About us…
CBS Network's Mission
CBS Network promotes and encourages all forms of community-owned and controlled enterprise such that local communities will become more self-reliant, sustainable and enhance their quality of life through economic and social activities.
CBS Network's Values
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To be accessible, approachable and helpful
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To be equitable, fair and democratic
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To work in partnership with other similar organisations with a similar mission
CBS Network's Objectives
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To promote and help establish community/social enterprise in Scotland and overseas
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To undertake research into the nature of community/social enterprise and the wider social economy
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To develop methods of evaluating the impact of community/social enterprise
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To provide information and advice about community/social enterprise and community development to members, to other organisations and to individuals
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To link and network with organisations and individuals
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To ensure the sustainability of CBS Network
CBS Network’s Board
During 2007- 2008 the members of the CBS Network Board were: John Pearce; Alan Tuffs; Mark Saddington; Patrick Boase; Carl Ditchburn; John Spilsbury; Alan Kay (for part of the year only, resigned in July 2007)
CBS Network’s Office Bearers.
Convenor: Currently a “rotating” chair
Honorary Treasurer and Company Secretary: Alan Tuffs
CBS Network’s Staff
Finance and Administration Officer: Victoria Pearce
CBS Network’s Associated Companies
CBS Network Services Limited: This company is a wholly owned trading subsidiary of CBS Network Limited. Its Directors were Alan Kay, John Pearce and Alan Tuffs
CBS Network’s Legal Advisers, Accountants and Banking
Solicitors: Burness Solicitors
Accountants: Brian Maloney & Co., Certified Accountants
Banks: Co-operative Bank, Unity Trust Bank
Message from the Board
CBS Network continues to act as a forum for debate into community and social enterprise development in the UK and abroad. We continue to channel some of our energies into CBSN International and have recently amalgamated COMMACT UK with CBSN International. Our consultancy services (CBS Network Services) has continued to carry out consultancy work mainly in the area of social accounting.
Our membership level has fallen slightly since our withdrawal from frontline support to community and social enterprises, and consists of people and organisations who are committed to the growth of the social economy in Scotland, throughout the UK and internationally.
We would encourage you to contact us if you would like to know more about our activities.
Finally, we would like to thank Victoria Pearce over the last year for all her hard work and our fellow directors for their continued support.
The Board
CBS Network
December 2008
CBS Network
During the past year CBSN has had a membership of 24 individuals, community groups, community enterprises, development bodies, local authorities, academics and others committed to economic devolution to local people. Over half of our members are based in Scotland while the remainder come from other parts of the UK with a small number of international members.
During 2007 - 2008 we continued to send out a quarterly news bulletin. Our members also continued to receive a free subscription to New Sector magazine and have access to our information service and telephone helpline. We continue to field and deal with calls about social accounting and audit, the Social Audit Network (SAN) and about the other organisations we represent in Scotland - Commonwealth Association for Local Action and Economic Development (COMMACT) and the European Network for Economic Self-help and Local Development (Euronetz).
CBS Network will willingly host international visits and recently facilitated attendance of a number of guests from India who were attending the Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh. We believe that international exchange is important as people and community enterprises can gain greatly from swapping ideas, sharing knowledge and making friends.
CBS Network continued to support COMMACT and the Euronetz and the Social Audit Network.
CBS Network has continued to be a member of the Network of International Development Organisations of Scotland (NIDOS) and of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition.
Our website - www.cbs-network.org.uk - is managed by Norry Boulting and we are grateful to him for all his work on our website over the last four years.
CBS Network's Projects and Programmes in Scotland and throughout the UK
CBS Network and the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition (SSEC)
During 2007 - 2008 we have continued to support the work of the SSEC as the main vehicle for promotion of the social economy in Scotland.
CBS Network and the Social Audit Network (SAN)
During 2007 and 2008 CBS Network has continued its work with social accounting and audit as the Scottish “arm” of the Social Audit Network (SAN). We have run workshops and training sessions in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and overseas. The Social Accounting and Audit Manual and Interactive CD continues to sell well generating a small income to CBS Network as well as for SAN.
