A year like no other is coming to an end and I just wanted to say that, despite the numerous challenges presented to us, the whole team has responded magnificently demonstrating a deep-routed culture of mutual support and understanding. My thanks and appreciation go to you all. I have known for ages that it was all about the people and so I want to mention some of the ways that we have progressed as an organisation to put us in such a strong position looking forward to 2021 and the part that the individuals have played in that.
Everyone has developed a ‘teams’ persona whether it’s during a virtual rendezvous with genial GP ‘doctor’ Martin Spear, ‘cat juggling’ Esther Brown, ‘squeezed under the stairs’ whispering Michael Hanson or ‘wild man of the woods’ Jonathan Platt. Sometimes they all appear at once on screen like a mad version of University Challenge.
I thought some like borrowing the cool neutral background of a beautifully tasteful modern kitchen until I eventually realised that in Olia Kyritsi’s case it was actually her real kitchen. Some like Tom Mellor, Tom Hubbard and Matt Andrews like fading out the domestic child strewn chaos in which they obviously live while Owen Faunt either has many rooms in his house or a different selection of bold wallpapers in each. Sarah Markroum looks as though she is just about to pick up an instrument and sing us a song and Matt Bonney has been sitting next to his match pot decorated wall for most of the year.
Natalie Lock likes to share her domestic bliss with us occasionally interrupted by child or husband or both and recently we have been able to share the homes of Maria Steward, who’s husband lives, we now know, behind a door curiously located half way up the wall in her kitchen, or Siobhan Tarr who has brought the garden inside her house with her spectacularly green fingers. James Pilling resides in his person shed in the middle of a building site with bike poised for an early morning spin whilst Jon Briscoe organises our every waking hour with benevolent decisiveness and our recently distanced genial voice of reason and wisdom Colin Powell looks over us and after us.
What a dream teams team!
This year really has been full of achievement. Financially we have, more or less, broken even which has been no mean feat on its own. During a year when we have completed a refurbishment of the office, had to work in bubbles, incurred the considerable cost of converting the business into an Employee Owned Trust and set everyone up with the IT infrastructure to work fairly seamlessly from home or from Corum 2, this performance has been even more remarkable.
The year stared with James Pilling achieving a Part 1 Architectural qualification by distance learning with Oxford Brookes and ended with Esther Brown becoming a fully qualified Architect. In the middle Sarah Makroum passed her first year of Part 2, again at Oxford Brookes and Own Faunt his first year apprentice Part 1 at South Bank University, both with flying colours. Matt Bonney and Olia Kyrirtsi became qualified Passivhaus designers and Tom Hubbard became a certified Architectural Technologist. Congratulations to you all.
Shout outs go to Michael Hanson for his tireless responses to your never-ending technical queries and Michael again with Tom Mellor for masterminding the IT development and eventual delivery of a VOIP telephone system. Don’t ring us ( and expect to get transferred ) we’ll ring you back! Lastly a big mention for Esther Brown, Natalie Lock, Matt Bonney and James Pilling for boosting our social media presence to the status of influencers – who would have believed it!
And then there was the actual work!
Happy Christmas to you and yours and I look forward to eventually meeting up with you all in 2021.
Jeremy Pilling
