some of our discussion touched on practical decisions which need to be made, rather than philosophical questions which may never be answered. the main issues like this were:
- dropping our official social. people felt that it was artificial to have a fixed social, and it was an unneccesary drain on capacity (someone having to turn up in case a new person came even if everyone else was away etc). opinion seemed to be mixed about what we should do instead: just have one meeting a month/ have a book group/ have an unofficial/unfixed social time at least once a month.
- making the group more parent friendly. this is becoming an increasing issue and is also likely to be an issue for newcomers.
could these two issues be resolved by having our reflective once a month on a sunday afternoon for three hours (instead of meeting twice for 2 hour sessions)? we should pick somewhere central and child friendly (whilst also taking into account our many other preferences such as real ale, nice wine, proper gingerbeer and some food).
if we go with this idea, should we also resolve to meet up as friends inbetween? or should we have some type of philosophy/book group which could feed ideas into our reflectives?
14 May, 2009 at 1:36 pm
re. parent friendly:
i think it is important threshold is parent friendly. however i think it is important to differentiate between parent and child friendly. i think we should make it easy for parents to come but that it would be unfair to suggest that our activities will be child appropriate (they might be, and there’s nothing stopping children from joining in at their own level, but to promise a child appropriate reflective puts extra pressure/work on whoever’s leading). i think the easiest way to make threshold parent friendly is to meet somewhere that is child friendly at a child friendly time so that they can bring their children, but not to promise to provide anything thresholdy for those children. now that all pubs are non-smoking it doesn’t matter too much where we meet for parents with babies, as long as there are decent changing facilities, however young children do need something to keep them occupied if we are not holding child friendly reflectives, so somewhere with a play area in the beer garden may be ideal, at least over the summer. I propose therefore that we meet at the cambridge arms in redland because i believe they have such a beer garden. i know it’s not central, but we all drive to threshold meetings more often than not anyway! i also propose we move the reflectives to a sat or sun afternoon so that it does no interrupt tea time or keep the children out too late.
re. capacity:
i have no objections moving to meeting once monthly to avoid threshold becoming too meeting heavey. however if we are going to meet once a month i think we should make it a longer meeting so that we have some social time during the reflective. i propose 3 hours, the first hour to catch up and chat, then our regular 2 hour reflective time. this would still make a 1 hour reduction in time commitment to threshold (25%) and mean a reduction in the number of meetings. i have no objections or preference in terms of logistics, my only preference is making it easier for people. i would, however be weary of adding anything, like a book group (although there is nothing stopping friends from threshold meeting together to discuss a book, which is something i would be interested in doing, i just don’t want to formalise it as part of threshold because then it starts the possibilities of more ‘add ons’ which could get out of hand). i think if we met only once a month it would be nice to socialise outside of threshold, but fixing it in any way in frequency or character defeats the point of disolving our social meetings. i think it should be more organic, and we can suggest social activities as and when we feel we need them or there is something we’d like to go to. for example i was going to ask if anyone wanted to go to one of the double bills at the bristol comedey festival at the tobacco factory?
25 May, 2009 at 9:24 am
I don’t have time to write considered opinions on all the different threads here (part of the capacity issue mentioned elsewhere) so this is as much as I can manage to reply to all issues:
1) I do think we should drop the monthly social and just have a monthly reflective, which could be half an hour longer to allow for more social time at the start
2) Monday evening has turned out to be not a good time for us for the reflective meetings. When we started I thought it would be good to have them not-at-the-weekend because they’d then seem less churchy, but getting out after work is stretching the limits of capacity even now and it’s going to get worse. Sunday afternoons, say 3:30 ish, would be good.
3) I strongly feel that the venue should be either central or on very good public transport links. Even though we have a car, I want to be able to have the choice to leave the car at home and also that we shouldn’t be closing accessibility to non-car-owning potential members.
