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| What's New |
The 10,000th Book | World Cup fever | Win a Mini First Hatchback 1.6 | Exciting Times Ahead | Donated items | My Week | New Storytellers | New Boxes | New Trustees | BBC Radio 4 Appeal Each book we produce is handmade in our workshop and takes an average of 8 hours to make. So in July, we were thrilled when we made the 10,000th book since the charity was formed in 1993. The 10,000th book, a copy of Charmaine’s Bonfire Adventure, was ordered by Hillingdon Library Services and presented to them by our Director of Services, Stuart Cummings. The presentation took place following a storytelling session at Hedgewood School in nearby Hayes. Dean Casswell, our Chief Executive, said “This is a landmark occasion for Bag Books. The charity continues to go from strength to strength and we look forward to continuing our work in local communities like Hillingdon.”
Bag Books’ Director of Services, Stuart Cummings, with staff from Hillingdon Library Services displaying pages from the 10,000th book: Jean Anstiss with the “hedge”, Bernadette McAteer with the “dustbin tins”, Alison Beer with the “bonfire” and Kathryn Hawkins with the “sausages”.
One of Bag Books’ Storytellers, Nina Martinez, with pupils from Hedgewood School and the “hedge” page from the 10,000th book.
The first six months of 2010 has seen a large increase in orders for one of our stories “The Match”. The number of orders for this book has doubled and we’ve even received two orders from Australia. We’re putting it down to World Cup fever and it’s certainly put one of our volunteers into overdrive. Mary Atkinson has been a volunteer knitter for us for 12 years and one of her tasks is to produce the sweater that the lost keys are found under in the story.
Win a Mini First Hatchback 1.6 Following the success of last year’s raffle, Bag Books is once again taking part in the draw organised by The Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI). The FSI Small Charity Car Draw is helping small charities like Bag Books a no-risk way to raise money and it’s offering our supporters a chance to win a fabulous brand new Mini First Hatchback 1.6, kindly supported by Zurich.
Tickets cost £2 each and if you buy them from Bag Books we will receive 95.2% of every ticket sold (the FSI take just 4.8% for their administrative costs). You can buy them online at http://www.thefsi.org/charityprofile/bag-books or we also have a supply of traditional paper tickets available, contact Dean Casswell, Bag Books, 1 Stewart's Court, 218 - 220 Stewart's Road, London SW8 4UB for details.
The future’s looking bright (and orange) at Bag Books at the moment with a whole range of new products and services in the offing. The following are the highlights of what will be happening with Bag Books in the coming months. Story-Go-Round. Bag Books takes its storytelling training to Scottish libraries for the first time this month. In 2011 we are planning tours of Northern Ireland, East Anglia and Wales Telling Tales. This Big Lottery Funded project is currently for England only. Given it’s successful first year, we’ll be looking for funding to extend it into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Tall Stories. We are currently piloting a potential new project training staff working in adult care homes and day centres. If the pilot sessions go well, we’ll be applying for funding to roll the project out.
Our Director of Services, Stuart Cummings, with residents of The Firs, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire as part of the Tall Stories pilot. Bag Books At Home. We are in the process of developing a prototype of a product specifically aimed at parents. This will be a more affordable, completely new story and will come in a bag rather than the usual box. New stories. Bag Books has received funding for five new stories to be linked to the National Curriculum. We’re hoping to get the first new title out before Christmas, with the other four to follow during 2011. New training DVD. Our Trustees have given the go-ahead for the production of a new training DVD, which we’re hoping to film over the next few months. We’ll hopefully also be able to use some of the footage to make a short promotional film about our work. Craft workshops. We are looking for funding to start a new project in local special schools and adult settings, assisting people with learning disabilities to make their own Bag Books stories.
