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All good things must come to end and it is with a heavy heart that we are to say goodbye to Cath Chaplin, one of our Project Managers, who is leaving us at the end of next week; namely, Friday the 19th September 2008 for pastures new at the swanky and newly rebuilt, Tong High School in Bradford.

There she will take up the position of ‘Pastoral Administrator’.

Now like us, you’re probably asking yourself what on earth is a Pastoral Administrator? Well, we asked the same and learnt that it’s someone who is tasked with keeping the staff, students and the parents at the school organised and in check. So woe betide those staff members who don’t get their paperwork in on time or those kids who whinge about losing their dinner money!

How Time Flies

Cath has been with us from the very early days of Keyclicks, joining us some four and half years ago as a part-time book keeper. Since then she’s been involved in every aspect of our business ranging from administration through to customer services before working her way up to the role of Project Manager.

Her current role with us as a PM involves keeping our designers and developers ‘in check’ (not often an easy task) and plenty of liaison with our clients, so her new role at the school should be a breeze.

It’s fair to say that Cath’s new job at the at the school offers her a lot more flexibility than we can offer her. Now that her young son, Zack is starting to sprout up the flexibility of a paid six week Summer break each year is probably worth its weight in gold. Imagine the savings in childcare! Who says teachers have it hard?

So whilst we are very sad to see Cath leave us, we can see the benefits for her and her family that the job will bring in the long term and we wish her the best of luck.

If you’re a client, associate or supplier or ours and have enjoyed working with Cath during her time with Keyclicks, why not drop her an email before she goes; cath.chaplin@keyclicks.co.uk, with your goodwill message or say hello on her Facebook profile.

Also, any donations towards the beers at her leaving do next Friday will be greatly appreciated!

As an element of interest, we’ve pointed out to Cath that the Tong High School web site is ‘lacking’ in some areas in our opinion. Once she gets her feet under the table, an introduction is in order I think.

All the best Cath. We’ll miss you.

The Fading Attractions of Office Life

O2 (the mobile telecoms company) have recently surveyed small businesses about their working arrangements so I read in one of the nationals earlier this week.

The article made interesting reading and reported that O2’s survey, conducted amongst 530 small businesses, found that 50 per cent of the companies contacted; do not work in a formal office environment. Of this 50 per cent, 24 per cent did have an office but spent most of their time working remotely or from home. A further 18 per cent had made the transition to this style of working within the last few months.

The survey also found that almost two thirds of companies that are still working from fixed offices, plan to give them up and move back home within the year.

The main reason apparently is the credit crunch, spiralling fuel and therefore commuting costs and the rising cost of office space.

Who can blame them?

Give the availability of low cost technology include high speed broadband, WiFi, VoIP and mobile internet I’m not surprised this is happening. Couple a home based business with a professionally designed web site which is suitable for small businesses and hey presto; who’s to know (or care) where a business is based so long as it delivers a professional job to its clients.

We as a company maintain a number of virtual workers who base themselves at home. Regular readers of our blog will also note that we have one employee who splits her time 50/50 between our Heckmondwike office and her home: although this is for ‘childcare’ reasons and not the ‘credit crunch’.

Kim Underhill, our office administrator braved the rain in yesterday’s Race for Life event at Bradford’s Lister Park in order to support Cancer Research UK.

And boy did it rain! But spirits weren’t dampened as Kim, along with her daughter and friends (not to mention her pink t-shirted dog, Molly) and 5,000 other women walked and ran the 5K circuit around Bradford’s Lister Park (or Manningham Park as I used to know it as a kid growing up in Bradford).

Kim’s time was in just under 45 minutes raising hundreds of pounds for Cancer Research UK.

Well done to everyone. You deserve your medals. In the pic above, Kim is pictured on the right holding the lead. Molly is the one sat down!.

We work hard at what we do and take pride in every project we deliver to our clients.

So being human, it gives us a warm feeling inside when someone says ‘thanks’ or ‘we love your work’. Whether this acknowledgement is conveyed to us in simple email or attached to a bunch of flowers it matters not and makes us realise that everything in life is worthwhile.

Such an acknowledgement was received this week in the form of a simple card from one of our long standing clients whom we do ad-hoc work for, who thanked us for the work we have recently done for her company.

The gesture wasn’t expensive (the cost of a card and a stamp as can be seen from the pic above) – but it makes us feel good and you get bet your bottom-dollar the next time this client wants some work doing, we’ll give her more value than she pays for and in double quick time.

We are only human after all and given the nature of our industry, we have some big egos to massage.

Happy days!

One of our clients, Steve Wade: a director of the engineering company Auto-Lift UK Ltd in Bradford had a kidney transplant from his brother back in October 2000.

As a way of “giving something back� Steve is planning to raise funds for the UK charity Kidney Research UK by undertaking the gruelling 26 mile inline skating marathon at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit in London on the 31st August 2008.

We think Steve’s efforts are tremendous and his cause is a worthy one, so we’d love it if readers of our blog could help Steve raise cash for this worthwhile charity which does a lot to raise awareness of and develop treatments for kidney related conditions for people of all ages.

You can sponsor Steve directly online through his Just Giving page at www.justgiving.com/stevewade

You can find more about Kidney Research UK on their website at: www.nkrf.org.uk

If you’re a client or associate of ours and are planning a fundraising event for charity or some other worthwhile cause, please tell us about it and we’ll give you some exposure here on our blog.

Don’t forget to visit Steve’s sponsorship page with your credit card at the ready.