4) As I’m not able to contribute to the Greenbelt activity I won’t say much, but only that I think its important that those who do decide to participate stay true to the threshold principals of not putting in too much preparation time and it being OK to be unpolished and imperfect. I’d much rather see some existing reflectives repeated than see anything new being generated for this circumstance. It is however important that this activity be used as a signpost to us if it does happen, Perhaps we could have a special “leave your email address here if you live anywhere near Bristol” signup sheet?
5) Describing Ourselves. I don’t like the “their only concept of heresy is defining heresy” and would rather that was cut. “Threshold is a post-certainty community from Bristol exploring spirituality without religion.” is fine (though was capitalised oddly) I would suggest having “associated with the Spirited Exchanges network” in there.
“spaces in-between” is a fine title. other suggestion “exploring the borderline” but anything like this is also fine.
Session description is good but if alt_worship is mentioned it should be appended with “without the worship bit” or it will give the wrong impression.
25 May, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Once a month on Sunday afternoons sounds good to me. I would prefer the session to stay at two hours rather than increase to three – an issue of stamina rather than commitment. The first and last half hours could be social – still leaving an hour for a reflective – and we would be free to stay on longer if we wished.
I agree with the distinction between parent- and child-friendly and that we are focused on the first of these.
28 May, 2009 at 10:30 pm
In my last comment I said that I was worried about ‘add ons’. My reason for this is a theory that you cannot feel properly part of a group unless you attend at least 50% of its meetings, regardless of the formal policy of that group. I agree with this and as a precursor to what I am about to say, I do not think it is a good idea to have more threshold meetings which may act as a way of informally excluding people who do not have the capacity, or will, to attend more than 50% of meetings, regardless of what we say about it. However, in light of the reality of threshold now possibly only meeting for 2 hours a month, I just wonder if this is enough for me personally? I understand that a ‘meeting heavy’ community may be a barrier for some, but I also wonder if the direction we are going in now may be a barrier for people wanting more, like me. I feel we should be guarded against holding so many meetings that it is not sustainable to be a member of threshold (attend at least 50%) for busy people, but as well as being ‘meeting light’ for busy people it should, at the same time, be enough to be spiritual community for those who need it, as well as part of a smorgasbord for those who need that. It’s about getting a balance between all of these things, which is admittedly difficult, but I think we’re leaning too much one way at the moment.
My half-thought solution is this: can we have a kind of social-networking threshold site, where we can as ‘friends through threshold’ organise more activities that would make the relationships made within threshold more like a spiritual community. For example we can as friends decide to meet as a games group, book group, debate group, without making it an official threshold meeting? Or is this just going to be an artificial separation which in reality will still feed into the 50% theory!?
I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t think 2 hours a month makes a community, so is there a way of making threshold the community that I and potential prospective members may be looking for without making it commitment heavy for those who don’t have the capacity?
31 May, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Mmm. This is a tricky issue. I do have some personal reservations about going down to a 2hr meeting once a month, and I think Lindsey may have hit the issue on the head by questioning whether this is then a community. For me personally, I think I would then be looking for something else.
At the same time I think it is the right decision to scrap organised Socials, because we seemed to agree that it was a weird dynamic to have an allocated social time and the public nature of the socials created a sense of obligation.
We have talked a lot about not wanting to put people off by too much commitment, but I hadn’t considered before the possibility that we may be putting people off if we’re not offering enough of a sense of community. I think this could be a real issue for someone leaving a religious setting where their social life has evolved around entirely around that setting and then they’re left with a void, which is more than just the loss of a definite faith (I’ve definitely experienced this).
I would be up for replacing the Social with unofficial extras which are like ’side orders’ to threshold but not expected of threshold members. For example, 3 of us could decide to hold a book group for a few weeks if we were interested in a particular cultural/spiritual/philosophical issue. This would be open to anyone in threshold, but definitely as an optional extra not part of threshold itself. We wouldn’t publicise details of these ’side orders’ on the website, but we could write something like ‘threshold meets once a month on the __ Sunday of the month for a reflective. members of threshold are also interested in meeting to discuss books, play games or do creative stuff on an ad hoc, as and when basis. we recommend coming along to a reflective if you are interested in finding out more about threshold.’
