The year was 2005. It was a funny year because as the summer approached I was just rounding off a project called the Somerset Variety Performance and had plans on running a similar project but on a bigger scale. My original plan was to go as far as including a few more counties and renaming it the SWVP (South West Variety Performance). Being me I decided to make some major leaps and went with a national variety show. This move made me one of the youngest Managing Directors of a national organisation in the country. The National Variety Performance ended up being a range of projects instead of one main show and part of which was an awards project that we planned to role out across different counties. The original awards project was named the Somerset Charity Awards. We were planning on seeking out those in our communities that had raised money for various local and national charities but we broadened things out more than planned and in the end went with the Somerset County Awards. This way we could award the “pride” of the community not just fundraisers.

The Somerset County Awards

Our first award ceremony was very different to the ones we run today. It was completely new territory to me and the team. At the time of the launch of this project the National Variety was going through some changes. I was saying goodbye to some staff and saying hello to some new faces. The transition from old to new came with its problems but at the same time solved a few too. I had huge visions for the National variety Performance and it was only right to let go of the ones that were holding the organisation back.

Nowadays for most projects we ask the public to nominate people for awards but back in the early days it was me, the team and enough newspapers to open a recycling plant. We visited community centers, workshops, schools and many other public places trying to find our award winners. I contacted people i had worked with on variety shows in the past and called in a few performers for the event. The awards were very traditional. Something you would expect at any award ceremony. To be honest the award ceremony was very traditional too but it didn’t really matter because it was a complete success.

After great feedback from the community we started work on a ceremony for the following year. 2007 was an extremely busy year for the National Variety Performance so the ceremony that year was non-existent. We just couldn’t fit it in. Instead we surprised people with their awards at unexpected times. Some people we visited at home and at work and others half way through their own events. We called it the ‘Winter Edition’. It was a shame that we didn’t have time for a full blown ceremony but i was committed to the NVP and other commitments to uphold. Over the next two years i was back and forth from Weymouth and London working on projects for the NVP and the awards was purely a sideline but we kept it up as best as we could.

The Pride of Central Somerset

Towards the end of 2008 the Somerset County awards had not seen a ceremony in a while so i wanted to think how we could improve what we already had. I wanted to make the project bigger and better. By this time the National Variety Performance was just a fond memory. It had been very successful that it became something bigger than i could have ever imagined but i am kind of restricted by an NDA so I’ll leave it at that. In November 2008 i contacted Mid Somerset News and Media and started to build a partnership with them. It makes sense to work with the people who distribute directly to the people you want at the ceremony. Now that we had a lot more access to press coverage in the local area we opened up nominations to the public and asked people to nominate those special individuals in their lives.

The Pride of Central Somerset was a turning point for me. The project had really evolved from its earlier counterpart. The planning was much more precise and the ceremony was grand and refreshing. I knew that after i finished this project i was heading to Canada for what could be the best part of a few years and i was worried that the project may not continue so some of the 2009 team are already on standby for this years awards project which will really kick in after nominations close in the summer.

This video is a clip that was taken at the ceremony during the interval.

We presented more awards in 2009 than any other year. It was the first year we introduced a category which normally goes against our rules but we felt that sporting achievements were being left in the dark hence the introduction of the sports category.

A few days after the ceremony i packed by bags and headed back to Nova Scotia.

The Haliwards

The Haliwards was never planned. I had no intentions on branching out in Canada until i knew where me and Tara were going to settle on a permanent basis but as time passed by i got rather bored. During the summer of 2009 i had worked with the Blue Nose Marathon and was preparing to work with the Tall Ships. This is when i met Haligonia. Haligonia is a small media group focusing on news and events across HRM. I agreed to do a video interview with them for their website about my previous work and why I was in Nova Scotia. A few weeks before I met with Haligonia I started to do some research on running an event in Halifax and I was thinking about running an event similar to the Pride of Central Somerset. I was slightly worried that I wouldn’t be able to get enough exposure so I discussed my ideas with the guys at Haligonia.

What most people don’t know is in the early project plan it was a joint project between me and the Haligonia group. As the Tall Ships approached Haligonia were very busy with the event as they were the New Media Sponsor so we went our separate ways. I had no plans on dropping the project so I tweaked the project plan and submitted it to City Hall.

After nearly a 6 month wait we finally got word from City Hall who rejected the plan until further notice as they were working on a new volunteer strategy.  I really believe they just didn’t look at the plan properly or maybe not even at all. After taking a knock back from City Hall I ploughed on and we received hundreds of nominations.  We are now only weeks away from the ceremony with barely a ticket left and a set of amazing award winners. What can i say.. i know what works!

What’s Next

The Haliwards is in full swing so it’s only a matter of time before we know how successful it will  be but what was meant to be a low key pilot project is turning into quite an event. No complaints though! The Pride of Central Somerset 2010 is already in production and i am working with some members of last years team to put together the first steps.  We are currently taking nominations.

