Visiting and Membership
There are two ways of visiting Beech Hill either as a visitor on one of our visitor weekends, or as a volunteer.
Visitors
We hold visitor weekends roughly every 6 weeks and they are structured in such a way as to provide an opportunity to find out more about life in a community and the possibility of becoming a member of Beech Hill Community Co-operative.
The visitor weekends run from early on Friday evening to Sunday lunch time. Friday evening is usually a time for settling in and a tour of the site. Visitors are asked to join us on a workday on the Saturday, which usually involves gardening or maintenance work. On Sunday morning we have a discussion about Beech Hill and community life which gives an opportunity for visitors to ask questions and find out more about the way Beech Hill has evolved as a community. (Although all this sounds quite formal, visitors weekends are hopefully quite relaxed and good fun!)
We have a shared vegetarian meal on the Friday evening, and Saturday lunchtime and evening. Visitors get their own breakfast and Sunday lunch, although all food is provided.
Visitors are asked to bring their own sleeping bags or duvets and bed linen, and towels. We provide blankets and pillows. If sheets, duvet covers etc are required, there is a charge of £3 per person for the weekend to cover laundry.
We welcome voluntary contributions of £20.00 per adult for the weekend and half for children between 2-14 years. Please contact us regarding a low waged rate.
It may be possible to combine a visitor weekend with a stay as a volunteer by prior arrangement.
If you are interested in coming to Beech Hill, either as a visitor or a volunteer, we ask that you drop us a line enclosing an s.a.e. telling us about yourself, and our visitor correspondent, Tracey, will respond.
Volunteers
Depending on accommodation available and other practicalities, volunteers usually come for one or two weeks although it may be possible to arrange an extension at the end of this time. We are now considering having longer term volunteers. Contact us for details.
Generally volunteers work about 5 hrs per day and volunteers who are with us for one to two weeks have one day off a week. More time off would be available for longer term volunteers. We try to organise that volunteers will work with other people as much as possible, but there will be times when you may have to work alone. Typical kinds of work include helping with gardening, cooking, cleaning, chopping wood for the fires or basic maintenance work.
We don't expect volunteers to be highly skilled - more important is how well you can work alongside other people. Volunteers live as part of the community and can usually attend meetings or communal events if they wish.
We ask volunteers to pay basic food and household expenses as all other residents do; this comes to a total of £23.00 a week. (There is a limited bursary available for low income and WWOOFERS for 1-2 weeks per person)
Accommodation is usually a room on your own but at times it may be necessary to share with other volunteers.
If you have any questions contact us via email: beechhill@gmail.com