What do other people think?
3 June, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I understand your concerns. One possibility might be to have a second monthly slot, perhaps at the same time on the “alternate” Sunday, for which the default is not to meet but which can be used to set up ad hoc meetings. In other words, nothing happens in that slot unless a couple of people (or more) decide that they would like to meet and invite everyone else on an informal, no commitment basis. I’m imagining that this might happen every couple of months or so. The ad hoc meetings could take any format, for example a trip to the cinema, or a discussion of a book, or whatever appeals to the initiators. Those of us who didn’t feel inspired by the topic – or are just too tired – would not need to come.
6 June, 2009 at 8:46 am
That’s a great idea. If one of the monthly meetings is the “central” event and the other is completely optional if you feel like it, then that enables people who want to do more to do more and for the busy people to not feel like they are bunking off. Excellent.
6 June, 2009 at 8:47 am
(by the way I posted a venue suggestion on one of the other threads: The Ship Inn, next to SMR church seems to tick all the boxes though I’ve never been inside)
6 June, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I suspect there’s a bit of confusion over pub locations. My impression is we’re looking for a pub with a children’s play area not just outside space (e.g. swings etc) for the summer. The Watershed may also be good later on because they have computers the children could use and cinekids (http://www.watershed.co.uk/exhibits/1936/).
From an internet search we now know of 13 pubs in Bristol with an outdoor play area.
Bloomfield Inn Brislington
Prince Of Wales Westbury-On-Trym, Bristol
Velindra Redcliffe, Bristol
Hope & Anchor Shirehampton, Bristol
Sandringham Brislington, Bristol
Treble Chance Southmead, Bristol
Kensington Arms Redland, Bristol
Portcullis Fishponds, Bristol
John Cabot Horfield, Bristol
Black Swan Westbury-On-Trym, Bristol
Beehive Henleaze, Bristol
Avon Packet Southville, Bristol
Spring Gardens Hotwells, Bristol
http://www.britishpubguide.com/cgi-bin/pub.cgi?facility:Bristol:19
We haven’t looked up all of these yet but so far the Kensington Arms looks best in Redland (near train station and on 8 and 9 bus routes). Generally looks nice see:
http://www.thekensingtonarms.co.uk/white.htm
7 June, 2009 at 7:23 am
Hmm. Maybe we should first start with defining what our actual objectives for a pub are – I was under the impression that the aim was to have somewhere that there was some kind of facility for older children who are too old to be entertained by a basket of toys, so that they can be occupied wile their parents take part in Threshold. An outside play area was, I thought, just one of the possibilities but not the only option. (so skittle alley, pool tables, board games etc being a valid way of fulfilling this – to be honest I think an 11 year old is only going to be entertained by a swing/slide for about 15 minutes)
Just as important to me is to find somewhere with a central location. I really don’t want to decamp to Redland, Shirehampton, Westbury, Brislington etc until we’ve eliminated all possible central venues.
The Velindra Redcliffe seems to be the only central pub on this list. Again I’ve never been in but the website says it’s recently refurbished so it might be nice.
7 June, 2009 at 8:47 am
The couple of pubs I had in mind were the Wellington (http://www.britishpubguide.com/cgi-bin/pub.cgi?results:Bristol:262), the Inn on the Green (http://www.theinnonthegreen.org/) and the Annexe Inn (http://the-sportsman.co.uk/the%20annexe.htm), all of which have outside areas for kids to run around in and do decent beer (and, in the case of the first two, food). None of them is exactly intimate, but that probably makes them all the better able to accommodate people acting oddly. They’re all on a major bus route, as well.
Personally I suspect that pubs which actually go out of their way to entertain children are unlikely to sell themselves in other ways we’d appreciate, such as through nice beer & etc. Meeting at a rubbish pub would definitely decrease my appreciation of Threshold, sad to say.
7 June, 2009 at 11:10 am
Pub venue:
I thought that the objectives of the pub we are looking for were defined quite early on in this thread (and in conversation), a child friendly pub to make threshold parent friendly. For me this is the priority objective, although ideally it would be combined with other preferences such as a nice pub and real ale (I also prefer to drink wine and most real ale pubs don’t sell great wine, but I consider this a preference not criteria).
