The week of the 7th June was the Book Trade Charity’s Action Week, to help raise funds for our industry Charity.  If you weren’t already aware, the BTC  helps those who have worked in the book trade (publishing, bookselling, distribution) for more than a year and who find themselves in difficult personal circumstances.  If you meet their criteria you may be eligible for assistance. 
As our contribution to their action week we held a cake sale at our job club and raised £40.  It isn’t too late for you to make a donation - they accept donations all year round.

We’ve been doing a little bit of housekeeping and you’ll probably notice there has been a Spring Clean.  The majority of the archive has been moved to Suzanne’s personal website at http://www.suzannecollier.com, where she’ll continue to blog on her progress.  The bookcareers blog will continue here but focus on more on our current work and exploits.

Well everyone else is talking about the snow so it only seems right to join in.  I wonder how many of you have been ‘snow heroes’ this week – struggling into the office against the odds? Or have you been working at home? Has your children’s school been closed? Maybe your boss called a ‘snow day’, not realising that the white stuff was here to stay.  It is at times like this that smart companies will be  implementing a successful Business Continuity Plan (BCP)- a plan that enables the company to carry on its normal business in times of ‘crisis’ – be it snow, flooding,  a key member of staff being unable to work, or any other emergency. 

For those without a BCP, the snow that hit London and the South East on Wednesday was forecast at least 2 days earlier – that should have given employers and employees enough time for a discussion about who was going in to office, if there were any changes in hours, a reassessment of priorities, risks or threats to any ongoing projects, whether some staff could work at home and what work could be done at home.

Booksellers have an altogether different set of problems – that if their shop isn’t open, they don’t trade and if they don’t trade, they don’t have an income. The lack of people out and about in town centres is sure to make a difference too.    
 
The forecast today indicates that this weather will last for at least another 10 days.  Bookcareers.com will carry on as normal. The only difference being that we’ve postponed one job club and that our face to face meetings are taking place over the phone or via skype.  We have back up plans installed in case our internet or telephone connections go down; others know how to run the business if I am not available.  With that thought, perhaps it is time I booked a holiday.

A friend passed me a link this morning. If you have ever worked in sales do you recognise any of your customers? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

It is one thing to register with twitter, it is another thing to tell everyone.  I’m on twitter.  You can follow me @suzannecollier