This is what we did…
About London Green Wood
London Green Wood (LGW) is a cooperatively-run workshop. We teach green woodwork using traditional techniques, hand tools and locally grown wood straight from the log. We have been creating opportunities to learn heritage and ‘rural’ crafts in Hackney since 2011. We are currently based at Hackney City Farm.
By creating a space for people to work creatively alongside others, we foster friendships and community connections. By teaching people new skills, we create resilience. By working outdoors in nature, we provide a space for reflection and therapeutic activity.
Our aims
- Create a welcoming and accessible green wood workshop for a diverse community of woodworkers.
- Promote green woodwork.
- Provide opportunities for people living in the city to learn traditional rural crafts.
- Create opportunities for people to learn new skills and earn money from their skills.
Our members
At the end of 2023 we had 65 members (18% growth on 2022). Currently, 32% of our membership pay unwaged or low-income rates, 44% of these are female.
Projects
This year there was a focus on developing skills within our membership, on building the community at the workshop and ensuring that when members join the coop, they feel confident to come back and use the space. All this activity was led and organised by members on a voluntary basis.
- Spoon Club
We opened on one day a week evenings over the summer for a coop members Spoon Club. This was an amazing additional offering for our members. Spoon Club was incredibly successful in getting
new members and female members in particular back to use the workshop regularly.
- Skill shares
We had 4 coop skill shares. These were all led by members for members. These sessions have not only increased the skills of our members, but they have also been a tool to get members who
hardly ever use the workshop back into the space.
- Coop workdays and socials
There have been numerous informal volunteer days in the workshop where coop members have built and fixed equipment and made other improvements to the workshop. We also had evening celebrations and BBQs in the summer to get out membership together.
Our biggest one was in end December with 15 coop members coming in for a carving/turning/weaving day, followed by a feast, a fire and music (and even more people joining in the evening).
- Shoreditch Design Triangle
We participated in Shoreditch Design Triangle (part of London Design Festival) for the second time. Our workshop was on the SDT map.
A selection of hand-made chairs was exhibited in our workshop. The chairs have been made from fresh logs from tree surgeons. This wood, quite often from wind blown trees, is usually seen as waste wood, and either chipped or burnt. Of the tens of thousands of trees lost in London every year, we save a few to make unique chairs and stools ( & spoons, bowls, cups, sculpture, etc).
Using various techniques with a long history, the logs are transformed into beautiful and functional furniture, which will last for generations.
Exciting things members did
Dave Evers, our bowl turning tutor, received the prestigious 2023 Cockpit Arts’ Turners’ Award giving him a year of making in his own studio at Cockpit Studios. This award is sponsored by The Worshipful Company of Turners.
The Shop
So far 10 members are selling their work through the shop, and spoons are flying off the shelves.
Community projects
We are donating our waste wood to Hackney based, Community Sauna CIC.
Courses
825 people joined 130 courses in 2023. Added to our other activity above, we taught green woodwork to around 950 people.
People attending our courses at 52% female, 15% from ethnic minorities, 8% low-incomerates. 18% had been on a LGW course before. 90% of course reviews were 5*!
Governance
Five members of the Coop are currently elected Directors, these are: S. Alexander, D. Evers, C. Lefebvre, E. Robinson and S. Martin.
Our co-founder, J. Clarke, resigned as Director on March 15, 2023 to take up a position as Secretary.
New governance model
In 2023 we adopted a new governance model with a director role more like an oversight role, like trustees for charities or similar to how public companies work. This new roles model as a CIC, reduce conflicts of interest within the administrators/tutors and the directors.
- Directors are legally responsible for the Coop. They are co-opted or elected at our AGM. They provide oversight of the Administration team, making sure that the actions they do is in keeping with Coop’s aims. Being a director isn’t a paid role.
- Administrators are members that want to participate in the more strategic as well as day to day operations of the Coop. They commit to spending significant time and effort working to make the Coop achieve its aims as an organisation. They are treasurer, secretary, risk manager, membership manager, webmaster, etc. Being an administrator could be a paid role.
- Tutors are paid to provide excellent green woodworking experiences to course participants. They also undertake to carry out significant amounts of admin work (voluntary basis) that’s required to run the courses.
- Keyholders open/close the workshop and are responsible for the workshop during the days that they are keyholding. They commit to volunteering their time to do so at least 2 days a month.
Permanent assembly
The open-source online chat service Mattermost hosted by Framateam is now use as a permanent assembly for the directors and admin team. Directors have regular meetings with the admin team every 3 months. In this meeting, the admin team update directors on how the Coop is doing (finances, insurance, courses, outreach initiatives, etc). The directors give feedback and make sure that the strategy the admin team is pursuing is in line with the Coop’s aims.
Finance