It has been mentioned several times that this would be quite easily achieved through a child’s outside play area, at least for the summer. While the Ship Inn does look good, and I am thinking of using it myself for a skittles game on my birthday this year, it does not meet the criteria we are looking for. A skittle alley needs to be booked as a function and you need to pay teenagers to pick up the skittles and all sorts, it would not be run as an informal on-going activity while parents sat in the corner and got on with other things. Darts boards raise huge health and safety questions if not supervised by an adult, therefore defeating the point of children supervising themselves and I can’t imagine any pub landlord being happy with children monopolising a pool table with one game that lasts hours while others are waiting and scuffing the felt at the same time. I hear what you are saying about 11 year olds, however what about 5 year olds? An 11 year old would be able to entertain themselves with a Nintendo DS or game they have bought from home anyway (and I imagine would object to being considered a ‘child’ anyway) while younger children (older than babies and toddlers) actually need something. A play area would meet this need without requiring adult supervision or organisation and would cover the widest age range of any activity that I can think of (easily 5-9 years old, and older if it’s the right type of play area, at least that’s my experience from teaching this age range).
I think we should do a tour of pubs, like we did at the beginning, and I think we should start with the Kensington Arms, because it looks good, is on a cheap and frequent bus route and near a local train station. It appears to meet our priority criteria and most of our preferences. I understand Bea’s preference for a city centre, but it reality the value of real estate in the centre makes outside play areas in pubs unlikely. We have talked about non-city centre pubs as OK so long as they have good transport links and this one is certainly easier from a public transport perspective than the Inn on the Green in Filton (not that I’m saying we don’t trial that one too).
Extra meetings
I like Richard’s idea, and while I think it is good, I think it is very similar to what we have now, and does not go far enough in taking the ‘formal’ out of our formal socials. I liked Jenny’s phrase ‘side orders’, and wondered if we could use a page on our website, the calendar and e-mail list to arrange ad-hoc activities which were referred to as side orders, inferring they are not central and no one need turn up or feel obliged to turn up thus keeping Richard’s idea of one central reflective supplemented by informal, individually instigated, turn up if you feel like it events. I believe that as a complex adaptive system this form of self organising would regulate itself, and we would not get overwhelmed with side orders because none of us feel inclined to organise much anyway and if people don’t turn up they’ll just naturally fold anyway. An example of a ‘side order’ I was thinking of was I’d like to discuss Pete Rollins new book with friends when it is released, so might suggest 3 evenings for a short book group. Side orders would not be anything on-going, like a bookgroup that meets every third thurdsay, just one offs or one off collections of dates. Another example might be a comedy night at the tobacco factory, or a threshold visit to a public speaking event or film followed by a threshold discussion on the ideas in a pub.
7 June, 2009 at 11:42 am
I think this thread is getting to the level that we should really talk in person again, although we have no format to do this, and I guess we can all comment in our own time online.
I did notice that most child friendly pubs do also do real ale, so this isn’t an either or situation and I did point out that the Kensington Arms looked NICE, because I do get Phil’s point (have a look online)! The one in Hotwells also looked promising.
I agree with Lindsey’s points about child development: we need to concentrate on somewhere for 3-10 year olds because a child older than this should be able to entertain themselves with a board game or book. We are looking for a child friendly activity pub in order to have parent friendly reflectives, which I think is the important distinction. If children are successfully absorbed in an activity we can then concentrate on thresholdy stuff rather than breaking up arguments!
