Stir to Action’s Centre for Democratic Business has a rapidly expanding and well-supported campaign to protect and reboot the social clubs movement for the C21st. They are talking to various potential collaborators/funders, including the Club and Institute Union (CIU), who unfortunately keep saying the number of trading clubs is 25% of what it was in the 70s (i.e. somewhere around 400-500) - whereas Stir are pretty confident there are a hell of a lot more; but how to evidence it?
They are looking for a worker co-op specialising in data mapping to find out. At the moment the brief is to identify operating working mens clubs/institutes, miners’ etc welfare clubs, labour and conservative/liberal clubs, Oddfellows, or simply clubs that are/have become simple local clubs and have a democratic membership structure. They might be Friendly Societies, Cooperative Societies or Community Benefit Societies; all likely registered on the FCA Mutuals Public Register, although that doesn’t in itself guarantee they are still operating.
Any CoTechers want to contact jonny@stirtoaction.com to find out more about the brief and discuss methodology/terms? I think they want some credible data pretty fast, to be able to make the policy and funding arguments they want to put forward.