“I wish I’d known you were going ….” The Watermill and GoCarShare.com

12 November 2012

I failed yet again this morning, like most days!  I may be able to moves shows around the country and juggle very tight budgets but make sandwiches to take to work, no chance. I know you could make them the night before, but it’s not the same.  The night before you can’t tell if it’s a Dairylea slice or a tongue and pickle sort of day.

So what happens is, we pop off to Waitrose and buy them – which is not very green if a stream of cars leave every ten minutes for an hour or so at lunch time. So we came up with this great system in the office where everyone writes down on a board when and where they are going over the next week so we could all share trips. It was all very organized and forward thinking. It lasted about 2 weeks it’s still there with a last message looking very forlorn.

Don’t fear we’re not now some gas guzzling hoard but the simple – head around the door with “just popping out do you want a lift or anything?” is so much more immediate and efficient.

What has this got to do with me sitting in a yurt on a rainy day at the Showman’s Show recently is equally simple.  I was there reporting to the guys from http://www.juliesbicycle.com about how much we had saved with the Better Batteries system when I noticed the stand for  http://gocarshare.com/ and had to find out more.

We’ve all tried to be greener by car sharing but it never works – it all takes too much arranging and being organized and knowing what you will be doing weeks in the future.

This system is so much easier – basically it  started as a way to get to festivals or back to University at the end of the holiday. People went on Facebook asking for, or offering, lifts to gigs.  As you had to register – it seemed much safer- as there was a log of who went with whom, where and when.

Now it has grown so you can get lifts to football matches and comedy arena tours.

So, we started chatting about how people involved with The Watermill could benefit… 

Actors who have never met before could log on to say they’re off to rehearsals and find out who else is going?

Members of drama groups could offer lifts to each other at short notice without having to have arranged it the week before?

Audiences who say “I wish I knew you were coming tonight” could arrange a lift at the last minute, without having compared diaries two months before? 

Those at a University near a theatre could grab a lift back with a truck moving a stage set, and maybe bring home their canoe and mountain bike without having to take the back window of their car out! 

I asked if it was as simple as logging on to the Goshare.com site and telling people “I’m going to the Watermill in an hour, day, week, even a months – time?”  Well, yes it is!

Brilliant!  So then I asked,  “how many theatres are registered with you?”  The answer, NONE!

But that was a few weeks ago – now there is one theatre registered as a Venue on the Gocarshare.com system – 

That same regional theatre that can boast being one of  the first to run the Better Batteries system – the same that was the first to join Jo Cornwell’s now 600 strong UK Prop Network. The same that recycles more of it resources than most – yes, it’s The Watermill!

If this works as well as any of the above we will be leading the way yet again.  The car sharing system will make as much sense as ‘popping your head around the door…’

 Oh, if you’re going, I’ll have a BLT and coke Zero.

Lawrence T Doyle
Production Manager