re: extra stuff/side orders: I suggest a combination of Richard’s and Lindsey’s versions. We should have a default time for one off things organised by a member of threshold (e.g. a discussion about a particular topic or a board game evening), from a practical point of view this would be easier. However, I think that some of the things we have in mind wouldn’t work like this e.g. going to a talk organised by someone else, going to the cinema or to a comedy night etc. It would be good to have some flexibility. I also suggest that the optional extras don’t have to meet in public, which could also make them much more parent friendly (e.g. we could meet at Bea and Phil’s or Steve’s so they don’t need to arrange babysitters). This may also mean we want them to happen after 8pm? New members would be encouraged to come to a reflective first, so we don’t need to give out addresses to strangers and they aren’t so intimidated. This would also reinforce that the reflective is the central meeting…
7 June, 2009 at 11:48 am
NB Our consensus was to make threshold parent friendly. If we had decided to make it child friendly we wouldn’t need to concentrate on finding a child friendly space because the children would be engaged by our activity. Is this where confusion is coming from?
7 June, 2009 at 12:18 pm
BTW I’ve just phoned and cinekids is 3rd Saturday of the month 1pm at the Watershed. It costs £2 per child and children can go in without an adult! It’s aimed for 8-12 year olds but a 6 year old can go in with older siblings. This is city centre, nice drinks for everyone, pleasant ambience and affordable food.
Does this solve our immediate issue? Are people happy with the 3rd Saturday of the month rather than the 1st Sunday?
9 June, 2009 at 6:09 am
I like the watershed, but didn’t we previously agree that meeting at a meal time was inappropriate? No objections to trying saturday lunchtime to see whether cinekids is the best option for keeping kids occupied, but sunday afternoon would fit a lot better into our lives if we choose a non-watershed place.
We should probably draw up a shortlist from the above suggestions, and try them over the next few months (trying all 17 would obviously take far too long). Does 6-8ish sound like a reasonable number to pick to try?
9 June, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I’ve chatted with Steve this morning and he has entrusted me to write up his views.
Re. pub venues/child friendly: Steve added another venue suggestion to our growing list: St Werburghs City Farm ( http://www.stwerburghs.org/index.php?section=local_groups&page=st_Werburghs_City_Farm ). The nice and friendly café would be ideal for reflectives while the kids could entertain themselves on the farm. All this with the added bonus of good, ethically sourced food if we got peckish.
Regarding the suggestion of venues so far, he thought that just an outside space would not be enough to expect children to entertain themselves, leaving parents free to enjoy the reflective – there needs to be something for them, such as a play area. So, discussing pubs with outside play areas, Steve had no problem with meeting in Redland or Hotwells (the 2 most promising looking child friendly pubs which meet most of our other list of preferences. We didn’t discuss all 13 pubs or pubs with just outside spaces as he had said that only outside spaces weren’t enough).
Steve also thought Cinekids was promising, but said it would need trialling. While 6 year olds could in theory go in with older siblings, each six year old is, of course, different. This means for Steve personally, considering his own children, this would need trialling because he is not sure his youngest would cope. Steve thinks it is definitely worth having a go though.
Re. Social: Steve is fine with having the formal social axed, but likes the idea of having the possibility of ad hoc activities which would provide something extra for those who wanted it but did not make others feel they ‘should’ come. He felt fine about Richard’s idea of having a default non-meeting, my idea (stealing Jenny’s name) of ’side orders’ and Jenny’s idea of a combination of the two. He particularly liked the word and idea of ‘side orders’, which he indicated was his preference (I tired to be, and believe I was, neutral during the discussion in terms of leaving my own responses my own post on the thread, so do not believe I influenced him to like side orders most, but I guess I could have unintentionally done this as this is my preference). Steve also liked Jenny’s suggestion that side orders could be at people’s home if it was appropriate, to help them be more parent friendly.
Finally, Steve said that he would come to threshold more often if he could bring his children, and he doesn’t come because there is nothing for the children, which is a barrier.
9 June, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I think the Watershed/cinekids is the best way forward. I’m not so worried about it being over lunch time because the whole point of ‘not over meal times’ was to make it parent-friendly, so we need to keep the original reason in mind, and cinekids seems the best way of making threshold parent friendly (also children’s meal times tend to be 12.00pm for lunch, so they have a good hour to eat before they come!).
