Community Service Centre

Notes based on New Charter development (regarding social sustainability and software aspects)

Summary

Goals

• Help New Zealand achieve energy neutrality (Freedom/Independence!)
• Provide a channel for innovation and change which corporate or government institutions can not or will not provide
• Create an evolving, democratic organisation based upon the latest developments in software and social sustainability

Business Departments

• Power and heat generation technology (Able Solar & Azurro)
• Auditing and Retrofitting (? and contractors)
• Maximising utilisation of existing resources and fostering Social Sustainability (Community marketplace aspect)
• Provide training and education to further the above goals (also via community marketplace aspect)

Core Deliverables

• One-stop energy shop
• Community marketplace
• Meeting point and heart of community
• Building upon two emerging trends: Energy/Sustainability and Social Networking software
  • Helping communities achieve energy independence (Power generation aspect)
  • Freeing up people's time, creating trust-networks and generating Social Capital

Business Model

• Software and templates developed are available to anyone who requires them, doing away with the expense and difficulty of protecting intellectual property
• Income is based on a membership model, which could work the following way
• People can join the centres in exchange for a regular membership fee - this pays for the ongoing cost of running the centres, software development, etc.
• Upon joining, people have access to the trust network and a menu of services, think Trademe, Findsomeone, Carpools, Food co-ops
• These services provide exceptional value due to being embedded within the centres, therefore customers only pay for roles being filled
• Community service providers also pay a membership fee in exchange for being part of the centre and gaining access to organisational templates and a regular stream of customers
• Centres pay a regular membership fee to The Meridian Alliance which provides branding, training, research and development and gives them in turn access to high-value backup and support services as well as continually developing organisational tools and software
• Total transparency of the usage of these funds is provided via regular reports to members and service providers
• Marketing involves

Service recipient

• • Demonstrating how much time and money a family can save based on being a member of the centre

Service provider

• • Demonstrating how much time and money small business owners can save due to organisational systems reuse, allowing them to focus on what they are best at

Funding Requirements

• Prototype outlet
• Business plan and business systems development
• Organisational software development
• Documentation and training material development
• Branding and design (Outlet and website)

Questions

1. Why include the "community marketplace" focus?

• This function is cheap to implement and vitally important
• This allows us to implement the Social Sustainability aspect of our work and make it a central part of the organisation from the start
• Communications and feedback channel
• Vehicle for community involvement and services development
• Education based on needs of the community
• We need a way to engage the community - this is it
• Marketing strategy could consist of developing the software and services to make the community marketplace a reality
• Providers of these kinds of services already exist, they could be consolidated under the "Energy Alternatives" brand

2. Does Energy Alternatives need to provide this aspect via their outlets?

• Not necessarily. It just seems important to treat this aspect with some urgency due to its importance in terms of communication, "street cred" and demonstrating a commitment to providing true sustainability, as well as covering the marketing and education aspects.

3. What are some examples of the kinds of services that could be provided under this umbrella?

• Business cluster
• Business incubator
• Job pool (a la Student Job Search) - what WINZ tries to be!
• Education and information centre
• A driver for social networking software development

Research

• Whitianga Community services centre
  • Assimilate "community marketplace" type functions