness. It is a city that so far has refused the allure of branding.

The theme for easaUK2010 is Identity. Identity was chosen for the theme as it relates to urban branding, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s increased role in urban planning, a shift that directly impacts architecture, it is especially relevant to Manchester due to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history of apparent reinvention and the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reluctance to use urban branding as policy of urban planning.

It was felt the theme should simultaneously be relevant to the wide world of architecture and its practice today and specifically relevant to the chosen location. This theme draws on the issues facing architecture in the modern world, where information technology and transportation

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systems have reduced the time distances between global locations, forcing locations to compete on a deeper level then geographical birthright.

Manchester is a city with a broad history for innovation in many fields; since its explosion in growth during the industrial revolution it has been the home of, and renowned for, many subsequent advancements in science, culture and technology. None of which, however, have singularly defined the city in the consciousness. It is a city that so far has refused the allure of branding, most recently with Peter Saville refusing to re-brand the city [cma]

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Chapter 5 - Team EASA is a network. A simple sentence, possibly said more often than any other through out the history of EASA. On the surface it seems self evident.

Obvious. Hardly worth mentioning at all, but these four words are thee key to understanding both EASA as an event and how it comes to happen each and every year, they also have implications to organising that are not obvious at first. I would go as far as to say, once you truly appreciate this sentence then everything becomes easy - to reason, plan and justify, if not in fact to execute.

Perhaps by way of explanation one can embellish the sentence: EASA is merely a network EASA is solely a network EASA is just a network even EASA is exclusively a network The problem with adding such emphasis amplifiers is they all bring their own cultural bias, so I will stick with the more matter of fact: EASA is a network.

Their are many things EASA is not - a company, institution or recognised body of any kind. This makes it generally inefficient and creates initial difficulties for organising teams, but I will put this avenue of analysis to one side as I fear to do the subject justice would require a complete section of the Report.

So, EASA happens because individuals put in far more than they could ever expect to get back, this is true of NCs, tutors, participants and it is true of organisers. Put simply - the team is hands down the most important aspect of organising EASA. With this key fact in mind, the first job following the successful bid was to rapidly expand the team. The reason why this was necessary has roots in the

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nature of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architectural education. The UK has around 40 accredited schools of architecture and during my brief tenure as NC I felt it was vital we advertised EASA in as broad a range of these as possible in order to strengthen the network in the four countries. The downside of this was despite the strong showing of the UK in Greece 2007 there were only two persons ready to bid, and in turn the bid was delivered with a skeleton team.

Expanding the team was always going to be fraught with difficulties, most of which were overcome. The process began straight after INCM 2008 with posters put around the school of architecture in Manchester to raise awareness of the EASA name. I then drafted the organisers pack which was designed to explain what EASA is and what was planned for the summer of 2010 - it is essential that all new team members are engendered with an understanding of the gravity of the task, to do this without scaring them off completely can Although Doc 050 remained partially be a delicate balancing act. We then unfinished it was tremendously useful produced promotional posters and I to have these things laid out and can be found in section 5 gave a short talk about EASA and the upcoming event in Italy as well as the chance to be involved in easa010.

It is worth noting here that at no point did we have a team structure in mind in terms of finding people to fill specific roles, rather we knew some key important roles for organising - accommodation, workshops, spaces etc. and for the assembly - food, built workshops, IT etc. - but largely, and to use the old English saying, we cut our coat depending on our cloth, meaning from the outset the team was in constant flux, mutating as people came in and out and as people moved between roles as certain aspects became more or less pressing.

Paul and I took the decision at the very out set that we would run the organisation of easa010 with the same ideals we saw in the EASA network and at INCM. The organisation would be non-hierarchical meaning no one was in charge of any one else. This was massively important as with everyone volunteering their

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time it was important that no one feel bossed around as they would likely quit the set up or just not do the work. I see a huge value in this approach, as one of the most compelling things about EASA is its unusual nature compared to any other organisation you may have been involved in, it most certainly isn’t English, but then again it can’t be said to be typical anywhere else either.

Any one who has attempted to be part of a non-hierarchical setup will tell you that it is impossible in its purist form, the closest we could achieve was a meritocracy - meaning the more work put in the more responsibility you gained, if you were capable and available and willing to take on a role then the responsibility would come with certain licence to decision making. None of the core decisions were ever, intentional, made by an individual though.

The problems our egalitarian approach to team building produced were, in my opinion as predictable as they were acceptable within the bigger picture.

One issue that will plague all EASA organisers is that EASA is a very interesting prospect to non-EASA people, that is people who are happy to be associated with the Assembly in order to promote themselves and their work, but will exploit the setup to gain more than they put in, this is true of associates and potential partners as much as it is true of team members. Potentially worse though is in some cases people seek to affix their own position with some element of permanence or power, sometimes quite simply because they do not understand - or perhaps appreciate - the nature of EASA and the small place of the organising team within the larger whole.

A secondary issue with a meritocratic approach is people’s reliance on labels or, in the terms of a team, titles. You see, when someone is putting in a lot of effort and time it makes sense they should be getting the responsibility and decision making freedom spoken of, and this often comes with a ‘title’ such as communications coordinator. The decision for someone to take on a role would be suggested by someone associated with the task at present,

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discussed and the person could decide whether they could commit the time.

The issue came if the person was then unable, or unwilling to commit the same amount of time to the organisation process. Could someone be ‘demoted’ from organiser to volunteer status? In a team of friends where no one is any one’s boss you don’t do that. We started out on the footing that anyone who wanted to be involved would be welcome for as much or as little time as they could commit, and that spirit held true in operation. Being honest, it resulted in complaints and moaning about people not pulling their weight, and some members of the team did less and less until they just didn’t turn up any more, but the alternative of inexperienced people managing their peers was potted with far more pitfalls and dangers. The way we did it left people to define for themselves what to do, and to take responsibility (or not) in an adult way, organising is a learning experience and it will teach you about yourself and you friends as much as about event management.

The other major issue we had came from the spread of the team for such a long period of time. From August 2008 - August 2009 there were only 2 people who had been to EASA living in Manchester and therefore working on EASA full time. Until November 2009 there were only 2 team members in Manchester who hadn’t debuted that summer.

For me personally this lead to the only real problem I had. On one hand there is a reason to hold back on major decision making so that the non-Manchester team members could bring their experience to bear, on the other hand being seen to act as gatekeeper to these other, never seen, team members can instill a false feeling of control and therefore hierarchy. Another factor being that the process of planning for EASA had started in late 2007, so at the time of the bid 1 full year of work had been put in already and therefore some of the larger decisions had been boxed off.

I stated already that the problems were predictable, but acceptable - and therefore unavoidable, despite the personal pressure - and it is something

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that I had factored in and put in ground work to avoid. As part of the bid preparation I approached architecture practices to back our efforts and solicited them for sponsorship in kind. Knowing that, in 2008, times were becoming hard for practices in the UK I suggested that instead of cash sponsorship that one of the countries largest firms - BDP - could instead recruit members of the team for the students places that annually become available, to our delight they agreed, and even agreed to a work exchange with their Rotterdam office meaning Marten Dashorst, Dutch EASA veteran, would be able to move to the city. Unfortunately the recession deepened and BDP didn’t recruit the same numbers that year as previously.

If those are problems we faced then there was one overwhelmingly good decision, the inclusion in the team of a dedicated Human Resources coordinator role. Emma Uncles, a second year who joined the team as part of our expansion at the start of 2009, was the epitome of the team’s meritocracy set up. Having not been to EASA previously Emma threw herself into the organising of build up events and was involved in all aspects of the assembly straight away. Emma took to the role of HR co-ord and it is safe to say that without someone as committed and diligent in that role the whole exacting process would not have been a success.

A testament to the success of the HR role is the strength of the team under pressure as demonstrated a very particular times through out the last two years, which we will pick up on as we go through.

It is worth remembering at all times, especially when things look like they might go wrong, that the team is made up 100% of students, and in our case for the majority of time by a majority of students in just their second year of university having only attended EASA 12 months prior to hosting one.

Throughout the two and a bit years there were times when the team didn’t perform, but there were also times when it was a beautiful thing to watch in motion.

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[cma]

For one year only your team holds the concept of EASA, with a history spanning 30 years and a network of thousands who have come under its spell. It is now your responsibility to make it happen…

EASA is an entirely voluntary organisation. It is important to remember that your team will be working their fingers to the bone to produce an assembly; for free, out of their own time. Therefore, it is important to inject some fun into the office environment. Throughout the course of organising an EASA you will learn a plethora of new, endlessly useful skills, many will have their first opportunities to work in a team and an office environment, and you will make friendships that will continue to blossom long after easa has gone.

For most this is the first real project that holds with it expectations and responsibilities. Many embrace this aspect and throw themselves right into the team. Differing personalities are a fact of life, and you will find there are those who prefer to be involved from the sidelines. This is fine; however do ensure that specific responsibilities (that are vital to the assembly’s progression) are given to those fully immersed within the team. You may find putting all your eggs in one basket/person (and it not paying off) can cause some major issues, as it did with us.

Starting Up: Be completely aware of what you are getting yourself into. Organising EASA is not purely about Architecture, it’s Business Management, Team Management, HR, Communications… skills that you will have to learn, quickly, and then apply in a “real-life” environment. Be inspiring, but above all, continue to be realistic.

Team Structure & Organisation:

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A voluntary workforce lends itself to a horizontal hierarchy. That said, you will find that certain individuals will become more involved than others, and will therefore be trusted with more responsibilities. Quite simply, the harder you work, the more you will ultimately get out of it.

Definitions of each â&#x20AC;&#x153;Roleâ&#x20AC;? were created early in the process of organising, to ensure individuals knew what was expected of them. We initially split it into three categories: Coordinators:

Responsible for a particular area, you must be aware of

the developments and future plans within your area of expertise. You must communicate developments & delegate tasks to relevant organisers.

Understanding the dynamic of a volunteer workforce is fundamental to your role.

You will find that many organisersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; will show particular commitment, and therefore can take on the role of Coordinator for a specific project/task that they have shown substantial interest in. Additionally, do expect individuals to drop out of the team. This is not a problem, as long as you cater for this (an estimate of a third).

Coordinators must think on their feet, use initiative, and be flexible. Be patient and promote communication within your team to ensure you ease tensions.

Organisers: Members of the team who actively take on tasks laid out by the Coordinators. They attend meetings and have an active input into decisionmaking. These are generally members of the team who are unable to commit as coordinators, but want to have input into the organisation.

Volunteers: Help at specific events (like the assembly) and are not involved in meetings or discussions. They have no input into decision-making, however are vital in ensuring large events run smoothly.

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Communications: Communication was vital, particularly with a large team in various locations across the country. There was not one occasion where our entire team were all in the same room together at any point of the organisation or final assembly. e-mailing is key. Ensure that Coordinators send updates regularly (weekly basis) to the team. Take meetings seriously, and keep them on a regular date and time. Ensure you have a chair and minutes taken. A HR Coordinator is very useful hassling toolâ&#x20AC;Ś.

Management: By pre-determining tasks & roles in advance, team members knew their area of expertise inside-out by the time of the assembly. It also made the rota a hell of a lot easier; you were not allocating jobs to people who did not know what they were doing. Know the specifics of your volunteers, Who? What?

Where? When? (pop this all into a rota). Do provide flexibility to cope with unpredictable circumstances.

During the assembly it is important to have regular meetings to answer any queries and provide updates. As volunteers become more knowledgeable, team member are provided with more flexibility (and more time to sleep!).

Do: - Have socials - Communicate - Be willing to take on the less glamorous tasks - Emphasise team work - Delegate - Be realistic about peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capabilities Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t: - Take on too many tasks at a time

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- Rely upon those less committed for fundamental tasks - Be afraid to ask questions

[eun] Organisation of easa is a team game. Involvement of individuals will be determined by outside factors, such as work and university commitments. Some organisers will make it there full time job, while others will be limited to a supporting role.

The level of involvement committed will greatly affect what an organiser will get out of the process. The team works on an experience basis, so those more committed will gain more autonomy and therefore more real world experience. The measure of experience and understanding within the team falls into three areas, known as branches: EASA, Manchester, and the organisation processes.

For an organiser to be effective and gain more autonomy it is necessary for them to have an excellent working understanding of all three. Any level of understanding is enough to become involved in the organising team as there are always opportunities to improve understanding throughout the course of the organisation process.

When roles, such as coordinator, are identified as needing a dedicated member of the team to fill them, the main three considerations for the role should be availability, commitment and experience. The organiser should be available for the required workload for the period of time required; this also means that organisers should avoid filling more positions than they can offer their full attention and abilities to.

They must also be committed to the role and have shown willing and aptitude in the organisation to date. While it is true that no one has organised a summer assembly before there will be examples when an individual has experience relevant to the role.

Meetings Meetings will be held once a month up until easa009 at which time they will become weekly events held at 7pm on a weeknight in easaHQ. Each meeting will run to an agenda, to be circulated prior to the

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meeting.

Meetings provide an opportunity for coordinators to update the team on progress of each area of the organisation. As such, priority at weekly meetings will be given to coordinators to explain progress in their area and future progress. There will be a designated Chair for the meeting, the Chair will be nominated at the previous meeting and is responsible for composing the agenda and the smooth running of the meeting. Each meeting will have a minute taker. The minutes are a legal document and are vital to the running of the organisation. They will be issued to all members of the team following the meeting. At each meeting all members are encouraged to participate in issues being discussed.

All members are welcome to present an issue or propose an event or sponsor.

Organisers document: 050

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Chapter 6 - Office Having identified the importance of the team, a fact that is borne out again and again in the story of easa010, it follows that the team needs somewhere to be, a space, an office, and as architects we should be more keenly aware of this than most.

By its very nature and its reason for being any Final Report will be littered tales of caution, of things that went wrong or problems faced, there will of course be examples of things that went off just right, things we did really well (though the unfortunate truth is you don’t notice the good decisions as much as the bad ones), but the story of how we gained our office has to go in the column marked ‘unexpected windfalls’.

From the outset we knew we needed a space to call home, somewhere the work could be done as an organisers front room just wouldn’t be up to the task, but we didn’t ever have to look for one specifically.

Early in the organising process I approached ever major, and some minor, developers in Manchester, ostensibly to enquire about accommodation possibilities but also to become better known and gain letters of support for the bid.

One of company, ASK developments, and more specifically Development Executive Julian Stott, showed an immediate interest meeting with us on numerous occasions in the early days. It was made clear to us that ASK would be unable to sponsor us with a cash donation, but they did want to support us, so in addition to a letter of support, at the bid stage they offered the free lease of what an only be described as a cult Manchester icon - a two storey, 800sqft office building. The office was / is situated in an mostly brown field site and is within the footprint of a major development - First Street -, we would be taking it on and offering it one final lease of life before demolition.

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The contract would be ‘tenancy at will’ meaning we wouldn’t pay rent but we wouldn’t have the right to a contract extension when this one ran out in 2010. We would pay for insurance and electricity however. Unfortunately to sign we would need to be a recognised company which was dependant on us winning the bid to host EASA, meaning we couldn’t make use of the space while working on the bid.

From the beginning Julian and his colleague Anne-Marie showed great enthusiasm and were the first people fully on board with our vision for the assembly. First Street was due for completion in 2010/11 but in 2008 it was clear the recession was taking hold, there was a possibility that it would be delayed or even stall meaning the surrounding car parks would be available to us as accommodation / campus space. (See chapter on spaces).

As mentioned, having an office as a base is essential. It needs to be a room with a locking door, a postal address, large enough for the core of your team to gather together, a place to have meetings and importantly in this day and age it needs internet connection and a phone line.

An office give you a place to store your things, it provides a setting to let the team know that when they are there work and it allows the team to be together making a lot of tasks so much easier.

A vital part of a successful organisation is having an office to work out of. A building allows the organisers to work together and will allow the creation of a good atmosphere that is possible when friends work together.

The building will also demonstrate a level of intent that the organisation has, it will act as symbol to people wanting to become involved with easa010.

Organisers document: 050

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Any office will act as a signal of intent to prospective sponsors and partners, simply having a unique postal address, or somewhere to have meetings shows a commitment that will help separate you from the stigma that may be associated with other student organisations. For us even the prospect of moving in to 43 Hulme Street - soon to be easaHQ - represented a leveling up of the organisation process, and provided us with momentum that we could use in meeting other potential sponsors.

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Chapter 7 - Gallery In our first visit to the building it was immediately obvious it was both perfect for our needs in terms of location and facilities - kitchen, shower, multiple WCs - and much larger than we needed, this presented us with an opportunity. We decided that the building could be split up around its central circulation core to become office / storage on one side and gallery on the other. Fortunately the lay out of the building was perfect for this, but the condition we found the building wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite ideal. Having been empty for the previous two years an extremely small leak had been given plenty of time to saturate the ground floor concrete floor plate meaning we had some immediate work to do when we moved in. Along with drying out the carpets there was mold in many of the downstairs rooms which had to be bleached clean and in some cases painted over.

All in all the building was in pretty good shape

A full list of exhibitions and events that we organised or hosted can be found in the appendix.

and most of the work was superficial. Once weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d cleaned up our attention turned to beautifying the building inside and out. Inside weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been left with a questionable paint job from the previous occupants, their company signature colour being purple at some point someone had felt it beneficial to have it on every door, wall and chair in the building, leaving a somewhat overwhelming impression. Outside we decided to take advantage of the prominent position of the building on a major route into the city centre to promote EASA and show off our new location as much as possible.

A vital part of a successful organisation is having an office to work out of. A building allows the organisers to work together and will allow the creation of a good atmosphere that is possible when friends work together. The building will also demonstrate a level of intent that the organisation has, it will act as symbol to people wanting to become involved with easa010. easaHQ, 43 Hulme street, is the home of the organisation team of easa010. It is a former industrial building that received a renovating

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face lift from Stephenson Bell Architects. It is somewhat of an icon to residents of Manchester, with many people aware of the building simply by the signage of its most recent residents, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Moonfishâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

The building will have three functions in the build up to easa010: Office: The first floor main space will be devoted to office space for the organisers of easa010. This will be the place where most of the organisation of the assembly and fund-raising will happen.

Gallery: Central to the strategy for easaUK2010 to meet its remit of engaging residents and giving a platform for local artists and community groups.

The first floor bays will be used as a day gallery, where work will be displayed for the public during office hours.

Event Space: On the ground floor, the former reception and board room will be converted into event spaces. These will be used for exhibition launches, strictly out of office hours.

Organisers document: 050 The history of the building as we have been able to pick up over the time of our occupation runs thus - The building had started life as part of a complex of industrial buildings manufacturing clothes. In time it was taken over by Architects practice Stephenson Mills who were responsible for painting it white and adding the distinctive louvres as well as adding some fantastic swinging doors. About the time that Stephenson Mills became Stephenson Bell they moved their practice to Ancotes, it is believed that at this time they expected the building to be coming down just as its neighbors had. Instead though Web design company Moonfish moved in and added their illuminated sign that to many christened the building. Moonfish themselves merged with another company and left the building empty once more. Two years later the building was offered to us and we were able to breathe life into it once more, but more than that it gave us a fantastic base from which to raise the profile of EASA and also to begin the process of integration as well as, though giving young page 57

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artists their first taste of exhibiting, creating a lasting impact and legacy of EASA in its host city. [cma]

When we bid to host the 2010 EASA in Manchester, we were clear that integration and legacy were very important to our idea of EASA. We had been to many EASA debates where the same issue kept coming up â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the idea that EASA is a self-contained event, too inward focused to be much of a force for change. Participants, some suggested, came from all over Europe and only socialised amongst themselves, barely interacting with the host community.

But the original idea of EASA was to change a single place, to address the unique problems of the Liverpool docks. How could we unite event and city, using each to drive the other to look at itself anew?

The ideas of integration and legacy were central to the plans for the twoweek assembly itself, but they could also help us in the long run up to August 2010. We had chosen Manchester as a host city partly because of its positive attitude to artistic and cultural events and its strong cultural scene. This meant, however, that EASA would be one festival amongst many, all clamoring for attention, help and funding. We had to raise awareness of EASA to prove that we had an audience so that sponsors and advertisers would be interested. We had to show that we could organise events so that the council would support us. Organising events in the run up to the assembly itself had other advantages too: rather than being separate from and competing with the other creative people in the city, we could make useful friends and contacts, and we could also practice working together as a team on some smaller projects.

The gallery at easaHQ was a natural part of this. It was a privilege to have a space of the size and quality of HQ so close to the city centre, and we wanted to make the best use of it. We would use it as a venue for some of our own events, but we would also make it available to local talent to use for their

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exhibitions or events.

We felt that it was important that events informed people about EASA not simply by telling them but by demonstrating the EASA spirit in the way they were organised. Events were to be free where possible, to make imaginative use of available resources, and to get interested people involved as volunteers.

We wanted to open up to as broad a range of people as possible; not just architects or students, but fine artists, musicians, the general public and community groups like the Scouts.

The gallery would be the focus of the most of the events, but we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to ignore what was going on in the rest of the city and sought out other events to be involved with. One of these was the Cutting Room Experiment, a one-day festival intended to celebrate the opening of a new city square. The festival would consist of many smaller activities proposed by, and voted for, members of the public logging on to a web site. In easa010â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suggestion, faceless identity, participants would arrive and build an ideal city by creating model buildings using old cardboard boxes. They would disguise their faces, and therefore their identities, by wearing a mask while they created their buildings. The idea was that they would therefore construct their identities by making the model buildings. The proposal was directly related to our easa theme, and it also encouraged people to think more broadly about the meaning of architecture and built environment in their lives. Each event at the Cutting Room experiment was chosen by public voting, and we were able to use the power of the easa network to obtain more than double the votes of the next highly rated idea. We were later able to point to this success to show the number of people that were supporting us across Europe. easaHQ occupies a prominent position on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inner ring road, next to an elevated motorway. Official statistics indicate that over 13,000 people see the walls of the building every day. To announce our presence in the city and the building, we proposed repainting the building. We launched a competition,

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open to anyone in the world; by carefully wording its name and description we succeeded in having it listed on Bustler, a popular architecture competition aggregator. The shortlist of entries was judged by a representative from ASK, the building owners, Visit Manchester (part of the council who we hoped to have help and financial support from) and a lecturer from Manchester School of Architecture. The winning design was announced at our first exhibition at the gallery. The competition had created some publicity for us, launched the gallery, produced a lot of statistics that we could tell potential sponsors, and it had rewarded those that supported us so far by demonstrating that we had big ideas.

Carrying out our promise and painting the winning design was a building project in itself which served as practice for the more complex conversion of Downtex later. Many of the lessons that we learnt such as dealing with volunteer labour and the planning department, are discussed in that chapter.

It was not as simple as we had imagined initially. We learned that any lettering required advertising consent from the planning department, and our initial application was dismissed because the design was considered too intrusive.

Consent was gained, and we did paint the name easaHQ in letters nearly a metre high on a wall facing the motorway. We did not complete the total design, and to substantially finish two walls took from August to November 2009. Perhaps in thinking we could repaint the entire building we were too ambitious. The competition phase was very successful, but the effort to carry out the work absorbed a lot of our time that might have been better spent on other things.

Before we invited artists to exhibit in the gallery, we established certain principles about how it would be run and why we were doing it.

1.

The space would be available for free to exhibitors, providing they were

not intending to make money from the exhibition. We had received the space as a gift, and we wanted to pass that on. We were also inexperienced as

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gallery curators, and providing the space for free meant that there was less of an obligation to provide a professional service.

2.

Exhibitions would ideally be related to architecture or the built

environment in some way.

3.

Artists and exhibitors were to be solely responsible for installation,

curation, invigilation and removal of their exhibitions.

We were given the building rent-free, but we still had to pay utility bills and taxes. Originally we imagined that we could obtain sponsors or funding for each of the exhibitions that we put on ourselves, which would cover the cost of the exhibition and the utilities. We would also ask other exhibitors to do the same. This is not quite how it worked out in practice, as sponsors and funders were very difficult to find, and we had to meet the running costs of the building by loaning the company money from our personal funds, by taking out a company credit card, and by selling tea and cake at the exhibitions.

In litigious societies like the UK it is important to have the proper insurance.

