Ryan:
So Gemma if
youd just like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do
Gemma:
Okay, err,
so I’m Gemma Jerome and erm, I was erm, one of the directors of Recycles when
we first started. Erm, so I helped to found Recycles, erm, and then I was with
them up until about a year ago, erm, at which point my PhD took over. Erm, but
yeah erm, so myself and Luke and two other people, we entered a social
enterprise competition, erm, I was new, erm, to the group, I did the three erm,
well Luke and the other two guys they had the idea and I went along with the
idea of wanting to do something to do with bikes; they put us together and,
erm, a beautiful thing was born though we erm, we knew that we wanted to er,
encourage more people to cycle in Liverpool and, erm, we were quite upset about
the waste of bikes so when people didn’t use their bike anymore, just sitting
in the yard, and a lot of them are going to landfill, erm, there wasn’t a
recycling loop that could capture them. Erm and also I’ve lived in a couple of
other cities and Liverpool is I think the least friendly in terms of erm,
drivers understanding cyclists so we wanted to kind of create a critical mass
of people who cycled so we could slowly but surely change the culture of er, cycling
in Liverpool
Ryan:
Wow, that
was a good answer
[laughing]
Erm, have
you been a bike fanatic…
[Gemma laughs]
Gemma:
No [Laughs]
erm, I erm, I’ve always had bikes like most children, errrm, I errm, I do
remember my first bike it was a, it was neon pink and green er, as was the
fashion in the ‘80s, erm, and it got stolen and I was- I was heartbroken but we
drove around and we found it. Erm, so I-so I I’ve- I understand how people have
a relationship with their bike erm, and I-I think that is something that erm,
we, as an organization, understand and try and nurture in people because erm,
yeah people-people love their bikes and erm, if-if they feel er, that they
wanna take care of it then they start to think “well how can I actually fix it
myself” instead of it being this thing that you erm, consume it becomes part of
your life and then you can erm, have more autonomy if you know how to fix it so
the kind of do it yourself aspect of the project started to grow erm, and we
actually started to think “well how do we want people to feel about their bikes
that they are using as a sustainable form of transport”. Erm, and i-yeah i… I
probably.. I’ve been a-a… what get termed a utility cyclist so I go everywhere
on my bike, I don’t drive erm, for about 10 years so erm… yeah I-I’ve just erm,
I’ve just got my first erm, hand built bike er, which feels like a right of
passage, erm, a good friend of mine who also is based in Liverpool started
building frames so, I think Liverpool is getting a really interesting bike
culture; people who… who erm, want to rekindle erm, maybe that craftsmanship
that erm, we had in-in the UK with regards to bikes a long time ago and
hopefully Liverpool can be a real kind of…erm, heartlands that erm, Recycles is
a big part of it so… yeah… yeah.
Ryan:
Wow, that
was really good
[Laughs]
Gemma:
I mean
maybe, would you be interested in kind of, I don’t know I saw a question on
there with regards to how we’re set up structurally or something about why we
chose to be a voluntary organization
Ryan:
Yeah, yeah there’s
one here about why you’re a voluntary based company
Gemma:
Yeah okay, I
could say something about that
Ryan:
So er, Gemma
what-what made you want to pursue a voluntary based company
Gemma:
Erm, okay well
we erm, the c-the catalyst for Recycles becoming an organization erm, we were
erm, awarded erm, a prize er, as part of a social enterprise competition and we
were rewarded £1000 which er, was-was a great start erm, to us becoming erm,
more of a-a formal-a formalized group. Erm, we weren’t allowed to spend it on
ourselves erm, we wouldn’t have wanted to but, erm, it allowed us to kind of
buy our first erm, materials for the workshop and we-we knew that we would
always have to be erm, or at least for the first period, be erm, volunteers but
we wanted to give other people erm, in-in the university but also in the local
community a chance to volunteer in the workshop as well. Erm, we were really
passionate, and st- and still are, Recycles are really passionate about how
volunteering is something that gives you confidence in a way other things don’t
so its not the same as a job and we quite quickly became erm, an organization
that attracted people who maybe.. they… they were having a break from working,
er, maybe they actually erm had erm, a condition that meant they were in long
term unemployment… erm Recycles became a really important part of their life;
they could come, volunteer, be really valued and erm, and contribute the skills
and knowledge that they had but they weren’t able to erm, at that point share
with anyone wider than family and friends…erm, so… and I think that there’s
something really strong in voluntary organizations, erm, but probably about
after a year we realized that its er, its hard work erm, running a voluntary
organization that doesn’t have any erm, any revenue, er so we were able to
track funding for capitol like so we could buy more, er, tools or make the
workshop a-a yeah, more comfortable place to be. Erm, but then we took the step
erm, that probably is intuitive for voluntary organizations to make where we
decided to constitute as a-as a er, community interest company so that’s a, a
way of erm, structuring yourself so people understand that what you do isn’t
for profit its to erm, contribute to social change and, erm… yo-your, erm… very
much focused on-on community assets and-and skills in the community, erm, but
it meant that we could an-er-er-erm… and still can develop the project so that
people can start getting reimbursed, er, for what their doing, and so in terms
of sustainability that’s where we’re at…and…yeah, only good things can come of
it, erm… yeah
What ty-what
ki-part of a bike I would like to be, that’s a funny question isn’t it [Laugh] I don’t want to think about it
[Laugh] Erm, let me just think if there’s anything else that is important about
Recycles. Erm, Luke what-what else would you like me to say? What else do you
want me to say?