Click here for Part Two

This article is part of a series of posts that will be published during the month of March to celebrate 5 years of award ceremonies directed by Alex Maine. Stay tuned for the next post

It has been a experience to work with some very talented and some not so talented people on this project. When i work on a project my team are the people i rely on to make sure things that i don’t have time to get my head round get sorted. These people are the backbone of the project. My special thanks to those who bothered, those who turned up on time and those who gave me a tap on the back and said ‘everything’s fine’. Those who were late, lazy and bone idol. Well i think my opinion of you will reflect in my letter of recommendation.. or should i say lack of reflection. It was rather funny because the people who did poorly were more interested to see what others recommendation letters said so they could compare.

The performers i have worked with have been very talented. Wells City Band gave a superb performance at the Pride of Central Somerset and i am thankful for them taking the time to come and perform for us. I also give my thanks to Poppy and Georgina for a superb performance but one of the performers in my eyes stands out more than many do. This performer is young, bright, and gifted but is heavily restricted by their ‘over protective parents’ which in my opinion could destroy everything that this person has and any successful career in the theatre they may have.

In respect to all the emails i have had in regards to all the problems we had with our media partner. Well what can i say. On the night as many people know i offered the olive branch to the Editor and i think its very clear he didn’t except it after the pathetic excuse for an article that was printed as part as the coverage of the event on Thursday 12th March. It seems that some people cant let things go but we all know who took the moral high-ground and who didn’t. Whatever has been said and done i created an event that was highly successful that gave to the community and now i am off for a well earned break. I wish you all a wonderful summer and hope you will follow me as i post from the other side of the pond.

At 6pm we got ourselves all dressed up and got into our positions. Michael down on the door selling tickets to newcomers and handing out the reserved tickets. Rhiannon Hope holding the ever growing crowd from bursting into the main hall and Tara MacPhee our house photographer who shown them to there seats. All 3 of them did a fantastic job and by 7:15 we had kicked off.

We opened with Wells City Band playing the National Anthem. The second those instruments hit there lips the room woke up and we knew that everything was going just how we had hoped. Then the performance of all performances, Georgina Bates accompanied by Chloe Harrington. It was amazing and for those of you who were there you will know what i mean! She then went on to present the First award to Mr and Mrs Argent on there sons behalf as he was busy in the 3rd world working and fundraising. I then presented an award to Roz Dommet for her work with the Ashcott Mother and Toddler group. Then our lighting technician and Deputy Stage Manager Mike presented an award to Children’s World. Georgina then returned on to the stage and presented the next award to the Mid Somerset Diabetes UK group which was accepted by the founder chairman David Brunt. Once david had said a few words we moved on to the Lions club which was met with a large cheer from the audience. The atmosphere by now was fantastic. So we needed something to really bring the first half to a close. The last award before interval was going to Sue Wilton for her work with the Christmas Card Scheme in Ashcott and we suprised Lyn the lady who began the scheme with a suprise award.

We then heading quickly into the interval where we had lots of food and refreshments for people. Sadly i didn’t get my hands on a ham sandwich but there is always next year. The interval was so busy it was unbelievable. We sold nearly 600 of the 1000 raffle tickets we had which was an amazing achievement. Once people had cleared out the food we got everything back into there seats and the Wells City Band brought us back on track.

We then moved on to the second half and we kicked off with the wonderful Poppy Lopez her performance was amazing and i will never forget it. She went on to present the sports awards to Mike Sadler, Anna Butler and Wendy Rousell. Then on to Frances Thomson teacher at Crispin School for all her hard work in the community and her work with Kenya and Masana in particular.  She gladly accepted the award and was nearly reduced to tears of happiness. Then it was my time to come back on stage. I remember saying “Its me again, surprise” well it made me laugh. I was met with another warm welcome and proceeded on to the Glastonbury and Street Rotary Club. Then we had a set of awards to hand out to the participants of the Light Up a Life services which took place across Mid Somerset. We caught up with millfield earlier in the week which you will find in one of my earlier blog posts so it left us to present the award to Brookside and they were very happy to accept it. Jemma Lawson was next to be rewarded by Michael and she said how pleased she was to be receiving the award. Finally our award to the Martha Care Trust which was accepted by Martha’s Mother Maggie Michshick she got very emotional when she spoke of her daughter and was very pleased that the work she and her supporters had done was being recognised. The amazing Wells City Band took us to a close, following this a few presentations and then all it left me to do was to close the ceremony.

It was such an amazing evening for me. All the comments i received from people were so supportive and everyone was telling me how much they enjoyed it and how it was alot more than what they were expecting. I must say there were times where i was getting rather emotional because i really have put my heart and soul into this project since October of last year. Luckily there was enough lovely ladies back stage for the odd hug and supportive message. Thanks to everyone who made the Pride of Central Somerset possible it was a milestone in my life and i hope i will return to do it again sometime. Thank you all!

(The DVD Set of the Pride of Central Somerset is now available. It contains a feature length film of the ceremony and CD containing all the photographs from the night. Details on how to order the set will be posted shortly)

I have spoken to Phil about the Wells involvement and he tells me this is specifically for central Somerset, with no Wells involvement at this stage. 