The fabric of the building was insured by the building owner, but we needed public liability and building contents insurance as a condition of our tenancy.

We got a good deal on this through a professional contact. It is worth mentioning that insurance companies get very nervous about insuring works of art, as the value is so hard to determine and can often be high. This was a problem when easaHQ became the site of an installation of Angela Brookerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illuminated sign, Apollo Theatres. The sign was mounted on the outside of the building where it was vulnerable to damage and the artist demanded to see our insurance. We successfully argued that it was insured, but only for its value as an illuminated sign rather than a work of art. For all other exhibitions it was made clear that the responsibility for insuring artworks lay with the exhibitors rather than ourselves.

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Establishing the gallery The first exhibition in the gallery was the entries to the facade repainting competition. We formally invited all of our contacts at the school of architecture, the council, the universities and developers – not in the expectation that many would come in person, but again to show that we were already doing things in the city. For the following week, through our contacts at the school of architecture and the Manchester Society of Architects, we had secured the gallery as the venue for the closing party of the inaugural Manchester Architecture and Design Festival, to coincide with an exhibition of work by architecture students. This event was well attended by staff from the School and some members of the Society, useful contacts for organising EASA. These two events were instrumental in establishing the gallery amongst architects, staff and students. A broader awareness came with An Urban Ecology of Chance, a solo show by a fine artist who had already exhibited in other more established venues in the city. This exhibition resulted from a personal contact between the head of the school of architecture and a professor of arts, who recommended the space to Daniel Staincliffe, the artist.

This exhibition brought in artists and students from across the city, and word spread rapidly across all the artists in the city. The gallery was an established part of the cultural landscape.

In talking to people in the city about EASA, we found that it was difficult to communicate just what EASA was, and it was very easy to put people off the idea, especially if they began to think it was ‘just a big piss-up’. The best way to explain the event to our existing supporters and potential sponsors was an exhibition in the gallery that we had created. EASA: An Exhibition would bring together archive films, photographs and whatever artefacts and descriptions we could gather to try to present as full an experience of the event as possible. It was timed to coincide with the Manchester SESAM so that, on the preview night, there would be genuine European architecture students

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there for visitors to talk to, and the goal of the SESAM participants was to create an installation on their first impression of the city.

The experience of putting together the exhibition would once again be an instruction in the management of volunteers, and the difficulty in gathering materials from the network meant that large amounts of it had to be organised at the last minute during the week when the SESAM participants were staying at HQ. We succeeded in obtaining free printing from the school of architecture and the exhibition was the largest and most impressive at the gallery to that date. On entering the gallery, the visitor saw first a wall-size map of Europe. On this the locations of all historical EASA events were marked, and four hundred threads from all the countries in Europe converged on Manchester. Below this was a pile of looped TVs showing all of the films that we had acquired. In the alcove to the left the beginning of a time line that ran throughout the A report written after the exhibition is available in the appendix.

gallery, from the first event in 1981 and leading the visitor through time

up the stairs to the room dedicated to Manchester 2010. Along the way there were rooms dedicated to workshops, sleeping (with a full-scale mock-up bunk made of scaffolding and covered with sleeping bags), lectures, and a cinema showing the three most professional films on a loop.

Unfortunately, we had not anticipated the difficulty of getting busy businesspeople to an exhibition at a gallery they hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t heard of. The preview was well attended by all our friends at the School of Architecture, the Society of Architects, other artistic organisations, and a good few members of the public. It was a great evening that our corporate sponsors, actual and potential, missed. It was always going to be difficult, but we had sent out professional invitations well in advance by e-mail and over the telephone. We even had a plan for separate sponsor evenings, networking events to which individual companies would be specially invited. Over the following weeks the exhibition was visited by architecture students and artists. Despite the lack of professional attendance, there were positive outcomes of the exhibition,

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chiefly once again reminding important people of our presence and ambition.

In running the gallery, artists would often approach us with the intention of having a month-long exhibition. We quickly learned to avoid such long shows. The public preview evenings were usually very well attended, and then on subsequent days visitor numbers were low. In order to maintain a regular turnover of events we established a compact timetable where exhibitions previewed on a Thursday or Friday night, were open over the weekend, and were taken down on Monday ready for the following exhibition to set up on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Our insistence that artists invigilate their own shows should have saved us time, but initially we still had to open up the building to let them in, and lock up at the end.

This was an onerous task for the two-person

Issues of in team communication are discussed more fully in the communication chapter

team on the ground in Manchester, especially with the long and unsociable hours that many of the artists worked to. The solution was to sign a set of keys to the artists and trust them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not an ideal solution, as there was no way of securely sealing the office from the gallery and there was one incidence of theft. It was also very difficult to keep exhibitors out of our storage areas; we would often find that our furniture or painting materials had been used and modified without our permission.

In retrospect it would have been better if we had asked for a fee to exhibit at the gallery, and also asked for a refundable deposit. A fee to cover expenses would have prevented the financial drain of the first months of the organising period and we would perhaps have had greater resources for publicity and fund-raising. This, together with a deposit, might have made the exhibitors have a more professional attitude and treat us and the gallery with greater respect.

The initial ideas had been for the gallery to be self-funding, to raise our profile

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in the city to make it easier to attract sponsorship, to generate goodwill, and to broaden the impact of EASA on the city. We underestimated both the time and cost that such a commitment would take. Having a gallery did not help us with sponsorship; it is difficult enough to make possible sponsors understand what EASA is as an event. Mentioning the gallery and events too seemed to confuse the message further, while the visitor numbers were too small to be attractive. However, the gallery was a success in other areas. It generated a great deal of goodwill with the university and the council, and with those organising other festivals and events in the city. The weekly previews were exciting occasions which helped to bind the organising team together and lifted the spirits when the work was hard. The gallery and the events, to our knowledge unique in the history of EASA, did succeed in using the resources of the assembly to have a sustained and positive impact on the host city. easaUK2010 will vacate easaHQ in November 2010, 19 months after we moved in. The demolition date for the building, originally early 2011, has been put back by the collapse in the property market and so the building has at least another year to stand. Blank Media Collective, an arts organisation that curated one of the exhibitions in the gallery, had approached us earlier in the year about the future of the space, so when we found out that it was no longer due for demolition we let them know. They want to take on and run the building in a very similar way to us, as a cheap exciting exhibition space. The building owners have yet to agree, but we will do our best to convince them.

This might just be a lasting legacy for Manchester. [tbe]

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Chapter 8 - Filing Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve said before that the structure of EASA is not the most efficient model to have, whether this is a big issue or not is, in my opinion, a mute point - this is what we have to work with. One of the points where it is not very efficient is communicating. Communicating can be conversations, it can be meetings or a number of other things, but for an organising team it also includes being able to find documents when needed, rather than having to find the person who made it, and asking for it to be transferred to your machine. With this in mind we set up a filing system based directly on the Irish model from 2008.

With so many people working on easa010, a coherent filing system and professional adherence to it are vital. The filing system will be in two parts, with editable documents on a web based, virtual, filing system to allow access at all times, whilst avoiding duplication and errors in saving. There will also be an office based desk top tower for saving of photos and video.

Numbers/names Each team member has a shorthand user name. All files will be saved with the date first, title and name of user last; of the type: yy-mm-dd_title_user For example: 09-06-17_doc050_ckm Note: Hyphens are used within elements (as for the date). Underscores are used to separate elements.

Documents All documents to be issued, be it internal, network or external, will be given a document number. This document number will relate to where to find it in the document filing system.

See Appendix A for the file tree.

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Documentation of every aspect of the event is paramount. Photographs from every event will be used: on the web site, on posters, in info docs and publications after the event. With this in mind, folders for documentation have been created for each event.

In practice though, the filing system, though vital to getting anything done, wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t adhered to in full by the team and in the end the only sections of the filing system based on an external hard drive in the office that worked anywhere near properly were the sections with photos from previous assemblies and the section with documents produced for easa010. The result of this was a tremendous amount of small pieces of wasted time over a long period that affected productivity of time spent in the office, but more majorly, it always cause major slowdowns at times of big production - sponsor document, welcome guide, final report.

It is advisable to investigate means of remote filing too. It is hard to ignore that the internet has made many aspects of organising EASA easier, and for 2010 we made use of some of the more simple things out there to help the process.

One of our sponsors - AODL - set up an e-mail service with google, and with it came the ability to use google docs. Google docs allowed us to produce documents online that we could all access for information and update. These were always useful for things like contact lists, but towards the end they were also a real time saver for budgeting and shopping. Having documents stored centrally meant that everyone was working from the current iteration at all times. [cma]

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Chapter 9 - Incorporation The formation of a company to organise easa010 was always our intent, and though we managed to get sponsorship paid to us for the bid, the two month delay caused by not being a legally recognised organisation was all the added incentive we needed.

Yet from beginning to research the process to becoming incorporated took over six months. Why? Incorporating a company is a serious business, it brings responsibilities for those named as directors and this can have serious repercussions - we’ll talk about the impact of this in the post EASA chapter in Section Three.

This sudden legal step will jolt the organising team out of the typical EASA state of team interaction, and if it is not treated carefully, can add an unwanted level of hierarchy. It is important that directors don’t take on a controlling attitude, but it is also vital that non-directors treat the organisation and company seriously as the repercussions for the directors can include stiff financial penalties or even jail.

At the time we were becoming incorporated as well as seemingly endless trawling through legal documents and online advice from companies house, Tom was working towards his final year hand in and I was swamped with team expansion and meeting after meeting to do with the other aspects of organising. It’s worth noting we were looking into charitable status at this time too - but that, as they say, is another story.

After gaining a good understanding of what to do, we had laid out our charter ensuring that the company would be not-for-profit, and realised incorporation as a company limited by guarantee was for us. It was the actual incorporation that was holding us up, the simple fact was we had no experience and didn’t know what to do.

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A chance meeting turned out to hold the key to this for us. At a friends party I had met his neighbor, a landlady who also worked as an adviser who connected small business to training funding, Hadil Ali. Hadil was really interested in EASA and became involved as an organiser. She arranged a meeting with Business Support Solutions who ran through the forms for free with us, she then contacted HJM solicitors who agreed to sign off the forms in return for sponsor status.

We were incorporated as easaUK2010 Ltd on 29th April 2009 with Chris Maloney as Chairman and Tom Bennell as Secretary - the only two people available to sign at the time we fell into the positions. Alex Maxwell and Paul Farrell were added as directors in February 2010. [cma]

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Chapter 10 - Finances Regulatory and financial context As a company, easaUK2010 ltd was legally required to keep proper accounts, to be submitted to Companies House once annually. We were also required to designate a treasurer who would be responsible for keeping track of money in a transparent and accountable manner.

Charity From the outset it was our intention to be a registered charity. We felt that our objectives were charitable; other EASAs in the past, particularly Ireland (where the regulatory framework is similar to that in the UK) had been registered charities. The status offered a number of advantages: 1.

It is a requirement for access to most artistic and educational trusts,

depending on a successful funding application, and often also for access to the funds of public bodies and quasi-non-governmental organisations.

2.

Tax reductions and exemptions are available to charities when they are

not available to non-profit companies.

3.

Being a charity is powerful shorthand for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a good thingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in the popular

imagination and would make people and companies far more likely to donate money to us.

With this in mind, we established the company with legally defined objectives that were, in our view, charitable.

Bank accounts With the company established, we opened bank accounts in the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name. The details of our paying in account, used for participation fees and the great majority of other income, would be made very public and the risk of fraud therefore increased. Our solution was to follow the Irish example, and make this an account that would not have nor be ever able to have a cheque book, direct debits or credit/debit cards. This turned out to be a savings account.

We also opened two current accounts, with the intention that one would be used to store the bulk of our money (deep pool), and the other (operational)

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for day-to-day transactions.

Diagram x: easauk2010 bank accounts and operation.

In the event, the setup of our bank accounts worked reasonably as planned.

Having our gateway account as a savings account had the additional advantage that it earned some money in interest for us. The deep pool account served as an ideal safe box for money which we knew we had to spend, such as the rent for the accommodation, but had not spent yet. With such an unpredictable and rapidly changing budgetary situation it gave great peace of mind to know that we had enough money stored away to cover our essential out goings. Having this account only accessible by the treasurer reduced the chances of mistakes.

Preliminary budgets and a business plan After winning the bid and beginning to organise the assembly, it was important to have an idea how much the assembly we planned to host would cost. This was primarily so that we had an idea how much money we would have to raise, but also because funding applications usually require detailed supporting documents including a budget and a business plan.

The initial budget was based on the costs of previous assemblies, modified by our knowledge of local conditions and our specific aims. This first budget can be found in the appendixes. It informed our fund-raising work and, as the project developed, allowed us to identify which parts of the assembly plan were best value for money, and which were most expensive â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what we could afford to do and what we would have to change. This budget was not formally updated until several months before the assembly itself, when we had a much better idea of how much we had to spend and what our activities would be.

Accounts: day to day operation during the organising period For much of the organising period, the team working in the office was small and any events that we were involved with were inexpensive. It was sufficient to use the operational account for most transactions, with Chris and Tom each having a debit card to make payments where necessary.

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The SESAM in February 2010 provided a dry-run of the bank account system.

Participants transferred money from European banks to the savings account, this money was transferred to the petty cash account, and then spent. We did not need to use the deep pool because the sums and risk were much smaller than in the assembly itself.

Cash flow chart: discussion November 2008-May 2010.

1.

In its early stages, easa010 was heavily dependent on small loans from

the directors and donations from their families and friends. This money was only paid back when the participation fees began to come in.

2.

SESAM was nearly cash neutral

3.

Small events like get sectioned were vital in the early days

4.

We only passed the £5000 barrier, a prerequisite for charitable status,

after the participation fees began to come in. By then it was too late to become a charity (see separate discussion).

Charity easauk2010 was never registered as a charity. In the UK as in most countries, company and charity law is set up with the assumption of continuity. EASA simply moves too fast. To register an organisation as a charity takes a minimum of three working weeks, but it also requires proof of an annual turnover of at least £5000. easaUK2010 passed this threshold when the participation fees began to come in, by which time it was already too late: firstly because the deadline for the grant applications for which charitable status was necessary had passed, and secondly because the participation payment structure fell foul of the charity commission’s guidelines for charging. Extracts from our correspondence with the charity commission are reproduced in the appendix. [tbe]

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Chapter 11 - Fund raising The budget for easa010 was one of the smallest ever for an EASA, and relative to the cost of the location and changes in the market may possibly rank as the most frugal of all time. In comparison to the reputed $1m of the train, the $1.2m of Denmark or even the more recent €300,000 + of Ireland, the £106,000 (about €120,000 at the time) turn over of easa010 really stands out, but how did it come to this, and how did we cope?

What went wrong? <<<<<< The answer to the first part of the question also come is two parts, put simply the recession that started to cast a shadow over EASA 2008’s and had a negative effect on EASA 2007’s fund-raising ability was a sustained reality even before we got started. Along with this we had a number of false starts within the team in structuring a functioning fund-raising effort.

Fund rasing takes time, lots of time. In the very early days, when the team was just a small number of people, fund-raising was done with on the back of identifying key partners. When the team started to expand the tasks were reviewed in order to be better distributed, it was agreed that tasks and roles relating to writing documents, accounts, running the office, the team and communicating with the network along with existing partners and backers where a trusted relationship was already in place required full time attention and therefore full time team members. Fund-raising, and a number of other tasks was agreed to have a coordinator and was a task that anyone could take part in as their schedule permitted. This way everyone was in theory involved in fund-raising, and as such it was the most staffed element of the organisation process. In theory.

Unfortunately the numbers of people working on fund-raising was not matched with the required focus.

Somewhere along the line the urgency

shown in other areas of the team wasn’t matched in the fund-raising field for a significant amount of time ; first calls were made to companies, but were

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never phoned back - there are numerous spreadsheets bearing witness to first contacts and no further information; for a long time things as simple as a staple sponsor document were not produced, but time was put into redefining the levels of sponsorship available - the next chapter will talk more about the importance of brand stability. At weekly meetings very little feedback from the fund-raising team was being put to the group and as a whole the team became more frustrated and tensions began to show. It is at times like these that people will begin to question the structure of a team which affords all members an equal involvement, it is important to, as a team, remember why you are doing it, what EASA is about. From a purely pragmatic point of view any attempt to assert control over the each others roles or implement punitive measures - whatever they might be; how can you sack someone from a voluntary, everyone welcome, organisation? - would create more fissures it the team and more inefficiency. Unfortunately, over time, the fund-raising team shed members, with people just not turning up. Having been concerned at the turn of the year (2009 - 2010) about the lack of money coming in the team had overhauled the fund-raising effort in the hands of a coordinator, by the end of February it was in tatters, with only full timers making any head way. It was at this point I created a definitive sponsor document and took up direct contact with team members around the UK. The issue of recession is one that was put to us during the bid in 2008, and I remember saying that of course the recession would make it harder to gain funding, but as we had never had to gain funding before we didn’t know any better and therefore wouldn’t notice the difference. The effect was easy for us to notice though, with the long, long, long, long line of people we spoke to who told us that “We’re really interested, and 12 months ago we could have done something, but right now we’re having to sack people, so it wouldn’t be right.”

The best example for both these problems comes from summing up our public funding = £0. EU money was not investigated by the fund-raising team,

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despite a lot of ground work going into the research between the bid Nov. 2007 and Aug. 2008, the work simply wasn’t picked up and the deadlines passed us by. Local public funding was investigated though. At the time there was a body called the North West Development Agency, this agency was responsible for distributing EU funding allocated to the region - the funding coordinator mistakenly assumed this meant all EU money possible, but in fact it didn’t include monies applied for directly. The NWDA loved the idea, we were advised to go for matched funding meaning that for every £1 we secured they would double it - great! Unfortunately this advice - from a senior member of the NWDA proved to be a little simplistic, as in fact we needed to approach a myriad of subcommittees to gain the funding. All this was a mute point in the end anyway, the eagle eyed reader will have spotted I have been referring to the NWDA in the past tense. The final complication to our fund-raising was the specter of a general election in June 2010. It was clear for a long time in the UK that the right of centre Conservative Party would win the election and in turn it was their policy to cut public spending. This did two things, one it made private companies nervous of the coming financial climate and reluctant to give away capital and two it meant that publicly funded bodies that may have been a source of funding were concerned over their existence so were similarly unwilling to entertain cash sponsorship. Before the assembly took place the NWDA was disbanded, meaning all funding was cut, if we had been involved with this funding stream it would have been a disaster to the budget.

What went right? <<<<<< Having covered ‘how did it come to this?’ I must we can move on to the more uplifting ‘how did we cope?’

I’ve spoken to problems within the team to

create a dedicated fund-raising arm but as with all aspects of organising, when things were not perfect there were people willing to pick up the slack and put the extra work in - but before we get to that part, the story starts, as ever, with the decisions made before the bid.

As this will be the first time the team are organising an event of this nature the only thing we have to take to sponsors is our words and our

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professionalism. Beyond this we have to be careful to neither undersell ourselves nor attempt to go to the same well too often.

Sponsorship is not complicated, but it is vital to have a clear outline of what is happening, no one should approach sponsors at any level without it being discussed at the team meetings first.

For clarity the level attributed to a contributor has been banded, relating to the level of financial backing provided by an institution: Partners: Partner status is reserved for major contributors to easa010.

This contribution includes: a very large cash sum, a principle space for the event, key advice and highly technical specialist help; or a mix of the above.

Backers: Backer status requires: a substantial cash sum, a collection of secondary spaces, material sponsorship, or key professional support.

Event sponsors: Event sponsorship costs ÂŁ500. The sponsor can choose an event in the build up to the assembly to be associated with.

Building sponsors: Building sponsorship costs ÂŁ1000. The sponsor will have their details displayed at easaHQ for the duration of the organisation process.

Friends of easa: Friend status is available to individuals only and costs ÂŁ50. Friends of easa010 will be acknowledged in all easa010 publications.

Organisers document: 050 EASA is a complex thing to explain in its entirety to someone unfamiliar with it, so it is important to learn to simplify what you are saying dependant on who you are talking to and why you are talking to them, this is especially true when approaching companies for sponsorship. Essentially you are asking them to put their companies, their bosses, money in to your idea. Obviously presentation, documents, logos, being well dressed all help, but to get anywhere at all you have to be clear on some key points: 1. Who you are 2. What are you asking for 3. What do they get. It is best to treat the pursuit of sponsorship as a long

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conversation, at each stage you are keeping the conversation interesting in order to have more time to explain a little more, you wont get the promise of money on your first phone call, so don’t ask, you can say you are looking for sponsorship and would they like to see some more information about the event? You first goal when contacting a company is to meet them face to face to give them a presentation, that’s all - it’s less scary to think of it like this than to think about the pressure of getting a set figure of money.

As mentioned already, when we entered into the organising of easa010 in the midst of the recession, and as such we realised that the recent funding model for EASA wouldn’t be enough. We had seen the problems faced by EASA Italy in raising funds for 2009, how they had worked intensely hard on the event but money remained tight. We knew we needed to be inventive. From the outset we asked all NCs to help with sponsorship for the assembly and when approached by people outside of the UK willing to help we sent them sponsor packs and suggestions of types of people to approach and what to say. At first this yielded small success with Denmark and Ireland the only countries to come forward with successful fund-raising. Closer to the event we approached the network once more with the same request and this time it was met with a fantastic response and we brought in something like £3,000 in the last couple of weeks this way - it is my firm opinion that the immediate future of fund-raising for EASA will rely on the whole network.

Tools <<<<<< I think by now I’ve made the point that finding cold hard cash in a recession is tough, but that doesn’t mean don’t ask for cash, you might get something else you need, which is why at the very outset we wrote the possibility of in kind sponsorship into the definitions of the sponsorship levels.

Despite being a priority from the outset tools and material sponsorship was left really late, with tools sourced at the eleventh hour and only materials for the competition found at all. Tools are an obvious thing to try and get for free, they are relevant to the profession and EASA has a good history of

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gaining a major tool sponsor. First port of call was Dealt, but following their initial interest and a little investigation from their UK branch, their response was that in their opinion they had sponsored the whole of EASA in 2007 by gifting tools permanently - so we should have them to use. Hilti were also initially interested but this interest cooled. We eventually had success when Christoph and Sam approached Makitaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advertising company with one of our sponsor documents. They followed up their interest while the boys were out of town and I supplied them with the information they needed about EASA day and our commitment to other partners. With our support they sold the idea to Makita, who agreed to supply our electrical tools and - to our delight - stated that as part of the deal they wanted to do a complete safety demonstration, fulfilling part of our insurance obligation.

Tools was a great example of

something falling through the cracks, but with concerted team work being brought together in the end.

Cash brought in, as can be seen in the budget, was at a premium - literally every little helped. Fund-raising is a many wondrous thing, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best to hear how it was done direct from the people who did it, so here I pass the batten here to Joe Frame to elucidate his experience, I will be back to talk through some examples of money that I got hold of. [cma]

CASH SPONSORSHIP >>>>>> Architecture Offices During the boom of the last 10 years it seems that architectural offices were quite free with their money, but for easa010 offices were not a particularly lucrative group to approach due to the economic conditions under which we were working. I personally contacted over 60 offices and received nothing from any of them, and as a team we contacted pretty much every office in Manchester and over 100 in London with similar results

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The system we used was to first make a telephone call and ask for someone in public relations or human resources, then explain to this person briefly what EASA is and then ask if they would be interested in a sponsorship brochure or pdf for them to have a further look at. This sponsorship document explained EASA more fully along with the sponsorship possibilities we were offering such adverts in our literature, lecture opportunities, promotional materials in the welcome pack and many other things.

Invariably people will say they are interested at this stage as they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be dismissive, but once you have sent it the laborious task of reaching them again and getting a definitive answer from them begins. Having a spreadsheet to keep track of the status of each line of enquiry is essential; otherwise you will be lost and make mistakes.

It can be a very boring and depressing task, being on the phone all day, repeating yourself and repeatedly being told no, which is why it is better to have team of people doing it.

As a team we stopped contacting architecture firms about 2 months before the assembly as we decided it was not worth our time considering the lack of successes. In a final salvo I e-mailed all the contacts that I had made at offices containing a thank you and the link to our fund-raising button on the web site asking for it to be forwarded around the office so people could make personal donations if they wished. I myself have little idea this elicited any donations, but it was a positive way of closing communications.

