NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2010
What am amazing few weeks we have had. Amongst other things we launched the history website, held the Christmas Craft Fair and enjoyed a 'magical' Cheltenham Connect Christmas Dinner at the Beehive. Cheltenham Connect's 'Christmas Meal with Magic'A big thankyou to Belinda for organising our Christmas dinner and to Tom for the magical entertainment. Thankyou also to the Beehive for supplying the venue (and for hosting our Skillspace networking evenings throughout the year). Help! We need storage space! We have now accumulated and been given so many different items that we desperately need dry storage space. If anyone has a 10' x 10' dry space that they could let us use on a semi-permanent basis please contact wendy@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk .
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 | Cheltenham Connect Activities
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CC Buy Local
REGENCY CHRISTMAS CRAFT FAIR- 3rd, 4th and 5th December
The following photos were taken by the Gloucestershire Echo just before the fair was opened by Ken Brightwell, the Cheltenham Town Crier.
 
See all the craft participants
And the full photo gallery here
The craft fair was a great success with an estimated 3000 local residents attending over the 3 days. We should have held a best Regency costume competition but didn't have the time! A massive thank you to Mobenn Marquees, RS Audio and Event Power Services (EPS) for all their help and to the following local sponsors:
The Exmouth (for the venue!)
Greenways Nurseries (for the Christmas trees)
Paperbox (for the printing)
Showcase (for the costumes)
Tivoli Trading (for lights and decorations)
Maison Chaplais (for the raffle hamper)
Cooks Kitsch-in (for helping with the raffle)
The Somerset Arms (for their portable hob!)
Jill Maryszczak (for the wonderful gingerbread men)
Roots and Shoots (for the Santa's Grotto paper bags)
Plus everyone who contributed to the raffle (you can see the list on the Skillspace webpage)
It would not have been the same without the amazing musical entertainment though and we also want to say a big thank you to all the bands, choirs and singers who braved the (extreme) cold and occasional electrical challenges to join us. We really do have some amazing talent in Cheltenham! (If anyone took photos of Rebus or Ezekiel Butler during their sessions please could you send them to us as we would like to add them to our photo gallery).
The Musical (and other!) Entertainment
Neil Morris
Thrill Collins
The Bridge
Winchcombe Mummers
UkeGlos
Egyptian Spirit Belly Dancing Troupe
Phil's Punch and Judy Show
Appleby-Kinsey
Rebus
The Rockchoir
Sam Jones
Pip and Jim's Choir
Life O'Reilly
Ezekiel Butler
None of this would have happened without the time and dedication of the group co-ordinator Scarlett (who is officially now our craft event supremo!), Karen (our grotto decorating expert), Belinda (Chief Elf and Raffle organiser), Dave (Treasurer and chief parking supervisor) and all the other Cheltenham Connect volunteers who gave up their time over the week-end.
LOCAL TRADING HISTORY WEBSITE
For the last year Wendy has been working with a group of local historians researching the history of of all the shops in the area. We held the website launch on the 26th of November and you can now see the site on www.cheltenhamsouthtown.org. Thank you to Marilyn West (The Bath Road), The Rev Brian Torode (Tivoli) and Jill Waller (The Suffolks) for all their hard work!
The site includes a Local Memories Page where you can already see some of the lovely material that has been sent to us by local residents as well as a list of fascinating facts.
In association with the St Philip and James Area Residents Association (SPJARA) we have also now developed the South Town walking trail leaflet which will be freely available to visitors and local residents at sites around the town and can be downloaded from the site.
We are now looking for volunteers who are interested in history and would like to help collect and organise the materials that are sent in. We are also looking for local residents who would be interested in acting as guides talking visitors around the waking trail.
In association with SPJARA we are currently seeking grant funding for an oral history project to have local schoolchildren work with our older residents to record their own memories of the area and to have these also available on the site.
To join the Buy Local Group click here
CC Go Green
While away the Winter Blues on a Friday night!
Following the success of Cheltenham Connect's earlier pub quiz at The Brown Jug, we are planning a pub quiz in February, with a "light" Green theme. It will be held on Friday 18th February, at The Brown Jug. This will be a fun evening and a great way for people to get a team together to enjoy a drink or two, sausage & chips dinner and aim at winning the prizes on offer. Time and costs yet to be finalised. Numbers are limited, so if you are interested, please email Vanessa at vat1308@live.com to book your place or ask for more information.
