July Member’s Meetup

July Members Meetup: New Managing Director, New Paper Money

Thank you to everyone who could make it to the latest Bristol Pound member meetup. It was great to see some familiar faces at The Station Youth Centre! We tried a new venue and thought it was great – we hope you all agree.

We welcomed our new MD Diana Finch, who gave a brief overview of her plans and goals moving forward with Bristol Pound. This included how we can prove social impact, improving the efficiency of signing up and widening our membership to some new areas of Bristol. Diana stepped up to the challenge of a short Q&A after.

We gave the opportunity for all our members to get to know each other with a networking activity – asking why each member joined Bristol Pound, what inspires them to use it and how long they had been using it for.

Some of the responses:

1. Commitments to sustainability and the local economy
2. Building a circular economy!
3. It always starts a conversation – from your barista to your neighbour

These are the ideas that came from the workshop:

Group 1:

1. 80p in bp stays in bristol = in numbers but worth more
2. A sense of pride in the city (not quite universal)
3. Story of supply chain 1, drive to low cost 2, local gives variety and sustainability and 3, what time of future do you want?
4. Opportunity for local delivery?
5. Size of council tax – big enough to make a difference
6. Importance of personal stories and networks ‘people like you use bp’
7. Our city → your city → embody inclusiveness

Challenges

1. Staff training
2. Recognition
3. Back office
4. Till systems
5. Pos

Group 2

1. It’s worth the hassle which isn’t much
2. Unity
3. Bristol pounds brings us together
4. ‘The common currency’
5. Diana to meet barra – new uni campus – head of estates
6. Emphasis business benefits e.g. mailing list, blog and directories
7. Nudge people to a, sign up and b, use account
8. Threat of contactless making even the app a pain to use
9. Target to include native bristolians – pride in bristol
10. Use trusted intermediaries to promote to their networks e.g. a.nursery
11. Empowerment and ease of people ‘the power of your money’
12. Use stories about businesses benefiting
13. Use businesses to take bp and get them to ask customers if they want to use in bp
14. Life changes – target it times e.g. students, new people moving, young parents, new job, new house

Group 3

1. Keep it simple, more understanding
2. Have a local festival with bristol pound as the soul currency
3. More events, more volunteers from a university scheme
4. Local celeb endorsements
5. Get directories in libraries
6. Need to be able to have accounts for 14+ age bracket
7. Promote SME members and giving discounts
8. Bristol pound graffiti e.g. festivals
9. BCU accounts being automatically bristol pound and kickback
10. University in bristol pound in every welcome pack
11. Need examples relevant to young audiences/benefits
12. Bristol pound is a ‘proper job, local economy’ in pubs, clubs and centres
13. Bristol pound shopping bags ‘bristol pound be proud to shop bristol’
14. Logo of the B for Be Proud

Thanks again to everyone who came along. Hope to see you all again at the next event 🙂