Charities <<<<<< There a lot of charities that share aims with EASA with regards to developing communities, promoting Europe and so on. By the time I became involved in fund-raising it was too late for me to apply for specific grants from them due to passed deadline, so I was making contact for small scale cash sponsorship for people to come and lecture or hand out information to participants using the same technique as with the architects; making direct contact, sending the

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sponsorship pack and then following up with another phone call.

I did not meet with much success as they are charities and are not used to people asking them to pay to talk to an audience. Obviously each country has different charities, but ones whose aims are developing communities are the obvious ones to research and approach, in our case The Princeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Foundation for the Built Environment is an example.

Building Suppliers / Vested Interest Groups for Building Materials We as a team found far more success in approaching building suppliers and vested interest groups to lecture at EASA in exchange for sponsorship, whilst I personally concentrated on the vested interested groups. Many building material companies fund groups whose job is to promote that material; ie: concrete, glass, plastics, photo voltaic etc. Researching once again is a vital part of finding these groups, as there are more than you could imagine, some of them far more professional/well-funded than others, but all provide the opportunity to get some money in exchange for giving them a very diverse captive audience to talk to and distribute information to. There is always the concern that you are selling out and subjecting the participants to lectures from very dull people, but invariably those organisations that are interested will have members of staff dedicated to giving presentations and should be relatively good at it. The Brick Development Agency was one such group that I secured to give a lecture to the participants.

Approaching vested interest groups is somewhat easier than a nonarchitectural business or architecture firm as there is a very clear investment opportunity for them, in that promoting themselves is what they are funded to do. With an architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office for example the return for sponsorship is hard to define, past getting their name known to a group of students who could apply there for a job. During boom times it is more likely that offices are competing for graduates, but the environment we were working in meant this was low on their list of priorities. With the Brick Development Agency I simply rang them

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and followed the same script as I used with everyone: “Hello, My name is ……., I am calling from the European Architecture Students Assembly which is taking place in Manchester this summer.

[Explanation of how interesting, exciting and worthwhile EASA is whilst stressing that it will not be back in the country for possibly 30 years, so it is now or never] We are looking for sponsorship and we have 450 future architects who would be a unique audience for you to inform about your area of expertise (bricks).

Would you be interested? I can send you some further information and the sponsorship pack and then give you a call back when it is convenient.”

Once the initial commitment was there it was simply a matter of finalising the details; it probably took about 5 phone calls over 2 weeks just for this one organisation, what with people being on holiday and some confusion over dates, but eventually we reached an agreement on the date of the lecture. It is a long process and there is always the possibility they will change their mind.

There was some discussion as to the topic of the lecture, but invariably they will have a set text that they will tweak to the audience. In our case I stressed that fact that we are students, so possibly more interested in cutting edge use of brick rather than its history or extant of usage. The final part of the process is writing the invoice to them, await the cheque and trust that their speaker will turn up at the agreed time.

Charitable arms of national companies Many lager companies have a charitable arm that gives money to develop communities in a PR exercise to ally fears that they are destroying local identities by filling all high streets with the same shops. Whether or not it is a sincere concern of these companies is not particularly relevant, but the

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chance to get some cash from them is. However, once again personally I was too late to apply for these funds due to passed deadlines, despite me sending the odd pleading e-mail for special consideration I got nowhere. So this is something to start doing as early as possible due to fixed deadlines and the complex application processes.

Local companies / National Companies based locally Appealing to large local companies or national ones based in the locale, even it they are completely unrelated to architecture, is another avenue we pursued.

For example Bruntwood is the largest office rental company in Manchester, who pledged their support and all though no funds actually appeared they were a good name to have behind us. These companies should view it as good PR to be seen supporting such a unique and special event in their town/city, but some just don’t care and you will never be able to actually speak to anyone relevant.

As the assembly approached I made contact with a number of large companies in Manchester, such as the Co-operative Supermarket Group and Stagecoach Buses without much success. Once again I was given the impression that companies couldn’t bee seen to be giving away money whilst they had to make staff redundant, which was very frustrating. Also they are maybe not so concerned with marketing themselves to 450 people who don’t live in the city as they will see no return on that money from the participants. So approaching them has to be very much about how EASA engages the local community and supporting us supports the community. >>>>>> International Companies We assumed as a team that international companies would be very interested in supporting EASA as it is such a multinational group they could promote their products to a wide range of people at once. However we began to realize that each country obviously has it’s own headquarters, and as a result they are mainly concerned with sales and promotion within that country, so there were not particularly more enthusiastic than national companies.

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I would recommend approaching Illy Coffee as over the past few years they have supported numerous EASAs and the employee who sorted out our machine told me each year there is a conference in Italy and he had seen the Irish representative bragging about supporting EASA and showing lots of photos of trendy Europeans drinking their coffee. As a result he wanted to compete with the Irish Illy distributors by supporting us as well. This atmosphere of competitiveness would only play to our advantage with certain companies who appreciate the marketing opportunities of having photographs of EASAians using their product. Unfortunately I cannot offer any other suggestions at this point.

Welcome Pack <<<<<< For better or for worse the Welcome Pack is an EASA staple. It is a nice way for people to arrive, by being given a bag of presents along with promotional material for sponsors and like. When trying to find products to fill the welcome pack it is important to think of companies who want to market their product to students, young people of just anybody. We managed to secure 1000 bottles of Vitamin water as it had only been recently launched in the UK and the company wanted to promote it as much as possible. Other companies that we approached but met with little success were energy drinks, design firms and so on. The most bizarre attempt I made personally was ringing up Durexâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PR company to try to get some free condoms, and trying to explain over the phone in a polite way of how EASA can sometimes become the sort of place where condoms are in high demand. I failed with the condoms but they are the sorts of things that we were trying to get for the welcome pack. Even approaching companies for branded things like lighters or whistles is worthwhile, although it was something that fell by the wayside for us as we devoting a lot of energy on the larger forms of sponsorship as we were in dire straights at times.

I managed to get 450 back issues of MARK magazine by taking a name from the Ireland008 final report and simply e-mailing them, mentioning Ireland and asking for similar support. They were delivered to our office a week before the

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start of the assembly, we put a link on our web site and that was that. It was the easiest bit of sponsorship ever.

Fee Pfeiffer (fee@framemag.com) is the woman to contact for future organisers in search of Mark magazines.

THINGS YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO PAY FOR I rather naively thought that if we explained to companies that were providing us a service (eg: portable toilets, refuse management etc) how we were nonprofit, for the local community, student organization we could get some sort of discount/ free service in exchange for promotion similar to other sponsors.

In retrospect it is obvious that you will not get something free from a company that makes its profit from providing that service. Toilet companies presumably do not market themselves to the public in the same way that drinks products do, so you cannot treat them the same way. It is a cynical thing to say, but no one cares about EASA as much as EASAians, so there are some things that you will just have to pay for. My only success was getting some free bin bags from Emerge recycling (explained in the refuse management section), but this was because they are a charity that promotes communities, so our interests dovetailed to an extent, also Emerge employees were just very nice. Whilst we had a huge amount of support from official figures, there was a definite lack of philanthropic attitude amongst the business sector of Manchester, presumably as a direct result of the economic down turn.

GENERAL ADVICE Have 2 or more people directly responsible for fund-raising. It is too important for 1 person to deal with and it means that when it gets too depressing for 1 person, the other can take up some of their slack.

The people directly responsible should have been to previous EASAs so they have an emotional responsibility to do their job properly and appreciate the

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reality of 450 people being their responsibility.

Create a very detailed Google spreadsheet with ALL types of sponsorship on so that people can easily keep track of what is going on and who is dealing with which organisation. This stops people harassing the same organisation, everyone can contribute suggestions of companies to approach, all contact details are in the same place and so on.

When contacting companies you should ring them up and ask for whom to speak to (unless you can find a specific name on the internet). Having a specific contact means that person is more likely to reply. If you simply send an e-mail/letter to a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s general enquiries you will never get a reply.

Ask when it is convenient for you to call them back and then make sure you do as we found that people didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ring back despite promising to.

Get the right people doing the calling, but also remind others who are more reticent that the worst thing people can do is say no. In all my hassling of people I no one was ever rude towards me.

With private institutions make contact before the end of the financial year so if you are successful EASA can be budgeted for. I lost count of how many times I was told that we were too late as all budget had been assigned for that year.

With public institutions do a lot of research on deadlines and requirements.

The deadlines are invariably a long time prior to EASA so you have to start researching as soon as you can. There is a whole range of institutions who will give money to develop exchange within Europe for which EASA is a perfect candidate.

People will often say they think they are interested in supporting EASA and then they will never make contact or reply to you again.

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Do not count on any money promised to you until it is in the bank.

The one yes that you get after all the rejections is an incredibly satisfying feeling.

Try to up sell companies from the minimum cost once they have committed to supporting EASA. Have an up to date calendar of events to ensure you do not double book lecturers.

Prepare a standard informative e-mail to distribute to lecturers as the assembly approaches so that you know they have the correct location. This is because people will not check their old e-mails and assume they haven’t been informed and ring up and complain.

Be prepared to have some idea of lecture topics when talking to specific vested interest groups. >>>>>> Partners Carefully consider which companies will be interested in different facets of EASA. Obviously architecture is the main selling point, but it is also a lot of students which is a big target audience for companies; building communities which could appeal to national businesses based in the city/area; companies that make a specific type building materials that they want ‘architects of the future’ to be aware of; European development agencies who are very happy to have so many people in one place, be they architects or not; local universities keen to attract foreign students; local shops who want to appear cool and trendy and so on. Basically you can twist EASA in many different ways to get different products or types of support, and during times of economic trouble you have to get quite creative and as much as it pains me to write such a cliché: ‘think outside the box’

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[jfr]

Up to this point we have spoken at length about recession, team, tactics, difficulties and what not, so how about some straight forward examples? The following are descriptions of sponsorship I worked on.

Partner status was reserved for institutions providing outstanding service, sponsorship in kind and cash investment in excess of £10,000.

ASK Developments, as has been discussed previously, were involved from early in the bid organisation. They provided us with free use of 43 Hulme Street, the commercial rent on which stood at £50,000 A council is a lot of independent, interconnected per year, along with free parking for the office. departments, meeting with one department is not enough to gather all the information.

Universities are the same, Manchester School of Architecture, University of but each department is a separate business.

Manchester (UoM) and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) were included for their combined efforts.

Due to the

Manchester School of Architecture being a joint course, caught between the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, it is impossible to consider a venture undertaken by the school as independent this plaid to our advantage.

The School itself couldn’t fund us with cash, but they gave us fantastic moral support, from the head to each head of year, meaning that we had fantastic access to the students, who in turn had great freedom to be involved. We were given a £1000 print budget for the build up to the assembly and a further £1000 for the assembly itself and after.

The School, as well as MMU

also gave us use of a number of spaces both in the build up and during the assembly. The Vice Chancellor of MMU was very supportive of the event and leant his political weight to gaining us support from the ‘who’s who’ of Manchester and was instrumental in putting together our impressive stack of

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letters of support for the bid. Having the VC backing was essential, thanks to his letter of support alone I was able to secure all the AV equipment for the assembly - Digital SLRs, Digital Video Cameras, tripods, digital sound recording equipment and projectors. His backing was also pivotal in how the assembly turned out and the efforts to relocate the sleeping accommodation. >>>>>> Cash Visit Manchester and Manchester City Council must also be considered together. Once again neither were able to give us cash sponsorship but their visible support elevated the organisation from student project to international event. Gaining the support needed from the council came from aiming high and rolling the support down. First we sent information packs and e-mails to the Head of the council and the Leader of the council, between them the two most important people in the city, and to be fair, far to busy to be hands on with a small event like ours. Out of this I received a call from Peter Babb, head No matter how hard it may seem there of Planning for Manchester - here is is cash out there to be got, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not all about hard work to get hold of a man that every architect in the city it, mostly itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about being inventive would like to have access to calling and persistent. me, he even came down to our bid launch to meet me and find out about EASA. From here I got meetings with the Events department, Cultural Strategy and more. When it came to putting in planning permission for Downtex the planning department and all relevant council departments put in a huge effort to get is through in time - more on which in Chapter 7. In terms of direct affect on the assembly we were given a Civic Reception in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall and all the contacts we built up were important when ever we approached anyone about using their space for EASA. It is not my intention to explain the politics of Manchester, but suffice it to say that the conurbation of Greater Manchester is split into ten metropolitan boroughs. In many ways Manchester can be viewed as a twin city divided from the City of Salford by the River Irwell. The political distinctions between the two areas are not apparent to most visitors to Manchester so we decided early on that for easa010 our definition for Manchester would be Grater Manchester

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but to avoid confusion would stick with the name of the city only.

I knew from EASA 2008 that the University of Salford had sponsored EASA £500 to have information included in the welcome pack - so I was confident when I approached the School for the Built Environment that we would be welcomed.

We secured an initial £1,000 for the bid and the use of the

North West’s RIBA gallery for an evening. Following the bid we were in the unfortunate position that the head of the school left and our replacement contact had an unfortunate string of incidents which kept him out of work for a significant amount of time. Having turned the contact over to the fundraising team I was disappointed with the lack of progress and took up the issue once more. After a series of e-mails I was able to reestablish contact and after a couple of meetings - both at Salford and Remember, students are not at HQ they apologised for not being able to come the biggest spenders in the world, so they are not the on as Partners, but offered £5,000 cash to secure juiciest market to sponsor.

Work out how you can increase backer level. For this they received all the usual your visibility to other sectors. coverage and it paved the way for a collaborative day workshop during the assembly.

Not all sponsorship comes out of hard work on the part of the team - it is worth ending each and every meeting by thanking who ever it is for meeting with you and asking them to mention you to anyone that might be interested in the assembly. For us this paid off in the shape of cold hard cash. Colin Pugh, acting head of Manchester School of Architecture is also an active member of the Standing Council of Heads of Schools of Architecture (SCHOSA). Though the School couldn’t give us cash Colin took our case to SCHOSA who agreed to fund us £2,000 on the proviso that we run some kind of event that they would be interested in.

Which brings us to a UK only conference we ran in June. The quite remarkably named United Kingdom Architecture Students Self Actuated Projects Conference was a fixture in our thinking of how to convert the energy of EASA

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in the UK into something permanent - more of which in Section Four. In our proposal for the funding from SCHOSA the conference was outlined as the primary outcome of their sponsorship. The conference was always going to go ahead and for a long time we had been thinking about doing it for free participation, but we changed our minds on this due to the miniscule support showed by schools of architecture around the 4 countries that make up the UK. Having personally e-mailed every single school in the British Isles that ran an accredited, or otherwise, course in architecture and posted out brochures and letters to heads of around 30 of the top schools I had received in the region of 5 replies, of which none were offering sponsorship (one school did sponsor us, but that was prior to this push, and I am coming to that). So instead I decided that we should charge for participation in the conference You stand the best chance of cash sponsorship is you work out in advance the audience they want to be seen by and tell them how you can achieve that.

and ask the students to approach their schools for the money - which worked, we squeezed a further ÂŁ700

into the kitty, meaning the conference grossed ÂŁ2,700 for an event we ran completely in easaHQ and got free coffee for from the School of Architecture.

When looking for funding there are two ways to do it, the unsuccessful way is to rely on peoples generosity and hope they give you money just for existing, the other is to work out what they want and realise you are actually selling something. To some you are selling a life style and some great photos Makita - to others you are selling visibility, and there are a number of EASA staples that can do this.

The welcome pack is a very useful thing, it is guaranteed to enter the possession of every participant, and is likely to return home with them too. Because of this you can sell space within it. Though contacting Sheffield University I got in conversation with the architecture department and with the help of one of our team who was studying there convinced them of the virtues of EASA. We

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got £500 in return for information in the welcome pack.

Not everything in the welcome pack needs to be advertising space. A contact of mine who works in a gallery was able to secure 1000 bottles of Vitamin Water, 427 of which we gave out to participants on arrival.

When I talk about the ability of EASA to reach people I also put my money where my mouth is.

This year we were looking for a wristband sponsor,

and with the deadline looming for submitting the design to the fabricators I seized the opportunity to gain some advertising for a contribution driven, online, architecture publication - disparate magazine. Covering the cost of fabrication, around £260.

You stand a better chance of sponsorship in kind if you can take a product into Inventiveness in fund-raising can be expressed an unfamiliar setting - a health drink to artists, for in different ways, one way was to grab sponsors example. interest with something they didn’t want, but have ready something they did.

In June it was clear that the fund-raising team had not been having success approaching companies and convincing them to support EASA. I decided to combine last minute fund-raising with two of my other tasks - the evening lecture series and making sure the competition workshop happened.

I

produced an alternative sponsor document with much more narrow bands of options, a shopping list almost. For the lectures I was unwilling to jeopardise the excellent quality of the content of the assembly so I went through the highly useful RIBA product selector CPD (continued professional development) lecture section to find interesting companies, institutions and manufacturers that might be interested in lecturing to ‘400 of the continents brightest, and highly motivated young architects.’ I worked through the list asking to speak to the marketing department and went from there. In the end this landed £500 from the Stone Federation and £250 from Schindlers (lift manufactures).

For the competition I approached the UK’s largest manufacturer of plasterboard, British Gypsum. Having created interest in the project I was told quite early

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that they would support us with materials, what followed is quite a dull story to recount in full - that doesn’t always stop me, so you know it must be - so long story short, the initial contact went on holiday, I was passed around until she got back, a heck of a lot of work was put in from her to find us a local supplier that we then need to set up an account for and the go ahead came 2 days before the assembly started and even then it took nearly a week to get any on site.

Not all sponsor negotiations result in free money or goods, and as Joe before me pointed out, you wont have much luck getting things for free for an event from people who make their living from event organising, but you can negotiate better deals for you by offering exposure and advertising. Two examples for us were my negotiations with Illy coffee who loaned us all the equipment for free and Kro catering who not only brought the cost of the evening meal down from £5.99 per person to £3.50, but also stepped in during the move to offer us a tremendous rate on beer to retail on their own premises.

To return to the question that must seem like a lifetime ago by now - ‘how did we cope?’ Simply put we worked as hard on searching out the most cost effective option at every turn whilst paying close attention to the core issues of the assembly. If we had had twice as much money I doubt the assembly would have been too much different, but maybe the organising might have been a little more stress free. [cma] Apple Approach It became apparent from when we started reviewing the workshop applications that there was a noticeable shift towards explorations and projects that were much more reliant on ‘media’, - for want of a better word. Why this was I can only speculate; whether a response to the theme and the various ways

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we represent our identity and that of our environs, or simply due to the proliferation of new and emergent digital technologies.

It was clear we needed some top quality kit to supply some of the demands being placed on us by the tutors. We needed, and wanted, a media suite, somewhere in the middle of town so as to be best placed for access to the other easa010 locations and the city as a whole. No big deal.

We were aware that Apple computers had sponsored a workshop in Ireland back in 2008. Approaching previous sponsors had had mixed results, largely depending on the relationship and lasting impressions between sponsor and organising team. Due to the excellent documentary which was an outcome of the workshop and stories of top-end systems, we guessed that it had gone well. We got an e-mail address for the person who they had dealt with.

Interested that EASA was back in the UK, she put me in touch with her UK counterpart, which resulted in a positive response.

What followed was a one way conversation for the best part of four months.

Weekly e-mails from myself asking for a response to my proposal were left unanswered. Fearful of a phantom contact, and unreachable on LinkedIn and the apple web site, I tried several combinations of his original e-mail address until, Success! A response from a different domain! My relief was almost as great as the joy and ease of the arrangement we came to in super quick time.

Within a week, three e-mails and a short telephone conversation, we were the beneficiaries of a fully spec-ed computer suite that far exceeded what we were hoping for. What made the deal so pain free was that we were putting on an event for people that were (one of) their key demographics - young creatives who aren’t afraid to spend money on quality kit. And Apple were so confident that there products were what the participants wanted that they didn’t want any public recognition as a sponsor for the assembly. “The product would sell itself”.

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Advice Get what you are and what you do into the first line of every contact or greeting. Once I finally got into a voice conversation with the guy at Apple he remembered seeing a forwarded copy of my first e-mail to the Irish contact.

This positive reaction led to a (relatively) quick deal.

Be persistent. It took time to get where I needed due to technical errors/ oversight, but the action of not letting something drop if you want it enough holds true Be ingratiating until they give you an inch, then ask for a mile. I selflessly put the ball in their court, gave them a bit of time and information, told them why they should help and what we could do for them. In truth, we would have been happy with anything they could loan us. So when they asked what we wanted, we told them, worked out to the ideal scenario. They came back to us with an offer that was nearly ideal, so we were pretty lucky.

Talk early to the right people. Its possible to spend too much time and energy talking/networking to people who will be of no use to you before the length of the meeting. It’ll take time to learn who are the time-wasters. Make sure you can take as well as give.

Hard facts Loaned items: x8 - MB953B/A: iMac 27” Core i5 x3 - Z0GP0B/A: MacBook Pro 17” i7 x2 - MC375B/A: MacBook Pro 13” 2.66 x2 - MC373B/A: MacBook Pro 15” 2.66 All with Creative Image (Apature, Final Cut Studio, Logic Studio) installed. [ama]

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Chapter 12 - Communication Any organisation, especially one with a network structure, would be foolish to underestimate the central role of communication to everything they do. It would be easy for me to talk at great length about the specific importance of communication but I hope that the breadth and depth of this document alone acts as a physical testament to the weight of value we place in it.

It may sound paradoxical for us as a team to state that we believe actions speak louder than words, that it is easy to talk about things but more important to do them, and that we wanted to make a statement with what we did rather than keep talking after the event about what other people should do in the future. But the communication we mean is not simply talking, rather it is effectively passing information.

When you start small you need

The importance of communication can not be overstated - it is the glue that holds any network together.

experience to be shared with people before they are experienced.

Internal Each area of the organisation has an associated coordinator. This allows any member of the team to come up with ideas pertaining to any aspect of easa010 and its build up. The organiser then, having checked the relevant organising document, brings the idea to the coordinator concerned. If the idea is feasible, that is to say doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t clash with other work, the coordinator then creates debate within the whole team as to whether the idea can and should be implemented. Tasks are allocated to make the idea happen, and then it is the responsibility of those charged with the tasks to see it happens.

To support communication within the team an account has been created with social networking site Ning.com This site allows constant debate and interaction over numerous subject matters. As befits the organisation, nothing is ever decided on Ning it is seen as an opportunity to float ideas prior to completing a proforma and bringing it to the relevant coordinator to discuss. Regular e-mails will be circulated, and easaHQ itself will act as a hub for many discussions.

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Network Individuals within the organising team are free to talk to members of the network about all aspects of the organisation process, and are encouraged to take an active interest in the EASA blog www.easa.tk It is important to remember, though, that an element of the unknown can improve the experience for participants of easa010. easaUK2010 has an obligation as a future organiser to regularly report to the network on progress. These reports start at the easa009 with the final one at easa011. Along with these presentations there are required documents to be produced for informative purposes, such as tutor packs and welcome guides. Further to this required output, easaUK2010 will also be producing network specific information and content in the form of short films and network press releases. These will contain factual information about Manchester, the UK and the theme, but will also allow for organisers creative side to have an outlet.

External From the start of the process of making easa010 in Manchester a reality the organisation has worked within two watchwords: visibility and believability. While it is important to gain visibility with potential collaborators, it is equally important that all the out put for easaUK2010 be consistent. All situations of first contact with potential collaborators will be handled by experienced members of the team, supported by standard information documents.

Media In order to bring money into the organisation, easaUK2010 needs to offer the collaborators something in return. As easaUK2010 wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be producing a commodity, the only thing that can be offered is visibility in areas that they want to be seen. To do this we need to pay close attention to the visibility we are generating for the event, organisation and collaborators.

There are two sides to gaining profile: Internal: Generating our own media content is a simple way of raising the profile of easaUK2010. Through the web site and newsletters we

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can make sure that collaborators are up to date on the progress of the organisation, as well as assuring them that their input into the event is being broadcast to their contemporaries in the city and beyond.

