Below you will find meeting notes from the first Baltimore Free Store Roundtable Discussion. Our next meeting will be held on Friday September 29th at the Baltimore Free Store donation warehouse - 31 North Haven Street, at 7pm. If you plan on coming please read through the previous notes and be prepared to discuss action items and areas of interest.

Notes from Meeting Held on September 8th -

Baltimore Free Store Roundtable Discussion
September 8, 2006
Minutes

In attendance: Matt Warfield, Amanda Shane, Ryan O'Koren, Greg Strella, Vicki Kloze, Larry Kloze, David Sloan, Gavin Heck, Rachel Carroll, Victoria Baker, Laura Burns, Rah-ed Ghuma, Barry Febos, Bia Riaz, Lauren Joost, Katie Joost.

I. Opening Coments: Matt Warfield.
Vision/Mission of the BFS: Started as an activist grassroots project with a collective structure. With the help of a grant from OSI (Open Society Institute) the BFS developed into more of a non-profit organization. Most recently the BFS has joined with Fusion Partmership to achieve non-profit status under their umbrella. Over time the collective dissolved either through re-location of collective members, or lack of new members. As a result, Matt had to assume the responsibility for all the operational tasks. This meeting was called to address the need to delegate responsibilty of these tasks to lessen the burden on Matt and to prevent burnout and to discuss the future of the BFS.

II. Attachments: Matt went through and explained the various handouts:
List of coordinator jobs
BFS check-out sheet used to track/log items taken at set-ups
Budget/expense sheet from 11-2005 to 5-2006
Fundraising plan
BFS Tech. Outreach
List of BFS set-up locations
Vision/mission statement

III. Identifying jobs/Fundraising Discussion

Matt identified various tasks as necessary to the functioning of the BFS. The group recognized and discussed the immediate and urgent need for funding to continue the BFS operations. The current funding from the OSI grant runs out in May of 2007. Matt discussed some of the things that he has done for fundraising. For example: selling some of the donated items online, spaghetti dinner.
Matt also explained the idea of Ressurrected Threads as a project that would provide textile artists with the unwanted clothing items from the BFS to create unique clothing to be sold at retail stores/boutiques, etc. under the label of Ressurrected Threads. This would recycle the clothing that doesn't get taken at set-ups and provide a source of revenue for the artist as well as the BFS. This concept is still in its idea stages. Several members of the group expressed interest in getting involved with this idea.
Several other ideas were also discussed: regular pot luck dinners, selling more of the donated items with the help of someone who can identify valuable items, starting a hauling service, refurbishing/selling the donated computers, grant writing, targeted follow-up with donors to request cash donations, PR campaign to expose mission of freestore to encourage more cash donations. Several members were interested in assisting with fundraising.

IV. Operational Discussion

A. Positives
i. BFS has received a lot of good press and is generally recognized as a worthwhile mission/organization.
ii. The set-ups have generated positive feedback from the communities that have been involved in set-ups fostering a welcome atmosphere between neighbors and an opportunity to meet other community members. Almost like a block party/festival atmosphere. The group discussed partnering with food providers to have food available at set-ups as well.
iii. Moving the set-ups to different parts of the city makes it more accessible to various communities rather than having just one location.
B. Negatives
i. Set-ups are very time consuming and require constant loading/transporting/unloading of items.
ii. Many of the items, which don't get taken, keep being brought back to the set-ups.
iii. BFS has a lot of clothing that is just not being taken. The Ressurrected Threads project would possibly be able to address this problem or some suggestions were made that the items could be baled and sent to foreign countries.
C. Possible Changes
i. Need to develop a more cost/time efficient method of doing set-ups.
ii. Items need to be inventoried on a regular basis to prevent the same items being taken back to each set-up.
iii. May be helpful to focus on one community for a period of time (for example 12 to 18 months) to enable/empower the community to take ownership of the BFS and tailor it to their specific community's needs. Once the community has taken ownership the core organizers of the BFS would tranisition to another community to initiate another BFS. Ideally there would be BFS locations all over the city. The various BFS locations could operate as a collective/co-op of sorts.
V. Future Planning
The group agreed that many good ideas were brought to the table but needed to be developed/discussed further and agreed to have regular meetings. Priority would be fundraising for the time-being and relieving Matt of some of his duties.

Next meeting: Friday September, 29th at 7:00 PM - potluck -

Baltimore Free Store Roundtable Discussion (part 2)
Friday September 29th
7:00pm
Baltimore Free Store Donation Warehouse
(31 North Haven Street, 21224)

Please attend the second meeting of the Baltimore Free Store in an attempt to reform into a collective/and or board based structure of organization. In order for the Baltimore Free Store to continue to grow more energy and operational involvement from a wider audience must take place. At this meeting we will be focusing on action items and breaking off into committes that are designed to address those items.

If you ever wanted to get involved in the Baltimore Free Store NOW is the time to do it.

This is a potluck event so please bring a dish or something to drink.

Directions:

From downtown take 40 West. Make a right onto Haven Street near the Dunkin Donuts (on your left) Burger King (across Haven on your left) Mobil Gas Station (across Haven on your right) and Discount Furniture Store (on your right). Go 1/2 a block and turn into the gravel driveway on your left. The drive is indicated with a Baltimore Free Store sign on the fence as well as a yellow 'Brat Decor' sign and a '101 North Haven - Top This Inc.' sign posted on wood footings. If you reach Baltimore Street you have gone too far. The warehouse is at the top of the gravel drive on the right. Park anywhere along the front of the building, or around the warehouse located across the gravel drive, 101 Top This Inc. We will be meeting in the upstairs donation portion of the warehouse.

From 95 take the Eastern Avenue exit and continue West towards the city. Make a Right onto Haven Street at the Walgreens, or just after you go under the railroad overpass and begin going up the hill towards the Eastern Avenue Business District in Highlandtown. Continue North on Haven Street going through One light. After you cross over Baltimore Street make your first right into a gravel Driveway. The warehouse is at the top of the gravel drive on the right. Park anywhere along the front of the building, or around the warehouse located across from the gravel drive, 101 Top This Inc. We will be meeting in the upstairs donation portion of the warehouse.

If you need help with directions or have any questions please call at 410-340-9004.

Thanks,
matt
www.baltimorefreestore.org
410-340-9004