In 2008 CBS Network carried out a research project into organisations’ experience of social accounting and audit in Scotland; and ran a series of roadshow events on social accounting and related fields. Both projects are funded by the Third Sector Division of the Scottish Government (previously Communities Scotland).
The research project was undertaken in conjunction with SAN (www.socialauditnetwork.org.uk) as part of a wider study including Merseyside, NE England and Cumbria. The research report, Really Telling Accounts! can be downloaded from the SAN website.
CBS Network and Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS)
CBSN has worked on a pilot project with Co-operative Development Scotland which has taken 6 Scottish organisations through the social accounting and audit process. The participating co-operatives are: Highland Wholefoods, Highland Home Carers; West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative, ScotWest Credit Union, Loch Fyne Oysters together with the WISE Group.
CBS Network and New Sector
New Sector is an Industrial and Provident Society and has raised funding through a share issue. The magazine is available by subscription and CBS Network members receive copies as part of their membership subscription. Alpha Communication - a Co-operative in Durham - continues to edit, design and produce New Sector and manages the website – www.newsector.co.uk CBSN has been represented on the board for the past ten years by Alan Tuffs. He resigned from the New Sector board at its recent AGM on 15 th December 2008 and no CBSN director has come forward to replace him. Our ns partner organisations in Scotland are Community Enterprise Ltd, Senscot and DTA Scotland.It is hoped that one of these partners – or A N Other organisation - will take on the vital role of representing the third sector in Scotland on the board.
CBS Network's European links
CBS Network and the European Network for Economic Self-help and Local Development
CBS Network continues to provide the Scotland office for the European Network. In 2008 CBS Network became a partner in the CEST Transfer Project (Sustainable Further Training and Competence Strategies for the Social Economy) whose lead partner is the Technological University of Berlin. It is looking at training and curriculum development for social enterprises.
CBS Network's International Links
CBS Network and COMMACT
COMMACT has been an international network of community development practitioners across the world. CBS Network has been the UK office for COMMACT and has serviced the membership of COMMACT UK. COMMACT UK has now been amalgamated with the CBS Network membership as both organisations are committed to strengthening links with community enterprise practitioners and organisations around the world. For further information contact John Pearce j.pearce@cali.co.uk. .
The COMMACT International Conference 2008 took place in Brisbane Australia in October 2008. CBSN Board Member Carl Ditchburn from Community Campus 87 attended the conference and conducted a workshop on the Community Business Ventures project with our partner Sam Chelladurai from the READ Centre in Bangalore. For further details go to the COMMACT International website www.commact.com.
CBS Network and our general links with India
Since 1996 CBS Network has supported a partner organisation in Kerala, the HiLDA Trust, to develop a community enterprise and micro-credit programme for disadvantaged groups, especially tribal women, in the Wayanad District of the South Indian state. We have also supported the READ Community Business Development Initiative (CBDI) in Bangalore which has developed sustainable community businesses run by disadvantaged people in four remote rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, South India. CBS Network personnel have been engaged in training and support work for the field workers on both projects. CBS Network has continued to work with HiLDA and READ raising funds and supporting their ongoing work with self-help groups. CBS Network continues to support the work of both these organisations. For further details contact info@cbs-network.org.uk.
CBS Network and Community Business Ventures (CBV)
CBV is a practical exchange programme between the UK and India. The first phase aimed to provide on the ground experience and practical help with construction projects for young people from disadvantaged communities in the UK in the context of other cultures.
During 2007 – 2008 the project focused on creating an opportunity for young people with construction experience in the UK to travel to India to help build a “project”. In particular it brought together people from Community Campus 87 in Middlesbrough – a local organisation providing self build accommodation, training and support for homeless young people - and the Renton group of community companies in West Dunbartonshire with the HiLDA Trust in Kerala, South India and Sam Chelladurai from the READ Centre in Bangalore. The project involved the construction of a classroom block in the compound of a primary school in a slum area on the edge of Bangalore.
