Pendraken Plans for 2020!

[O Dinas Powys]

So, you can't actually walk on water?

Can't or choses not to? 

[FierceKitty]

choses

Welsh word?

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

No - it got vowls int

[FierceKitty]

You have a point there. 

[Techno]

No - it got vowls int

The village which is my 'postal addy', has a whole three vowels....in 12 letters.

I live halfway between that....and a far more useful village for shops etc....mind you, that one hasn't got a single vowel in seven letters. 

Cheers - Phil

[O Dinas Powys]

Welsh word?

Nope, perfectly good English word, just not the one that was supposed to be there so obviously a typo you dick 

[FierceKitty]

Truth's a dog that must to kennel. He must be whipped out, when Lady the Brach may stand by th' fire and stink.

(I remember writing that somewhere....)

[Ithoriel]

"Truth is a pathless land."

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hello

Have our current  'interesting times' had any appreciable 'spanner' effect on your timetable? I'm thinking specifically about TB line Mongols. You originally had them slotted in for Northern summer. I'm bored and looking through old posts (as if you can't tell) and on day 11 of 14 of personal lockdown  .

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Steve J]

We are on day 5 of a projected 3 month lockdown . Hopefully a food parcel will arrive this week which will help in minimising having to leave the house and risking 'social contact'.

[Leon]

Have our current  'interesting times' had any appreciable 'spanner' effect on your timetable? I'm thinking specifically about TB line Mongols. You originally had them slotted in for Northern summer. I'm bored and looking through old posts (as if you can't tell) and on day 11 of 14 of personal lockdown  .

It's having an effect but I'm not sure how much just yet.  Currently it's the uncertainty that's causing the majority of the delays.  I'm working late night shifts in the unit but instead of the usual figure clean-up, blackwashing, photo editing, etc. I'm spending my time at a casting machine trying to get as many orders out as possible, just in case we get a full national lockdown.  If we thought that a lockdown wasn't likely then I could be back on new releases instead, but things are changing on a daily basis at the moment and we need to be ready to down tools and head home if needed.  To be honest I don't quite know what to do for the best right now.

[Orcs]

It's having an effect but I'm not sure how much just yet.  Currently it's the uncertainty that's causing the majority of the delays.  I'm working late night shifts in the unit but instead of the usual figure clean-up, blackwashing, photo editing, etc. I'm spending my time at a casting machine trying to get as many orders out as possible, just in case we get a full national lockdown.  If we thought that a lockdown wasn't likely then I could be back on new releases instead, but things are changing on a daily basis at the moment and we need to be ready to down tools and head home if needed.  To be honest I don't quite know what to do for the best right now.

I think you should do what you all feel comfortable with. If you can keep going until he governments support package for self employed comes online. that's all well and good.  If you are all happier and feel safer by staying at home now then that is what you should do.

They currently say that up to 2 people may meet for the purposes of work. Could you reduce the occupancy of the unit at any one time to 2 people and possibly work shifts?  If that means delays to our orders then I don't think anyone on the forum would actually worry about a delay.

We are all primarily more concerned that all of you involved in Pendraken (Owners, Casters, Designers, Minions ) and your families remain safe and healthy.  A secondary concern is that as a company you manage to survive.

With that in mind it might be worth looking into the Gift voucher/Coupon idea suggested on the forum recently.  Perhaps a simple home printed  numbered voucher with the value and an original signature  (perhaps in a strange coloured ink) of you or Dave would suffice. You could record the details of who bought it , the value etc to mitigate against fraud ( I sincerely hope no one here would even think of that).

We could then buy them now even if your production is stopped. To claim back later when things are back to normal.  This could perhaps help with cash flow and paying yourselves etc.

You could even do what they do on Kickstarters with a low value "support" donation.

[Leon]

They currently say that up to 2 people may meet for the purposes of work. Could you reduce the occupancy of the unit at any one time to 2 people and possibly work shifts?  If that means delays to our orders then I don't think anyone on the forum would actually worry about a delay.

We've already reduced down to 3-max in the unit, so we're OK on that front.  Today as an example, we had 1 x Caster / 1 x Laser / 1 x Packager from 8am-2pm, then the packager and laser person went home.  I came in at 3pm so it'll be me and the caster until 4pm when he leaves, and then I'll be on my own until midnight-ish.  That'll be the same or similar for the rest of the week.  We could potentially reduce down to 2-max if needed by putting one of the casters onto night shifts with me.

With that in mind it might be worth looking into the Gift voucher/Coupon idea suggested on the forum recently.  Perhaps a simple home printed  numbered voucher with the value and an original signature  (perhaps in a strange coloured ink) of you or Dave would suffice. You could record the details of who bought it , the value etc to mitigate against fraud ( I sincerely hope no one here would even think of that).

We could then buy them now even if your production is stopped. To claim back later when things are back to normal.  This could perhaps help with cash flow and paying yourselves etc.

I'm hoping to get something like this sorted out soon, mainly so that we can offer some kind of deal over what would have been the Salute weekend.

I think you should do what you all feel comfortable with. If you can keep going until he governments support package for self employed comes online. that's all well and good.  If you are all happier and feel safer by staying at home now then that is what you should do.

