With great regret, Jeff Williams, our Public Relations Officer for the past 18 months has laid aside his pen, put the telephone back on its cradle, his mobile back in his pocket and sadly retired from his duties as our Public Relations Officer.
Jeff has worked tirelessly to bring the talents of our choir to the attention of anyone and everyone by his non-stop activities of writing, e-mailing and phoning anyone he can find to advertise and promote our choir. He has contacted many other choirs, has assisted charities in publicising their own concerts with us, promoted us to Members of Parliament, Assembly Members, local councillors and even contacted Buckingham Palace to see if we could perform as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, not to mention the Olympics Committee. He has been instrumental in contacting ‘Only Boys Aloud’ to discover a route by which a young choir could become part of us. Many times, his appeals have fallen on deaf ears, but never giving up, he has recently achieved a concert in conjunction with Mousehole Male Voice Choir in Truro next August. Among his greatest achievements was to obtain a performance at this year’s St David’s Day celebrations at the Senedd, a recent concert at Colston Hall and successfully approaching John Griffiths AM to become Patron of our Cycle Club.
However, there is no doubt that Jeff’s greatest gift to us all has been in his witty, descriptive, poetic Press Releases – each one tells a story and he has, as probably no other PRO in the past has done, obtained almost weekly coverage in one or more local or Welsh National newspapers ( I make it at least 37 since last October, including six weeks in a row in the South Wales Argus). Jeff’s amusing and descriptive writings can be read on our PRESS RELEASE page. Thank you Jeff, on behalf of Côr Meibion Caldicot for showing us and the people out there the way forward. Tribute must also go to Theresa, his long suffering wife for her patience and understanding during Jeff’s term of office. Without the wives of this choir giving their full and valued support, many functions and activities would not be possible.
Jeff’s quill, telephone and e-mail, not to mention loud-hailer, has been picked up by myself, Lyn Gauntlett (I can’t say too much because it’s me writing this), but may I say that Jeff will be an extemely hard act to follow and I consider it a privilege to be asked to take over his mantle. He, together with chorister Mark Stocker and accompanist Steve Berry have all offered me their full support to help with this important role. Effective communication, publicity and public contact will be a vital component of our 50 year Anniversary celebrations and together as a team, we will be looking at all the means at our disposal to publicise and promote our fabulous choir and its singing to the outside world. Will keep you posted.