Generating our own content also allows us to communicate, both in house and to the wider network.

External: Gaining mainstream media attention will allow us to engage people we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have direct contact with. This has two effects: it will aid us in our aim to engage the population and residents of Manchester; it will also allow potentially interested parties to become aware of our work. Media attention will also be a useful tool when negotiating with potential contributors about the level of attention their input will receive.

Communication can be a very complex thing, Before contacting anyone, think who they are, what but once you start organising EASA you see soon they expect and what you want them to understand. The enough that the vast majority of your work - if key to good communication is putting yourself in the youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing it right - is talking to people, there other persons shoes. is not much autoCAD involved. Again, to help us simplify the task we broke down the broad groups we would be talking to throughout the organising, and then for each worked out what we would be communicating, from there we were free to work out how to communicate with them.

Broadly communication broke into two groups, internal - people who know what EASA is - and external - everyone else.

Team For us effective communication within the team was essential. Having 40+ schools of architecture in the UK lead to a dispersed team to begin with, added to that we had organisers working abroad for periods of the process and even more complication is added with our open door policy for anyone in EASA to get involved from wherever they were.

The importance of communication was two fold here, first and most obvious

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was to pass information, second was to make sure everyone felt involved in what was going on - knowledge is power, to limit what people in the team knew, intentionally or otherwise, would leave them in a unequal position in discussions and decision making.

The draw back with such a broad team to keep in touch with was that it could generate an unearthly amount of e-mails. We constantly explored ways to streamline the dissemination of information as well as promote discussion, it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always easy and was ever changing, but on the whole the determination to communicate overcame most problems.

To pick out just a few things we did: Meetings. Meetings are the core for all communication in a team, in the end Remember that 90% of the time you want everything comes down to face to something from the other person, so face, usually one on one, but getting build your communication around this. a large number of people together in a room on a regular basis is the simplest, most effective way of keeping involvement high.

Coordinators. We used coordinators throughout the organisation, the roles were always open to being defined, introduced, refined, removed, replaced.

Coordinators were responsible for keeping a view on a set of related tasks such as fund rasing or the gallery - and relating the information at meetings, it was a way of creating a node point for information so as to reduce the amount of time spent explaining what was happening and more efficiently spreading information.

Ning. In some ways www.ning.com is like facebook, but importantly it is built with small networks in mind. Free at the time we used it, it allowed team members, while still far apart, to knock ideas back and forth, share online sources and have light hearted banter. All important, but also important to

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keep out of more formal channels such as group e-mails.

Network Our communication with the network, in our opinion, is split into two types, presentations required by tradition and direct information about the assembly.

In terms of communication in presentations, there really isn’t anything very new for us to say. For each we tried to be as honest as possible, we wanted to give as many organisers as possible the chance to be part of the presentation and to be slick without being too professional while also being entertaining and fun.

For communication outside of presentations, we set the target early on of majority of our being the most communicative organisation ever, The communication to the network this was born out of a real desire for people to was with tutors, making sure we could provide materials, feel as much a part of it before arrival as possible. tools, talent and spaces they wanted. Our policy was We felt that if people felt involved with the event that any communication from tutors went to the top of our before they arrived they would take less time to to do list. Of course some settle in and in turn would generate a real feeling tutors don’t get in touch nearly enough, and some you of community, a tough thing to achieve in just just can’t get rid of! two weeks, and something that wont happen without effort of all concerned.

External As with internal communication, external communication split into two broad types, collaborators - anyone we contacted directly to become involved in the assembly - and the media.

Collaborators EASA is a very large thing to explain, just look at this Final Report - believe me this has been edited a lot - and this is just for one event. When talking to collaborators, be they potential sponsors, contractors or talent, it is important to remember a few things. First off EASA is a big thing, don’t try and explain it all in one go, I must have explained EASA to hundreds of people and over

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time I developed an understanding of the things that get people hooked and importantly what makes them understand what to expect. Start small, a one line explanation of EASA, if they are interested a bit more, then a bit more. The next thing to remember is EASA is not quite unique, but it is certainly unusual, this applies to both EASA the network and EASA the event. This unusualness is a double edged sword, but if you frame it right it should always be a benefit when meeting people for the first time. Being unusual means that people will, at first, imagine it run how everything they are used to is run, explaining that it is not is a pivotal moment, but a real opportunity. Explaining it is run as a non-hierarcical network with no voting can put a lot of business people off, explaining that this can be frustrating but is also one of the great reasons to be involved as it gives a different perspective can get business people to think a bit more about it - remember that EASA is fun, when they meet with you they are having a meeting that is more fun than the rest of their working week.

I found the quickest way to explain what to expect form EASA in contrast to other conferences was to explain Media accommodation and duties - and that The media is the most tricky for an EASA wanted it that way. event like EASA, it is unlikely that media coverage will translate into cash or spaces directly, but it would be foolish to dismiss the overall impact of media attention. Our approach was to generate media attention with the hopes that the benefits would be felt by EASA 2011 - the more media they could point to regarding easa010 the easier their period of believability building would be.

General Having defined the types of and focus of communication there are some mediums that cross the boundaries, this is communication material produced by the team that is generally available to anyone. Our approach with this material was to producing it specifically with sponsors in mind, not so much the content of information, but the nature of the tone and language used.

Web site The easa010 web site grew out of amateurish ready made blogs. Timed to

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come online exactly one year before the assembly, easa010 backer AODL built for us a site to our specifications, complimenting our graphics style at the time, but it ultimately suffered from lack of updates. The final iteration of the web site, built in house, lacked some key information and due to being built in flash could only be updated by one of the key organisers. Of course this is zeroing in on faults, and a web presence is essential, especially with no central EASA web site.

Newsletters Another of the success stories were the semi regular newsletter updates.

Compiled as and when news worthy stories were available, the newsletter were a way of keeping everyone, participants and sponsors alike, up to date with progress of the team. More than this though they had the effect of demonstrating a level of industry that was going on to get the assembly organised. Another by product of the newsletters was the mailing list they were sent to - more than once sponsors positively commented on the people who were on our newsletter mailing list. [cma]

By definition a web site is essential should you want to display information to a worldwide audience, and is the easiest, but not the best, way of telling people who you are, what you do, and why you do what you do.

The easa010 web site went through a number of evolutionary steps, at significant times during the organisation. It started as a modest blog, primarily for the network with information on the founding and establishment of easa010 in Manchester. A more expanded blog was launched exactly a year before easa010, with added content, information and links that was constantly being updated through that time of rapid development and change.

In the new year came a new look and a change in the layout - intended for easier navigation to the relevant information - in time for the SESAM and the

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final 6 month countdown to easa010.

This final iteration was a massive undertaking. Rewriting the web site, with a bloated content of information and news on our events, developments, and releases to tutors, NCs and participants in a new language from scratch is only for the brave, and, as it turned out, the foolhardy. Although the site was custom made and had the easa010 design structure, it was, in hindsight, too big a task for one person with limited skills and resources. This sometimes slowed the flow of information and small front-end tweaks actually involved a lot of back-end re-edit and work.

My advice is to keep it simple. We tried to do too much with one site. A combination of rich media and simple text information ended up losing focus and pulling focus from each other. If I were to do it again, I would build a site that was dedicated to the gallery and our smaller, offshoot events, which could have loads of rich media and inter activity within it, and a separate site for the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; end of easa010: the assembly itself, information for sponsors, participants, tutors, etc. These would be heavily linked and integrated, perhaps under sub-domains of a top-level domain, for example: www.easauk.net and hub.easauk....

A twitter account was set up for easa010 as means to expand its Internet presence. While unused for a few months at the beginning - letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s be honest, no-one really knew what to do with Twitter - it was kicked into life during the INCM in Liechtenstein as an attempt to document the event. From then onwards, it was used as a tool to quickly provide information and news about easa010 and our various other events. With the development in the web site, sometimes it took a longer than anticipated for information to be available, so a tweet or two was a valid stop-gap.

It was also useful as it brought us in direct communication with a different sector of the Internet. It has been widely documented that Twitter has had

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a slower uptake and is used less by ‘younger’ web-users (roughly 16-25).

This happens to be the EASA age range, more or less, so messages posted on Twitter weren’t necessarily read by the network. Instead, local businesses, creative people, and Manchester’s art and design scene were using Twitter.

So we could target messages that perhaps they wouldn’t look for or read on our web site, but pick up on their smart phone. This came in handy when promoting our gallery events, and communicating with the various people we were collaborating with in Manchester and further afield. [ama]

Site Visitors - World Map (Europe missing)

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Site Visitors - European Map (UK missing)

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ESPI

TA

HUN

NOR

IRE

BUL FIN TUR BLR

UK site visitors

Site Visitor comparison with top 10 countries

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Browser contribution to total visits

Direct

29.8%ReferralS

easa.tk facebook.com sesam.co.uk

35.3%

earch Engine

34.9%

google

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Chapter 13 - Events Prior to deciding to bid Paul and I discussed a number of issues, one was the amount of effort that organising teams put in compared to the experience they get out of it, 2 1/2 years of organising and the event whizzes by in 2 weeks. This was a particular problem for us because of the nature of the team - we would be relying on bringing people in as organisers who had never been to EASA before so wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know quite what they were letting them selves in for, or what they would be getting out of it. We decided that the obvious way to get around this was to reconsider what it means to be a host nation of EASA, we decided to take it as a once in lifetime opportunity and to make the most out of it - put simply we decided that in the run up to easa010 we would run a number of build up events.

As

well

as

providing

the

organisers

with

Events played a key role in helping us achieve both Integration and Legacy two of our four pillars of the bid.

interesting things to look forward to, these events provided the means to achieve a number of things that were at the core of the ideals of easaUK2010.

It was our opinion that EASA has had a history of landing in a location for two weeks bringing a huge amount of energy and generating interest and then leaving. These events would allow us to work with interesting people in artistic community before the assembly, meaning we could build a reputation for achieving what we set out to do and therefore be more believable when discussing collaboration for easa010.

Bringing EASA to Manchester opened the door of many important peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s offices, we saw easa010 as an umbrella and platform for Manchester to take advantage of, though working with people we could find out their values and from there put them in the consciousness of others and even pass on contact details - we were operating in both the art circles and boardrooms.

Hosting events allow integration with members of different sections of the Manchester population, and provide profile for sponsors that EASA doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

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naturally have while also improving the profile of EASA to aid recruiting new sponsors.

As mentioned already they provided a creative outlet for members of the organising team and will broke up the organisation process with fun events - they allowed the team the chance to do things that normally we wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

Documenting the event is responsibility of the event organiser and as such should be considered during the planning stage. Documentation allows the organisation to present events that have been held so far to prospective sponsors whilst also recording the events for posterity.

Documentation will usually take the form of photographs and video footage. This will be filed on the office hard drive in accordance with guidance on filing. When documenting events it is important to consider the merit of the footage being recorded. Whilst a lot of coverage can be required to capture all aspects of an event, having a lot of images on file for one event will generate future work for organisers having to decide which are relevant for use. As a guide something in the region of 300 photographs for an event will normally, depending on quality, be enough for most purposes.

Beyond internal documentation of events it is important to generate general media interest in the events with the result of getting media coverage for all easaUK2010 events. Mainstream media attention is useful to the organisation as it is a tangible result that lends further credibility to EASA. Organisers document: 050 Events were proposed by any member of the organising team at any time. >>>>>> External The first event that we took part in was the official opening of a new pubic space in the Ancotes region of Manchester. The event organisers set up a web site for ideas to be posted and then voted on. Realising the opportunity to be involved we posted an idea - Faceless Identity - based on the theme for the summer assembly. Having submitted the idea we mobilised the EASA

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network through promotion on the blog and also by setting up a dedicated facebook page, on top of this we promoted the vote through our newsletters and the web site. Within 7 days, despite entering over a month after the other contenders, we were the number one rated idea on the web site and were invited to take part in the day. The experience allowed us to demonstrate the numbers behind us on the continent, and it helped us realise the amount of work needed to get people to vote. The event itself was a good introduction to working with others - long discussions were required to wrangle who would get the boxes for the event. And we even got our selves in the paper, albeit a passing mention, more than 12 months before the assembly.

Run up events also gave us a trial run in contingency, and planing for things that may go wrong. At a preview evening for an exhibition I was approached by the organiser of Future Everything, an international conference that had been running in Manchester for 15 years. He was interested in what we were doing and we discussed how EASA could be involved in the upcoming Future Everything event. After lots of meetings, e-mails and ohone calls we were in a position where EASA was collaborating with three other parties on the project, but it was clear time was against us and many things remained unclear the critical thing became making sure we could walk away from the project with our reputation intact. It was vital that there was a paper trail available, e-mails and minutes from discussions, showing clearly what we had agreed to matched with what we had delivered.

Exhibitions <<<<<< As already mentioned, when we moved into easaHQ it was clear the space could be divided between the need for office space and the opportunity of gallery space and therefore the ability to host our own events. After deciding to open the gallery we discussed the kinds of exhibitions it should be available for - what did easaHQ Gallery stand for? We moved into the office in March 2009, around 1 1/2 years after the decision to bid, so 1 1/2 years into the process of organising EASA. In this time we had met many people as passionate about the city of Manchester and the art community as we were,

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but we had not been really able to connect on a level more than as visitors to a gallery - outsiders - HQ gave easa010 the chance to become embedded in the scene in Manchester. Our own experiences of gaining a foothold, being taken seriously and looking for spaces gave us first hand knowledge of the difficulties in the modern world dominated by market forces for emerging artists to get a first exhibition without experience. We also knew that without a reputation we would struggle at first to attract exhibitions to the space.

For all these reasons we decided that the gallery would be free to use, but exhibition priority would be given to Architecture, community groups and emerging art talent, the space was not to be used by established artists or for commercial purposes.

The decision not to charge for use of the space also insulated us from the possibility of contractual problems with either the exhibitor or the landlord.

A full list of exhibitions held at easaHQ is available in Section Five - Appendices

When you start charging for something you create the situation of customer and service provider, and as a student

team with no experience of running a gallery and our attention firmly on the summer assembly it would is reasonable to expect some hiccups along the way, so providing the space for no charge left us free to focus on the assembly.

Our agreement with ASK was based on the idea that the space was being used to organise EASA not to generate income, though all the money would have been going to the assembly any attempts to create revenue though HQ itself would have left us in a vulnerable position and would have damaged the reputation of our words.

Architecture If you build it (t)he(y) will come. Not true, a gallery without exhibitions will remain that way, the best way to advertise a new gallery space is to host events there and promote them.

Being students of architecture Tom and

I both knew the demand for spaces outside of the Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 3 floors of the Chatham tower for exhibitions and events - so we started with our contacts

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there. We hosted the 2008 Manchester School of Architecture event month exhibition, which was also the closing party for the Manchester Architecture and Design Festival. Following EASA 2008 we hosted the [Re]Map 590 BArch unit book launch as well as the MA final exhibition.

Emerging Art Talent In absolute truth the exhibitions varied wildly in both quality and hassle factor, but each one brought its own merit to the process. Through easaHQ some artists were able to exhibit for the first time while some gained experience of curating. Through the exhibitions we met many interesting people, some became involved in EASA, others spread the word of what we were doing, some taught us the benefits of collaborating and some showed us the potential pitfalls.

Painting competition <<<<<< When we moved into HQ we had some pretty big ideas - moving into your own office will do that - but so did our landlord. It may have been our intention to paint the building, but it was Julianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s insistence that drove it to happen. Julian told us that 13,500 vehicles passed the round-a-bout situated next to HQ on their way in to the city centre and as many went back the other way - that is a lot of people to see the building every day, and an indication as to why so many people knew the location of our office so easily.

We decided that instead of simply designing a new paint job for the building we would open it up to the EASA network and beyond. This meant producing a brief, making a competition info pack and promoting it on sites like bustler.

The competition info pack was downloaded over 1,500 times and we had interest from five continents.

We set up a judging panel and drew up a

short list for them to see. After deliberation a winner was chosen and the announcement was made at our first exhibition / house warming in easaHQ complete with candles and home made cake.

Following the decision we entered into the legality of the design - we needed

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to gain advertising consent, a version of planning permission. With minimal tweaking to the submitted design we submitted the drawing and the fee (there is always a fee) and permission was granted. Painting began, and let me tell you painting white walls white is a drag, but not so much as painting hundreds of perfect squares in grid formation. A special mention for organisers Miles Reay-Palmer and Emma Uncles is due at this point for their fortuity and stubbornness to get it done.

It’s clear that the experience of running this competition gave us great experience for running the workshop competitions of Hope Mill and Docu+Mation. >>>>>> Workshops In 2009 the Manchester Architecture and Design Festival announced the model of that year’s festival would be strikingly similar to that of easa010 work done by students of architecture would be displayed in city centre public space. Our intention was always to inspire this kind of response in the city, but the team felt that with the festival happening a matte of months before easa010 it would be good for EASA UK to be involved and therefore avoid the appearance of stealing what in reality was our own idea.

The support of the school was critical and, once again, fantastic. Both Colin Pugh and Head of First Year and event month coordinator Helen Aston were accommodating and as a team we were invited to tutor two workshops.

Alex Maxwell and I tutored a workshop called ‘Spatial Propaganda’ and was run in, where else, easaHQ. The workshop looked at the importance of communication and the relationship with architecture. Students watched exerts from films and worked on videos to express a single aspect of a building. [cma]

A lot of people we were, and wanted to collaborate with were involved in the Manchester School of Architecture event month. Our major collaboration on

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this front was working with the university to produce 2 workshops with 1st and 2nd year students from the school. There were 20 or so other workshops too, run by masters students, kind of like easa. We used easaHQ to host the workshop sessions, which were once a week for a month. Chris and Alex ran a workshop about Branding, whilst Tom and I a workshop about narratives in architecture. The outputs were exhibited at the climax of the event month at Manchesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CUBE gallery. As well as networking with people who could help us for the summer assembly, this was also a great way to speak to students about easa, who would quite often let it slip past them, we corralled some volunteers. The overall experience was refreshing to a team under a lot of stress, and reminded me of why I wanted to organise easa010 in the first place, and there was a lot of free wine that month.

Though out the planning and discussion of all events, the summer assembly must always be considered the priority and central to your thinking.

[pfa] EASA <<<<<< So far we have been to extrapolate lessons and benefits from events run tangentially to the organisation of easa010, but we also ran two events aimed solely at the network.

In February EASA UK hosted a SESAM in Manchester. The SESAM ranks up there with our best ideas during the organisation process. SESAM allowed us to do a lot of the things that would be required in organising EASA but with a much more manageable number of people - time tabling, promoting, applications, getting fees, organising food.

SESAM also gave the newer members of the team the opportunity to take responsibility and the established ones to hand it over.

We decided that

running the SESAM would be the second yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of the team with the older members available only for advice and support if called upon. In many ways this was a sink or swim scenario, but we reasoned that if the worse happened getting dinner for 12 people was a financial pain, but not financially crippling

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as it would be with 400 people here.

SESAM really gave an opportunity to get a feel for the things you can anticipate but until you go through it wont know for sure, like what it is like to anticipate people’s arrival, or to have a group of people depending on you for every aspect of their day.

We knew we weren’t the first team to run a SESAM in the same year as an EASA, Italy did so the previous year, but what we did differently was the scale and purpose. I would recommend all organising teams to run a small international event in the run up to the assembly, but limit the size or the effort put into the organisation could leave you jaded for the real thing. The injection of EASA spirit that only comes from being around EASA people (free from the pressures of organising) makes it worth it on its own.

A full review of SESAM is available in Section Five - Appendices

The workshop of SESAM was entitled

‘First Sight’ and focused on the preconceptions and first impressions of EASA participants in Manchester. Over the course of two days of walking tours the participants were shown the glossy council brochure sights of the city and then taken on back ally tours by born and bread Mancunians. The out put from the workshop was a piece of installation art to be included in ‘EASA an Exhibition’ at easaHQ, the final day of the SESAM coincided with the preview night of the exhibition attended by many of our partners, backers and prospective sponsors. The added attraction of having EASA participants from the mainland was a great draw and it proved to be one of our most successful exhibitions. [cma]

A SESAM (small European schools of architecture meeting) was organised during the winter for several reasons.

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- It would serve as a proving ground for us as on organizational team, testing the systems and methods we had put in place and the infrastructure, events and workshops - albeit on a much smaller scale - that we were planning on scaling up for the summer assembly. We had to go through every process that we would have to do before the summer. Starting with looking for accommodation, organising the catering, and formalising the workshop with its tours and guides around Manchester that complemented and informed it.

Also the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; process was very enlightening. From devising the forms and promoting the event, through to dealing with applications and questions, communicating with embassies and the foreign office over visa applications and requirements, it was a hugely valid learning tool.

- The event was also held as a precursor to a large retrospective exhibition about EASA that we were putting on in the easaHQ gallery. Featuring lots

SESAM was planned, among other things, as a way to test ourselves before the main event.

The feedback from participants was generally very positive.

of archive material and showcasing all the work the organisers had done up until that point, it was a chance to show the city of Manchester what we were about, what we were doing, and how they could be a part of it going forward.

The SESAM workshop was given a room of the gallery, and occupied it with the output of their week long workshop. The brief and theme for the SESAM was â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;first sightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It was an opportunity for us as organisers to expose a small group of European students, a mix of those with EASA experience and those completely fresh, to Manchester, to a preview of easa010 and to our approach to organising a summer assembly.

- It was also intended that the SESAM would introduce those members of the organising team who had had no direct experience yet with EASA to get a feel for the atmosphere and feeling generated during an EASA event.

- We, perhaps I, had hoped that it would give an opportunity to those in the team who had not yet really engaged in the organisation process to take a

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leading role in the preparation and see the project through to its completion.

Unfortunately this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen to near a level I had hoped, and I oversaw much of the organisation myself. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want this to sound self-deprecating, I was happy to take on the work and have no complaints, just that it was an opportunity for someone to step up and no-one did. Perhaps it was I who stepped up as my attitude and level of commitment noticeably changed after the SESAM. Saying this, when the event started there were very noticeable contributions from a few of the team, while everyone was involved in the set up of the exhibition.

Some constructive criticism that came out from the weak long event was that our involvement in the actual workshop was very minimal, and that we took a backseat approach to its application. Considering the effort we had put into this, and what the output meant to the exhibition this could be seen as very Following the SESAM the team held a valid. We put in a lot of effort into special review meeting and a Final the last week before the exhibition Report for the SESAM was drawn up, it is available in Section Five opened, which took our team away from the SESAM until the evening. Ways to overcome this are two-fold. Prepare the bulk of the exhibition before hand, and put aside an amount of the team to run/coordinate/take part in/be with the participants. Unfortunately we were bound by when we had access to archive resources, so it was a case of all hands on deck when we got them. [ama]

Where the SESAM was outward looking and engaged the existing EASA network, we also ran a conference that was inward looking to the UK with the intention of starting the process of creating a network of Students of architecture here in the UK. The quite remarkably named United Kingdom Architecture Students Self Actuated Projects Conference was a fixture in our thinking of how to convert the energy of EASA in the UK into something permanent - more of which in Section Four.

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Though the organisation of easa010 we had the opportunity to go through the EASA archive giving us an interesting insight into the history of the assembly, and we met many UK participants from days gone by. Though these two things we learned a lot, particularly about the UK involvement, that hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been passed on in the traditional word of mouth manner that EASA runs on.

We found that EASA began as an off shoot of the UK based winter school series - a much used name, but in this instance it was driven by the founders of EASA in a similar style to EASA. We found out that 1991 wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the first INCM, that there was a record of autumn meetings as far back as the first year of the assembly - 1981, when it was held in Delft, where it was decided to make EASA an annual event.

Where as EASA went from strength to strength winter school slowly lost momentum when the original personalities left, it stuttered along until the late nineties but the final one was held in 2000, and since then there has been no student for student movement in the United Kingdom.

Having spoken to a number of Heads and Professors around the country as well as the huge UK team put together to organise EASA it became clear that the appetite for the resurrection of this kind of network matched the clear need for it, so as a first step we decided to host a small conference.

The conference consisted of a day of seminars run by the directors of easaUK2010 Ltd as we first went through the importance of running events for yourself of all scales from a workshop to an international architecture festival, and then drew on our own experiences to pass on advice on how to achieve these things.

