January 30, 2008 at 11:37 am · Filed under SkateMCR
SkateMCR is at a crunch point in terms of it’s future.
The History
I (Ben Gibbs) founded SkateMCR in Novemebr 2006 as a result of talking to skaters for a few months about what they thought of the Manchester skate scene and what they thought would make it better. I was able to do this for 2 days per week through funding from a Grant Making Trust. They committed to fund me for 2 years from July 2006 until June 2008.
The Present
The end of that funding is fast approaching and if I am to continue doing what I do with SkateMCR, I need to get further funding from July 2008 onwards. I have been advised from the Scarman Trust that no funders will even consider funding SkateMCR since it has no legal framework or any constituion. It is extremely unlikely that any funder will fund me directly, most of them don’t like funding salaries and even when they do it is through a properly legal enterprise that they route that money.
The Future
All this leaves SkateMCR in a dilemma and with 2 clear choices, both of which depend on the active support of skateboarders in Manchester. I briefly mentioned the options on the notes from the January SkateMCR meeting, but I’ll got through them in more detail here.
SkateMCR Becomes A Co-operative.
SkateMCR could become a Co-operative. This would mean that it had a legal framework and a constitution and would therefore be eligible for funding from many Grant Making Trusts and other funding bodies. So it could potentially raise funding to pay me for my 2 days per week and more funding for other projects.
To become a Co-operative SkateMCR would need at least 3 people for the Committee plus others to become members. I would want to get at least 8 skaters who were fully committed to creating and being an active part of the Co-operative. I think that 8 people would give it the life and legs to move forward and grow and be a success. SkateMCR would also need £400 to register as a Co-operative. Currently SkateMCR has £24 in box on my desk so this £400 would need to be raised somehow and quickly.
The concept of a Co-operative is that it exists to serve and benefit it’s members. People become members by paying a nominal fee to the Co-operative (like £1) and fitting the criteria for membership. Each member then gets 1 vote on any issues which need deciding.
Any money the Co-operative has or makes belongs to the membership ie. they decide how that money is spent. The Committee then does the leg work and basicaly fulfills the wishes of the membership - so they don’t lead or decide on thier own, they make sure the Co-operative does what the members want it to do. The Committee members also have 1 vote each. Every year there is an Annual General Meeting where the membership hear what the Co-operative has done over the last year and then votes on who will be the Committee members for the coming year.
The other option for SkateMCR is that it winds down over the next 5 months. If there are not 8 people who would be willing to form a SkateMCR Co-operative then there is no chance of getting any further funding. In this case I will not be able to continue doing SkateMCR for 2 days per week from July 2008 onwards. I will do web design with those 2 days per week instead and earn alot more money!
Even in this situation there are 2 options. If somebody or some people want to keep SkateMCR going in their own time then I would hand over the usernames and passwords and all the contacts and information I have to them and they can do what they want with SkateMCR from then on. I doubt they would be able to give 2 days per week to keep it going without pay so it’s activities and results will be greatly reduced. Or, if nobody want to carry SkateMCR on, then it will just end in June.
So, the future of SkateMCR is up to you, skateboarders on Manchester.
The Plan Now
I intend to arrange a meeting for anybody who is interested in the idea of creating SkateMCR as a Co-operative. It will be an opportunity to findout more about how the Co-operative would work, what your committment and responsibility might be and a chance to shape the direction and purpose of the SkateMCR Co-operative.
Within a week of this meeting I will need to know who is fully committed to the idea. If we have 8 or more people then we will go ahead and raise the £400 and form the Co-operative. If we don’t have 8 people then we’ll forget the idea and revert to winding SkateMCR down.
I will get a date and place for that meeting within 7 days. Things need to happen quite fast so keep an eye on this website for more information as it comes. Please contact me if you want to know more or you know you want to come to this meeting by leaving a comment below or calling me on 07811 197374 or emailing me at ben@skatemcr.com
Rodney Mullen looking cool with his tight shorts and rad different colour shoe laces! His wheels are even different colours - you don’t get cooler than that, and you don’t get better than Mullen:
I totally missed this when it was in the paper nearly 2 weeks ago but it’s a good article covering many of the issues surrounding skateboarding in Manchester:
KEEN skateboarder ‘Chris’ travels more than 200 miles, all the way from Pontypridd in Wales to use the facilities Manchester has to offer.
