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Outsiders Club Lunches

Outsiders lunches are for members only and those curious about the club. They are always held in accessible and affordable bars and restaurants. Everyone arrives under their own steam, and buys their own food and drink. Lunches are organised by local members, who try to maintain a good balance of men women and a good variety of people.

These volunteers are usually happy to discuss personal problems if asked. Members too nervous to enter alone can arrange to be met outside and brought in. Everyone is introduced to one another. If the bar/restaurant gets too bottle-necked for wheelchairs, members of the club or staff will re-arrange the furniture. Lunches are preferred to evening gatherings as some disabled people feel vulnerable going out in the dark. Members who need feeding are advised to bring a PA who can then wander off after the meal has been eaten. Sometimes organisers send out press releases to reach more local disabled people. One member commented, 'amazing people - so diverse, complex and honest.'

The London Lunch

Now at:
Leon,
7 Canvey Street,
Blue Fin Building,
(Behind the Tate Modern and off Sumner Street),
Bankside,
London,
SE1 9AN.
Tel: 020 7620 0036.

This happening restaurant is spacious and airy, with a huge outdoor eating area, total wheelchair access, interesting, healthy cheap food, and eager staff. There is disabled parking and other free parking nearby.

Workshops are usually held and there can be a special table for women and for members of the LGBTI.

Almost equi-distant (but not very close to Southwark (closest), Borough and Blackfriars tubes. The RV1 bus goes from London Bridge, past Southwark Street (just south of the restaurant) past Waterloo and Aldwych and along the Strand to Covent Garden, and back.

Everybody is very excited about this new venue so the June and July lunches should be very popular.

The August Lunch will be our traditional picnic in Russell Square, 1.30p.m. to whenever, tea-hut corner (near the disabled toilet). Bring your contributions to the picnic - home made delicacies specialities welcome.

London Gadabouts

The London Gadabouts are run for members only by the office volunteers as midweek evening outings, on a bi-monthly basis.

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Midlands Lunch

From August 2008 onwards, the Midlands lunch will be held at:
The OId Orleans,
80 Broad Street,
Birmingham,
B15 1AU.
Tel: 0121 633 0144.

Contact Steve Major on: 07092 386 789 or 07919 437 097 stevemajor@hotmail.co.uk.

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East Anglia Lunch

3^rd Saturday of other every month, in a hotel bar in Ipswich. 12.30pm to 5pm. Small but bijou is how our effervescent hostess describes her events. Excellent food and easy parking and local transport. Email for more info: mazperi@hotmail.com

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Yorkshire Lunch

Yorkshire Lunch - News of 2008 events soon!

After five lovely lunches at the Sheffield Millennium Galleries followed by tea upstairs in the Winter Garden, we still don't have anyone local to run the Yorkshire events. London volunteers are too busy for the next few months to come up to Sheffield. The plan is to postpone the Yorkshire lunches until February, by which time we hope to have more local members and a team of hosts and hostesses who can welcome other members at venues in their home towns.

In order to publicise this lunch we need to distribute our new leaflet and a local handout to all the disabilty agencies, independent living schemes, clinics, homes and day centres and we need your help.

By helping to create your own local group, you will make new friends, get the satisfaction of building something new and exciting, and will become one of the Yorkshire hosts / hostesses.

Address

Café Azur
Ground floor,
Millennium Galleries,
Arundel Gate,
Sheffield, S1 2PP.
Telephone: 0114 278 2633/4
Web site: www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk

Finding Café Azur

Come out of the Sheffield railway station and walk straight ahead beside the waterfall or straight up Howard Street, by Hallam University. for a tenth of a mile, 5-10 minutes walk, Walk towards Novotel at the top of the hill. Once you have crossed the road, the hill becomes very steep - too steep for most wheelchair users and people with mobility disabilities, but the taxi rank is beside the station if you need a lift. Once up the hilll, the Millennium Galleries are directly opposite, with Café Azur straight in front of you.

There is a coach drop off point close to the entrance on Arundel Gate at the rear of the Central Library and Graves Art Gallery.

The Millennium Galleries is easily reached from any city centre bus and tram stop.

Driving? From the M1 leave at junction 33 and take the A57 to Sheffield (3.7miles). Follow signs for the city centre and the theatres.

The closest car park is the NCP at the Crucible Theatre, Arundel Gate. Visitors to the Millennium Galleries are able to park here at a reduced rate of £3 for 3 hours. A voucher will be issued upon request and on production of a valid car park ticket at the Millennium Galleries reception.

For those of you who want to make a weekend of it, The Millennium Galleries is next to the Novotel.

About the Venue

The Millennium Galleries is a fantastic new venue for arts, craft and design, right in the heart of Sheffield. Both elegant and innovative, the gallery breaks with the traditional institutional image of an art gallery and is a welcoming and vibrant place to enjoy.