The conference helped the main organisers to focus their understanding, it is one thing to know what you are doing but it is only when you try to explain it

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to someone else that you become critical of your own methods. [cma]

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Chapter 14 Spaces Up until this point we have talked at length about the process of organising easa010, this chapter will cover all the aspects of the assembly itself and the work that went into making them happen.

Organisation is a process of give and take, the only way to make progress is to set out your objectives at the very start and work around the possibilities and restrictions that occur in the pursuit of your vision. No where else is this approach more critical than in the choice of location and the following search for spaces for the assembly.

Our main driving point for decisions was the desire to move away from the ‘ideal’ EASA mind set, and the idea that there was some golden formula for

“I want to walk out of the door and be in the middle of the city” pfa 2008

the perfect EASA that could be transferred, year on year, from country to country. This meant handling every decision with care and attention, but we believed that the reward would be a summer assembly unique to the location and therefore unacceptable and hopefully unforgettable for all involved.

Early in the organisation process we realised that this constantly questioning approach could lead to a lot of naval gazing and slow progress, so when it came to looking for spaces our approach can be explained (yet again) by using the four pillars of the bid, for each we will look at the positive and negatives thrown up.

Urbanity Inspired by the experience of EASA in the city in 2006 the decision to hold the assembly in an urban location was essentially the first decision we made, the second being which city.

The decision of location was the single most critical decision for

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the success of the assembly. With the whole of the United Kingdom available as a potential location a number of key factors were focused on.

The organisation team decided very early that the event should be held in one of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many vibrant cities to showcase most fully what contemporary UK has to offer. It was also felt that an urban environment would be more stimulating for the production of what we are determined will be a successful and inspiring assembly. Immediately Manchester was singled out as the ideal location to host an event of this type for numerous reasons.

The city enjoys inspiring past, among many other things Manchester was the birthplace of the industrial revolution and later played an integral role in the information revolution, where better to bring architecture students to inspire them towards the future of architecture?

Manchester also enjoys a healthy status on the world stage, with the recent hosting of the commonwealth games and both major UEFA club football finals. Finally and possibly most importantly Manchester was seen as a positively minded city, with a track record of supporting events, that would embrace the EASA community and show the ambition required to live up to the expectations and efforts the organisers are investing in bringing this internationally respected event to England.

Among the negative of hosting EASA in a city are: raised visibility to the authorities, more potential neighbors and therefore problems from creation of noise, there will always be other things going on in the city you must compete with for funding and finally the classic from INCM discussions - a city offers distractions that participants may find hard to resist. In honesty we probably put more effort into understanding the complexities of planning an event like this in an urban setting than we did looking at the positives, naturally so because they need more attention to deal with, but organising in a city does come with substantial benefits compared to rural or small town locations.

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Mostly the positives come down to choice and competition, there is a greater flexibility of services available so its possible to shop around and drive down prices, there are back up options incase - as happened with us - contractors and suppliers let you down at the last moment, there is a real depth of talent to draw on, for participants it is much simpler to get to, and there are more options for events on the timetable.

Density The point of this pillar was to keep EASA feeling like EASA, without density it would be easy for 400 students to be swallowed up by a city of 1,000,000.

When looking for spaces density was not the top of our priorities, it was something we had to discuss at regular intervals as our portfolio of spaces grew, changed, and contracted until we had our final solution.

Integration We decided that more comfortable EASA experiences come when you know your stuff is safe, because of this we always wanted the accommodation spaces to be closed to the public, how then do you achieve integration. As with density, integration was something we discussed as it became clear which buildings we would be using, and as almost the opposite of density the two were considered as balancing forces, creating an acceptable trade off of density to achieve integration.

Legacy In terms of spaces legacy was the least impacting of the four pillars, but as you will see in Part Four: Output the spaces we occupied have a huge impact on legacy.

Having worked out our requirements we needed to find spaces, which sounds simple - find a building, talk to the owners, strike a deal. It is as simple as that, but there are a few other things we kept in mind. It had always been our intention to have the accommodation and workshop spaces in place when

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we went to bid, we had 12 months to work on it until that point, and that would give us a year and 9 months to organise everything else. At the time of the bid we thought we had reached a pretty solid understanding that we would be able to use a building in Ancotes - Hope Mill - and that’s the bid we submitted. Unfortunately almost at the same time as the bid, it became clear the people we were dealing with couldn’t make the assurances we needed.

This left us with no spaces at all, but we were not to worried at this point. Way back at the bid stage we reasoned that there were three windows in which we would be able to get hold of spaces and in each we stood a better chance of getting what we wanted, one was at the bid stage - around two years before easa010, the second was 12 months before, as companies move in to the same operational year as the assembly they would be better placed to make the decision of use, and the final - though scary - window would be in the three months before the assembly. We had success of some kind in all of Section Five: Appendices contains a these windows. glimpse of an alternate reality, two alternative easa010s that could have been.

Our approach for looking for spaces started with us talking to major developers, we then moved on to having many, many meetings with various people in the council at first to ask for buildings, but in the end to ask for simple advice and suggestions. Paul and I walked every inch of the city centre noting empty, disused or even just large buildings, we’d then start the hunt though public records to find the owners and contact them in the hopes of securing the space.

In the end we got hold of and used a huge variety of spaces, but there were more that we secured and didn’t use, and there is the third category of spaces we were offered, had planned on, and subsequently lost - an indication of how we learned to cope for what was to come during the assembly. [cma]

No spaces, No easa.

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An EASA with multiple sites was necessary in our case. To have acquired a campus big enough to host the entire assembly, would have resulted in easa010 Manchester, not being in Manchester at all.

By having Downtex as our hub, we tried to keep the communal and homely feel that easa does so well. At the same time participants would be able to get out into the city exploring on the way to their workshops. The location of the major sites was not strategic, but ended up triangulating the entire city. The weekend events changed this, and I will talk about that in due course.

On the whole, you should start gathering the spaces you need early. However, don’t panic if you are reading this the month before are short of one or two.

Spaces you acquire from private companies will be a lot easier to negotiate the closer to the assembly they are. As for spaces from the council/municipality, these should be booked early as spaces in the calendar will fill up.

We rented the Downtex from 1st June - 1st September. We found the building in mid may and as soon as we had the keys the assembly felt very real. People in the UK weren’t very respective to the idea of 400+ students sleeping in their buildings. We thought at first we would be able to persuade some forward thinking property owner or council member into helping us find a building, and we’d be able to get it for free. This became a big time waster (despite actually getting one two days after signing for Downtex). Using our contacts to get information and more contacts was the way to go for us. Downtex was well located and affordable so we went for it, despite it needing a lot of work.

Hope Mill, the home of all the built workshops, was made possible by a mutually benefitting offer, the design competition. The owner of the building, David French was keen on the idea easa as it would help to put the mill more on the Manchester arts map, a market they were moving into. The big downstairs rooms used for the majority of the workshops are normally rented

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out at cost. By putting the same money into the studio conversion competition we got the downstairs space and the chance to hold an international design competition which would bring a lot of press and sponsorship opportunities, and importantly bring an architectural element into being an organiser. He got studios built and designed by architects. Win Win. EASA has lots to unique things to give, not normally lots of money.

Hive was a last minute and vital addition. This kind of space was created for events like easa, so they were great to work with and didn’t charge us. It acted as overflow for classroom activities and provided us with a genuine gallery to exhibit work in, great for visibility.

Madlab was the home for the media workshops, and very close to The Hive, so the two site worked well together allowing the limited number of computers to be shared. The building is normally a research facility for digital technology.

People like this were all interested in easa and the prospect of working with architects, it was lucky to meet one with the keys to an office. easaHQ was home to all the organiser for a year either side of the assembly, and for the event itself with the volunteers. Having somewhere completely of your own was invaluable. It really did, and still does feel like home. This was leant to us rent free by a big Manchester property develop, ASK?. Having an office space to yourselves keeps easa separate (to an extent) from your personally and professional/university life. The building also functioned as a gallery for students and young artists to help us promote ourselves prior to the summer assembly.

After the eviction from Downtex, the Sugden Centre became the easa sleeping accommodation. To get this at such short notice was one of the biggest achievements of the organising team, and proof of the saying “its not what you know, its who you know”. The situation wasn’t ideal, as participants had to be out of the gym by 10:00 every morning, but as the space was cleaner

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and more spacious than Downtex there werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too many complaints. This lack of possibility to sleep in the day resulted in an unprecedented level of workshop attendance, and in my opinion one of the major reasons easa010 workshop standard was so high.

After the suspension of the alcohol licence KRO2 became the easa bar. This was again fortunate, as our caterers owned this bar and were happy to let us buy their beer and sell it for a profit. This helped ease cash-flow difficulties incurred by losing our own bar. The close proximity to the Sugden centre that KRO2 had helped to keep hub feeling we originally planned for, albeit in a different part of the city.

Getting between all these different spaces was extremely time consuming for the organisers.

Three of the four main organisers were the

At the time of booking the club visited on the first night out in the city Sankeys Soap - had been rated as the No.1 club in the world by Mix Mag.

only people insured to drive the two easa vans. This was due to the age and lack of licences of the less involved members of the organising team. This resulted in three of the most knowledgeable people being behind the wheel for the majority of the working day, which is definitely not advisable to future organisers.

The morning bus ran 3 times between 09:20 and 10:20 to take participants to the most distant workshop site, Hope Mill. We saw this as essentially for the success of the workshops, due to the distance and the possibility of rain. [pfa]

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Chapter 15 - Timetable Planning out the timetable for easa010 was a delicate operation, the timetable for an EASA can never be refined it can only ever achieve the status of best fit.

For 2010 we had a couple of really long meetings at key stages - the times we had accommodation in place - to set out some preferential options, we decided that there would be no lectures opposite workshops, for example, so instead we would have dinner lectures to complement a lecture day at the start. We realised there would be a draw with participants to go and see what the city had to offer, so it was decided to start with walking tours and to have a number of nights out in the first week, this worked also with having more nights in during the second week once people were fully in the flow of the event, and wanted more parties together.

With these main thoughts in place, and once the

With 24 workshops 5 minutes each is 2 hours, meaning presentations run to an unkindly tight schedule.

accommodation was confirmed, the rest of the timetable came together as places and people were either booked or declined. From this point the thought was about the experience of the participants. The first day was dedicated to orientation and getting settled in, there was the first meetings and a welcome talk with safety advice, the night was planned as DJs from the organising team playing UK only music as a welcome.

The second day was for the workshop presentation in the morning and stretching of legs with walking tours in the afternoon, rounded off with the official opening with the civic reception in the town hall, that night back at the accommodation was the UK evening - intended to dig a little deeper into the cultures of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland than people might have known before.

Day 3 started was the lecture day during the morning and early afternoon, after which was the workshop fair, having workshop presentations the day before was intended to give participants as much time as possible to discuss

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options and make a decision. That night was the first club night. On Tuesday the workshops started, and for many (me included) this traditionally marks the real start to EASA, and from here on out there was a rhythm to the timetable.

Worth mentioning is the timing of Day workshops, we avoided having them on the first day as we wanted everyone to attend workshops that day, and we also avoided having any on the final two workshop days.

The most striking difference of easa010 to recent EASAs was it’s urban location which gave us an opportunity to re-imagine the traditional end of EASA exhibition and in turn redefine the attitude to the workshops, thus easaDAY was born. We decided that we would use the final day of the assembly to take over public locations, both indoor and out, for a city wide exhibition of work from the assembly.

The results of the decisions can be read in Section Three.

To do this we needed to work on a number of things at the same time,

we obviously needed indoor spaces and permission to use public outdoor spaces. I met with various members of the council to find out who specifically we needed to approach to gain permission, I even set up a collaborative build up event so we could get the relevant experience of the process - a good decision as the build up event fell through due to insurance issues and a compression of time. Other build up events had allowed us to network with various artists and gallery owners which, with the usual number of false starts, allowed us to make some good connections for indoor spaces to use on the day - more on the spaces later in the chapter.

Just as importantly we also needed to work carefully and closely with the workshop tutors in order for them to get a relevant space for their output, it was important that we didn’t dictate to the workshops where they should be, but likewise we wouldn’t necessarily be able to secure their first choice location, this is one reason we held the workshop application deadline as

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early as possible. Once weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d chosen the workshops we invested a lot of time talking to the tutors via e-mail and face to face to workout issues such as spaces and materials. [cma]

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Chapter 16 - Talent The issue of talent - people giving lectures, walking tours etc - would have a significant impact on the feel of the assembly and therefore required careful consideration.

The selection of Mancunian lecturers, for example, would

allow us to consolidate the feeling of integration between the event and the location, but we felt we needed a good balance to this in order to achieve the other goals of the assembly, such as leaving slots free for participants to sign up for, both to give evening lecturers, or to arrange evening entertainment.

Through various discussions on individual parts, such as lectures, parties etc we decided on the key aspects to achieve in the selection of talent for and the associated planning of each event on the timetable.

Variety - We for lectures we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want an endless The results of the decisions can be read in Section Three. parade of Architectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s talking their buildings, lovely as they might be. Architects would be invited, but we would seek out others with something to say.

Identity - As far as possible events should at least intend to relate to the theme. Obviously this would be less so with evening entertainment, perhaps 20% of the nights, but a lot more with the lectures, around 60%.

Manchester - Where possible we wanted to give people a feeling that the assembly was very defiantly Mancunian, we wanted to keep the soul of the assembly untouched but to provide a nonhomogeneous, new experience. To do this we planned about 33% of the nights to be in the city, along with a UK music theme to the first night in, we also approached Mancunians and Manchester practitioners to make up about 50% of the lectures and Day workshops.

Interesting - This was the one underpinning rule. When talking to people

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about the topic of their lectures we asked only that they be interesting to young architects. Apart from that, they could be on general themes of Architecture, Identity, Manchester, Urbanism or anything really.

The final and most significant goal we set our selves was to break the feeling of workshops tutored only by students and lectures given only by professionals. To improve on this we approached a number of Manchester based professionals from different field with the suggestion of running a workshop, this lead directly to Datascapes. We also ran an essay competition for all participants to write an essay on the theme Identity. From these entries 11 were selected to give short talks - how ever long they felt comfortable - as part of the main lecture series.

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Chapter 17 - Workshop Selection The first thing we wanted to right with workshop selection of previous years was to have the selection date before the participant application deadline.

Allowing denied tutors the opportunity to come as participants themselves.

Our deadline was in early February for this reason, and also that we could use the revealing of the workshops as part of an exhibition about easa at HQ. The submission deadline was a week previous to the big reveal, and we selected twenty of the sixty workshop over one weekend. The decision time was very quick as we had a sesam to run, and workshop posters to print. Some felt it was a too rushed process at the time, and in the following weeks there were a couple of workshops we werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even sure why we had selected them.

EASA workshops at proposal stage are often very All workshop vague, so I would recommend choosing on a are collated Five. balance of strength and clarity of concept, cost,

applications in Section

initial feasibility and your personal knowledge of the tutors if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve attend an easa event previously. The workshops we feared would be weak ended up being some of the strongest, going to prove how much workshops can transform.

The process itself involved invited whoever wanted to attend from the organising team. About twelve people attended. This was a good number as it allowed everyone to read each application and the pass it along. Following this we used a simple, Yes - No - Maybe pile system and select by consensus.

Having an impartial invigorator present during the selection part of the process would have been valuable to allow quieter members of the team to voice their opinions with more ease.

We knew that being in a city, plus the architectural beliefs of the organising team that having lots of big build workshops was important, but not our main aim. We knew we needed them to make easa enjoyable to certain participants,

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and saleable to certain people in Manchester. With this in mind we aimed for a mix of about 8 built, 8 media and 8 theory, with a handful of workshops blurring the boundaries between.

As for legacy, we knew how hard it would be go get a permanent project built, and we already had enough planning and legislation to keep us busy for a lifetime. After none of the permanent big build application didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand out to us we aimed to find such a project through our contacts in Manchester. Most people in Manchester we met were more interested in smaller scale projects and day workshops. In the end the permanent workshop came through our own means of the competition and allowed us to give others the chance to design (which is kind of the point of organising) and not lose to much control over a potentially fantastic/potential nightmare venture. [pfa]

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Chapter 18 - Participants Starting at the beginning with the NCs (your new best friends).

It is absolutely critical that you make sure the e-mail list is up to date. Roles often swap round from year to year often after the summer event the role of the NC will change hands. E-mail all countries to make sure you are up to date with their situation. If someone doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t receive the messages and information it can be incredibly frustrating for both parties. It will stand you in very good stead. Send an e-mail deÂŹtailing the plan you intend to follow for the process of application including dates, fees and even essays if you wish! This is a more in depth look at how ours panned out: The mathematics Having decided all the workshops, the number of participants needed to fill their varying sizes is then calculable. Countries with special quotas for past and present organisers must be removed from the overall places for workshops. The places left over were then divided equally between the 39 remaining countries.

The 4 countries that have priority (Spain,Italy, Lichenstein, Denmark) removed from the 43 overall countries providing 5/6 participants.

Basically having 6 participants (from the 39 remaining countries, not 43) = 341 total participants overall with 12.25 per workshop.

Having 5 participants = 302 participants overall with 10.625 in each workshop.

I get the feeling this is a little on the small side.

Whatever you decide make it clear that that is the final number of places available and people who e-mail you everyday do not get more places, stress this point or have a standard e-mail ready to reply to ALL the NCs who want more places!

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needed for those countries that require visas. It would be much more sensible to gather all this information in one go from everyone instead of trying to track down much needed information later on. Find out what information is needed to create a legitimate invitation letter and create the template ready for filling in as soon as applications are ready. The ‘International Relations’ unit of your university will be able to help you with this since they deal with international students making applications to study. This is an example of the information and layout required for invitations to be sent to the UK Embassy’s from the University of Manchester.

As part of the application process, all participants were asked to write an essay on the theme of easa010. Though there were too many to reproduce in the Final Report a selection are collated in Section Five.

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Essential details to include on the application form are as follows: Name / Current Address / Home Address (if studying abroad) / Mobile number / Contact e-mail / Date of Birth / Passport number / Gender / Dietary requirements/ Emergency Contact / Medical needs / Visa requirements/ Date of arrival / departure /

Visas.

Your responsibility with visas is to send invitation letters, on time, to the participants for use in their application. You can do no more than that and neither is it your responsibility. Visa can be applied for three months in advance of a visit to the UK embassies, meaning the invitation letters should have arrived by this time. You should have your Visa Invitation Letters ready to be sent to the participants as soon as you confirm their places, some letters took more than a month to arrive and I understand this is quite normal, factor in this time to the plan.

Make sure all letters are HAND SIGNED and on headed paper, otherwise you will they are not recognised by the embassy. The original letters must be sent to the participants to take to their interviews.

NCs will e-mail way in advance of any quota announcement since this takes such a long time to organise and should be one of the first things prepared by the organisers but is often left too late. If you prepare the letters and before the quota announcement you could even get them to fill in their details on the invitation letter, with their application. Transferring all the details takes a long time for one person to do and can easily make and error. Make sure you scan

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all the letters and keep a record of all the letters. E-mail the correspondents to check whether the information is correct before you post them.

With around 200 invitation letters, one small mistake in their details can mean the difference in someÂŹone coming to EASA or not. Check through the details yourselves and make sure NCs and participants also see the letters before they are sent.

I worked hard to get an invitation letter from Manchester Metropolitan University, a recognised body by the UK Border Agency which should have been a smooth cruise through customs. We also sent a letter from easa010 detailing exactly what the event entailed. The specifics included in the letter were: The participants full name and address, address of the UK embassy in their country, passport number, fees paid for food and accommodation. Here is the easa010 invitation letter: Invitation letter on page 145

The participants who require visas also must

start to gather their own information ready for application. Visas in the UK can be applied for three months in advance of the visit.

Check what evidence they need to prepare for their individual application, for the UK this involved: 1. Evidence from your university that you are in an Academic Institution 2. Evidence that you will be study here and have an invitation from a university.

3. Evidence of accommodation that has been arranged.

4. A passport photo March 23rd -7th April Quota Announcement: the first round Each country has places for SIX participants.

NCs are included in this figure.

Past and future organisers benefit by being allocated more places, These are as follows: Spain = 20 places Italy = 15 places

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Liechtenstein = 10 places Denmark = 15 places This is the TOTAL number of participants you are allowed, not additional to the six above.

Please note these places are for the specified countries only. You cannot exchange places to different countries and participants can only be accepted from the nation they are living in.

In order to expand EASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reach, we are trying to involve a few participants from outside of Europe. 20 places have been allocated to the wider world, in the hope that EASA inspired assemblies could happen further afield. These will be divided between continents with 3 people per continent.

- Applications must be e-mailed directly to me: jsh@easauk.net - They must be in PDF format.

- The picture must be on the form and no more than 150 dpi.

(This is most easily achieved by taking into Photoshop and filling in the form.)

I would very much appreciate it if you could fill in the summary form attached to allow me to get an overview of where you are at with fees and sponsorship. It would help me a great deal.

I hope this is clear. Remember the closing date for the first round is 7th April at 12pm. No applications can be accepted after this period.

A few things that were overlooked: An important thing to note is having a system of naming the files, people call the PDFs all sorts of incomprehensible names and this can get very confusing.

It will save you a lot of time instead of renaming files as I did, a logical approach would be: Country> First name > second Name Make sure you stress that everyone puts their photos on the application form, not as a separate file. Otherwise it takes ages to do this!

Also include the fees to avoid confusion:

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GROUP 1: 100% = 270 euros Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Luxemburg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Malta.

GROUP 2: 80% = 216 euros Greece, Portugal.

GROUP 3: 60% = 162 euros Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moscow (*), PoÂŹland, Slovenia, Slovakia, and non-European participants (such as ELEA, CLEA etc).

GROUP 4: 40% = 108 euros Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Armenia,.

GROUP 5: 20% = 54 euros Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Russia (**), Ukraine.

7th April Receiving Applications Make sure all applications are organised within their own folders. When handling 400 applications things start to get confusing, I found the most logical way around the filing system to be: participants folder > country folder > applications folder > file named correctly as before > essay folder > file named correctly as before This may sound time consuming but went people start to change people around applications can easily get mislaid. If you have time, it is a good idea to make an excel document of everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s details so that all information can be accessed at one time rather than opening individual files constantly, a laborious task but recommend. This only left two days to sort everything out from the first round. With hindsight I would leave more time, a week or so, to organise and process the information and decide on how extra places are to be delegated.

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9th-19th of April The Second Round Lots of people have asked for more places already and I can now confirm that some more places will be granted since some new and exciting projects have just been unveiled in Manchester....!

EACH NATION CAN SEND A MAXIMUM OF TWO MORE APPLICATIONS (IF NEEDED).

Please send these to me again by the 19th APRIL in PDF format.

(Just the same as before.) Keep in mind that it may be good to keep some people in reserve list in case people drop out. These will then be confirmed on the 20th April and a total payment for each country calculated and e-mailed to the NCs. Payment will commence for that week only from the 20th- 26th April. Please contact me if you have any problems. I hope you are all happy and well.

This was worked out by adding the addition places from the competition and any remaining places that werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t filled and dividing them equally between the countries. I would suggest under estimating the number because for some reason or another people just keep adding on to the list - be firm!

In hindsight this was a misjudgment which in turn had knock on effects that were felt right throughout the assembly. In the desire to turn away as few people as possible and to respond to the huge demand from the network for places the wrong criteria were placed on the decision to add more spaces.

At the time of the announcement the team had just lost their first choice location of accommodation and as such were back to looking for space. The addition of two places per nation for 39 nations plus the addition of the Docu+Mation workshop places added 86 people to EASA, putting this is around the number of people at INCM 2008.

This added number caused huge restrictions to the possibilities of spaces we could identify for accommodation as the total delegates shot from 349 to 427. This affected potential options that werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t large enough, it affected the planning application process for Downtex, and it affected the atmosphere in the Mill as each event space was legally large enough for 300 (physically around the same).

Though possibly seeming innocuous at the time the team should have discussed the decision in depth as the number of participants

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at EASA is as vital a component to the event as the budget and location.