The next phase will take place in October 2009 when the teams will help build a community building and model housing for disadvantaged villagers in northern Karnataka. We are planning to work with the local tribal community to create a village meeting space with solar lighting and to develop 2/3 units of accommodation within the village. We are aiming to work with Habitat for Humanity on a model house build process that can be used in the future with other partners and projects - the initial house consists of a hallway, kitchen, bedroom and toilet. For information about the CBV project contact Carl Ditchburn at carl@cc87.co.uk and see the report on the website.
CBS Network and Rajasthan
CBS Network obtained support for an innovative proposal developed by Jagran Jan Vikas Samiti, an NGO working with tribal and dispossessed communities in the Udaipur District of Rajasthan. The project has continued to be funded by Lloyds TSB and will build the capacity of rural communities to engage with the political and bureaucratic structures and processes such that they work to their advantage rather than against them. This work will be extended with further funding from the Network for Social Change. For further information contact Patrick Boase patrick.boase@mac.com.
CBS Network and the Social Audit Network India and Nepal
CBS Network obtained funding from the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland for a collaborative project between CBSN and the Centre for Social Initiative and Management (CSIM), Hyderabad to run 3 social accounting clusters and 3 master-classes in social accounting and audit over the next 2 years. A planning meeting for this project was held in September in Glasgow and the first workshops will start in January 2009. This project has emerged out of a CBS Network 3 day workshop on social accounting and audit held in Hyderabad in February 2008 which was attended by over 40 people. For further information contact Patrick Boase patrick.boase@mac.com.
John Pearce chaired the Dr. Reddys Foundation Social Audit Panel in October 2008 and met with CSIM to plan the workshops for the Lloyds TSB project.
SAN member Roger Catchpole has been following up some work carried out with primary schools in Nepal where they assess their performance and impact using social accounting principles and process.
CBS Network and Japan
Over the past 10 years CBS Network has had links with Kobe University of Commerce which has now joined with the University of Hyogo. We continue to host several groups of visitors from Japan and one of our Directors, Alan Kay, visited Japan twice in 2007 at the invitation of our Japanese colleagues. For information contact Alan Kay alan@mkay88.freeserve.co.uk.
CBS Network Services Limited
Over recent years CBS Network Services has undertaken a range of consultancies on behalf of a variety of clients. In 2000 we formed a trading subsidiary, CBS Network Services Limited and all contracts now go through this company which pays a management fee and makes donations to the charitable parent company.
Major contracts, which have been in hand during the past year, include facilitating social accounting and audit training, social accounting work with Social Enterprise Sunderland and Scottish co-operatives, social accounting roadshows, social accounting and audit research; and running “master-classes” for SAN. Full details of past clients and work may be obtained from the CBSN office info@cbs-network.org.uk.
The consultancy service is undertaken by a small core of CBS Network consultants, backed up by the wider resources of Network members who can provide a rich range of experience and expertise.
CBS Network's Finances
CBS Network Core Budget
The organisation receives no core grant and supports itself through membership subscriptions, administration fees from projects run by the team of Directors, from donations from the subsidiary company and by CBS Network Services’ consultants “tithing” a percentage of fees earned.
CBS Network Services – our consultancy company - contributes to the running of the group through the payment of a management fee to the parent organisation.
Without considerable voluntary input by directors, the organisation would be unable to sustain its level of involvement with local, national and international projects and the development of the community/social enterprise movement as a whole.
CBS Network's Finances
Full accounts are available on application to the CBS Network office.
Summary Income and Expenditure
Year ended 31 March 2008
INCOME
EXPENDITURE
Our Conclusion
The idea of social enterprise and the social economy has attracted considerable attention over the last two decades and this appears to be increasing. CBS Network wants to continue to press for growth in the social economy as an alternative, economic mode of production. We wish to encourage people to believe they can run successful organisations which have social objectives at their core and to give them the tools to turn vision and aspirations into sustainable realities.
We look forward to 2009!
December 2008
CBS Network
The Melting Pot
Thorn House
5 Rose Street
Edinburgh EH2 2PR
United Kingdom
Company registered in Scotland No.106472
Charity Number SC 000159
Tel: +44 (0)131 243 2639
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