Lunch and Fun

We can relax in the stylish Café Azure in the ground floor. The café provides snacks, good meals and drinks in modern spacious accessible surroundings. We are booking a table (on the outdoor terrace if the weather is fine, otherwise to the left of the entrance) so please try to let us know if you are coming. We expect to eat lunch together at around 2.30 p.m.

As well as lunching, we can perhaps enjoy a workshop, if that is what people want, you can talk in private about your problems with one of the organisers, socialise with each other, and take a wander around the galleries (entrance is free) to admire their range of treasures, masterpieces and new creations. Afterwards, we will stay upstairs at Zooby's in the Winter Garden for tea.

We will also discuss future activities for the Yorkshire Group.

Booking and more information from our membership Secretary Eleni on 0871 424 9935.

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West Country Lunch

Every three months in Cheltenham with the West Country crowd (July, October, Janaury) starting Saturday July 19^th:
The Red Grove Harvester Pub,
Hatherley Lane,
Cheltenham,
GL51 6TA.
Time: 1 - 5 p.m.

By car:
Junction 11 of M5 - follow A40 to Cheltenham, first roundabout turn right then left into Travel lodge car park.

By train:
Cheltenham Spa train station. Approx 2 miles from the Harvester.

Bristol Balloon Fiesta ~ August 9^th event

www.bristolfiesta.co.uk - lots of info on this site - check it out
Balloon Fiesta,
Ashton Court,
Bristol.

Tuesday September 16th - Lunch and Ten-pin Bowling at Hollywood Bowl, The Venue Complex, Cribbs Causeway, Bristol 1-5pm Hollywood Bowl ~ ph 0117 9592100 - £2.60 per game (off peak price) Hollywood Bowl

Saturday October 18th - Cheltenham Harvesters, Cheltenham 1-5pm

Saturday November 29th - Cinema matinee at VUE Cinema, The Venue Complex, Cribbs Causeway, Bristol 1-5pm (times to be confirmed nearer time)

Tuesday December 16th - Christmas lunch at Parkway Taverners, Bristol 1-5pm

A selection of pictures from our West country events

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Reading Lunch

The Reading Lunch is is being reviewed, Please watch this Space!!

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How to Run a Local Lunch

We are slowly starting more local lunches and would love to have more help. We have a ruling that people need to be a member for six months before they can take on responsible roles as volunteers, but your help is always welcome.

We insist that all members are treated equally at lunches and nobody is left out because of their disability. It's much better if a group of people run a lunch together, preferably men and women. That way nobody has to take all the responsibility alone, you'll each have someone else to talk to waiting for members to arrive, and won't feel so bad about a low turn-out, as sometimes happens if local members find they are unable to attend.

Local lunches can be extremely relaxed and friendly and really good fun. Putting on a lunch is not really a lot of work but it does require energy and commitment. The Outsiders office volunteers can provide contact lists of mail local members for you, and advise you on publicity. Posters can help publicise the event.

The West Country Lunch is an initiative funded by the St. Monica Trust to pilot local groups around the country. Local people met up to discuss what they really wanted, and plan a programme that appealed to them. They decided that a local website would make an invaluable resource, especially if it had a local forum for members to contact each other with the view to going to events and gigs together. We plan eventually to devote sections of this website to each area of the country, featuring local events and allowing local members to chat online.

Here are twenty tips on running a lunch successfully:

