It's been a challenging year for Lapidus and as Chair I'm pleased to report the organisation is now solvent and stabilised.
Member numbers continue to grow but as all funds derive from membership we need to look for other sources of funding too. This is one of the challenges for the coming year. Another is to ensure a place for Lapidus and writing & words for wellbeing on the National Wellbeing Agenda. Over the next few months the Lapidus Board will be looking at ways to promote Lapidus as the 'go to' organisation for writing and words for wellbeing.
Earlier in November I attended the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) Conference in Bristol. This was an inspiring event with workshops and seminars from 9am to 9pm.
Roger McGough and Deborah Moggach were both interesting and hilarious. I learned about notebook poems, lines as inspiration, celebrating mother tongues, poetry improvisation, wild writing and creative approaches to change and renewal.
Lapidus is a partner organisation with NAWE and holds an annual joint Writing Retreat at Ty Newydd, North Wales. Next year it will take place from Monday, April 6th - Saturday April 11th, 2015. I'm happy to be co-hosting with NAWE's Liz Cashdan. There will also be a guest workshop from Jill Teague entitled, Treading Softly - Writing in Nature.