Yet despite what appears to be a ringing endorsement of the city’s ability to attract skaters to its facilities, Chris and his fellow skaters still feel Manchester needs to `pull its finger out’.
“I reckon a skate plaza in the city centre would be great so we could street skate without all the hassle of being asked to leave,” says Chris, 23.
Byelaws prevent city centre skating and cover the big attraction for Mancunian street skaters - Cathedral Gardens, outside Urbis. Anyone found flouting the law receives a formal warning, and may be prosecuted.
Since these measures were introduced in 2001, more than 100 people have received verbal warnings and at least four have been taken to court, fined and ordered to pay costs.
The problem, though, can only get worse. Skateboarding has gone through a revival since 2000 and hundreds of skaters now flock to the city every weekend.
On one side of the debate, the skaters claim they’re starved of decent purpose-built facilities, but on the other, the council believes street skating is anti-social to shoppers and tourists, not to mention expensive as the council has to fork out to repair damage to street furniture.
Lure
Yet the lure of skateboarding stretches beyond the city centre, across the length and breadth of Greater Manchester. A new skatepark at Stamford Park, Altrincham, is in the offing after police, community leaders and councillors agreed it was sorely needed to help get young people off the streets and engaging in and creative energetic pastime.
Teenage skater Nick James believes provision of more facilities is long overdue. “Skaters in Manchester really need a skate plaza, something similar to Urbis, but designed especially for skaters,” says the 17-year-old.
“There aren’t enough facilities. The one under the Mancunian Way gets wet if it rains because there are no walls - it makes it unusable.”
That venue is council-funded, but Mick Regan, head of community activity at Manchester council, says the problem is keeping all parties happy.
“We have a lot of meetings where people have conflicting demands. We’re heavily involved in the Mancunian Way skatepark. Along with the financial assistance, we also run the positive futures program, helping disadvantaged kids get involved with sports, like skateboarding.”
The UK Skateboarding Association has raised concerns about the number and quality of the skateparks. Chairman Kevin Parrot believes there are too few indoor parks and the rest are badly constructed council parks.
Problem
Lack of suitable facilities shifts the problem back to the streets, where the skaters are drawn to places with the architecture and street furniture to hone their skills, such as steps, handrails and ramps.
But Cathedral Gardens is now out of bounds and two other favourite hangouts have also gone: the Gasworks is now under redevelopment, and the University of Manchester campus has introduced anti-skateboarding devices, like blister paving.
“I can understand why people prefer to street skate,” says Paul Harrison, owner of The World Famous Central Skatepark. “The idea of exploring and finding new spots is the whole point.
“But I also think it’s common sense that there are laws in place. I’m not saying people shouldn’t street skate, I’m just saying it’s unfair to try and demand that they’re allowed to damage other people’s property.”
But a rebellion is brewing. SkateMCR was set up by disgruntled Mancunian skaters, fed up with the restrictions and poor skating facilities in the city. They want the bans lifted and have even petitioned the Prime Minister’s website.
However, Steve Bass, who recently bought one of the region’s largest skateparks, believes the real way forward is through cooperation between skaters and local councils.
Steve’s UKskatepark in Stockport (formerly Bones) attracts around 200 people every Saturday. “Lot’s of outdoor parks in Manchester are built by the local councils, who tend to order ramps out of catalogues and then plonk them somewhere with no thought to their set up,” explains Steve.
“There’s only one other indoor park in the city, Central Skatepark, and if that gets too busy it’s almost unusable.”
The all-weather concrete platforms around Urbis mean it has found itself at the centre of the debate. But chief executive Vaughan Allen is keen to show they embrace the city’s skate culture. He said: “Urbis has adopted a proactive response to the problem by holding a number of skateboarding exhibits and events.”
It’s taken a while to get these notes up here because the future of SkateMCR is still in doubt but we’ll get to that later.
We began by talking about the plan to have a Manchester international Skateboard Festival. Basically Councillor Rosa Battle, John Haines and I met with the Manchester Events Team before Christmas and they told us it’s not going to happen this summer (’08) because they plan festivals about 10 months in advance and we had missed the deadline. They really liked the idea and are keen to help us do it for summer ‘09.
They mentioned a couple of people who are interested in doing a Northern Quarter Festival so I am trying to contact these people to see if we could band together and do something like that this summer.
