I am reminded today of the great Norman Wisdom who in my view was one of the all time greats of comedy film in his era. Why today you may ask? Well, today is April Fool’s Day and Norman made the song “Don’t laugh at me cos I’m a fool” his own. His shy, awkward behaviour was characteristic of a man who knew his craft and delivered it well.
When building an organisation, the behind-the-scenes work needs to be in place, for without a strong team of people, it is likely to fall apart. With that in mind we are looking at how Forget Me Notes is supported by its Trustees. We have written a policy for Equality and Inclusion in management. On our team we want to have those with a lived experience of Dementia, those with learning difficulties, people with mental health issues all at the centre of Forget Me Notes and we are working to make this happen. We are not there yet, it is still a work in progress and those of us who are a part of the team now need to equip ourselves to welcome our team of the future.
While we have recently been able to tell you about new services becoming a part of Forget Me Notes, we have had to suspend services this week. This is hopefully temporary, but while the organisation has applied for money it hasn’t yet come through, so for April we are not able to do some sessions that we have been doing for just short of six years. It was sad to have to tell people who we have worked with for so long that we are having to take a break. However, we are optimistic that we will be back shortly.
We have fixed a date for the Showcase. You will be wondering what that is? We are all really excited about the 13th of August as we are going to present the work of The Forget Me Note Project using the people who attend. It will be held at St Bride’s in Dalry and we will feature the Music Memories Project, Volunteer Project and Choir Project. We want to share with people, including funders, what the values and the work of Forget Me Notes is all about. This will focus on the positivity (as John calls it) of working with people living with dementia and music. We are going to create a working group and see what we can achieve to tell our story in the best way possible.
Not only is it April Fool’s Day it’s also Easter Monday, so I hope you are enjoying your weekend. It is usually a time to get into the garden but it’s still a wee bit cold so getting up for painting the shed which is what I need to do, is a bit of a struggle. However, I think I will give it a go later. See you next week.