20th -26th April Payment E-mail each country stating how many participants/ tutors / NCs they owe money for. Make it clear and concise: All fees should be paid in ONE lump sum by ONE NC. Please make a reference of the COUNTRY you are paying for on the bank transfer.

EG: United Kingdom. Bank charges must be paid for in full by each individual country otherwise we cannot accept your payment.

Please send an e-mail to both : jsh@easauk.net & james.hills@stu.mmu.ac.uk Detailing the following: Country: Name of NC making the payment: Account Number: Sort Code: Amount Transferred: The payment should be made in to this account: Working out who has paid on your bank statement can be very confusing if you don’t have a ridged system in place. NCs can make a reference titles for their transfer which we asked them to state their ‘country’ only. This makes things a lot clearer, but failure for many NCs to do this also means it is very useful to have their bank account number to check back where the money has come from. Also make sure you bill the NCs in EUROS because exchange rates change and you may well lose money if the exchange rate changes.

After the storm Once all applications are in and payments paid, people like to swap things around, drop out and generally mess up your files and documents. It is a never

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ending process until the event so be prepared for change and embrace. There are often ongoing issues with visas, many of which are beyond your remit and out of your control. You do not have a free pass through the embassy and beyond ‘inviting’ the participants to the assembly it is very difficult for you to do much more, but you can try.

Six weeks before the start of the assembly, an e-mail of confirmation was sent to all the NCs containing the list of participants I had down to come and their e-mail addresses. This was a critical to make sure everyone had the correct information in time for registration.

Then there are many questions to be answered from 400 eagerly awaiting EASA’uns. Something which you might like to add to the web site is a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ part in which all problems are solved and will save you many hours in typing the same thing over and over. Some very crucial questions that I am sure will crop up are: 1. Can people come early?

This depends if the accommodation is ready, ours definitely wasn’t but meant we needed a helping hand. It is very difficult to say yes because a few hundred people would come and really EASA is for the two weeks but flights often dictate the dates more than the organisers.

2. How do I get involved?

We would get a few hundred e-mails in from people looking at the web site and wanting to know more. It would be of great help to have a list of the NCs e-mail contacts for each country to allow people to get involved and save you much time.

3. How money is paid?

Through the NC then paid collectively once 4. Can we come as guests or helpers?

These are very difficult places to allocate. In the end we decided people we knew and trusted could be part of the organising team, not guests. We decided to have guests makes a mockery of those working hard every day and people would have to earn their keep! The helpers were an infallible part of the team,

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people with experience and calm in chaotic situations. Choose your helpers wisely!

5. Can we have more places?

Places were always allocated openly to everyone, make it clear that because NCs e-mail you it does not give them access to a infinite number of places.

Places stack up without you even realising and numbers must be set to a firm figure.

6. Can people have their money back if they cancel?

This will happen a few days before the event, and if there is no chance of the place being refilled then this would be no, often places will be taken up by someone else in the team and they can just swap around. However in the EASA guide it is a strict NO. People can often claim money back off their travel insurance though.

I think these are the main questions asked but keep adding as you go along....

Overview The application process worked very succinctly but don’t underestimate the size of this job. You will get an average of 10-20 e-mails per day asking for things, maybe we should have kept more contact with the NCs and updated them more regularly to avoid this but obviously everyone is going to have their own individual questions. I did this as the same time as my course, the dates decided did not always fit very well around life - make sure the dates application are in don’t clash with hand in dates for you projects and give yourself as much time as possible to get things ready. Participant places are determined by the number of workshop places; make sure these are sorted as soon as possible to give as much time for visas can you can. It is really nice to get to know everyone slightly before they arrive though because you never have enough time when EASA starts!

13th march ‘Sponsor a Participant’.

In order to strengthen the network and create a more stable model to create this event for the foresee¬able future, we felt that each NC and their prospective

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participants should make real attempts to drum up support and finances.

With such an unpredictable economic climate it must be made clear that the EASA is to be built by everyone not just the organisers. This is reiterated in the ‘EASA guide’ that all participants are responsible for fund-raising. This was our idea for sponsorship: This would involve approaching sponsors for 100% of the cost of a participant instead of the 20% fee which you pay. Easa subsidises the cost of the assembly per person by 80%. This means it costs £875.00 for each participant to attend the event.

We want to gain the most sponsorship we can as a collective network and involve everyone in contributing to the event, to create the best easa it can possibly be. So we are asking you to go for the full whack (£875 or as close to this as you can get) when asking for sponsorship rather than just covering your own costs.

Several teams did donate very generously to the cause but this could be more widely and rigorously approached and give a sense of achievement for all that come to the event, that they were part of the making of the EASA. It is definitely something to be worked on for the future of the event and the well being of the organisers. [jsh]

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Chapter 19 - Waste Management Waste management is a vital component of a successful EASA, primarily because 450 people in one place for 2 weeks create an unbelievable amount of rubbish. As with most aspects of the assembly, none of us had much of an idea as to how to go about dealing with and disposing of general waste, organic waste and recycling in such quantities, and we also had little idea of how much it would cost. As it is such an important and costly aspect of the organisation it is vital that as soon as the sites are secured that the team begin working on waste management. It is not the most glamorous of tasks, but if there is not an adequate system in place the assembly could easily be jeopardised, as people will not want to live and work surrounded by rubbish; it is unseemly and unsanitary. In this section I describe the different waste management systems we used at Downtex and Hope Mill, in section 3 I describe how they worked and how they could have been improved.

Downtex - Before EASA As Downtex was uninhabited before EASA moved in there was no pre-existing system for dealing with waste at the site, as there would have been had we been occupying a school or university campus. We researched different companies that dealt with the waste at music festivals, and the possibility of constructing our own system using different companies to deal with the different types of waste, but eventually we decided on using the contractors responsible for Manchesterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residential waste management: Enterprise Manchester. We went with Enterprise because they could provide the entire service and this was far more convenient for us than to try to organise different companies to take care of different types of waste.

Through discussions with Andrew Turner, our contact at Enterprise, we organised a refuse strategy that was essentially a large-scale version of the standard domestic one. This consisted of 3 skips in the car park of Downtex: 1 for general waste

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1 for card and paper 1 for bottles and tins These skips could be replaced when full with 24 hours notice, which meant that we didn’t have to commit to a certain number of them beforehand, which was good as we had little idea of how many we would eventually need. Along with the skips we hired approx 13 sets of wheelie bins to be distributed around the building. Each set consisted of 1 for general waste 1 for card and paper 1 for bottles and tins 1 for organic waste These wheelie bins would then be emptied into the correct skip each day by the country doing the cleaning duty. Hiring the bins was very cost efficient, approx £3 per bin for as long as we needed them, and it meant we were not left with 50 bins to dispose of at the end of the assembly.

With regards to organic waste we decided that it would have to be removed from the site each day as the proximity to the River Irwell meant we were in danger of attracting rats. We agreed with our caterers that they would take our organic waste away when they came to pick up their leftovers each day.

So in theory we had a simple effective system prepared for handling the waste at Downtex Hope Mill - Before EASA As with Downtex our site at hope mill wasn’t equipped to deal with the numbers of people working there for the 2 weeks, however as there were only 150 participants there during the day we did not need such a large scale of refuse management. To deal with the general waste we ordered another skip from enterprise, and we hired 4 sets of wheelie bins like the ones used in DOWNTEX to be placed in the different parts of the building. With the recycling we used a different company called Emerge Manchester, who are a charity that

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charges companies for daily recycling pickups to fund their charitable work.

The system was that you bought bin bags with their logo on, and then placed them on the pavement at the end of the day to be picked up by the Emerge truck as it drove around the city, a â&#x20AC;&#x153;pay-as-you-throwâ&#x20AC;? system. Through some negotiations we managed to get 200 of these bags in exchange for promoting the charity through our web site and promotional materials. So the recycling bins in Hope Mill would be emptied into these branded bin bags at the end of each working day to be picked up, and all general waste would be for the skip. The plan with the organic waste was to transport it back to DOWNTEX each day to be bundled with the organic waste there before our caterers collected it.

Once again, the system was in place for all refuse to be disposed of properly and efficiently. [jfr]

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Chapter 20 - Food Calculating Quantities One of the biggest feats we had to undertake during organisation of the food was calculating the quantities. Even though quantities needed for the assembly could only at most be estimated, it was crucial that the amounts were as accurate as possible as these numbers had an impact on many other areas of organisation such as budget and logistics. To put this into perspective early on; the total cost of feeding the participants was one of our biggest outlays monetary wise during the assembly; totalling just under £30,000, broken down into £1500, £2500 and £26,000 for breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively.

Note: a 1p increase per This meant that it was clear that these figures person per day equals a total increase of £69, an increase were to be monitored closely to ensure costs of £1 equals an increase of £6900. didn’t spiral out of control unnecessarily.

460 (catered for) x 15 (days of meals) x £0.01 = £69 However, it did make sense to over-estimate numbers for the first few days of the assembly rather than fall short of providing anything. We were always going to be able to change the amounts we bought when needed which would subsequently reduce our estimated costs and in turn alleviate funds.

Our total participant number was 427 with extra needing to be added for helpers, volunteers and organisers. We worked on the basis of 400 participants eating breakfast, 460 eating lunch and 460 eating dinner. From this rough consumption estimates were calculated per person to establish the daily amounts needed. These numbers shall be covered in more detail in a later section.

Sourcing Suppliers Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner As stated earlier, due to the large costs involved extensive time was spent

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researching the lowest costs possible for each individual item making up the daily meals. In the UK we are lucky that the supermarket industry is very competitive, with companies constantly battling to have the best value products. With the use of price comparison web sites and online shopping facilities it was easy for us to discover the cheapest prices and it became clear that ASDA would be cheapest for almost every single item, even over the bulkbuy â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cash and carriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Knowing this, we approached ASDA directly to come to an arrangement with them to supply the large amounts we needed. They were happy to do this, however wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t offer us any discount.

In the weeks leading up to the assembly, frequent visits were made to the store we were dealing with to speak to various managers. However, with the way a Note: if a participant drinks four cans supermarket is run; the only form of of beer (on average) in a day 450 persons x 15 days x 4 cans= 27000 contact was either a visit in person cans or via a telephone call through Beer is sold by the crate = 24 cans 27000 / 24 = 1125 crates customer services. This meant that You can fit 56 crates on to a pallet 1125 / 56 = 20 pallets

when trying to arrange any kind of orders with them we were always

This is enough to fill 2 articulated left unsure as to whether they would Lorries. hold their word, as they had no obligation to fulfil our requirements at any time.

There were some items that we needed in very large quantities daily such as bread for the sandwiches and the fruit. We made the decision to have these supplied via local businesses that would be able to deliver every morning too exactly where they were needed. To source these it was as simple as ringing various businesses from internet directories and establishing quotes. This proved very successful and prices for these were extremely reasonable and the service was impeccable.

We felt that the main meal of the day dinner would be best outsourced to a catering company . This was probably the only way we could have done it; however, if another method was available I believe this would have still been

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the best decision. Having the most important meal of the day outsourced to a professional company meant that the quality of food was extremely high. It also ensured prompt serving times and a good variety, something that always seems to be a major concern with participants at previous assemblies. To source a caterer we again tried to get the best value for money. KRO caters were extremely competitive and came in at £4.50 per person, per day. It is important to mention that ‘haggling’ in these situations using other quotes is extremely successful.

Café & Bar In the current climate, revenue sources during the assembly become crucial.

While taking every effort to reduce the cost for participants, profit made over Due to the conditions in the café & bar allows money to be fed back directly Downtex it was impossible for us to install a kitchen, into the assembly specifically the workshops. and impractical for us to This leads to a situation where, as organisers, you cater off site and deliver ourselves must find means to retail at a cost below that of shops – which unfortunately are still your rivals – but also turn enough of a profit to add to your overall budget.

With this in mind, it made sense to maximise the profits where possible. A major part of our efforts was to source the alcohol served over the bar as cheaply as possible but still retaining quality. For this we decided that cans of Carlsberg would be the best option. This was because it isn’t considered to be a ‘low-rate’ beer and it didn’t come with the high cost of a premium rate brand.

In the UK, supermarkets buy alcohol from suppliers and sell it at a loss to attract customers into their stores. This meant we were able to buy a fair amount of alcohol at a very low price. However, the promotions that allowed us to buy the beer this low level were only available for a short period of time coinciding with the World Cup, and before the assembly started, capital available for such expenditures wasn’t in large quantities therefore we couldn’t afford to

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buy huge amounts. However, we were lucky to find a company by the name of ‘Bargain Booze’ that had an on-going promotion throughout the duration of the assembly allowing us to buy alcohol at a very cheap price.

For spirits and mixers it was surprisingly cheaper to get them from ASDA than any other sources and there was never an issue in getting the quantities needed. The items we were unable to get from ASDA at the cheapest cost To find a caterer we went through an initial process of researching the market and calling various companies for outline quotes.

Following this Chris’ Dad, who worked for many years in the catering supply industry, produced an invite to tender which was issued in a competitive nature.

were mainly branded items concerning

From the entrants we received we invited three to come for interviews, and Chris met with representative to discuss the respective bids. At tender the cheapest quote we received was for £3.50 including VAT (Value Added Tax 17.5%) per person per day, with Kro at £5.99 excluding VAT. In the interview process it we were confident that Kro would deliver quality on a daily basis and be able to work within the nature of the event. Also after discussing the nature of the event, including issues like students bringing their own plates etc, we were able to negotiate the price from £7.03 per person per meal down to £4.50.

our revealable items, we could pick up

the café &bar, items such as Coca Cola cans, Walkers Crisps and bars of chocolate. We used a local cash and carry Bookers. This also meant that on needed supplies at short notice without the chance of losing money through loss of sales during the assembly.

Purchase and Storage Strategy The purchasing and storage strategy came hand in hand. We needed to be able to buy as much as possible in one

go to satisfy the quantity requirements and at the same time have enough infrastructure to store what was bought. This separated into dry store and refrigerated store for both the bar supplies and food supplies. Dry store in general was simple and only required the needed secure space which meant we could buy as much as we wanted and knew it wouldn’t become spoilt. The refrigerated storage was slightly more difficult as this would require close attention to stock levels because large quantities couldn’t be kept for long periods due to the limited refrigeration space.

Pricing Strategy

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Once the costs had become apparent we needed to establish the prices of the profitable items during the assembly. As stated previously in the report we had budgeted the assembly on what funds we had available and anything taken over the bar would essentially become profit that we could feed back into the assembly. With this being understood, we knew that we were able to have complete control over pricing and therefore keep the costs as low as possible for participants, but at the same time, we wanted to make a healthy profit to improve the EASA experience. To facilitate this we decided that a 1. maximum 100% profit would be applicable were Two issues to remember.

Unlike shops you have no overheads in terms of wages. appropriate.

2. Be sure to put a portion System of Operation, Staffing Arrangements and of your initial budget into stocking the bar and cafe, Roles after this restocking can be done from revenue from tokens. We achieved this by The roles broke down into specific task areas; scheduling purchase of some materials for built workshops organising and supervising the serving of for late in the first week, safe in the knowledge that breakfast; organising and supervising the design work would dominate until then. preparation and delivery of sandwiches; supervising the serving of dinner and running the bar. To allow the smooth operation of this we decided to create a solid team of four organisers, comprising of Miles Reay-Palmer, Dido Graham, Julija Dubrovnik and myself; Jonathan Curtis. This meant that throughout the two weeks one organiser would be responsible for each role. Alongside this, a set number of volunteers were time tabled to assist the organiser in the running of each operation; specifically preparation of sandwiches and the running of the bar. The system of operation of each role broke down into the following: Breakfast Breakfast was served between 8am and 10am. The organiser on duty aimed to be at site for 7am. This allowed the organiser enough time to arrange the quantities for breakfast and to begin setting up. The breakfast was to be served in the usual manner; by the participants of the time tabled country. It

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was required that the organiser be there earlier to begin setting up in-case participants were late. Breakfast was arranged in the typical buffet fashion allowing a queue of participants moving down the tables being served. The organisers’ role was to watch over proceedings and restock supplies from the store when needed.

Lunch Lunch was served between 1pm and 2pm and consisted of one sandwich per person and a piece of fruit. These sandwiches were made by four helpers and Having met with representatives of In-Bev, the world’s largest brewing company, and Carlsberg it was clear that it was not only cheaper to purchase through retail, but also we would be able to manage the quantities we purchased more easily.

To deal direct with a brewer we would firstly have to set up an account with them, but we would also have to make the order in one go, allowing no room for revision. This did mean that we would have to collect the orders our selves.

one organiser during the period of breakfast at our HQ building. It would be the organisers’ role to insure that the sandwiches were made correctly and meat

the

appropriate

and

vegetarian

numbers

of

sandwiches

were prepared. The time allocated to make sandwiches was between 9am-

12.30pm. It was arranged that the van driver would collect the sandwiches from HQ and deliver them to the info points at various locations within the city; the organiser on duty would help with this.

Lunch remains one of the most tricky aspects of organising EASA. It was said that ‘an army marches on its stomach’, and the same is true of EASA workshops. It is vital that every effort is made to provide participants with opportunity of three meals a day – though it is impossible to make sure they eat them! Lunch was an issue at two of the three previous EASAs I had attended – in Budapest 2006 participants made their own at breakfast, so they were responsible for if they ate lunch, though this can lead to a loss of control on quantities it seems the best option.

In Ireland in 2008 lunch was made and delivered to the workshops, meaning participants needed to be at their workshop to get their food, this of course puts the responsibility on the tutors to make sure their participants get their fair share.

In Italy 2009, by far the most generous lunch I’ve seen at EASA, the lunch was prepared by the participants as part of the breakfast duties. The lunches were then supposed to be collected by tutors only at lunch time.

The main issue was participants helping themselves to sandwiches throughout the morning as they felt like it. Bizarrely, as can happen at EASA, when the sandwiches

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were made, but not available until collection to ensure everyone could eat, the person in charge of the kitchen often met with hostility and resentment from participants.

In Manchester we had no possibility of food production in the accommodation area due to the industrial nature of the building and the prohibitive cost of renting catering facilities for the duration. So the decision was taken that organisers would make the lunch in the kitchen of their accommodation and delivery would be by van on an alternating daily basis by Alex Maxwell and me (Chris Maloney).

In many ways this worked out well, but it seemed we were consistently making about 100 sandwiches too many, having been to each site twice there would still be sandwiches in my van and left over’s on the sites. It had been made plain to the tutors that is they were to be elsewhere at lunch time they were to let the organisers know, so all we can suspect is that people bought their own, or didn’t turn up to their workshops every day.

Dinner Dinner was to be served between 6pm and 9pm. As an alternative to the arrangements, and As stated previously, KRO prepared the food off dinner an unscheduled surprise site and delivered to Downtex each evening. In for the participants, on two evenings we organised the same method as breakfast, participants of the a hog roast dinner, with veggie burger barbecue for time tabled country served the food overseen by vegetarians.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, the duty organiser. Dinner was served in the bar further proof that good food makes for happy campers. communal area and eaten in the large dining area known as the ‘Aviary’. The caterers dealt with the organic waste from the previous evening by collecting it when delivering the next nights food.

Café & Bar The café & bar was situated in the heart of the accommodation operating from the same point. We had very strict limitations over the licensing agreement which meant alcohol could only be served from 12pm until 1am Sunday to Thursday; and 12pm until 3am Friday and Saturday. – see licensing in this chapter - We decided it would be best to open the café at 10am to maximise sales of coffee and confectionery around breakfast time before the start of workshops. It is important to note that during the organizational discussions we decided that if any construction workshops, i.e. involving the use of power tools, were to be active at the accommodation building, we would not page 166

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serve alcohol until these ceased operations. We made this decision purely for insurance.

For the operation of the café it was decided that this required only one organiser and one volunteer. The organisers’ role was to evaluate stock levels and sales from the previous night. The findings of this evaluation would then be passed to the organiser responsible for purchasing to ensure stocks were kept at adequate levels. The volunteer at this point would be there to help when needed and to serve the café.

We decided upon operating a ‘can bar’ over the traditional use of draft. This decision was made purely for logistical reasons. We felt that the risks and drawbacks of using a draft system outweighed the cost benefits and believed we could provide a much better service over the bar using cans by reducing The drawback of the token system is the waiting times. Alongside this, we relatively large unit of 50p allows served a variety of spirits and mixers limited ability to adjust prices. such as vodka, gin, whisky and rum with coke, lemonade and tonic. It was decided that every measure should be an official UK double, the maximum legally allowed to be sold. This was due to the cost of spirits being relatively low with aim to providing better value for the participants. When the bar was fully operational it would require one organiser and two volunteers. This would allow for re-stocking to take place and the adequate number of staff to meet demands.

A large part of our ethos was to minimise waste as previously stated in the report. To ensure this would be most affective we decided that we would only serve drinks into the participants own cups. This meant that no plastic disposable cups were handed out over the café & bar which would therefore have a dramatic reduction in clean-up and disposal costs. We had a large stock of cups that could be bought by participants for a small fee to use for the duration of the assembly.

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Token Operation Everything sold over the bar was with the conventional token strategy. We decided to keep the tokens as the standard value of £5 dissected into 50p segments. We believed that in some past assemblies there has been an issue with the attempt of forgery. With this in mind we decided to design a token with anti-counterfeit measures. One mainly being a very light blue pattern which wouldn’t show up when photocopied and the other being that the token would only become valid when stamped with an official ‘easa010 Manchester’ stamp that we designed and made. This would only be done at info point when purchased. We believe this was a very successful way of operation. [jcu]

Millfo Point Having numerous locations for EASA Manchester For a report on the operation of these spaces please see presented us with many logistical problems, one Section Three: easa010 of them being the need 2 locations where we sold food and drink. Whilst it was not absolutely essential to have a café in Hope Mill as there are shops in the vicinity it was a valuable source of revenue for the organisation and was far more convenient for the participants themselves. We realised quite early on that the café would also become a de facto info point, so Hope Mill Info Point became Millfo Point.

General Set Up Luckily the interior space of Hope Mill already had a bar installed so we did not have to build one as in Downtex, and from here we sold all the food and drinks, stored valuables, cups, cleaning supplies and stationary. There were approximately 3 members of the team behind the bar, 2 in charge of the tool box, and 2 people at all times acting as security for the workshop space. There was a bit off ebb and flow with the numbers of the UK team over the 2 weeks and generally we were a very well staffed Millfo Point. In terms of sorting out Millfo point we simply added a fridge, a toastie maker and a small set of

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drawers to keep valuables in. [jfr]

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Chapter 22 - Rota Rota’s are very useful things. Particularly when organising 60 individuals, in various locations, across a 2 week period, 24/7. Due to the huge size of the assembly team, it was vital to instigate some form of routine and timetable to ensure everything ran as smoothly as possible. Embrace the spreadsheet.

Where To Start: The first consideration when approaching the organisation of the rota is the timetable for the assembly. What are the key events? When are the workshop days? When is the excursion? It is important to make provision for potential date changes and additions; you must be flexible. Do ensure that any changes to the timetable are relayed to the rota.

EASA is not a holiday Organisers, Lead Helpers & Volunteers: The rota positions for easa010 were split into 3 categories: Organisers, Volunteers & Lead Helpers. Different tasks require a variety skills or specific knowledge. During the year before the assembly, Organisers will fall into specific roles, which will generally dictate their responsibilities during the assembly. It is their responsibility to relay information and delegate to the Lead Helpers & Volunteers who will be working alongside them.

It was important that Volunteers & Lead Helpers had an enjoyable time as well as working with us. Shifts were approximately 8 hours a day (Although this fluctuated with each different task), and each person had a day off. The concept of a “rotating rota” was implemented to ensure volunteers experienced a variety of tasks & shift times. Due to the 24/7 nature of an easa, people are working throughout the night; ensure there is time for sleep after the graveyard shift!

Teams: Each vital location across Manchester, and specific everyday task had it’s own

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team, consisting of Organisers, Volunteers & Lead Helpers: Events Team (lectures & evening activities) Info Point Team (ran info point throughout the assembly) Bar & Food Team (stock & running café/bar, making lunches, overseeing breakfast & dinner) Hope Mill (tool box, café & workshop coordination) HIVE & Madlab (workshop coordination) Roamers (exclusively Organisers: transportation, stocking, money coordination of event as a whole) This resulted in an efficient workforce who knew the roles expected of them, and made the rota far easier to digest.

