R&R Residents' Club

R&R manages with multiple properities across London, mainly south of the Thames.

I recently met with someone from R&R to discuss about community engagement and how to create more tailored content that is relevant to us here at Woodberry Down.

Gill works very part-time runs the R&R Residents' Club and is keen to for the Residents' Club to have greater prescence and relevance to the Woodberry Down community. It's free and offers many complementary and discounted tickets for residents under R&R.

I've been to a few myself and they're really fun and engaging. Problem is that you're advertising to the whole R&R community rather than just those that are relevant to your development.

Gill and I discussed a variety of things. Below is a summary:

R&R considers Woodberry Down a priority, probably because they want the contracts of the other buildings being developed.
The person responsible for developing the Woodberry Down community is preoccupied with managing a seperate development. It's a really fancy one. They hope that someone new can develop the community.
They have a small fund for us to use, and would be keen on seeing that used by residents.
Woodberry Down has a different community demographic. There isn't enough information for us to know what residents really want.

From wine tasting events to supper clubs, these are the things that I could organise but would depend on whether residents would be interested in paying and attending?

Any thoughts on the engagement events that could be run by residents for residents, please share!

Originally Posted by Kevin Lau on February 23, 2022 at 2:07pm

Originally posted by Mike Price March 2, 2022 at 8:48pm

We really need to collectively work out what we want in the way of community building events. There is a budget, incorporated within the R&R management fee, for such events. Berkeley had already told me that they were frustrated with R&R for not using this budget for us. We agreed that we, the residents, should be having more of an input into this. In the past, elsewhere on the development, we had a couple of parties - paid for out of the budget. These were worth attending because they enabled people to meet informally. There should be budget for two per year, I would have thought.

Pre-Covid, R&R did organise a summer gathering in our rainwater garden and a bit of a drinks gathering in the Kingly reception. Part of the problem with both is that they were not well advertised and people didn't know what to expect. Now that we have a website and whatsapp group etc, we should be able to get more people engaged and have more influence over the advertising of the event. Due to the budget not having been spent during "lockdown", there is perhaps two years' worth of budget available.

In addition to the R&R funded events, we should be able to organise our own events for which participants make a contribution or pay their way. The best way to get these off the ground, in my experience, is to make a start, expect it to be small scale, and persevere until it becomes the 'go to' event for that theme.

Replies

Wood Berry August 6, 2022 at 8:24am

Originally posted by Adrian Richard Essex February 26, 2022 at 9:40am

I think you are right, Kevin, that if events that genuinely engage the community are to happen they have to be organised by the residents.

Looking back at the latest R&R Residents' Club newsletter Albert Embankment and Battersea Reach are quite remote, while breakfast or a Valentine's dinner in Mayfair are more private that community oriented.

As for the fund, I understood it to be fairly substantial, enought to put on at least some events that we would not have to pay extra for. Are residents to be given any control over this fund?

Adrian Richard Essex

The Residents Association website for the Park Collection of buildings at Woodberry Down
Wood Berry August 6, 2022 at 8:23am

Originally posted by Mike Price March 2, 2022 at 8:48pm

We really need to collectively work out what we want in the way of community building events. There is a budget, incorporated within the R&R management fee, for such events. Berkeley had already told me that they were frustrated with R&R for not using this budget for us. We agreed that we, the residents, should be having more of an input into this. In the past, elsewhere on the development, we had a couple of parties - paid for out of the budget. These were worth attending because they enabled people to meet informally. There should be budget for two per year, I would have thought.

Pre-Covid, R&R did organise a summer gathering in our rainwater garden and a bit of a drinks gathering in the Kingly reception. Part of the problem with both is that they were not well advertised and people didn't know what to expect. Now that we have a website and whatsapp group etc, we should be able to get more people engaged and have more influence over the advertising of the event. Due to the budget not having been spent during "lockdown", there is perhaps two years' worth of budget available.

In addition to the R&R funded events, we should be able to organise our own events for which participants make a contribution or pay their way. The best way to get these off the ground, in my experience, is to make a start, expect it to be small scale, and persevere until it becomes the 'go to' event for that theme.

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