[Mumbles]
Okay. Erm…
do you think its interesting the fact that we were like based at a university,
but now we’re not? You know because you guys are from a university is it
interesting… [Can’t transcribe] … a
partnership with the university but now we don’t or…
Ryan:
Yeah
anything you can…
Gemma:
Oh sorry.
Okay, I guess we’ll just get loads of stuff and then take little bits of it.
Okay cool, probably too hot at the moment.
Luke:
Could you
say about how the structure of… [Can’t
transcribe]
Gemma:
Yeah I just
said like we started out as like just pure volunteers… [Can’t transcribe]
Luke:
…We were
like opposites
Gemma:
Me and you?
Luke:
Well in like
the structure
Gemma:
Okay. Okay
we could-yeah we could…
Luke:
And like how
it evolved and ended up being like… but like how erm, yeah I dunno… [Can’t transcribe]… the fact that we were
kind of frugal…
Gemma:
Yeah, yeah
it’s a good point. So we could have a bit of, something a bit critical…[Can’t transcribe]
Luke:
…I don’t
know to be honest nothings fucking perfect
Gemma:
Yeah, you
mean like don-don’t spin it too much [Laugh]
yeah I know, joking, joking. Okay I’ll-I’ll-I’ll, do ye… how’s the format gonna
be, is it gonna be your voice saying, asking me something or should I give you
the question? No its fine I can just say something [Laugh] Erm…okay… yep, that’s fine. Erm… do you wanna like count or
something so I [Laugh] know when to
start or It doesn’t matter [Laughing plus
audible clap] Thanks clapper board.
Okay erm,
yeah I think in terms of the er, how we started and our structure and
governance its quite an interesting story…erm, in all of that which we feel if
somebody else was wanting to start a similar project in their area, erm, maybe
we could help them leapfrog some of the, the problems or issues that came to
light for us. So, we were erm, we were a mixed group with different values,
similar but different, erm, similar enough to, to work together but different
to make it interesting, erm…and, erm, myself I-I had erm, a background which
meant I was interested in how we structure the group so erm, we keep volunteers…erm…erm,
informed and in a way organized so they know what they’re doing and they feel
like the know how to contribute when they’re in the space, and we keep them
safe and erm, we’re like transparent in how we do that erm, so for me its just
always easy to have rules er, so then everyone can refer to the rules so erm,
we agreed it as a-as a whole group that flat structure is important, but for me
you can have a flat structure but you can have erm, specific responsibilities
within that, and you can, you know, change who has those responsibilities but
it is important to maybe have someone who like manages volunteers and someone
who manages the accounts and someone who, like, creates a system so you know who’s
opening up, erm, if something goes wrong who you go to, all of that, and we
were… we, we did have some different opinions within the group about how and
when those things were put in place, erm… I guess its fair to say I was in the
mi-the minority erm, I felt wanting to make it quite structured erm, and I
didn’t want to force the issue so probably for about 6 months or a year erm,
we…we just were really adhoc and we just opened, sometimes didn’t open, erm,
and people who came, and when they came they enjoyed it, but a few people were
frustrated and would co-make complaints if we weren’t open when we said we were
gonna be and… you know its-its… its human-sized problems but erm, it-it can
develop into something if you get a reputation for not being kind of,
erm…clear, erm. So erm, I think it slowly, we evolved and it’s the nature of
working together as a group that people who maybe were against having structure
started to slowly come round and erm, it also really erm, helped our
relationship with the landlords where we were based erm, because they were er,
quite a formal institution, they were the erm, well it’s a students union where
we were based initially and they-they didn’t always understand like how relaxed
we-they-well…we were and in a way we were misinterpreted sometimes as pe-like
we were like-what the ideas er, and the concepts we were er, creating are
fairly radical erm, but I think they, they interpreted our lack of organization
as maybe, like the prodorative erm, form of radical like some people like “oh,
we’re not sure how to, how to deal with you as an organization” so erm, I think
when we implemented erm, kind of like a management team, but we were really
clear that er, managers of each task, they didn’t have more say than anyone
else but they were just the ones that are accountable for those things to
happen like volunteering or erm, the workshop and how it-you know how it
functions, and I think erm, in hindsight, yeah iii-we would’ve maybe sp-speeded
up that process but erm, you learn, you learn a lot from your mistakes.
[Laughs] and erm, yeah we ended up with a good relationship with the students
union… mmmmmainly good? [Laughs] up and down. Okay you can tell the story after
that. Erm, you-you can tell your version of that bit. Yeah?
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