We moved onto ASBO 2008. My wife and I are having a baby at the beginning of April so I will not be around for most of April. Everybody I’ve talked to really wants to do ASBO again because it was such a success last year. But since I’m gonna be out the loop in April we need some people to step up and offer to organise it. I’m willing to help and give advice and contacts before April but these people will need to take the lead with it and run it throughout April too.
Please, please, please contact me if you’re interested - 07811197374 or ben@skatemcr.com
The last item we talked about wa the future of SkateMCR. I am currently funded by a Grant Making Trust to do this for 2 days per week and my funding runs out in June this year, 5 months away. I have talked to the Scarman Trust who want to help me find funding but there advice is that no-one is going to fund SkateMCR if it does not have a legal status. Currently SkateMCR is a Collective so it has no heirarchy, no structure, no bank account and no legal status.
After thinking about this alot I think SkateMCR has 2 options:
Option 1: SkateMCR becomes a Co-operative. By becoming a Co-operative we will have the legal status to be able to access funding, not just to pay me and others, but also to put on events or long term projects. To become a Co-operative SkateMCR will need £400 to register and at least 3 members of the committee and more people to be members.
Option 2: SkateMCR stays as it is. If SkateMCR stays as it is, I will not be able to do what I do anymore - SkateMCR will have to run by you. It will not be able to get funding so I won’t be able to give 2 days per week to it anymore. So someone or some people will have to take it over unpaid, and if no-one wants to, SkateMCR will be no more.
Both these options need you to step up if you’re interested in keeping SkateMCR alive. If no-one is bothered then I’ll carry on and wind it down until June.
The comp is happening at Central Skatepark on 26th Jan from noon with £1,000 worth of cash for the over 18’s winners! Under 18’s winners will win all sorts of prizes too. There’ll be some great music, food, non-alcoholic bar, graff workshops from Sketch City and a Film crew recording the day.
From 8pm they will also be an after party in URBIS with some more great music and alcohol so over 18’s only.
Entry to the comp or after-party costs from £4 to £10 depending on your level of participation. See this page for more info.
Get on down to support Cancer Research and have Big Fun!
Please come along to the next SkateMCR Open Meeting on 23rd Jan at the Projekts Shop from 7pm.
Manchester International Skateboard Festival is not going to happen this summer. Come and find out why and what the plans are for this coming summer and summer 2009.
We’ll begin the plans for ASBO 2008 so come and have your say and get involved this year!
And the future of SkateMCR is in doubt, come and find out why and how you can help keep SkateMCR alive. We need your input on all these issues since it is you, the skaters, who we represent!
As usual there will be free crisps, biscuits and drinks!
I (Ben Gibbs) founded SkateMCR in Novemebr 2006 as a result of talking to skaters for a few months about what they thought of the Manchester skate scene and what they thought would make it better. I was able to do this for 2 days per week through funding from a Grant Making Trust. They committed to fund me for 2 years from July 2006 until June 2008.
To become a Co-operative SkateMCR would need at least 3 people for the Committee plus others to become members. I would want to get at least 8 skaters who were fully committed to creating and being an active part of the Co-operative. I think that 8 people would give it the life and legs to move forward and grow and be a success. SkateMCR would also need £400 to register as a Co-operative. Currently SkateMCR has £24 in box on my desk so this £400 would need to be raised somehow and quickly.
Even in this situation there are 2 options. If somebody or some people want to keep SkateMCR going in their own time then I would hand over the usernames and passwords and all the contacts and information 
I have to them and they can do what they want with SkateMCR from then on. I doubt they would be able to give 2 days per week to keep it going without pay so it’s activities and results will be greatly reduced. Or, if nobody want to carry SkateMCR on, then it will just end in June.
So, the future of SkateMCR is up to you, skateboarders on Manchester.
KEEN skateboarder ‘Chris’ travels more than 200 miles, all the way from Pontypridd in Wales to use the facilities Manchester has to offer.
“I can understand why people prefer to street skate,” says Paul Harrison, owner of The World Famous Central Skatepark. “The idea of exploring and finding new spots is the whole point.
Beez talks about when he started skateboarding in Northenden, skating in Barcelona, what’s on his iPod and his burning desire to do hand-plants.
We moved onto ASBO 2008. My wife and I are having a baby at the beginning of April so I will not be around for most of April. Everybody I’ve talked to really wants to do ASBO again because it was such a success last year. But since I’m gonna be out the loop in April we need some people to step up and offer to organise it. I’m willing to help and give advice and contacts before April but these people will need to take the lead with it and run it throughout April too.
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