Trip knows we love him really
Sorry to be a party pooper but here I go.
This is a summary of all the information I have received over the last few day and a kinda action plan.
Step 1) Let’s try to get ourselves unbanned from the forum. I think the first thing we should do is speak to somebody high up at the forum. I am not expecting this to work but I think it is worth a try. We have nothing to lose by doing this.
There is a contact form on the Forum’s website:
http://www.theforumnorwich.co.uk/contact-us.htmI am not sure if this is the best way. Does anybody have any contacts with somebody higher up so we can skip some people lower down?
One of the problems with the forum is that if we did hurt somebody they would be left liable if proven to be negligent in its actions and behaviours. I think it is a fair reason not to let us bock there so turning this one around might be tricky unless we can educate and prove that we are safe. We also have no public liability insurance.
Step 2) Write to the Local council.I am not sure if they could get the forum back for us but what locky said was very true. We bock at the Forum because it is a large open space that we feel is safe for bocking. We don’t bock there if it is very busy and we do around for people. I think we could improve safety at meets, make it slightly more formal, have a process noted down so we can kinda prove it but at the mo we are doing ok. We could mention that capital bocking was going to be in Norwich and that because of this ban it has been moved elsewhere.
Back to the council, we bock at the forum because we think it is safe and we are always thinking of safety and are aware of people around us. If we were to bock around the market, or anywhere down that road it would be irresponsible and dangerous. So if we can’t now bock safely at the forum, we are only left with less safe and ideal places. We should ask for a safe area to bock and outline what kind of spaces are good for bocking. A grass field wont be very useful to us.
One thing to note is to get support from councils we might be required to have PLI of 5million.
Step 3) Try and get some support from sports development people in Norwich. Bocking is an interesting sport, and I think that the Norwich parkour guys have some support. If we did have this kind of support I think it would do wonders for our reputation and could benefit us greatly. If they support us then we would for sure have to have some spaces to do this and maybe even gyms. There are very few gyms that will take us around here, there are very few good bocking places so we might be able to get some help.
But, to get support from other organisations we need to have some kind of structure as a club/group. Everybody will have to be covered by PLI too. At the moment we can use the YBBs as an example, and say this is what we are working towards. But to say that we need to take steps in the right direction.
Insurance and club structure. If you have read my rather long essay then you will see that both insurance and structure are mentioned a lot. It is key in any of the above stuff really. Without it we are leaving other people liable for our actions and we will not be able to get any council support without it. There are also a few events we have been asked to attend which we wont be able to do without PLI. Most people I have spoken to about PLI have been supportive of the idea.
But, in order to get club insurance we need some kind of structure as a club. That will need to include a small committee of 3 or 4 people and a formal list of group members. To get insurance we will need to provide membership details and the list of members. It will also mean we will need to have some kind of annual subscription to cover the cost of the PLI.
Last thing I am going to say is about safety at meets. We are fairly good about this already but in order to prove this, prove we are responsible enough to bock in public areas we should have a safety brief and a couple of rules. I mean, we do most of the stuff already whether we know it or not. Things like watching out for pedestrians getting too close to people doing tricks, making sure if an area gets too crowded we move away ect.
All this is totally doable, alone it is a huge task. But if everybody does a small amount it can happen. Trip has already stepped up to help. Hopefully people can see the reasons we need to begin getting some structure and organisation and will offer to help out.
And sorry, none of the above info is really my own. It is just all the info I have got over the last few days, just collated.
I will look at getting quotes for PLI and writing a letter soon.
