We have now been open for four years. the anniversary of our opening is always a time to reflect on how things have gone, are going and what the future holds.
It’s fair to say things have gone as well as we could have hoped. We’re still open, we’re solvent, we have managed to operate in line with the ethical goals we had when we were setting up. Not a bad achievement when so many – Cooperative Development Fund I’m talking about you – said we hadn’t a hope of being successful and refused us funding.
What’s interesting is that the one area where things are not as we hoped is in the engagement that our members have with us. We have a small loyal group of members who support our events, turn out for the AGM etc and we are very thankful for their input. What we hadn’t realised is that a large group of people who invested in share treated it as a donation. They obviously supported our aims but didn’t want an ongoing involvement. In effect although they are members of the Coop they treated their investment as crowd funding. If you are one of these people then we’d love to hear from you. If you’re happy that we’re doing OK and don’t want to be involved that’s fine too. We’d just like to say a big thank you to you for the trust you have placed in us.
We’re looking forward to the future and many more years of providing a bookshop for our community and those who visit our beautiful town.
“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
William Shakespeare