- plus an experiment for all bookings made by new recruits* this month.

* […plus a “thank you” for current Denizens who Spread the Wright History Word to said new recruits]

Yes, folks… the time has come…

We’re trying out doing some

Actual Marketing!

Frankly, we feel a bit weird doing so, but it is, we concede (not least as a result of the fabulous course we’re just completing), what businesses must do!

If you want to just skip to the update on recordings and email reminders, feel free to do so by clicking here. But we hope you’ll stay with us for the first bit too…

Now that we’re no longer meeting new potential Denizens of Wright History via WEA - which is how we initially met most of you - we need to find new ways of keeping the show on the road. Alas, we don’t have an advertising budget (one day…!), so we wonder whether we might, please, shamelessly and explicitly prevail upon your goodwill and enthusiasm for what we’re doing, O Denizens?

Do you know anyone who might also enjoy what we do? Have you already recommended us to them, but they remain uncertain as to whether it’s for them?

…Yes?? Well here’s something which may be of interest to all parties.

We’re offering a 15% discount to anyone who registers throughout this March* for their first Wright History course. [Edit (31 March): We’re extending this to first registrations made by the end of April!]

And if you’ve recommended us to someone who books their first course with us this month,* do please ask them to let us know so that we can offer you a little “thank you”.

We’re touched and chuffed by how many of you have said, when we’ve mentioned that we’ve been considering this, that we don’t need to offer a discount, because what we do is already excellent bang for anyone’s buck.

Nevertheless, we’re giving this a go, just in case it might help to encourage anyone who’s still not sure.

So if you’re out there, still-not-sure-potential-Denizens, why not give us a try with a discount? We’re told that we’re rather good at what we do - plus you’ll meet lots of lovely people!

*[Truth be told, we’re retrospectively applying what we hope will be an acceptable version of this shiny new experiment to everyone who’s booked their first Wright History course since the start of 2023 - we don’t want anyone to feel unvalued just because we’ve only been able to do this now! I think I’ve mailed everyone for whom this will be relevant, but apologies if my record-making was amiss at any point. Do please email me, and I’ll rectify my omission right away.]

To see what awaits you should you decide to join us, please click this link for our currently available courses.

Why, there’s still even time to use your discount for this Saturday’s Short & Sweet adventure, The World Turned Upside Down: Everyday life in northern art, 1520-1670… [She said, shamelessly…]!

And finally with regard to Spreading the Wright History Word, something which simply hadn’t occurred to us was suggested in one of this week’s sessions (you know who you are, and we thank you for it!) - namely… that we should do some posters/flyers, with which willing Denizens might decorate local libraries/churches/other information hubs. Genius!! That’s absolutely next on my to-do list. Watch this space…!

Here endeth the shameless marketing stuff. On to other practicalities…

First up, something I should have said while announcing our courses for next term… Long-standing Denizens may recall that I promised some time ago that all sessions would be recorded until at least April 2023, so an update is due…

I’m happy to announce that all sessions will be recorded for the foreseeable future. Hurrah!

As long-standing Denizens know, I’ve been trying to work out which was more useful to you: the option to watch sessions via catch-up recording or weekly reminders of log-in details before each session. Ideally, there’d have been no question that we’d do both indefinitely. But alas, there aren’t enough Joanna-hours in the day to do both (each is more time-consuming than you’d think!), so we took the plunge just over a year ago, and employed a team of booking elves* to do most of the email notifications.

*[Translation for newer Denizens: “employed a team of booking elves” = invested in a year’s subscription to an automated scheduling software platform for appointments and events management which could be seamlessly integrated into our website. Booking elves sound much nicer, non…?]

Our fairy godmother generously helped us out by paying our booking elves’ wages for an additional term, but we reluctantly concluded that we would have to let the elves go in a few week’s time. But lo! Just in the nick of time, a handsome knight on a white charger visited Wrightington Towers, and inspired us to strive in a new direction to achieve a happy ending (ahem) for all concerned.

It transpires that our elves love working for us so much that they prefer to offer their services to us for free than to work for money for anyone else.

Ummm… I dunno… maybe elves don’t need mortgages or food or something?

Whatever. Even I won’t push the already straining analogy still further on that front.

The headline news is that…

We can all now live happily ever after

Or, if you prefer the more prosaic version… We received a recommendation via our Strive course for a free email automation option which might do what we need. And I think I might have cracked how to make it do what I know many of you value.

Whichever version you prefer, the end result is the same:

I’m happy to announce that we can continue to send reminders of access details before each zoom session. Hurrah!

There is one corollary of switching elvish/booking systems, namely that I have to change the administration for gift certificates. To those of you who have bought or are in possession of an unused gift certificate, don’t worry - I’ve got full records of everything, and all vouchers are still valid. To those of you who would like to buy a gift certificate, please watch this space. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got a new system up and running. If it’s urgent, however, please email me and I’ll get something sorted for you right away.

Phew! So that’s our news, and our cri de cœur! Thank you for making it to the end here - I hope that you feel it was worth it!