We’re delighted to have Louise Cross in our team at Settle Stories. Louise was the successful applicant for our Event Manager Internship funded by Great Place Lakes and Dales. She promised to write regularly for our blog. Here is this month’s contribution.
Happy New Year!
December offered the comforting symbolic separation of Christmas from the upcoming Yorkshire Festival of Story. Now we are back from the winter holidays the festival is approaching at an ever-accelerating rate, it would appear, so I’ve cracked open the colorful spreadsheets and it’s full steam ahead!
To think it was not so long ago I harbored a phobia of speaking to people on the phone. Nowadays I’m catching up on the latest with “X” supplier’s winter cold before getting down and dirty with budget discussions.
It has also been a lovely opportunity to get to know the local community speaking to venue managers and invaluable individuals who have supported Settle Stories’ over the years in various capacities such as housing festival volunteers.
My favorite part of the planning process at the minute is contacting artists. It’s the reason why we are all here at the end of the day – to bring interesting and talented artists to the area. The more I speak to these artists, the more excited I am for the Yorkshire Festival of Story. There is going to be some great content, it is not to be missed!
The office feels alive, with everyone working on a different project. Jessica is working towards World Book Day and promoting our new writer’s course. Sita and Charles are developing a new project that will have Settle Stories working with local Schools. Jayne is transforming Tom Faulkner’s photos of Settle’s 1953 Victorian Pageant into inspiration for what will be an exciting re-imagining of the old fȇte for the upcoming festival.
So it is lovely to grab a quick moment right after our morning meditation to check in with what everyone is up to, the whirring cogs in the machine that is Settle Stories.
December Highlights:
We have also just received some fantastic feedback for our Mrs Santa Takes the Reigns, our Christmas show performed by our very own Jayne that was taken to local schools. Jessica, our young volunteer Annabelle, and I had the pleasure of watching Jayne’s last dress rehearsal before she went on tour. Nothing like a Christmas show to get you out of your seats shouting the answers to riddles, pointing out the locations of countries on maps and singing nursery rhymes. Annabelle teamed up with Jayne to find relevant riddles for this interactive Christmas show. I’m glad to see through the feedback that the schools enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed the dress rehearsal!
Another December highlight is that our finance manager, Gillian, has started working an extra day with us and on days that I am in the office. Previously our workdays never coincided, like ships in the night, Gillian existed only on the other end of my emails! Gillian’s new schedule also has the added bonus for me of occasionally bringing with her our office pup mascot, Otis! And of course, I can’t forget the Settle Stories Christmas Party – you’ll see the very excited woman in the photo at the top of this image – yes that was me opening my Secret Santa pressie.