I like the Watershed/cinekids, not only because it’s parent friendly and meets most of our other preferences (nice, central, etc.) but also for two other reasons: 1. Cinekids is a worthy activity in it’s own right. I understand the need just to keep children occupied to give their parents some sanity, but it doesn’t sit quite right with me as a children’s advocate/educationalist type! I feel it is better if we (I mean the venue) could do more than just occupy them, but could stimulate them in some way. It’s not something I think we need to get worked up about, I think we have our work cut out finding a new venue which meets our needs without adding ‘children’s development/worthiness’ to it, but if it happens to do that anyway, happy days (the Watershed also has excellent disabled access). 2. The Watershed works throughout the seasons, it’s nice in the summer with the large windows open and outside balcony now, and it sells hot drinks when it’s cold outside in the winter. I just wonder if we’re going to put all this energy into finding the right venue only to have to go through it all over again in Sept/Oct when the outside play areas will be useless.
Can I propose, like Bea, that we start a trial, and I agree with Bea, trialling 6-8 (although I’d lean towards 6) is preferential to all, now, 18! I think, however, we don’t need to even do that many, we simply trial them until we either have consensus or have exhausted our list/patience. I don’t see why, if on trialling the Watershed for example, it works, we need to trial another pub? If it doesn’t work we can then decide which child friendly pub on the list is then next mostly likely to meet most of our other preferences and trial that one the next week. If it then gets consensus, happy days! And if not, pick the next most likely to meet most of our preferences and so forth.
I think we should start with the Watershed because that’s the one that, from what I’m reading so far on this thread and remember in conversation, ticks the child friendly box and most of the others. So do we agree, July’s reflective is Sat 18th, 13.00 @ the Watershed?
9 June, 2009 at 4:19 pm
ALSO, can we please share our reactions to this thread by Saturday 13th June, including to ‘Side orders’, the idea of having a default non-meeting on an alternative Sunday which could be used for individually initiated events or a combination of the 2. I will then read all the comments carefully and try to post a draft consensus of this discussion which we can modify/moderate during the week leading up to our last social. It may be possible then that we can consent to this draft (probably with some changes) at our last social and move forward. Please make it clear, if you can, in your comments whether an expressed view is a preference or a consent issue. For example, I would prefer to meet in a park with camping chairs, but I would consent to meeting indoors! This would help me in the rather daunting task of summarising what kind of consent, if any, we can get out of this thread.
10 June, 2009 at 9:02 am
Wow, many comments since my last visit…
My preferences:
One parent-friendly “main course” reflective each month held at the Watershed at 13:00 on Saturdays to coordinate with cinekids. Plus ad hoc “side order” meetings held, all things being equal, at the same time of day and place, but with freedom to meet at other times and places when appropriate. Start this new scheme immediately and explore alternatives if it doesn’t work out (as opposed to surveying half a dozen places first).
I would consent to:
Meeting somewhere with a play area rather than a cinema, and meeting on Sunday afternoons rather than Saturday lunchtimes. Probably other things too…
10 June, 2009 at 12:15 pm
seeing as this is ‘decisions to be made’ can I suggest a change to our website wording under ‘Core principles’. I’m not sure our description suits us best anyomore. It was good when we started, but we didn’t know what we’d turn into when we wrote that. How about changing it? I think something like what we had for GB would be fine:
“threshold is a post-certainty community from bristol exploring religion without Religion. We approach this through reflectives which don’t assume a shared concept of god. join us as we inhabit a place related to other places, with no place of its own. expect a low-key, non-slick reflective that you’d cheerfully do in a pub with friends.”
If there’s no consent on this then we can just keep it as it is.
We also need to think about how our changes will change our website wording. Jenny has already thought of this and early on in this thread suggested something regarding publicising central reflectives and side orders, which I haven’t commented on because I consent. I aslo think we need to add a heading on accessabilty under core principles. Something like:
“Accessibility: Threshold strives to be parent friendly. parents are welcome to bring their children to the reflectives and we have chosen a location that is child friendly, but please note that threshold does not offer anything itself for children [add detains of cinekids if we go with the watershed]. We also try to choose venues with good wheelchair access. Please contact us if you have any access needs and we can advise you on how appropriate the venues are and if we can accommodate your needs.”