In Practice: The rota was sent out via e-mail a week before arrivals. This helped to answer any questions, and to change any mistakes. Each member of the team had a specific colour and letter that they would refer to on the rota. Volunteers registered on the first day (which clashed with arrivals, it would be advisable to have them arrive a day earlier to orientate) and were given a brief presentation explaining their roles.

The rota worked well in the initial days before the “big move”- and it was important to ensure this was continued, and adjusted to the new locations, to provide a sense of organisation and calm to the chaos that preceded this upheaval. Regular updates of the rota were provided on info point.

A rota is vital when working with large numbers of people- no questions, no confusion, and no fuss.

Participant’s Duties: EASA is not a holiday, and with 450 people living together for two weeks,

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it gets messy. All participants must undertake responsibilities during the assembly. These are not that strenuous, but absolutely must be done. It is the Organiser’s responsibility to provide the information and equipment to ensure these tasks are completed.

Duties perform two roles during EASA. One is to ensure tasks that require a lot of people for a short amount of time can get done without dragging organizers away from other tasks.

The other, even more important, is they are the door through which participants really feel part of the EASA family, part of the daily operation of the event. Without tasks it would be easy for a feeling of served and servers to grow during the event. It has been our experience that duties actually remove this feeling over time, with the second week of all EASAs standing out as more community based than the first.

An explanation of roles & the timetable was provided in the welcome pack: no false expectations of a five star retreat. When considering the timetable, ensure that there is a fair share of duties across all the countries. Countries with fewer participants should be paired together, and those with large numbers divided.

It is the NC’s duty to ensure their country is prompt and complete their task allocated to a sufficient standard. Info Point was the “Duties Station”: it was from here that instructions and equipment were given. A huge A1 poster of the participant’s duties timetable also provided participants with a gentle reminder of when their shifts were.

Appropriate numbers of cleaning supplies must be bought (buying in bulk reduces the price considerably). We were lucky enough to neighbor a cleaning supplies company, who provided us with free some products. The more supplies you have, the happier your participants (less waiting around).

A typical shopping list for cleaning supplies should include: Bleach All Purpose Cleaner Washing Up Liquid Anti Bacterial Spray

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Sponge Scourers Dish Cloths Bin Bags It was decided to provide participants with a toilet roll each as part of their welcome kit to reduce waste. There was no soggy toilet roll on dirty bathrooms floors, and people were far more considerate concerning usage…

NC Duties: Part of our strategy concerned a considerable amount of stewarding & circulating throughout Downtex. Tedious and boring it may have been, but safety is a priority. It was decided at the previous INCM in Liechtenstein, that NC’s should be given more roles during the assembly. It was concluded by the Organising team that NC’s were to be given shifts stewarding doors and circulating on the nights of “internal” events. Many embraced these new roles and were a great help, however frustrations arose when NC’s did not turn up to vital shifts. This was partly due to the new role of NC’s that they may not have been aware of, or the context of these shifts: in the middle of the party, sat by the door. After a few teething problems, and an NC meeting, we were back on track.

Relocation Relocation: With the relocation of the accommodation, and the bar, duties either changed, or were no longer valid. We were left in the predicament of determining what roles were still required, what were not, what new roles had arisen, and how we were going to relay this information to the NC’s. Info Point provided snippets of information, but unfortunately many people abandoned their duties. With such an extreme change of situation, Participant’s & NC’s Duties were unfortunately overlooked. The easa spirit prevailed however, and many were kind enough to help out whilst not on the rota. [eun]

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Chapter 23 - Volunteers Our ambition of holding easa010 within a major city centre presented us with many opportunities to showcase Manchester, and all it has to offer. The theme of “Identity” leant itself to various locations and interactions across the city.

Naturally, this requires a large workforce, and a lot of spreadsheets.

How To Get Volunteers: It is a rather daunting prospect… how to get architecture students involved in volunteering for an event the majority have never heard of, let alone been to. A tactic of mine was to not shut up about it for an entire year, it seemed to work.

Following EASA Italy those who were interested in easa010 after returning to University from a blissful summer and got involved became Organisers. They were able to follow the journey of easa010 and have a lasting input into the decision-making. There was no advertising campaign at this point, it was those who listened, used their initiative, and made a particular effort to get involved. These are the kind of people who you want on your organising team.

The campaign to get volunteers started in the New Year 2010. To start posters were dotted around the architecture department, enigmatic in style to promote a reaction. This campaign continued until around April, and interest came in drips and drabs. It is important to be patient; generally people will leave it very last minute to become involved (I had an application the day before the assembly started…). EASA does sell itself.

Around April we began holding lectures, travelling to nearby Sheffield University to spread the word. By presenting and explaining your own experiences, people are able to obtain a far better understanding of the easa concept.

Short presentations were given in lectures, and an easa010 fund-raising event was held, which not only provided us with income, but in addition a larger

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audience. An advert in an RIBA magazine provided us with national coverage, and people were contacting us via the web site.

An e-mail relationship was set up with each individual enquiring about volunteering. Answering questions as clearly and precisely as possible is a great help. By providing an accurate description of expectations and roles before the application process, people know what to expect.

Application Process: It is a wise decision to have a template e-mail for those enquiring about volunteering. This should include: Dates Cost (we asked volunteers to cover food and accommodation costs, ÂŁ5 a day) A short explanation of what easa is Expectations & Roles Think about how many Volunteers you will require. Due to the multiple locations, we knew we needed a team of around 50 to be efficient.

Have a contingency. Some may not turn up, or leave. We were able to provide each volunteer with a day off as we had enough people to cover shifts. 10 extra individuals should cover it.

The application process for volunteers is very similar to that of participants.

It is, however, recommended that you ask for their mobile number too- very useful for when someone does not turn up for their shift! Ensure that all details are exported into a spreadsheet for ease of reference, and no loss of details.

A week before the assembly, a Welcome Pack, specifically made for the volunteers was e-mailed out. This provided volunteers with details of their rota, what each task involves, and what they should expect. We had excellent

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feedback from this document, which meant that each individual knew what to expect.

Potential Issues: Without volunteers, easa010 quite simply wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have happened. They were vital in holding the assembly together, even when we had to relocate.

However, it must be remembered that their affiliation with EASA only lasts 2 weeks- and many may be (and were) seduced by the partying aspects of easa.

It is advisable to highlight the importance of their roles, and ensure that in the event of a volunteer not turning up to their shift, or being incapable to fulfill their role, that someone is able to cover. [eun]

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Chapter 24 - Info Point Info Point is the true hub of an easa, and a secret weapon in ensuring participants happiness. A well organised info point = happy participants.

For us, Info Point was the first introduction to all participants as it took on the mantle of registration. First impressions are important; a well-rehearsed registration process puts participants at ease after a long journey.

Do consider that Info Point will generally be populated by those who are new to easa (more queries), visitors, lecturers, deliveries, and in our case security and the fire services. It is important to show an organised team, try to prepare for visitors in advance if possible, or create posters for those questions that seem to reverberate constantly (“No, the internet is not working yet, sorry!).

Location: Info Point had various incarnations across the assembly, and multiple locations.

The principle Info Point at Downtex was located in the Loading Bay, instantly recognisable upon arrival, which is particularly useful to visitors. By placing the entire Info Point upon a stage of pallets, there was a clear definition between Info Point and circulating space (no invasions!), and it also saved us from many a flood…

We found that throughout the assembly, it was vital to have a separate office space to the info point to work at (if you want to get anything done without a thousand questions bombarded at you). This also provided a sanctuary for those who needed a small nap to get through the long working hours (40 minute nap does the trick nicely).

Smaller versions of Info Point were also the Café in Hope Mill, and at MadLab. These were not fully-fledged info points, but satellites, answering any questions and keeping participants up to date.

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Info Point took up two locations when we moved to the Sports Centre. A temporary satellite answered questions & sold tokens, and provided an extensive lost & found collection. Eventually a lost & found fashion show was provided to reunite lost items with their owners.

Equipment: As few workshops were taking place at Downtex, we merged the stationary depot with Info Point. Stationary goes missing constantly; try (if you can) to have a logbook of Stationary items (although as we found, this is difficult to stick to in busy periods). It is therefore extremely important to ensure that you are well stocked. Specific items that you will require include: The obvious: Pens, Pencils, A4 Paper, Stapler, Ruler, Glue, Sellotape, Scissors, and Scalpels The absolute necessities: Blue Tack, duct tape, permanent markers, Exercise Books (Very useful as Log Books), Sticky Labels Electrical Items: At least 2 printers, extension cables, megaphone, torch, batteries, telephone, Internet First Aid kits, and certified First Aiders are vital to have at the Info Point to ensure the safety of all. We also kept a “First Aid Guide” within the First Aid kit to jog the memory of the sleep deprived, however you will find the majority of cases are common sense.

Lockers: A secure room was dedicated to lockers, which were in fact kitchen cabinets with labels of each country’s name attached. Only NC’s could log items in and out (all noted in the appropriate log book) to prevent a traffic build up at Info Point. This worked well, there was only 1 large padlock to the room, and the key was in the complete control of the Organisers. No 48 separate keys for

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each country, or lost keys.

Lost & Found: The “dynamic” nature of our relocation saga undoubtedly increased the number of items of lost and found. Although every measure was put in place to try to reduce this, we were rather overwhelmed by the sheer quantities of items we had. All items of value were kept behind info point, with clothes and bulkier items in large boxes. As these overflowed, we ended up with piles everywhere, and a mess. It is advisable to keep a note of each item handed in, with a description, so that people can look through words instead of clothes… and make less mess!

Recharging: A recharging station was located behind info point, with about 10 plug sockets, which seemed to be sufficient. Items were left in the responsibility of the owner, upon a “first come first served” basis. Participants are told beforehand to bring adapters; it is not your problem if they do not have them!

Tokens: Tokens provide a huge percentage of income during easa, in cash. It is very important to have a safe box that is regularly emptied (the money being sent straight to the bank..) To avoid any money going missing, token sales were marked in a Log Book, with any discrepancies easily spotted. We had a system of stamping each token when it was sold to “verify” it. This helped avoid the situation of tokens being plagiarised, an unfortunate but true situation that could arise.

Merchandise: We really missed a trick with the merchandise. Grand designs were projected, with an entire workshop dedicated to producing merchandise, instead of producing it before the assembly started. Unfortunately faith was given to this being undertaken, however for various reasons no results were produced.

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Merchandise can be a money maker, and it is worth considering this before the assembly, buying & printing in bulk to gain a reduction in price.

Attitude: The most important aspect of working on Info Point is your attitude. A smile goes a long way. As soon as participants seen concern within the organisers, this creates gossip and tension within the assembly, the last thing you want.

We had a huge amount of unexpected situations, one blow after another. This hugely affected the organising team, as the assembly seemed to be crumbling around us. But by putting on a brave face and pulling through, along with the incredible easa spirit of the participants, we made it out the other side. By raising spirits, being friendly and smiling you can get through a lot.

A great example of this was on a typical Manchester summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day: pouring rain. Info Point was flooded, and everyone was arriving after a long walk back from Hope Mill soaking wet, cold and fed up. So us Info Point girls got out our sunglasses, turned up the volume to some particularly cheesy summer tunes, and danced around like maniacs. It did the trick. We had everyone singing along, dancing, and most importantly laughing (at us). It may have been sleep deprivation but it was jolly good fun. [eun]

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Chapter 25 - Downtex Downtex is a former industrial building on the banks of the river Irwell just outside the inner ring road on the north side of Manchester city centre. It consists of two distinct halves: a nineteenth-century brick mill building of four stories and a basement, and, across a double-height loading bay, a lower modern steel shed with offices and a mezzanine floor that covered most of the area. (Maps, floor plans and photographs accompany the text and are in the appendix).

The building presented an exciting opportunity. It was the most promising potential venue because it was close to the correct size, near enough to the city centre, available for a low rent for a short period of time, and, crucially, the landowner was open to the idea of it being used for parties and sleeping accommodation. The building was also interesting in itself; in the past, EASA has occupied unusual environments including a converted train, second world war ship, and abandoned factories. Here was a genuine mill, an authentic piece of the gritty red-brick Manchester that the world knows.

For all these opportunities, the state of the building was far from perfect.

Thieves had stolen the electric wires and pipes, so none of the lights or plumbing was functional. The roof leaked in many places and as a result the floors suffered from damp and rot. All of the windows had been bricked up, so the floors were dark and unventilated. The building was full of rubbish and was filthy. It had been used by squatters and there were hypodermic needles around the back. There was a lot of work to do.

The Task It would be a race to make this building ready for the Assembly. The task of preparing the mill was dominated by the regulatory requirements of authorities such as the county fire service, a task which was complicated significantly as the fire service continually increased the standard of work required to reach a satisfactory condition throughout the period leading up

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to approval and afterwards. This escalation of requirements would eventually have consequences which threatened the continuation of the assembly, as recorded elsewhere.

In order to sleep people in the building we would have to obtain temporary planning permission for sleeping. During the process of obtaining planning permission, the fire service, police, and environmental health would be consulted by the planning department and they would have to be satisfied with the proposals. We also had to obtain a premises licence in order to sell or serve alcohol, play loud music, show films, and allow dancing.

Police,

fire, environmental health and the planning authorities were again statutory consultees in this process.

We had always expected to have to do some work to build the easa accommodation; we wanted a really personal, cool place that we could do whatever we wanted to. We had a big pool of labour to call on. Some of us enjoyed the practical work involved and had the necessary skills to do as much of the work as possible. We would pay for labour only when we really needed to, get materials for free, and find the most efficient and creative solutions wherever we could.

On the 28th May we walked around the building for the first time with an enforcement officer from the county fire service. The advice which he gave would form the basis of our plan of work.

The original list of work to be undertaken at Downtex was as follows: Work necessary for the fire service to not object to our planning and licensing application 1.

Clear all flammable rubbish from the basement.

2.

Clad both sides of the old doors with plasterboard, to increase their fire

rating to ½ hr

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3.

Where doors to stairs are missing or irreparable, to replace them with

new ½ hr fire doors 4.

Seal all other openings to the staircases with minimum 1-hr fire

resistant construction. This meant boarding over three large internal window openings and rebuilding partitions.

5.

Seal all other openings between floors.

6.

All fire doors to be smoke sealed and to have self-closing devices.

7.

All fire doors to be signed appropriately.

8.

Break out existing blockwork wall in aviary, fix roller shutter in opening

and construct escape staircase in courtyard to provide additional fire escape.

9.

The existing (broken) fire alarm to be made to work and tested by an

approved electrician.

10.

The existing emergency lighting to be tested by an approved electrician.

There were some places such as the back alley where supplementary emergency lighting had to be fitted.

11.

Install a new push bar on the door at the bottom of the front staircase.

12.

Ensure that the signage throughout conformed to modern standards.

Plumbing 1.

The landlord agreed to replace the missing pipework in one side of the

building.

2.

Replace all water supply pipework in the mill and repair leaks in existing

pipework and fittings.

3.

Construct some sort of facility for washing plates and also for general

hygiene and brushing teeth.

4.

Provide showers. We were not sure at this stage if we could afford to

provide hot showers or to hire specific shower cubicles.

Cleaning 1.

Clear out assorted rubbish from courtyard and all other spaces.

2.

Sweep, mop and power wash all floors.

3.

Clear out existing WCs, which were full of excrement and paper.

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Other building work and security 1.

Seal off former kitchen where the floor is structurally unsound

2.

Remove flue blocking alley.

3.

Build a bar and info point.

4.

Work out a way of ventilating the toilets and sleeping floors.

5.

Fix all broken roller shutters and doors to car park and side alley.

6.

Repair and augment where possible razor wire to fence in courtyard.

7.

Get the council to fell the large tree that fell on the fence from the river

side.

8.

Repair holes in fence to river side.

Utilities 1.

Sort out electricity contracts for both electricity supplies.

2.

Arrange broadband internet supply requiring new telephone line.

Furniture and aesthetic considerations 1.

Find and transport to the mill as many stackable chairs for lectures,

tables to eat from and work at, sofas and armchairs to relax on, and lockable cupboards as possible.

2.

Paint certain areas of the mill.

3.

Improve the lighting of the bar area.

4.

Break out and make good 1960s partition wall and suspended ceiling in

the main stairs.

5.

Put up flags in loading bay.

Additional work that we had to do to satisfy the fire service (not mentioned during the first few meetings): 1.

Install double swing doors in a fire-resisting wall between the bar and

the aviary.

2.

Install double-swing doors in a fire-resisting wall between the loading

bay and the Tin Room.

3.

Install another, independent, comprehensive smoke detection and

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alarm system throughout both spaces.

4.

Provide an additional fire escape from the bar to the loading bay by

breaking through the window opening, making good and providing another set of stairs.

5.

Build a door to cover the opening made by removing the block work

wall over the additional fire escape in the aviary.

6.

Remove the treads of the stairs to prevent access to the mezzanine in

the tin rooms.

7.

Replace all older type door closers with new lever-arm door closers.

Additional work that we had to do to satisfy the police 1.

Arrange for a CCTV and recording system to be installed to cover the

licensed areas and the bar.

2.

Arrange for a double-walled pen to be constructed to protect the

entrance to the premises.

3.

Include signage identifying licensed areas, person capacity and signs

instructing people to respect the neighbors and be quiet.

Additional work that we had to do to satisfy ourselves 1.

Arrange for scaffolding platforms to be installed in the Tin Room to

accommodate the greater number of people than we expected.

2.

To provide hot showers.

The way the task was met The structure of easa010 as an organisation would be critical in our efforts to carry out this work. It is discussed in detail elsewhere in this report, but it is important to summarise here the level of responsibility, knowledge and commitment of the various members of the organising team and volunteers.

As a non-profit organisation incorporated for the public benefit, easa010 did not pay any of those involved for the work they did as part of the organisation.

In this sense we were all volunteers. There was also a strong desire to create a so-called flat hierarchy, where responsibility for decision making is

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distributed equally across all team members. Inevitably, however, there will be inequalities in the level of commitment that individuals can and will put into such a voluntary enterprise. Possibly the clearest of these distinctions was the difference between the directors, who had legal responsibilities with severe personal and financial penalties, and everyone else. The team was set up on a responsibility/reward model, where individuals taking on more responsibility were rewarded with greater influence.

It is important to provide this background in order to clarify the definitions of certain terms used in this account. Many of the people who were members of the ‘organising team’ had the same level of responsibility and commitment as simple volunteers, and so will be referred to as such. Those who were responsible for managing the whole project and would suffer if it failed, will be called ‘organisers’.

We did the work listed above during the two months from June to August with a minimum of employed labour. Many of the jobs were repetitive, dirty, dangerous and hard, and the days were always long. And yet people came back day after day, with the only reward being the work itself. This volunteer spirit has much in common with the EASA spirit. Volunteers come because they feel part of something good, they can see and feel proud of the progress being made, and because the atmosphere is enjoyable and sociable.

Managing volunteer labour presents several unique challenges. First, it is very difficult to predict who or how many people will turn up at any particular time.

If too many people turn up they will feel they are wasting time and are unlikely to come back; if too few turn up certain tasks are impossible to accomplish and deadlines are difficult to meet.

There are ways to get around the worst of these uncertainties.

1.

Communication

We held infrequent meetings amongst the team at which we made it clear what

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the plan of work was and when it had to be achieved. In this way everyone was made aware of the scale and complexity of the work, and could themselves begin to suggest solutions and see how they could be part of the work. It would have been better to have a brief meeting regularly such as every week, as well as a continuously updated board with all the jobs on it.

2.

Responsibility

At the first of these meetings we divided the tasks up into areas and people volunteered to take them on. For instance, the construction of the bar, where those responsible for building would also run the bar during the assembly.

This gave the individuals concerned greater responsibility for the work so that they could advance beyond simply turning up and needing to be told what to do. In the case of the bar, this worked relatively successfully as it was a simple, self-contained project for which we already had the materials. In other cases, however, tasks were harder to define.

Ensuring access to the building was a challenge that we had not planned for.

With any project like this, a great responsibility will fall on the individual who has the keys to ensure that the building is open whenever people are available to work. The effect of this is that it will mean that the most committed person â&#x20AC;&#x201C; usually the person responsible for coordinating the overall building project â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is dedicated to being at the building for most of the hours in the day, every day. It requires careful planning to allow them to get away and work on other essential work in the office or buying supplies.

All of the tasks that needed to be done could be described in terms of skill. At Downtex, the less skilled tasks were fewer in number but greater in magnitude.

Often those that were skilled were high in number but smaller in themselves, for example fixing the plumbing.

Matching the tasks on the critical path with the skill level of the volunteers available is an essential job. When they first started at Downtex, many of the

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volunteers were almost completely inexperienced at practical building work and without careful guidance could harm themselves, ruin tools and materials, and do work that took twice as long to put right. These issues will be familiar to tutors of building workshops at EASA. The more skilled could spare only a small amount of time from their own jobs to train others. A suggestion for the future would be a kind of super-apprentice scheme, where two or so helpers are trained by someone who knows for one day, and then they repeat the lesson to others.

Another challenge is maintaining the variety and interest of the work. It was a management challenge to try to balance the desirable tasks like building things with the less desirable ones like cleaning, while ensuring that everything progresses on time.

Special help Certain tasks could only be undertaken by paid workmen. We brought in: 1.

a scaffolding contractor to build the two additional fire escape stairs

that we needed and also the raised sleeping platforms 2.

a roller shutter installer to fix a broken shutter

3.

an electrician to mend the fire alarm and test the emergency lighting,

and install the electricity supply for the showers.

Other work was beyond our ability but we knew people kind enough to help.

These were Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father and Tomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father Keith Bennell. Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father is a hands-on property developer and knows how to hang doors and build stud walls. He lives in London but agreed to come up to Manchester for a week to fit the new fire doors and board up the openings. Keith Bennell fixed all the plumbing and lighting in the mill, including cleaning and redecorating two toilet blocks.

Sam Patterson, UK NC, was not technically part of the organising team but spent a large part of the summer in Downtex, quickly becoming another

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coordinator of the project.

Building as material resource/furniture When we moved in, there was a lot of rubbish in Downtex, but a lot of it could be useful to us. The melamine-coated chipboard was used to board up openings and in the bar; pallets were used for the bar; the bar top was made from a 1960s suspended ceiling; bricks and blocks for the retaining wall/ bench in the courtyard. This creative re-use of materials must be familiar to those who have attended EASA, and it is becoming increasingly common in environmentally aware trophy projects. For us it was an economic necessity.

As a former industrial building, Downtex had no furniture, which we would have to provide. Because food is served over several hours and the lectures are never attended by all participants at once, we did not really need sufficient seating for 450, more like 200 or so. It is possible to hire seating for events, but we were anxious to avoid the cost and the risk of damage to hired equipment.

One member of the organising team was tasked with the job of finding free furniture. In Manchester we are fortunate that there are numerous large universities close together and we had had success asking them for old furniture in the past. We found that the most effective strategy was to find a well-spoken, smartly dressed and knowledgeable member of the team to go and visit the reception desks of all the university buildings. The reception staff were often more than helpful, putting us in contact with the porters and house-services staff who were grateful that someone was taking away their old furniture for a good cause. We found that it was helpful if we at least pretended to be a student at the institution in question.

We found that it was generally essential to get out and meet people face to face. Our organiser did not make much progress over the telephone or through e-mail with many of the institutions. There are wide variations however. At the University of Manchester were simply told desk to speak to Simon Atkinson, the waste disposal manager. Simon proved to be an enthusiastic, open minded person who went out of his way to help us.

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The search for furniture for Downtex often coincided with materials for workshops and furniture for other locations. We got most of our sofas and armchairs from house clearances in Fallowfield, an area dominated by privately let student housing, as well as other materials. From the Manchester Green/ Realcycle online swapping networks we got pallets, a piano, fridges, some tables and most of the fire doors. All of this collecting took time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to search for items, to collect them and to unload them, but also opportunities presented themselves over time. We could not have made use of these resources if we had not had both a van and the accommodation for two months before the assembly.

