We hope you’re all taking good care of yourselves and not feeling too overwhelmed by the events of the past few weeks. Predicting what the future looks like in circumstances like these is impossible, and trying to do so is probably not good for your mental health either, so we urge you to take one day at a time and pay as much attention as you can to what matters in life, and not stay glued to your newsfeeds.
We decided on Saturday to cancel next weekend’s social, and the Devon Carbon Plan and Net Zero Exeter workshops that were planned for the end of the month, on the grounds we should be doing everything we can to avoid accelerating community transmission. We’re glad to say government policy has since caught up with what seems to have emerged as widespread public opinion.
We decided not to post this over the weekend as we didn’t want to interrupt everyone’s personal space while the gravity of the situation gradually became apparent, but we would now like to update you with our first thoughts about what the next few months might look like for Exeter Observer. Of course, there’s every likelihood that events will overtake us, but we’re nevertheless determined to continue developing the project.
We were very saddened that we have had to cancel all the events we had planned. We’ve been tremendously encouraged by the talent, commitment and downright loveliness of the people who joined the course in January, and by everyone who would have started the course last weekend.
We hope that we can get together again as a group when it is safe to do so, which we hope will be sometime during the summer. We shall see. In the meantime, we are committed to supporting all those who want to continue developing their research and writing skills by making use of online voice and video calling, and are happy to offer remote one-to-one tuition to anyone who would otherwise have started the course on Saturday.
While many aspects of daily life will change dramatically during the coming months, most institutions and organisations that are of public interest will keep operating, albeit in rather unfamiliar ways, and there will continue to be plenty of important local news that needs reporting. If Exeter Observer was needed before these changes came, it will be needed during them, and afterwards too, only more so. Much of the work of producing and publishing takes place at home in any case.
There are other workstreams that are essential to the development of the project which are also desk-based. These include extending our social media reach, improving the website in various ways and adding to the key topic notes so they become a go-to guide for content contributors. We’re also still working towards becoming a co-operative and raising share capital to launch a monthly print edition and start paying wages.
And there are even tasks on the todo list that involve getting out and about in ways that are compatible with maintaining a safe social distance, such as creation of a stock photo pool.
There’s more than enough to keep us busy for the foreseeable future. That is insofar as the future is foreseeable at all. And there seems to be plenty of scope to keep publishing stories for all those who want to write them. Although, of course, we appreciate that there are many other important priorities in circumstances such as these as well.
So we’re flying flags which say we have set a course for the good ship Exeter Observer through the rough weather and everyone will always be welcome on board while we have steerage. After all: smooth seas do not skilful sailors make.