Bag Books uses a varied and eclectic range of items in its various titles. Many of these items, such as a year’s supply of batteries courtesy of Battery Station, are donated to us. In addition to Battery Station, we would like to thank the following companies for their very generous support: Europa Trimmings, Walkers Shortbread, RW Simon, Asda, Trodat UK Ltd, Marley Plumbing & Drainage, Marks & Spencer, Battery Force, London City Locks and Sainsbury’s. Many of our stories make use of recycled items. You can help us by collecting items such as old keys, magazines and sardine tins. We are currently particularly short of old aerosol tops and motorbike magazines. Find out what other items are needed on our website www.bagbooks.org/objectsneeded.html
Chief Executive, Dean Casswell, finds that working in a small charity means he needs to be a Jack of All Trades. Monday. Stuart, our Director of Services, is back from leave today so I’m filling him in on developments and making sure we’re on-track with our plans. We also have a new volunteer with us this week. Eloise Adler is having a week of work experience before starting University. She’s a prize-winning young photographer so naturally I get her photographing all our books with the new boxes that have arrived. When the photography is complete, she will help out in the workshop making some of our books. Tuesday. With four new Trustees elected at the last Board meeting, we’ve decided to have an “Away Day”. I’m trying to plan an agenda that gives the correct balance between giving an introduction and an opportunity to discuss our development plans in depth. Wednesday. I usually drive in on a Wednesday so that I can take all our rubbish to the council tip - we often get a car load of cardboard packaging and it would cost £700 p.a. to get it collected. The car also facilitates a second task this week - getting our page card cut and laminated. We had a delivery of £1,000 worth (trade price) of page card earlier in the week and it comes in A1 size sheets so I take it to Embassy Press in Battersea who kindly cut it to A3 size for free and then on to a company who laminate it for us so that it’s more durable. Thursday. I try to spend one day each week on fundraising. This week I’m writing to Charitable Trusts who have never supported us before so I’m sending them detailed applications as they will need reassurance that we’re bona fide. Last year 60% of the donations from Charitable Trusts were from Trusts who had not previously donated to us so it’s well worth the extra effort. In the evening, it’s off to a reception for charities hosted by a city bank. Manage to find someone there who has funded us in the past - maybe we could reapply? Friday. Sorting out new contracts with suppliers today. Managed to save an estimated £800 p.a. on the photocopier; £150 p.a. on the telephone and broadband; and reassured myself that our utility suppliers are still the most competitive. It’s Storyline time again. What photo’s have we got? What news is there to report? Who will write the articles? I use Desk Top Publishing software to start putting it all together. There’s a space. How to fill it? Camilla, our Corporate Fundraising Manager, suggests I write a “My Week” article ......
Thanks to our new Lottery funded, Telling Tales project we’ve now been able to expand our team of freelance Storyteller-Trainers from two a year ago to nine. The nine are: South East England, Bernard Tagliavini Over the course of the next academic year we plan for each of our Storyteller-trainers to run 60 storytelling sessions attended by over 400 children and to offer bespoke training and mentoring to 20 librarians in their region.
All our books are supplied in a cardboard box. Taking on board comments from users we have redesigned the boxes to make them more prominent and to include an integral plastic handle.
Following an openly advertised recruitment process, we are pleased to announce that four new Trustees have been elected: Mamta Gupta. Mamta is a Barrister currently specialising in Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence work. Formerly a Diplomat with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Beth Murray. Beth is an Account Manager with a leading UK Public Relations firm. Wendy Parsons. Wendy has been teaching young people with learning difficulties for over 20 years and has been a deputy head teacher since 2006. Natasha Theobald. Natasha is a charity marketing professional with 16 years’ experience. Their arrival means we now have eight Trustees with a real wealth of experience between them.
The Actor and Comedian, John Sessions, recorded a Radio 4 Appeal for Bag Books which was broadcast in November 2008. In his appeal he told the story of Emily, who was helped to begin learning and communicating with her favourite Bag Books story, "The Little Princess". If you missed the broadcast you can visit the BBC website where you can listen to it again. If you wish to donate, you can make a credit/debit card donation via the CharityChoice website. We also have details of how you can make a donation by cheque. Over £16,000 has been raised - many thanks to all of our supporters.
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