We passed the final fire inspection one day before the assembly was due to begin. The pressure of that week had been tremendous, not only to make Downtex meet very basic standards of accommodation, but also to meet the ever increasing requirements of the fire service inspectors. In spite of the hard work that we had put in throughout the two months, work was not quite finished even the day before. Now, we were able to make use of help from participants that had arrived early and all the volunteers from Manchester. [tbe]

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Chapter 26 - Safety It took a while to decide on the title of this chapter because it covers quite a few things and mainly looks at the legal aspects that needed to be organised in order to get official permission for certain things. The chapter is certainly not about Health and Safety, because, well we didn’t really go down that avenue Health and Safety is a phrase that is thrown around quite a lot, but is really not relevant to easa010, yes we had requirements to meet that related to safety but we didn’t have someone in a specific Health and Safety role. But this is boring and could take quite a while to explain about something we didn’t do, so just take my word for it. specific documents In the end though I just thought about all the All including the terms and times I was asked why we went through such conditions for participants are included in Section Five lengths to gain official permissions and licences, the only answer is that we did it for the safety of the participants - simply for their wellbeing, not the responsibility we were under.

For future organisers thinking of skipping the legal part of organising, no matter where you are based, let me first say that if we didn’t go through these avenues there would have been no insurance cover for the participants, volunteers or talent in case of an accident. If a small issue had come up bringing the authorities to the accommodation the attention would have resulted in the whole assembly being shut down, and there would have been no way back from that, we would have lost the trust of everyone associated with it, we would have lost spaces, we would even have lost sponsor money due to us. Possibly the most convincing thing I can say is you could go to jail.

It would be easy to think this is a chapter that could have little relevance for future assemblies, the UK has its own laws, right? Today though EU law covers most (of course not all) of Europe, so many of the regulations will be the same. More than that though, this Chapter is more to do with way we had to

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do the things in general, rather than the specifics of the regulations.

The first thing to stress is we had these issues in mind from the very beginning, from right before we bid, which is why we had set out at the centre of our organising strategy to meet with as many influential people as possible and to gain their active support.

Knowing the implications of not getting these things in place in time I had been hoping to have issues resolved well in advance of the assembly, and we would have if we had not lost our first choice accommodation location in February of the assembly year. We finally secured an alternative in June.

To give an insight into the size of the task we faced you need to know the process we should have gone through. To get a change of use on a building we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t own we should have given the owner 3 weeks notice of our intention, then put in the planning application which would take 8 weeks to process, after getting permission for change of use we should then have applied for a premises licence which takes another 8 weeks. Meaning the minimum length of time to get everything in place was 19 weeks. This was the minimum because if there were any â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;representationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; - basically objections - from the public, police, fire department, environmental health, highways agency etc, etc, there would be another 8 weeks added to either or both the planning and the licence process. Meaning the length of time could be 19 weeks, 27 weeks, 35 weeks... We had 7 (seven) weeks, less than the time it takes to process the planning application alone.

This huge compression of time meant we needed to do both the planning application and the licence application at the same time, and we needed all relevant bodies to agree straight away. >>>>>> Insurance To get the best understanding of what you need to do to meet the relevant regulations try to get insurance, you wont without doing everything legally, or

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perhaps worse, it wont pay out when you need it.

For those thinking about producing a waiver for participants to sign on arrival to indemnify the organisation against being sued - they have no legal worth.

Under European law an individual can not sign way their rights, but, as we did, it is important that you get all the participants to sign a declaration stating they have read and understood the terms and conditions of being there, otherwise they wont be covered by insurance incase of accident.

In total we had four insurance policies, building insurance for easaHQ, building insurance for Downtex, event insurance for building things, sleeping and such like for the two weeks of the event, and single day event insurance for easaDAYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public spaces.

Planning permission <<<<<< Downtex is a commercial building in an area zoned for commercial, not residential use. In order to sleep there legally, to get an alcohol licence and be covered by insurance, we needed to gain permission to sleep people there, this meant a full planning application for change of use for a given period of time.

As weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen already, we had a lot less than the required time to get the application through and absolutely no room for mistakes.

It was now all

our efforts in meeting with the council, running small build up events and generally building a reputation in the city paid off - when putting in a planning application for an international event it helps that you have the written support of the leader of the council, as well as written and active support of the Events Team at the council as well as the Head of Planning, no less. It also helped that we were a bunch of architecture students, and having two years practice experience I was familiar with planning application requirements.

Licence <<<<<< (The majority of the information that follows directly with our experience with licensing in England & Wales, and specific information for other countries

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should be referred to when seeking a license. However, the information and advice seen generally should hold true across countries.)

Why After agreeing terms on the mill, we started thinking about how each thing was going to work within its context. The bar/cafe/party space was forecast as the most used space during the assembly, so therefore the most ‘revenueable’ area. A bar we could sell alcoholic drinks at, cash or token, would be a great profit earner.

To sell alcohol in the UK you need a licence, or if the event has a limited number of people and duration a Temporary Events Notice (TEN) can be applied for. We looked at the possibility of running the bar from TENs, but a few factors meant it wasn’t going to possible: limit of TENs for one location, arrangements with other events organisers, time limit would impose nights off on the bar which is not ideal for our main revenue source. So we would need the mill licensed.

Getting a Licence The licensing laws in the UK changed recently, with the intention to help both the licensees and the authorities giving out the licences. While this may be the case, it has introduced various new steps and legislation that created new bureaucracy and cost for current licence holders and those wanting to gain a licence.

After some research, our first task was to get a member of the organising team a personal licence (1). This required a day’s training on alcohol law and the licensing objectives, followed by an exam set by the licensing authority. I was nominated/nominated myself for the position. In all honesty, the course and examination were relatively straightforward and based upon common sense, much like a driving theory test.

Next came the laborious process of the premises application. There was a lot

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of work and planning which needed to be done before we could start filling out the application form. Things like areas of control, fire escape routes, noise control, provision of sanitary services, refuse disposal strategies and security strategies were being set up to support not only this, but further planning applications, fire inspections, etc.

We tried to get all the main responsible authorities - Police, Fire Department, Environmental Health - to the venue to talk through and explain what we were doing and what we wanted to do, as on paper it looks rather extreme. This perhaps was the flip side of EASA being such a unique event, and it not having a recent precedent in the local area.

Permission is not enough in itself, with regular visits It was a huge task of negotiating, accepting a possibility adequate training as well as vigilance compromises and conditions on the licence and in terms of restrictions is a number of grey area liberties, but we were essential. granted our premises licence by Licence Hearing at the Town Hall on July 29th, 48 hours before the bar opened for business at the start of easa010.

Responsibilities The main responsibility I had as the licence holder and designated premises supervisor for the bar at easa010 is that I am the one making or authorising the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises. In practice this is near impossible, which is why all persons of the organising team who worked on the bar signed an agreement with myself, authorising them to sell alcohol, after a basic training session on the licensing objectives and the law in regards to the sale of alcohol.

The DPS is also required to spend a significant amount of time on the premises, given that I was responsible for the day-to-day running of the bar. I was also making sure that no licensing offences were committed, such as the sale of alcohol to persons who are drunk or allowing disorderly conduct on the premises.

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Advice If you are holding EASA in a city or town, find a bar that is already established and can accommodate you for the duration of the assembly. It will cut out a lot of stress, time, effort, stress, resources and stress. It may be difficult negotiating the opening times, drinks and snacks costs and space, but there will be less opportunity to trip yourselves up. (2) Do not underestimate the amount of disorderly conduct EASA participants can produce.

Start your research early. We managed to get a licence in the shortest time frame possible, through some very rushed hard work, some useful connections in the city council, smiling faces, and a small miracle. An extra three (two?) weeks As we found, moving the easaBAR II would have made a big difference. to a licensed premises takes pressure off the organisers, but the feeling of easaBAR I was never recreated.

Speak to people who have been through the process before. Tips and tricks of negotiating the legal minefield this area is are invaluable, from the language you should use, to highlighting the relevant parts of the application to each authority.

(1) For any licensed premises, the new system requires a DPS (designated premises supervisor) to hold a personal license, and the premises itself to have a premises licence. More information on the Licensing Act 2003, its measures and objectives can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Licensing_Act_2003 (2) Advice given to me by two Policewomen who deal with the licensed premises of North Manchester. [ama]

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Public Spaces <<<<<< As part of the exhibition on easaDAY we were to utilise public spaces, this had the support of the head of Events Team at the council and therefore we had assurances that there would be no problem getting the spaces once all the required information was submitted by us.

This first meant negotiating with the tutors to get a rough definition of their use of the space, then a long conversation with insurers to get a quotation for the day - required by the council - and submission of the application.

It must be impressed on every single member of the team just how serious this work is. In all honesty we struggled as a team because often, despite warnings to the contrary, people would not recognise the easa010 owes a huge thank you to Anne Schofield of importance of doing things a certain way until it CityCo for making this part so easy for us. had caused problems - once again it is difficult to recognise the results of good work, but easy to see the results of bad work!

Review <<<<<< The seriousness of your legal responsibilities should be respected at the beginning of organising, throughout organising and during the event too.

So let’s start the review with the problems, and let’s the problems with the problems we caused from within.

It’s been said a number of times that we had only 7 weeks to concurrently get planning permission and a licence for entertainment and the provision of alcohol. To do this Alex Maxwell and I (Chris Maloney) worked on the frontline, researching, filling out forms and meeting relevant people. In the back line there were a number of people working on the fabric of Downtex.

Due to the short amount of time to get everything done the people at Downtex were working on getting the place clean and tidy as well as working on fixing it up to the standards required by law. The third element of compression of time came because we weren’t just applying for permission to carry out work, we were doing the work at the same time.

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The major internal problem the team had was this element of organising required a chain of command, something the team had not had until this point. This resulted in Alex or I receiving instruction from the Fire department or police for the minimum requirement for us to gain permission, relaying this to the team working on Downtex to find later that they had modified the instruction to their own idea of what is good enough. This simple lack of trust in the judgment of Alex and I lead to a significant amount of time wasted on multiple complicated explanations of what was needed and why, when time was already at a premium, it also lead to things just not being done because those responsible for doing it couldn’t see the need.

It is a terrible feeling to stand in front of people capable of shutting EASA down as the company signatory on legal documents and being made to look Organising EASA is not just draw in like a liar because what had been plans, making timetables and building bars, there are elements of huge agreed, drawn and submitted had not individual responsibility and it is down to the team as a whole to respect been carried out. this and support each other in a mature manner.

This problem continued into the assembly itself, the most striking example coming with the first visit by the fire brigade. On coming into the site the fire officer and I stood next to the info point and asked the organiser at the time to find the fire log book for inspection, we then toured the building. When we returned to the info point to look at the log the organiser asked ‘what log book?’. Right there and then we could have been shut down due to lack of regard for the seriousness of tasks. The next day I went back to info point and asked the same organiser, this time there was a log, but it was not filled in! It was five days into the assembly - and a lot of shouting later - when the log was finally working as it should.

Both of these situations placed a huge amount of pressure on the people ultimately responsible in the eye’s of the law, and demonstrate the problems that occur when the ideals of an organisation meet the every day reality of

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legal structures. Unfortunately in the case of easa010 their were people who were insistent on equal footing on decisions but not on responsibility, leaving those who had signed to work, and to worry, to a disproportionate degree.

We also faced external difficulties to getting the application accepted. We had learned about the space when an associate organisation held a club night in the building, this was a double edged sword though as the event had received dozens of noise complaints from local residents and was therefore a known location with the authorities, each of which was initially very negative about using the building for anything other than warehouse space.

Our approach of - meet people, listen, talk, meet again - worked to overcome the initial resistance to the assembly, we found We struggled to get the Police down to the site in that once we had got representative to the site, the run up though due to their World Cup commitments. shown them our info documents and explained the history to EASA there were few if any problems in principle. EASA is not quite unique, but it is unusual. This is always a benefit, although it also means you must work harder to make it understood to outsiders.

To understand the situation you are facing you need to understand the role of the person you are talking to. In most situations the person you need to grant you permission is the person responsible if anything goes wrong, they are unwilling to make compromise because it is not in their interest to put their job on the line for your event.

Having cut a swathe through the problems, it is worth reflecting on the success too. A lot of things needed to come together for us to gain all the permissions required to get easa010 the go ahead, and having spoken to people in the profession since there is a general feeling of disbelief that we managed to it in such a short time scale, this is an achievement that can not be down played - a few weeks into the process one organiser asked me what we would do if we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get permission, my response was that there would be no EASA, this

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is how close we came.

Ultimately we faced problems from the Fire Brigade, which I talk about in length in Section Three, but this doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take away from the fact we received permission in the first place. In fact the pressure felt getting the permission, including having our final fire inspection on the eve of the assembly, gave a huge amount of experience of coping when we had to look else where.

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Chapter 27 - Review Our organising period stretched over two years nine months, so it is fairly difficult to review! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll start by listing the significant choices we made along with a brief summary of what informed the choice.

National Evening Identity / tradition National evening didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist in its current form until 2004, previous to that countries would do their own presentations on evening right throughout the assembly. Once again the short living memory of EASA had turned it into a tradition written in stone. We decided that on a variation to national evening we would split the night into two halves and each country would be paired with another on the opposite night. The two countries For a review of all these choices in practice see would then have to represent each other rather Section Three than themselves. We made sure we gave all NCs a good advanced warning so they could prepare, talk between each other - or not.

Quota Integration In recent years an excel spreadsheet has been employed to work out how many participants from a country can attend EASA, this was based on the size of the country, involvement etc. The spreadsheet seemed to us an arbitrary way of working out the numbers wrapped in the mystique of a mathematical formula - none of us were comfortable with it. We reasoned that the difference in bringing 4 or 8 participants when you were faced with a country with thousands of students was ridiculous any way, we discussed it and decided that a fundamental part of EASA is the cultural exchange, and we all miss out if some countries are smaller than others. To this end we decided that easa010 would have equal representation from all countries in EASA. Library / Debate space Identity / interaction / density

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We sent out a plea for people to bring books and journals for a library that would be part of our cafe. This wasn’t a new idea, but it was something that hadn’t been part of the EASA set up for quite a few years. The idea was that the space could be a place where people could take a short break from their workshops without getting distracted by the lure of the city’s cafes.

Day workshops Identity / interaction / density Day workshops, like the debate space, were included in the timetable to give participants the chance to vary what they were doing without completely abandoning their workshop. We decided to limit the number of day workshops so that the impact on the main workshops was limited. The day workshops also gave us a chance to bring in some really interesting people who weren’t able to give us a whole two weeks of their time.

Student Lectures Integration / identity There was a feeling in the team that though we’d had some great lectures in the recent years there was now a feeling that lectures were for professionals and workshops were for students. We felt that having participants take part in the main lecture evenings easa010 would get more of a feeling of being student for student, we hoped it would send a message out that the organisers valued the input of the participants. Speaking to former EASA participants from the 90’s and 80’s during the organising we had this thought reinforced - originally EASA was more involved in discussions and talks of this kind.

Lecture sign up Integration / identity We decided that after selecting some essays to be part of the main lecture series we would leave some spaces blank to allow participants or tutors to get up and talk about whatever they wanted, it could be their essay, it could be their workshop progress. We hoped that this kind of encouragement to be part of the timetable would help people feel more involved in the assembly, an

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indication of the flexibility we had built into the entire timetable - our desire not to overly control the proceedings, rather to give a form work for easa010 to be defined by the participants.

Datascapes Integration We had hoped to have total of five competition and invited workshops, in the end we had two competitions and one invited Datascapes. We invited the tutors of Datascapes to be involved as we felt that it would be interesting to give participants the option of working with student tutors or professional local tutors. It was a shame that a workshop we had lined up with a prominent local architect didn’t go ahead.

Workshop applications Tradition Umbrella is a grey area. It has been a workshop at EASA since EASA began - personally I think this is a good thing. It had become tradition that the organisers of EASA would invite the tutors to run Umbrella, but we felt that this was not the right way to do it - we were proved right with disagreements that arose - some participants felt that Umbrella was a certainty to be selected and that the previous tutors should select the next. We decided that both approaches were not in the best interests of EASA, an organisation that doesn’t vote for reasons of openness should not have a situation where tutoring is closed and decided in private.

We opened Umbrella up to all comers, as we invited people to propose a ‘media coverage’ workshop.

Docu+Mation Legacy We decided that we wanted to run a workshop dedicated to documenting and information gathering at easa010. We also decided this workshop would be a competition workshop with a difference, rather than a competition for to find

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tutors we held a competition for participants. We decided that we would hold this competition back until after all quota places were filled in order to relieve the headache for NCs. easaDAY Integration / legacy / urbanity / interaction Debate has raged long and hard over how to get a better feeling of location in EASA, how to integrate with the local community with more than just parties.

We decided that a great potential for integration lay in the final exhibition, we also thought that the exhibition could be so much more than a series of rushed posters. easaDAY was set up to be a chance for the workshops to display their output as an exhibition of public space intervention, then head off to the final presentations for a chance to see the work others had done.

Welcome talks Integration Integration is not only about how to interact with the location and residents, it is about how to integrate participants with the assembly. In recent years there is a general feeling that there has been a swing in attitude to a situation of service and servers leaving a strain on the organisers, but also a gap in what the assembly could be. We felt this was one of our biggest challenges, and one we would not be able to fully overcome, but one we could attempt to improve upon, turn attention to and hopefully improve for EASA 2011.

As well as being as communicative as possible in the build up, using inclusive language and stating the roles NCs, tutors and participants would play in making easa010, we realised the importance of holding a welcome talk on the first day as well as having an official opening to the assembly.

Duties Integration Duties are central to what EASA is all about. At recent INCMs there has been a lot of talk about how duties had become a tourist attraction for participants

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and not engaged with. Again though the organising we had chance to see what previous assemblies had done and it became clear that recent assemblies had adopted the same model - food service and cleaning - for reasons of tradition mostly. A good example of taking things to the extreme, on The Train duties included an 8 hour stint in the kitchen cooking.

We decided that to best cover the needs of the event we would focus the duties on what would have most benefit. We felt duties should be relevant in order to give participants a feeling of being productive.

Lead Helpers Integration From the outset of the process we had been keen to make the organisation of easa010 a multinational cross border affair, this can be seen in the presentations given in 2008 INCM and 2009 EASA. We opened up the chance to be involved to the whole network as it was in 2008 and from then kept a large number of people on the organisers mailing list, this helped us stay more connected to the network and also to get an outside opinion of what we were doing. In the end as well as bringing in volunteers from the UK we opened up the chance for non-UK and former UK EASA participants to come along as Lead Helpers for a period of time - not guests. These lead helpers would provide experience and knowledge for the organisers as well as volunteers.

Having gone through the headline decisions in terms of the assembly itself itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth doing the same for some of the organizational decisions, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worry though, I will get on to what could have gone better at the end. easaHQ Integration / legacy / identity Both the securing of an office space and the use of half of it as a gallery were 100% gold standard good decisions. The office gave us a presence that lead to a respect with people we talked to, and it changed the mind set of us organisers. To insiders and outsiders we were more than just another student

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organisation.

The gallery gave us two things that are hard to get and yet invaluable - contacts and experience.

SESAM Integration / identity SESAM could have been a major distraction if handled in a different way, but we kept it small both in length and numbers of people. Holding a SESAM gave us experience, but it also gave us an injection of the EASA feeling. Having a lot of EASA people around at the end of a long cold winter really helped with our focus and moral, the hope is it also sent out a positive message to the network about the intentions of easa010 - we left the tutoring of the workshop to participants, we gave them experts assistance and guided tours, we wanted to show we were active but also inclusive.

I mentioned before that this review is difficult, my aim is to give some condescend notes from all the chapters in one place, but there is plenty I am skipping over. But now I turn to some of the things that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go so well.

Fund-raising + team To be fair, we were in the worst environment for fund-raising possible, but that said the approach of the team wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the best. At first the more experienced members of the team were so tied up doing other tasks, such as looking for spaces, that newer team members worked on fund-raising. This produced absolutely nothing. And once main organisers got involved in the fund-raising other elements of the organising suffered. Over all there was a huge pressure placed on the team because of the economic circumstances, and some team members didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t strive to meet this demand, meaning the usual suspects had to do even more work to fill the gap.

Media

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We had high hopes for our media push, but the truth of the matter is that media doesn’t help your EASA as much as it helps the next one, so as soon as there is a short fall in man power for tasks media is the first thing to suffer.

In the end we still managed to get a wide coverage for the assembly and the organising process, but we fell short of getting a marque journal to cover us in any substantial way.

There are other small shortfalls, but you should read the whole document to find out more, others are covered in the next section. So to wrap up from me I have a few final thoughts.

Don’t be afraid EASA has happened 30 times in a row now, and some years more than once (in all but name). There is a huge pressure felt by organisers, and it is easy to feel you are alone, that you can’t show any form of weakness because of the judgment that comes at every turn. EASA can happen, and there are just a few simple things to remember to make sure you have a success.

Prioritise. Towards the end of the organising process we split the budget into four categories - things to keep people alive (shelter, food), things to make an EASA (materials, tools), things to make a good EASA (lectures, waking tours, parties), dream items (morning bus, sticks of rock) - this helped calm the nerves in terms of 400 people arriving and needing food and shelter for 2 weeks.

Focus. Throughout the process you will have thousands of small decisions to make, often members of the team will have to make decisions on their own and without discussion with the rest of the team, this isn’t ideal. In order to help us stay focused on our goals for the event we met regularly, once a month until a year before when we went to once a week and in the month before the assembly it was nearly once every two days. These meetings helped us to keep the overall picture of the assembly clear. Another thing that worked

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well for us was defining the pillars of the bid, once written we could go back to them and see if our decisions were working in that context. More than this though, we developed little phrases to sum up our thoughts, towards the end when we were negotiating with tutors and looking for materials and furniture we worked to the mantra - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - intended as a list of importance to both be environmentally friendly and cost efficient. The most notable among the others was the bold statement - Go big or go home - this phrase came out every time we had a discussion that lead to doubt about whether we could pull something off. It was delightfully Mancunian with its aggressive undertones, but it could have been rephrased - dare to dream a bit bigger - and still have the same essential meaning.

Connections. Meet as many important people as possible. People should, where possible, work to their strengths, my main role was to meet people and make them fall in love with EASA. easaHQ really helped with this, it was a thing people could see, and it was run in the same ethos as EASA. Once important people fall in love with the event you have collateral you can spend, but don’t, you should save it for a rainy day.

Contingency. Always be working on a number of options at the same time, you don’t need to have a plan B fully formed and agreed, but you should live by the rule that until a contract is signed nothing is certain, until money is in your bank the agreement doesn’t mean anything.

Communicate. Talk to the network when possible. You don’t need to tell everyone all your problems, but do try and be human. You’ll be busy and communication can take time, but still do it. The worst part of communication is it can make you feel more isolated as a team as often you’ll be sending out messages, or asking for input and you’ll hear nothing. Worse can be the repetitive communication by the same small group of people, you should always take on board what they are saying, but remember that just because they are the only people contacting you it doesn’t mean they speak for the

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whole network.

Trust yourself. At the end of the day you have to make very tough decisions and only you can take responsibility for them, hesitation can lead to huge problems so be confident and considered. It is also important for the network to have faith in what you are doing.

Remember - Go big or go home! [cma]

If nothing else EASA provides the framework for the exchange of ideas and information. This was also the key issue in organising the assembly. Holding it the city context forced to meet and communicate with a variety of people and institutions.

Early on we had forged strong links with the universities and school of architecture and those links provided me and others on the team extracurricular activities.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a guest critic twice for undergraduate level reviews. After some initial nerves, it was a great experience, and I hope my modest guidance, praise and critique were at least half as beneficial and enjoyable as their projects and presentations were for me.

Toward the end of the academic year I was asked to co-tutor a four week long studio for level 1 and 2 students. A great insight in to the workings of an educational workshop, the exciting and sometime daunting experience was an opportunity to break down teaching into a progression of processes and appreciate what went into university teaching.

The studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; response was mostly positive and the results were of a high

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standard. It was great that students of a relatively basic level responded so well to what was a challenging concept and brief. It was a rewarding experience that I am very thankful for to those who allowed me the opportunity, and hopefully not my last foray into teaching. [ama]

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