OCD-UK opens its first office!

[Guest OCD-UK RSS]

Some of our long-term supporters will have watched our charity grow from humble beginnings to where we are today, to the outside world viewing our extensive website, a large professional organisation.

But whilst we are professional, we’re still surviving on a relatively meagre income and for the last 12-years OCD-UK has been based and operated from the spare bedrooms, living rooms, and even garages of our two members of staff and volunteer trustees.

Whilst this has been sustainable and the charity achieved great things in this operational mode, it can and does have its limitations. In order to ensure OCD-UK can develop and make better use of staff and volunteer interaction we recognised that the way forward is open an office.

We will continue to make good use of virtual technology and continue to work with volunteers across the entire country, but having a central location for staff and for volunteers who only wish to work on location was the next step for the charity’s professional development.

A small, modest but modern office has been found in Derby with superb onsite facilities including free access to onsite meeting rooms, hi-speed internet access and visitor parking. The building also includes its own café and in time an onsite nursery.

We believe the East Midlands will be a good base for OCD-UK. We already have a strong volunteer base in the region and facilitate two support groups in the area. We hope to continue to develop existing relationships with local NHS mental health services.  Derbyshire remains a good central base for visiting many areas of the UK, with London being only 90 minutes on train and much of the UK being only 2-4 hours away.

There is still further work to do for OCD-UK to be the national charity for people with OCD that everyone with OCD deserves, but we have come a long way already and this will assist us in developing more projects to help benefit people with OCD.

About the building
Our new office building is the iconic former Rolls Royce building, the grade-two listed, early 20th century Marble Hall in the Osmaston area of Derby.

Rolls-Royce moved to Nightingale Road in Derby in 1907 where it built the Silver Ghost car, dubbed "the greatest car in the world". The Marble Hall building was constructed as offices in 1912, with the hall itself converted in the 1930s.

Following the departure of Rolls Royce in 2007 it underwent a £4 million redevelopment to become a community hub operated by Derby City Council's 'Connect Derby' scheme which opened in 2016 with an official launch by the HRH The Duke of Gloucester.

Although some remodeling has taken place, many original features still remain including the Marble Hall itself – with Tuscan-style polished limestone columns and a replica of the original spitfire stained glass window.

How can you help? 
The office is unfurnished, so we need to furnish the office and we’re hoping that those of you who agree that this is a step in the right direction for OCD-UK will make a small (or large!) donation to support the cost of getting some furniture. We’re going to need desks, chairs and storage furniture. We will be trying to source any furniture as cheaply as possible, but there will inevitably be things we need to pay a good few quid for. We’ve set ourselves a target of kitting our office out for £1000 or less, which is a modest amount to run a national charity from. To assist with our office start-up costs and we’d LOVE it if our fabulous supporters would consider making a contribution.  

Any funds donated to this appeal that do not end up being spent on office furniture, will go into the wider OCD-UK charity pot – all donations will be used to support the work OCD-UK does in improving the lives of those with OCD.  

And once we’re setup and running, if any of our members would like to pop in and see us then let us know and come and have a cuppa with us.

Thank you in advance for your support. 

(click the link below for office images)

 

Tags: 

OCD-UK

View the full article

[Ashley]

I collect the keys for the office this week (Wednesday), although it will be a couple of weeks before we can move in due to not having any desks for the PC's etc, so I need to get them ordered and setup.   Then hopefully it will be almost like....

(closest image I could find  )

[Guest smile]

Hi Ashley, with regards to the office furniture, I have some suggestions, but not sure if I can publish a link to the website for you. There is a website where you can register your area and search for items eg office furniture and it can be collected all free of charge. I knew of someone who got a brand new washing machine and all they had to do was collect it. So you will find used and brand new items. If you want the name of the website or the link let me know.

[Ashley]

Oh yes please Smile

[Guest smile]

so you can either use a search engine for 'Freecycle.org' or use this link - https://www.freecycle.org/browse/UK

[Guest ashipinharbor]

Congrats on the office 

[PolarBear]

Good for you Ashley. I'm sure there will be a framed portrait of Caramoole's kipper on the wall.

[Caramoole]

15 hours ago, PolarBear said:

Good for you Ashley. I'm sure there will be a framed portrait of Caramoole's kipper on the wall.

What a very good idea, I may have to commission one

I often have to give Ashley a thwacking, it may just serve as a timely reminder for him to see that tail twitching as he gets on with his work

[Ashley]

19 hours ago, PolarBear said:

I'm sure there will be a framed portrait of Caramoole's kipper on the wall

It's an old building, I would have to fill out like a 100 forms to get permission to hang stuff on the wall, so NO! (call me lazy)

[PolarBear]

Aw, that's a shame. Perhaps there's a kipper stuffed toy in OCD-UK's future?