2011 Green Courses and Workshops
On the 23rd March we are planning to run a'Gardening for Wildlife' workshop by local permaculture expert Mike Bush and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. We also have the opportunity of hosting a Foraging Course by Frasier Christian (experienced and qualified wild food forager and professional chef who used to lead and instruct the River cottage fish events). Please let Stuart know if you are interested in either of these by emailing stuart@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk
Along with the community group and Leckhampton online we are currently further developing the Shop, Share and Save initiative that aims to encourage people to swap, lend, or give away their unwanted items for free to other members in their community. This will follow the very successful initiative that has already been established in Naunton Park (see more details under the Community Group below).
We have been developing the Green Ideas Register so that we can keep track of all the ideas that people have and they can then be developed by those members that have the time and interest. You can see the current register here. Let us know if you have any ideas of your own.
Street Lighting
The group is also interested in the possible energy reductions that could be achieved through reducing street lighting in South Cheltenham and will be investigating this further.
To join the Go Green group click here
CC Skillspace
In the November meeting Adrian Malpass of The Experience Group gave a talk about Business Mentoring and the group explored how it could develop the idea further. It was agreed that this was something that we wanted to continue to look at during 2011.
BUSINESS & FREELANCERS MEETING TUESDAY 11TH JANUARY 7.30PM AT THE BEEHIVE - ALL WELCOME
In the first meeting of the New Year Becky Gardner will be giving a talk on 'The Art of the Interview and how it can help your business'. She will be talking about how to develop interviewing techniques and will illustrate with a few of her own experiences from interviewing a dedicated zookeeper to interviewing Lady Godiva! We will then continue our discussions on mentoring local businesses. We will also be joined by Adrian Malpass to further our discussions about Mentoring.
Our 2011 meetings will cover topics such as: Health & Wellbeing at Work, Permaculture, Facebook for Business, "Greening" your House and Workplace. Please contact Belinda if you would like to speak to our thriving group.
Laptop Fridays are now held at Maison Chaplais in Tivoli from 10ish every Friday. This is an opportunity for anyone who normally works alone to bring their laptop and enjoy coffee and company!
Skills Directory
Our skills directory page is now up and running http://www.cheltenhamdirectory.com/. If you are a South Cheltenham business please email Belinda 100 words about your business together with logo, web address and contact details and Skillspace member Jonathan Pollinger of www.intranetfuture.com will upload them for you.
Craft Workshops
We now have a number of people expressing interest in attending craft workshops and hope to develop the idea further in 2011. If you are interested in being involved, either to run a workshop or attend one, please contact belinda@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk
To join the SkillSpace group click here
CC Community
The Community Group has been helping with the running of the Christmas Fair and working on the Swap, Share and Save Initiative (that was mentioned under the Green Group)
Get to know your neighbours and support your local community with Swap, Share & Save!
Most of us remember Swap Shop on TV (1976-1982), recycling is NOT new, but sustainability IS a hot topic. This is why Cheltenham Connect and LeckhamptonOnline are working together on a local initiative called Swap, Share & Save to encourage people to swap, lend, or give away their unwanted items for free to other members in their community. This initiative is currently very successful amongst neighbours in the Naunton Park area of Cheltenham, and
Cheltenham Connect wants to build on the success, and the popularity of initiatives like Freecylce to create something more accessible to other South Cheltenham residents. The principles are as follows:
1) Post your swap, share and save items on Leckhampton Online
2) No money is exchanged
3) Items are just a walk away
4) Like freecycle (uses same message etiquette of Offers and Wanteds)
Visit: http://www.leckhamptononline.co.uk/groups/swap-share-save/ and http://www.cheltenhamconnect.co.uk/ to get involved.
To join the Community group click here
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| Fundraising
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With the increase in our ongoing costs we are now looking for people with the time and experience to help us develop our fundraising activities. It would be especially helpful to find someone who is knwoledgeable about writing grant applications.
Please contact Wendy if you would like to be involved.
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| Sponsors |
It's hard to keep up with our list of sponsors! We are immensely grateful for everyone's help. Please let us know if we have missed you off the list. See our 2010 Sponsors list
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