Happy Birthday to the Forum/End of Year Message

[Sim]

Hello dear forum members and lurkers.   Today is the 8th birthday of the forum!  I can’t believe that so many years have gone by since Bruce put our motley little crew together and asked us if we would like to take the forum forward as an offshoot from ballet.co.uk.  We agreed, not knowing if anyone would be interested in a forum, nor how things would pan out. 

 

Well, people were interested, and I am very proud of what we, you and us, have achieved over these years.  We have 5000+ members, many more lurkers, and are read worldwide.  We are all the beneficiaries of the often lively exchange of views, and of the knowledge of others.  I say it every year, but every year I am astonished at how much I learn just from reading and absorbing other people’s knowledge of ballet and dance.  Thank you all for taking the time to share that knowledge, and your views and opinions. 

 

We continue to be impressed by, and proud of, the strong community that has been established on the Doing Dance area of the forum.  The pain of parents and students trying to navigate their way through dance training is lessened by being able to share their experiences with others going through the same thing.  The support and advice I see given on Doing Dance are second to none.  Thanks to all of you who help each other so much.

 

At this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to those we have loved and lost, and I would like to take a minute to remember John Mallinson.  This time last year, none of us could have imagined that we wouldn’t have another Christmas with him.  His sudden loss is still deeply felt by his family and friends, and he left a void that in so many different ways is very hard to fill.  Having said this, I would like to extend a huge thank you to Dave Morgan who has very kindly stepped into John’s administrator role and is doing a great job, especially since he has had to figure out most of it as he’s gone along.  I also want to thank Ian McMillan for giving us so much help with unravelling all of the various things that were in John’s name.  It has been a long and painstaking process, but we are pretty much there.  We are thinking of John a lot, and his presence is always felt as we run the forum from day to day.  We are also sending our love and best wishes to his family at this difficult time of year. 

 

I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all the moderators (Alison, Anna, Dave, Ian, Janet and Lee) for their unstinting help and dedication in running this forum.  We are sometimes the recipients of nastiness and abuse, but luckily that is the extreme minority, and we continue because we can see how interesting, useful and fun the forum is to so many people.  We don’t always get everything right, and you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but we certainly do our best, 365 days a year.  I am so pleased that we have all stuck together and worked together for 8 years, and I hope we will continue to do so. 

 

Special thanks are due to Jan and Ian, who do the links so diligently day after day.  John used to be the third person doing this, and it was already an onerous job, but to now be doing it just between two of them is a big ask and they both continue, without any fuss, to provide this invaluable service. The links are a wonderful asset to the forum and I look forward to opening them up every day.  I do hope that you all take advantage of Jan and Ian’s hard work;  it’s well worth it.

 

It now just remains for me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy winter season and, as we move into a new decade, a happy, peaceful, prosperous, fun and ballet-filled New Year.  Thank you all again for your contributions to the forum…here’s to the next 8 years!

 

With warm wishes to you all,

 

Simonetta (Sim)

Chair

BalletcoForum Committee