10 June, 2009 at 5:24 pm
OK.
my preference:
meeting at the time of cinekids on the 3rd saturday of the month at 1pm in the watershed for the main meeting (if this works as a venue/activity). i don’t feel enthusiastic about trialling lots of pubs again, so feel we should stop at the first one that works. however, since cinekids isn’t on at a time we would choose if we had completely free choice, i don’t think the default ’side orders’ time should be the same (or that we should stick to this time if cinekids doesn’t work). i suggest the 1st saturday evening of the month for this, if we’re thinking they’ll be mainly social type things which could happen at someone’s house (although i don’t expect there’ll be consensus on this time). i also like the idea of having ad hoc side orders. i would prefer to add updates to the website in a way that kept our other core principles.
consent
i would consent to meeting anywhere reasonably central (e.g. 3 miles from BS1) which had a child friendly activity, drinks people liked (including a reasonable soft drink and wine option), and a comfortable ambience. i would also consent to meet in a cafe or more imaginative public venue although i think there is something to be gained from meeting specifically in a pub (i can’t really drink at the moment and so it makes little difference to me what the wine and ale is like, apart from how this effects other members of the group). we also need to be able to hear each other for a reflective, so anywhere with loud or annoying music wouldn’t get my consent. i think any time saturday or sunday afternoon is OK since it is only once a month. also, i would consent to different variations on ’side orders’ or ad hoc meetings but i don’t think i would agree to only ever having the reflectives.
11 June, 2009 at 4:22 pm
My preference: Meeting on a Sunday afternoon (starting about 3ish). Finding a pub in a central-ish location (the 3 mile radius suggested above is likely to be too far unless it’s right next to a major bus route, 1-1.5 miles would be more reasonable) which is not too noisy and serves drinkable beer (I don’t insist on it being a CAMRA award winner – just that there is something bearable).
The Avon Packet, Coronation Road, Southville might do (“For the children there are swings and a tree house with a slide as well as a small duckpond to keep them amused”) and I’d like to try it, Bus route 25 seems to stop nearby I think. Having no option but to drive, and going to a suburb which is significantly non-central, would make me unhappy if it was only ever there. If it’s impossible to find a pub which both meets Steve’s requirements and is central, then I’d like to suggest we alternate between two pubs, one of each type.
I would consent to meeting on Saturday Lunchtimes at the Watershed for cinekids, but I suspect it will be too noisy for the reflectives to be as good as they would be in a quiet pub. If we went with this option there would be more occasions when I couldn’t make it due it being more difficult to combine with other weekend activities compared to sunday afternoon.
13 June, 2009 at 11:20 am
Preferences
My preference is to meet on the third Saturday of the month at the watershed at 1.00pm for 2 hours. My preference is to extend a sense of community through a programme of ‘side orders’ which are individually initiated, one-off events that do not make up part of the threshold staple diet. Side orders would be organised through the website, google calendar and e-mail list.
Consent
I consent to trialling other child friendly pubs (by which I mean pubs that proactively cater for children) on weekend slots to find an appropriate time and venue. I think in all of these trials we should be realistic, we are aiming to be parent friendly not parent proof, and I think that is will be near impossible to find any where that will cater perfectly for children aged 5-10 which encapsulates a very wide range of interests and abilities. I therefore consent to a venue which caters for a realistic majority of children aged 5-10 years (e.g. 2/3rds of this demographic?) (I don’t agree that any child under 5 should be left to amuse themselves in a public space) which is also conducive to conducting reflectives. I would prefer a venue that sold alcohol, but am happy to meet at a café. I consent to meeting in a city centre venue or a venue with good public transport links. I do not consent to alternating between two different pubs every other meeting. I would also like to add that I do not consent to moving our meeting time or location unless it makes us more parent friendly. I agreed to move venue and to a weekend in order to make threshold parent friendly, If we can not do this then we should stay at the Cornubia on Monday evenings, which we have all consented to previously.