[Ashley]

I'll change it to my screensaver

[Caramoole]

I could always knit one you one like this!l

 

[snowbear]

22 hours ago, Caramoole said:

I could always knit one you one like this!l

 

I want one! We should stock these in the shop...  

[Caramoole]

Quote

I want one! We should stock these in the shop... 

It's the right colour 'n everything

[taurean]

Whatever technology you are on you can click on the image and save it set it as wallpaper etc. 

I much prefer it to the emoticon. 

 

[Caramoole]

27 minutes ago, taurean said:

I much prefer it to the emoticon.

Maybe there's an ERP opportunity for you there   Emoticons are just that, static or animated cartoon pictures that we know present no real harm or threat (and cannot) but are intrusive thoughts/feelings. 

[taurean]

7 minutes ago, Caramoole said:

Maybe there's an ERP opportunity for you there   Emoticons are just that, static or animated cartoon pictures that we know present no real harm or threat (and cannot) but are intrusive thoughts/feelings. 

Now I agree with you absolutely, spot on description - but I don't  like them  anyway - I prefer the ones in my phone, but they only appear in the forum on other people's phones, so they aren't a runner. 

Anyway I just donated £100 so Ashley and his pals will have somewhere to sit in the office 

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by taurean
addition

[Caramoole]

22 minutes ago, taurean said:

Anyway I just donated £100 so Ashley and his pals will have somewhere to sit in the office 

 

That's lovely and very generous of you.  Well Done that Man

[taurean]

Well I have visited numerous offices over the years, and it would be nice if ours has the necessaries - it's a great step forward for the charity, and a wonderful venue.

Probably, of the many I visited all over the UK and Europe, I had a soft spot for two at Docklands because of the beauty of the locations, and one in Paris, but i have to say that  the Rolls one in Derby  looks truly iconic. 

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by taurean
typo

[Ashley]

Thank you to Roy and everyone else whose made kind, generous donations.  I promise I will share a picture with you all next week once the room is kitted out.

I collected the keys yesterday,  in the end I ordered some furniture (god bless Ikea!) which is being delivered next Tuesday, so I wont be office based until Tuesday.  I have about 40 boxes of charity stock to transfer over, so I will spend the next few days making shuttle runs so that I am pretty much good to go from Wednesday (saves messing around with van rental).

Our official new office address for correspondence is:

OCD-UK
Marble Hall (Office 5)
80 Nightingale Road,
Derby
DE24 8BF

 

[Ashley]

Huge thank you to everyone whose supported our move into the office, either through your kind donations (I will email to thank those people in the coming week) or through your messages of good luck, it really did help.

Our office is not huge, but it's now kitted out for what we need at the moment. Attached is a panoramic image I took today, all I need now is some greenery to brighten the place up.

As you can see, I have two working desks, mine and one for any volunteer that wants to come and work with me.  I also have a dispatch area, and it's so nice not being cramped and being able to lay out all the different envelopes and leaflets on a rack next to my dispatch area which will speed up my dispatching of orders and charity merchandise.  We have a magnetic whiteboard for training and I have a literature display near the door for any visitors to see our publications and finally even a coat rack.

We have a small fridge, two sofa chairs and racking with all the charity stock (about five more crates left to shift then my home is my home again).

If in time I need to expand with more volunteers or staff we should be able to get at least 3 or 4 more desks in if needed.

 

[taurean]

I saved the picture to my image library, so I could then expand it. 

Great detail, I could even read the words on the whiteboard. 

Looks really really nice and comfortable Ashley, and the red chairs in the conference zone look great 

[Guest ashipinharbor]

1 minute ago, taurean said:

I saved the picture to my image library, so I could then expand it. 

Great detail, I could even read the words on the whiteboard. 

Looks really really nice and comfortable Ashley, and the red chairs in the conference zone look great 

I looks wonderful, yeah!

[snowbear]

Looks great! I particularly like the red chairs.  

[taurean]

Yep. 

Do you know that reminds me of the red buoy the painter J.M.W.Turner inserted onto his painting of "The Fighting Temeraire"  to spite John Constable, whose painting of the opening of Waterloo Bridge, with loads of red in it, was displayed as the adjacent picture. 

The red buoy against the bluey-grey of the sea is striking. So are the red chairs, which break up the otherwise predominant white theme of the office. 

Bet you never thought to be compared with the likes of the great Turner, Ashley - but you have achieved the same effect