Several of the past and present Peace Fellows keep blogs. We will put links to any that we know about, on Fellows' individual web pages. Please let us know of any we have missed. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us at the 2009 Bill Huntley Memorial Seminar. We hope you enjoyed it, and that you will want to come to next year’s Seminar, and to bring more Rotarians and friends to share the experience.
This year’s feedback confirms our belief that the Seminar was a success. The biggest difficulties lay with the temperature and other facilities in the lecture theatre. IT, as many of us have learned to our cost, is a law unto itself; the videos had worked at the rehearsal, and there was no rhyme or reason to why they didn’t work on the day. Microphones had been promised (Kate has an email to prove it), but were simply not there on Saturday morning; fortunately the PA system which we had used at the dinner was still in someone’s car, but setting it up did intrude into the presentation time.
The air-conditioning in the lecture theatre is centrally controlled and had to be set the day before; we had no way of adjusting it on the day. For next year, we have booked the University’s Great Hall, which is next to where the coffee was served. The Great Hall will accommodate a much larger audience – we plan to remove some of the seating so that it does not appear too large – and has a high ceiling, which should allow the heat to rise. Of course, if it is a cold day, there may be complaints that the Hall is not warm enough! The Great Hall also has much more comprehensive audio-visual facilities.
So the big message is: Put Saturday, 30th October 2010 in your diary, and tell all your friends (not just Rotarians – let’s promote the Peace Programme to anyone who will listen), because there will be plenty of room for everyone.
Looking at the feedback in detail, we have noted a number of things and we hope to further improve the Seminar, based on what you have told us from this year.
Now in its second year, the booking process, with booking form accessible from our website and the option for payment by cheque or by PayPal, has been well received; 53 out of 54 people rated the booking process as worth one or two smiles (i.e. a mark of 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5), and 50 out of 54 rated the payment process similarly.
A small number of people were disappointed with the pre-Seminar dinner – fewer than we might have expected, actually – because, we think, of the difficulty of ‘getting into’ the lamb! We thought it was delicious, once we had got past the outer layer, but that was somewhat of a challenge; the hotel have apologised for that, and we will try to ensure that things are better, next year. Unfortunately, the other hotel which we might use in Bradford has rather limited parking facilities and is not well placed for a journey to the University, because of major works in the centre of the city – a factor which is significant, in view of the next feedback result!
‘Directions’ had the lowest score of anything, and we are not sure why. Directions scored badly last year; as a result, we added a map to the address and the website link, when we sent out the booking acknowledgements. We would welcome suggestions about what more we can do in providing directions. Most of the poor markings for Directions were anonymous, so we are not able to contact people individually; but we really would like your feedback on what was missing from the Directions.
One respondent referred to the fact that vehicle entrances to the University site are all protected by barriers. Perhaps we should have actually stated that it is necessary to drive up to (any) barrier and press the button to call security and gain entry? Or did those low scores refer to directions within the university, rather than directions to arrive at it?
Parking, Registration, University Facilities and University Catering all scored quite well, with only a few reservations about each. Not everyone likes rice and some people prefer the buffet-style; however, the event has an ‘international’ flavour to it, so rice seemed appropriate. The buffet served last year was enjoyed so much by the early diners that there was hardly anything left for those at the back of the queue. That is why we opted this year for a two-course, sit-down lunch which ensured that everyone was treated equally. The term University Facilities is, we realise, too general; some people may have included the air-conditioning and the sound system in lecture theatre in that, and others may not have done.
It would be unfair to single out individual presenters for comparison one with another; all were well received. One notable item, however, was the presentation from a previous graduate of the programme; we should try to make that a regular item on the Seminar programme though, inevitably, not many graduates work in the UK, which may be a complication.
A small number of people thought that the Shelterbox presentation was not appropriate, but they are very much in a minority. 52 out of 58 respondents scored Xiaomei and Shelterbox with one or two smiles so we make no apology for including that part of the programme.
Notable among the comments section were time-keeping, the lecture theatre and the IT/sound difficulties –of which the last two have been discussed above. There is always a difficult balance between providing a full programme and the risk of over-running on the time; we opted to give as much content as we could possibly fit in, because we think that is what people come for. And we did actually finish on time!
Some photographs from this year’s Seminar are elsewhere on the website, and we hope to add some of the videos in the coming weeks, though it is proving to be a challenge.