The government response so far has been excellent, more than I expected them to do.  The only trouble we've got there currently is this 'furloughed' label that they've put on things, which is a US legal term and doesn't have a legal definition in UK law.  Given the context it's being used in, we can assume that any businesses who have seen such a loss of sales/income that they were going to make people redundant could instead 'furlough' those staff members and the government will pick up 80% of their wages (upto £2500 per month).  We can also assume that any businesses forced to close by the government will also have their staff 'furloughed' and again, the government will cover those wages. 

However, currently the government have not forced manufacturing businesses to close, and they have actively encouraged online retailers to remain open during this period.  So we've not been officially closed by anyone.  If we choose to shut our doors voluntarily for the safety of our staff and their families, are the government still going to give us the same level of support or will they argue that we could have continued trading and therefore can't claim the employee support?

I've already told the staff that they'll be getting paid regardless of what happens, as our wages are the main source of income for 5 different households and I don't want them struggling through this.  I can afford to pay 1 month's worth of wages easily, and then a 2nd month with some juggling of the bills, but anything beyond that and we'd be in trouble. 

We've heard rumours of a full national shutdown on everything (and were expecting it on Friday night) but so far it hasn't happened.  So do we voluntarily closedown and hope that Boris orders a full shutdown in the next week or two, so that we're covered by the support?  Or is that leaving us potentially hanging in no-mans land and paying the staff for upto 12 weeks without any government support?

Apologies for the long reply there!  There's a lot of questions at the moment and we're keeping a close eye on things as they progress.  We've fully safeguarded the staff in the unit here and they're all happy to continue working currently.  We'll just have to keep going as best we can and see what happens I suppose.

[Orcs]

If we choose to shut our doors voluntarily for the safety of our staff and their families, are the government still going to give us the same level of support or will they argue that we could have continued trading and therefore can't claim the employee support?

No need to apologise for the long reply.

Since I wrote my missive I hvbe seen a video on the BBC website about a lady who was laid off literally hours before the government announced they would pay wages, and this means she is not eligible.

So I would make sure you stay open (on paper at least)  until you are told to shutdown

[fred.]

It's having an effect but I'm not sure how much just yet.  Currently it's the uncertainty that's causing the majority of the delays.  I'm working late night shifts in the unit but instead of the usual figure clean-up, blackwashing, photo editing, etc. I'm spending my time at a casting machine trying to get as many orders out as possible, just in case we get a full national lockdown.  If we thought that a lockdown wasn't likely then I could be back on new releases instead, but things are changing on a daily basis at the moment and we need to be ready to down tools and head home if needed.  To be honest I don't quite know what to do for the best right now.

Sounds like you are thinking all this through, and really thinking about your staff - which is great to hear (but hardly unexpected given your excellent track record on this.

I'd suggest moving as much of the figure prep, photo stuff home as you can - then you have an option to continue with that if we do go to more of a lockdown.

Though tonight's news seem to indicate that the current level is working (though given the incubation period, I'm not sure)

[Leon]

Thanks for the replies guys, it's certainly an interesting time to navigate.  I think you're right fred, in that the chances of a full closedown aren't high at the moment so hopefully we're OK for this week at least.  I've got an 'apocalypse' box in the corner with all of my cleanup, blackwashing and photography kit, so I can grab that if we need to.

Since I wrote my missive I hvbe seen a video on the BBC website about a lady who was laid off literally hours before the government announced they would pay wages, and this means she is not eligible.

That's the worry and I'm sorry to hear that people are losing out like that.  There's going to be a lot of long-term impacts from all of this, and a lot of back and forth on claims/counter-claims for government support that will continue for years to come. 

One of our packagers had just taken on a unit to start being self-employed as a physiotherapist, complete with all of the equipment for it, and she suddenly can't operate and none of her clients can visit.  Her husband is a musician as well, so he's lost all of his gigs until September and has had to start delivering pizzas just to keep an income.

[mollinary]

Leon, I feel for you, and all others in a similar situation. The only bright side, which I hope all your team appreciate, is the obvious concern you have for all who make Pendraken what it is.  I am sure there are many on the forum, and outside it, who would be willing to do what they can to help. I personally think the gift voucher idea is a tremendous one, and would enjoy pledging in advance and then spending 'lockdown time' working out what I was going to buy with it!   SYW Russian army to help me in my search to adapt FK&P for the 18th century?    But what to do for flags?

Mollinary

[paulr]

Leon, you look to be making well thought out decisions that focus, as we have come to expect from you, on the people

I'm sure we are all happy for you to keep us in the loop and we might even be able to offer the odd suggestion (although you seem to be a few steps ahead of most of us, e.g. the  'apocalypse' box)

You should get my order for the Hundred Years War project later this week, it will ship when it ships

[Steve J]

My old company is due to lay off 25% of the workforce tomorrow, despite the government promising to pay 80% of wages etc . Will wait and see what actually happens but not good.

[Orcs]

Leon, I feel for you, and all others in a similar situation. The only bright side, which I hope all your team appreciate, is the obvious concern you have for all who make Pendraken what it is.  I am sure there are many on the forum, and outside it, who would be willing to do what they can to help. I personally think the gift voucher idea is a tremendous one, and would enjoy pledging in advance and then spending 'lockdown time' working out what I was going to buy with it!   SYW Russian army to help me in my search to adapt FK&P for the 18th century?    But what to do for flags?

Mollinary

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