Action for Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society.
Each month they release a “Monthly Action Calendar” which are packed with actions you can take to help create a happier and kinder world.
This month’s theme is New Ways November, encouraging you to try something new!
Learning something new is great for our wellbeing. Keeping our brains active is not only good for us physically but it can help you feel you are flourishing as you see yourself make progress with a new skill. And remember that it’s OK not to get it right first time – change “I can’t do it”, into “I can’t do it…yet!”
This month’s calendar is full of ideas to help you decide what to do next, so let’s all use this, or the Action for Happiness App, to try something new this month.
Find out more about Action for Happiness and view their previous monthly action calendars.
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, our longest serving colleague, has decided to retire after 38 years of service and is leaving the Museum at the end of the month. Throughout that time, Mary has been an esteemed colleague and everyone, especially the Historic Character team, will be sorry to see her leave. Her warm personality, experience and exceptional knowledge will be missed by all. Mary has seen many changes to the Museum over the years and has worked in countless places across site. Throughout all this, her dedication and positive outlook haven’t faltered. We would like to thank Mary for everything she has done for the museum – for her many years of support and for bringing history to life for so many visitors.
Mary is planning on spending some well-earned quality time with her husband John at their caravan in Wales. We wish her a happy and healthy retirement and hope to see her often when she visits.
Other leavers this month are sadly the following:
Abby Bird our Audience and Communications Manager is leaving the Museum later this month to relocate to Cornwall and work as a freelance consultant. Abby joined the Museum over 7 years ago and in that time has been an integral part of our marketing efforts. Most notably her amazing and innovative TikTok social media videos giving the Museum worldwide recognition. Abby’s creativity and enthusiasm will be very much missed, but we wish her the very best as she settles into the south coast.
Kyron Nock, Enterprise Team Manager, left the Museum earlier this month, after almost 5 years’ service to further his career with Tesco. He will be managing the Café at their Dudley superstore, just up the road from the Museum! Kyron has been an established colleague within Enterprise and has worked closely with many teams around the Museum. We wish him the very best as he takes on his exciting new management post.
Tracey Forrest, Historic Character, also left earlier this month. Tracey has been a key part of our Historic Character team since 2011 but has now decided to return to her former career in jewellery retail. She leaves with our sincere thanks and best wishes.
Jean Homer, Enterprise Team, who most of you will know for her work in the sweet shop, has been with the Museum for 8 years and has decided to leave us to focus on enjoying home life. Jean’s experience in sweet making will be very much missed but we hope that Jean will return from time to time to share her skills with others.
Martin Churchill from the Cleaning Team is retiring to spend more time with his wife. In the short term he will be sunning himself on a cruise booked for the new year. We wish Martin a long and healthy retirement.
New Casuals – Historic Character Team
The following new casuals have joined our Historic Character team this month:
Andrea Williams, Jack Fern, Lucy McWilliams, Emily Banks, Harun Bashir, Neil Fellows, and Jennifer Kettle.
If you see any of our recent new joiners on site – please do be sure to say hello!
Paul Crofts
As referenced in an earlier update, Paul Crofts officially joined us last week, in the role of Chief Operating Officer, following a series of familiarisation days through September and October. You can read more about Paul’s role and his background on this intranet post.
As part of our continual Programme of ensuring engagement and communication of the Museum’s operational and strategic activity, we will be holding briefings to update all colleagues on the Museum’s progress since reopening in May of this year and the plans for 2022, a critical year for the launch of the first of the Forging Ahead buildings. These briefings will take place on:
All the briefings will be held in the WI and will commence at 9.15, finishing at 9.45. Many of you will already be scheduled by your line managers to attend one of these sessions, if you have not then please volunteer your name on the attached sign up sheet.
All contracted colleagues are mandated to attend these sessions. We would also strongly urge colleagues from both our volunteer and casual community to all attend.
You only need to attend one of the briefing sessions.
Refreshment will be provided in the WI.
Can you please sign up using the following link: All Staff Briefings
If you have any trouble signing up for the briefing because you do not have a BCLM email address then please speak to your line manager who will be able to add your name for you.
Action for Happiness is a movement of people committed to building a happier and more caring society.
Each month they release a “Monthly Action Calendar” which are packed with actions you can take to help create a happier and kinder world.
This month’s theme is Optimistic October.
Especially when things are feeling a bit tough, it can help to set some goals. Making goals achievable and ensuring that you have a few short term as well as longer term, more ambitious goals helps us feel we’re making progress. It doesn’t matter if your goal for the day is something really small, the important thing is to give yourself the opportunity to feel like you’ve achieved something and to celebrate that! This month’s calendar is full of ideas to help you think about how you can put this into practice.
Let’s all use their calendar below, or the Action for Happiness App, to celebrate our achievements no matter how small.
Find out more about Action for Happiness and view their previous monthly action calendars.
