Meeting in Shepherd's

I was at Shepherd's this morning just after it opened. I met Julie, of the Fairtrade group, on the way up there.
As we got to the counter to order, some of the Creative Writing group came in as well. Lyn asked me how my writing was going on - and said that they're thinking of having an evening class after Christmas, for people who work and can't get to the Library during the day.
Jo, Ruth and Jackie joined us at our table in the corner, and we discussed the progress so far, and what our next moves were going to be. We went round the churches last month (Open Door were very keen), so this month it's local schools. My job this month is to find out about Welsh translation for the Fairtrade Directory we want to put out - hopefully we can lift quite a bit wholesale from the Brecon Directory. We're also hoping that the Co-op can help with the cost of producing the leaflet, as they do support this sort of community project. We'll be going round the local printers asking for quotes.
We also held the Grand Draw for the winner of £20 of Fairtrade products, from the businesses who returned the questionnaires we went round with last month. The winner was The Granary, and we all chipped in to buy the prize from Oxfam.
I scribbled something for the press release as we sat there, which will go with what Julie has written, and will be distributed to the local papers.
Next time, we'll be discussing events for Fairtrade Fortnight next year - Ruth is booking the market stall for us, for two Thursdays running, and the Film Society are putting on the film China Blue, and we're thinking about a music gig with one local and one African band - but we need help with that, from someone like Mel at the Poetry Bookshop, who has done this sort of thing before.
On a related note, there's a meeting tomorrow night at the Drill Hall to talk about alternatives to plastic bags for Hay.

Later this morning, I was interviewed for an article in National Geographic! The lady who rang me up said some very nice things about this blog, and asked me about Hay, and the creative people who live here. She'll be talking to Rob Soldat, and Ken Smith the Town Cryer, too, and the article is due out next May. It takes a long time to get an article into print!