The idea was for the paper to take public nominations in the Central Somerset Gazette first and then i assumed to move on to the Wells Journal. Later that week i met up with Phlip and he told me the reason they were not including Wells was because they were planning on running ‘The Pride of Wells’ that was presented to them by the council. I later found out that this statement was false. I was very annoyed that Wells was not been included so i sent Philip an email which said:

When I came to you I thought we agreed that we were going to cover mid Somerset, for some reason this has changed and it cant. I am running this award ceremony as I planned with or without the support or the local newspaper.

So i jumped into action, i contacted the council who confirmed that Philip had approached them about the ‘Pride of Wells’ and that it has been unofficially rejected. Keith Donoghue gave me the opportunity to put forward a Proposal at a council meeting as he felt it was my project to present and that’s what i did. I received mainly positive feedback from the council with one councilor saying he was not keen on the name even though as i am told he is a Lion member and they run a Pride of Lions award scheme. Little hipacritical don’t you think. The funniest thing is that Philip wanted to call his scheme ‘The Pride of Wells’ i wonder if he will now reconsider seeing it apparently sounds like a “rusty old boat”.

One reason the paper printed this article is because they plan to run something similar.  The negative vibe presented to the Pride of Wells has not dampened spirits between me and the people who work on these projects. Nor has it effected the Pride of Central Somerset. Due to the unforgivable attitude of the Local Press we are no longer involving the paper with the final steps of the Pride of Central Somerset.. not that they were ever involved or participated in the organisation and production anyway.  

This however does not stop the paper from covering the event and to be quite frank i think they owe the local people to continue there coverage. Its crazy to believe that my fiancee went to Crispin School this week to take photographs for the article in the Central Somerset Gazette and this is how they repay us. I will leave my opinion of them to myself and you can make up your own minds.

So after we had a chat about what we had planned for the evening and what duties were be covered by who. We then headed over to Glastonbury to confirm some of the last of our advertisers for the programme which will be given to everyone who attends the Pride of Central Somerset. If you are still interested in advertising or sponsoring an award please contact me via email.

Once we had finished in Glastonbury it was straight over to Wells to meet with the staff of the Mid Somerset News and Media for the final decisions on the nominations. We went through the list and after a meeting that lasted about an hour we had the final names. I am now happy to announce the the award winners.

Glastonbury & Street Rotary Club:
For their charity and community work across Mid Somerset.

Glastonbury & Street Lions Club:
For their charity and community work across Mid Somerset.

Roz Dommett:
Founder of the Ashcott Mother and Toddler Group.

Anna Butler:
For her success in the sport of trampolining.

Millfield Prep School, Glastonbury, and Brookside School:
Light up a Life services held in churches across the region at Christmas.

Steve Argent:
Fundraising for third world countries.

Frances Thomson:
Fund raising for people in Kenya.  Awareness and community work.

Gemma Lawson:
Community activities and work with youth.

Sue Wilton:
Christmas card delivery scheme in her home village of Ashcott.

Mid Somerset Diabetes Group:
For supporting people with the disease.

Martha Care Trust:
Fundraising and support for family’s with terminally ill children

Children’s World:
Community work & fund raising.

More details about the award winners will be posted as we get closer to the ceremony. So after we had gone through the nominations we went though a number of details for next weeks article, we also had a look at the prototype for the award after we had all agreed it was perfect for what we wanted we headed up to starbucks to confirm our performers.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce some of the performers to you. Firstly i would like to say how pleased i am that the Wells City Band has accepted my invitation to perform. I am also pleased to introduce our singers. At present we have two singers confirmed for the ceremony. Firstly we have Georgina Bates who is a student from Bridgwater College and Poppy Lopez a student from Crispin School. We spoke with them this evening about the details of the event and both of them seem very excited and are looking forward to presenting a number of the awards as well as performing for our guests.

So now its over to us to get the last few details in to place. Then its over to you. I sincerely hope you will join us in March. Its looking to be a fantastic evening.

 ”It’s important that we recognise what local people are doing,” said Mr Maine, who is arranging the event in conjunction with the Central Somerset Gazette. ”It makes a chance to look at the positive nature of people in the community, rather than dwelling on the negatives that surround us.”

Anyone can make a nomination, simply by filling in the adjacent form or by making an online nomination at http://www.alexmaine.com before December 31. Please complete the form giving as much information as possible about your nominee. Try to explain what their actual contribution in an area has been, as opposed to just listing jobs or posts held, although you may use additional resources by linking us to articles and videos on the web that will help us with the review of your nomination. 

“Nominations have started to come in online, now we are also offering local people the chance to put forward someone who has done something for you or the community by post,” said Philip Welch, editor of the Gazette.

All nominations will be treated in the strictest confidence, with the award ceremony being held in Glastonbury Town Hall on March 6, 2009. Please send completed paper forms to The Central Somerset Gazette, Southover, Wells, Somerset BA5 1UH.