1. Try to surround yourself with a team. Then if you happen to fall ill on the day of the lunch, others will be there. Be sure to liaise with your team at all times. There may be people at the lunch that you don't relate to, and it's great to be able to say to the another person, 'please can you welcome this member for me?'
2. Look at local wheelchair accessible disability friendly bars, cafés and restaurants which are not too busy on a Saturday afternoon, or whenever you decide to hold the event. Make sure the food and drink prices are not too high. Before selecting a venue, pay a visit at the time you plan the lunch on the same day of the week, to ensure everything will be OK, including the toilets and parking. Check it out for acoustics - places with no soft furnishings and wooden floors echo sounds which make it difficult to hear what people say and grate on your nerves, so people don't feel relaxed. Loud music is a no-no. Make sure you can receive mobile phone calls from the venue, and that there is a clear signal. Don't hire a hall or use a place which charges a fee. Choose a public bar where everyone will pay for their own food and drink. Your only expense will be phone calls to other members and calls to liaise with the venue.
3. Lunchtime is best because some members don't like going out after dark. Choose a venue which women, shy people and people with hearing impairment will feel comfortable in (i.e. not a sports bar or rock dive). There must be parking nearby and the venue needs to be close to public transport. Check that the local railway station has taxis that can carry people using electric chairs.
4. Make sure that your event goes on this website and in INSIDE. We don't publicise the exact address on the website, for fear of attracting undesirables, but our members should have full details, plus your mobile phone number. Phone the local members several days in advance to remind them. Phone the venue the day before to give them an approximate number of people coming, and remind them to make your booked table accessible for wheelchair users.
5. Arrive early. Check and, if necessary, re-arrange the tables and chairs so that wheelchair users can move around easily and ensure there are chair-free spaces at the tables where wheelchair users can sit.
6. Keep your mobile phone on for members who get lost or need to ask questions. Keep a look-out for people arriving. Some people feel very nervous about entering a room full of strangers and may need a quiet word outside, to encourage them to come in. Other people may need help in physically getting through the door. People with visual impairments may need help getting seated.
7. Everyone needs to be introduced. Don't worry if you can't remember their names - nobody expects you to. Laugh as you forget, and ask to be reminded. Bear in mind that some people with speech problems may have great difficulty in saying their name. Remember that visually impaired people need to be kept up to date about new arrivals and imminent departures.
8. A good way to start chatting to new people is to ask them how they heard about Outsiders. One of our most important roles is helping members is acknowledging their sexuality, and this can be done in a light hearted fashion, with the type of conversations you would have with your mates. Never assume anything about other members - don't assume they are virgins, heterosexual or wanting to get married. Just ask what kind of partner or partners they're seeking, as this will help you introduce them to the right people. If there is just one gay person in the gathering, or somebody who doesn't relate to the others at all, commiserate and offer to contact the office to try to find some other contacts for them. Keep all this simple, short and sweet and then move on.
9. Never get into deep conversation, unless someone requests a quiet word with you. Keep mingling and introducing people to each other. You haven't got time to speak to someone for long, as you need to keep one eye on the doorway for newcomers and the other to make sure nobody is being left out or ignored.
10. If somebody requests personal advice, ask them to wait until you have a space and then take them to a corner and give them ten minutes or so of your undivided attention. Don't let anybody else join in, as this is private. Answer all questions honestly even if this feels embarrassing. For example, if they smell, tell them. If they socialise clumsily, tell them why. Try to persuade them to seek more professional advice if need be, from their GP, a counsellor or other expert.
11. Don't buy rounds or pay for people's food. Accept drinks from others, though - after all, you have done all the organising and you deserve a drink. However, don't get drunk.
12. Don't use the lunch to promote your own products, philosophies, politics or religion. Your role as organiser is to look after people not become some super-hero.
13. Never exclude anyone for being 'too disabled' or 'too odd looking'. If you have a gut feeling that someone is unsavoury because they might be exploitative, keep a close watch on them and ask your colleagues to do likewise. If you need to ask them to leave, please inform the office about this. On the other hand, if a member is being discriminated against because of their physical or social impairment, ask others to talk to them and introduce them around. Ask other guests to help if someone needs feeding or escorting to the toilet.
14. By all means cover your costs with a raffle, the prizes having been brought along by the members. Ask someone who isn't too shy to sell the tickets as this is a good way for them to get round and meet everyone, with a ready-made excuse to speak to them.
15. Try to take a photo of the event and do a write-up for INSIDE. The office should also receive a confidential list of all the people who came along, and how they got on, with notes on their needs and what they have to offer.
16. If anyone gets drunk, try to persuade them it's time to go home. If anyone is swamping, crowding or generally invading the space of another member, ask them to come and have a word with you. Explain about body language, allowing people space, keep watching them in case they do it again, and don't be afraid to throw them out. We want to keep the nice people coming back so, if anyone is obnoxious, they should be asked to leave.
17. When the event is over, thank the venue for their service and, if appropriate, have a whip-round to tip the waiter/barperson.
18. Don't hold your events too often, as members are mostly stuck for cash and can't afford too many outings, but you'll be surprised how far some people will travel to come to a lunch. If your events become regular, try not to clash with our other regular lunches. The London lunch is always on the 2^nd Saturday of the month.
19. You can agree to give people lifts away from the event if you have a car but avoid picking them up, unless you are in close contact by mobile phone, as their train might be delayed or they might mess you about and make you late.
20. Ask the members what they would like to do on other occasions. Some seem content to sit in a bar and chat. Others want workshops to help them over their problems. Some like to go to clubs, the horse racing, the Mobility Road Show or other events. Work out a programme to suit everybody, and give your programme plenty of publicity to ensure they are well attended. It's best to have a list of alternatives up your sleeve, in case your chosen venue closes or event cancelled. If you have to change at the last minute, phone everyone you expect to be coming and pin a note on the venue's door.

You might have very different ideas to these. Members have, in the past, successfully organised all kinds of things from a trip to Amsterdam to theatre outings, a gay weekend and house parties. Whatever your idea, it's best to run it past the office team, for guidance.

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