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News and events update January 2013
Here's an update on recent events and what's planned for the next few months. Everyone is welcome - do come and join us! 

Recent events

 

Christmas Craft Fair
December 8th - 9th, Bath Road Market

   
Thanks to everyone who supported our Christmas Craft Fair at the Bath Road Market. We had a steady flow of visitors and Santa's Grotto was fully booked. When our elves weren't helping Santa they were kept busy entertaining children, selling raffle tickets and trying to ride the Bath Market bike for a photographer from the Echo! Our crafters told us the event was a great success for them and are already enquiring about next year. Many thanks to everyone who helped to make the fair run so smoothly, and a special thank-you to Scarlett who was the main organiser for the entire event.    
  
Skillspace 8th January - Knowing me, knowing you
  
 Anne Thompson, the new owner of The Best of Cheltenham, used her coaching skills to give us an insight into how we express who we are and how this affects our dealings with clients and associates. She used characters from Winnie the Pooh as examples of the four different types of temperament, ensuring that we'll all be able to identify these behaviours in our friends and colleagues in the months to come.

 
Other activities

Big Free World  Big Free World is an exciting new social media platform which is being developed to help people share their time and resources. Wendy met with the founder before Christmas and Cheltenham Connect will be the first community to trial the software and provide feedback to the developers.

Connect Streets Project



The project is progressing well with the bins and lamposts renovated, the Bath Road branding completed, the new planters installed and work now  commencing on creating the boundary signs. We have also approached six landlords of the residential properties that front the road to ask whether they would allow us to plant new trees, together with Lloyds Bank who we hope might become a tree sponsor. The group shares everyone's concerns about the new road safety islands, especially the one near Sainsburys, and we have fed this information back to the council. 




Public Artwork
Last year the group was awarded a £3500 public art grant for the Bath Road Project and we are very excited that local printmaker Sue Brown  
is now creating a painted enamel panel that will celebrate the history of the road. This will be displayed on the long section of the garden wall at the Exmouth Arms.
 

Forthcoming Events

  
We are just starting to look at what events we want to hold in 2013 and are open to any suggestions. Please also let us know if you would like to help our events team as it's more fun (and lessens the load for others) if different people help run different events. Current ideas include:   

Swishing (clothes swapping) event  

Lunches for older residents
Jazz supper nights  

Quiz Nights 

Monthly meet ups (to replace our Wednesday ones) 

Summer Music Festival
  Eco-Hab event (linked to the main Cheltenham Science Festival)   

Village Show  

History Exhibition

Connect Business Day  

Christmas Craft Fair 

New Keep Fit Classes for the Fab Fifties Plus
 keepfit2  
 We have been in talks with the university's sports department and hope to soon let you know about a range of keep-fit classes for people who want to try something new. The first circuit training class is starting on Wednesday 20th of February from 6-7pm but they are also planning classes in Zumba, Tai Chi and Ballroom Dancing!
Please contact Dan for more details - 07790 572 710   

 

An Inconvenient Truth 2
Vision 21 have organised a FREE showing of the film An Inconvenient Truth 2, produced by Cheltenham resident Jack Guest, on Thursday 24th January at 30 St George's Place. Please arrive at 7pm for a 7.15pm start. 
   

Skillspace 
We are continuing to run our monthly talks at 7.30pm on the second Tuesday of every month in the upstairs room at the Beehive and everyone is invited to come. For more information contact belinda@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk 
This is what we have planned for the next few months:
  

 Tuesday 12th February - Life is what you make it

Techniques to help you to be happier, positive and more resilient by presenter and author of How to be Happy Liggy Webb.

 

Tuesday 19th March - Green Deal

Tim Willis and Mary Wathen from Harrison Clark.  

 

Tuesday April 9th - first steps in property development

 How I purchased my first building plot and renovation development at an auction without any money in the bank - and managed to sort it out! from Arash Noori.

 

Laptop Friday at Maison Chaplais, Tivoli

 Every Friday between 9ish and 12ish we get together to work alongside each other, drink coffee, share ideas and chat. For those of us who work from home and spend a lot of time on our own it's an opportunity for networking and to meet other local people. There might be one other person or a roomful - do come along and join us! 

  

Parking consultation

Following increasing community concern, local resident Peter Todd is co-ordinating an action group which is liaising with the council on proposals to possibly extend the existing parking zones. If you would like to know more please contact Peter on

 

Suicide Crisis Centre
Joy Hibbins has asked us to thank the many Cheltenham Connect members who responded to her appeal for sponsorship for the Suicide Crisis Centre website. It is now up and allows them to reach potential clients and appeal for donations. A number of people expressed interest in fundraising and volunteering, and she is keen to hear ideas from CC members. All funds raised will go towards client services and rent. The Trauma Centre is open now and the Suicide Crisis Centre will open later in 2013.  If you can help please contact Joy through their website.
  

Local clubs and groups    

You can see a list of all the local clubs and groups in the area via the
Local Organisations link under the Local Links box at the left-hand side of our website. Please let us know if you are running anything that you would like added.
 
New Green Group co-ordinator

We thought we had found a new Green Group co-ordinator, but unfortunately personal reasons meant that she was not able to go ahead. The search is therefore still on and if you are interested in the role (and becoming a member of our steering group) please let Wendy know -

wendy@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk

 

New History Group 

We have done a great deal of work on the history of the area and are now looking for people who might like to help us co-ordinate all the material, run local history events and  keep the website www.cheltenhamsouthtown.org updated. Please let Wendy know if you are interested in being involved. 


Cash Draw Winners
cashdraw
win 20% of the take!
Our cash draw winners were: November - Chris & Mike Phillips and
December - Karen Wilson. We would love for more people to get involved with this as it only costs £1 a month and really helps us to cover our ongoing costs. You can print out the standing order form here. Or email our treasurer Dave for more details dave@cheltenhamconnect.co.uk


Cheltenham Connect is run entirely by local volunteers who really care about their community.


It's all about People Power!  


The Cheltenham Connect Team