The day of the Big First Meeting dawns. Important, intelligent, influential people are coming. A friend has kindly let us use her local office space. I feel so nervous; what if no one turns up? Will anyone be interested? My concerns are happily unfounded. One attendee tells me how wonderful it feels to meet other people who really ‘get it’ and who care about addressing climate change; she hasn’t experienced this before. Another person comments on what an interesting mix of people have come, with such different careers and perspectives. The meeting is wonderfully positive, and there are so many questions to discuss that we arrange a follow-up meeting.
Since that first meeting, only a few weeks ago, it feels as if Project Community Energy Barnet has been on fast forward. Following the meeting, the big challenge for me was to bring a really committed group together who were willing to be the decision makers and leaders of the project. I have never had professional responsibility for leading a team before and putting together a new team is a challenge, especially when you are asking busy people to volunteer a significant amount of their free time. Many people who attended our meeting expressed interest and support but could not afford to make the commitment needed. There were conflicting ideas on how we should proceed and which partners we should work with. People came from very different backgrounds with different knowledge, skills and viewpoints and people did not know and trust each other (yet!).
It was clear that we needed to gather as much information as possible. We met with experts in the sector including the team at Energy4All who gave us so much advice and support. We were looking for a model that would work in Barnet and would fit the skills, ambition and experience of our small, emerging team. We met with Repowering London, who also gave us wonderful advice and support as well as offering us an interesting opportunity. Throughout this time, we received encouragement from Barnet Council, London Community Energy Fund, En10Ergy in Muswell Hill, community members of Barnet’s ‘Housing and Energy Action Group’ and Younity, all of which was immensely appreciated and helped us to sustain our momentum. This process of research gave us the confidence to move forwards and we currently have a team of five or six people who are interested in leading the group. Based on our research, we believe that the best model to pursue is to form a new Community Benefit Society (CBS), as this will enable us to benefit from grant funding and to offer shares to the community.
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