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Tests in Swindon

Tests of the boards were carried out in Swindon on Saturday 5th July 2008:

This yielded several surprising pieces of information:

• Wearing placards is like putting yourself in the stocks.
• Very large lightweight boards act like wings in high winds.
• It certainly grabs attention, for which eye contact must be avoided:
  A street sign is passive; you don't expect it to stare back at you.
• There was an unexpected air of welcome and sympathy from other street vendors.

Training sessions stop train-bound commuters

The first secret training session were held in the north car park of Chippenham railway station. This is the closest area to the office, and may not have been the most discrete choice for secret meetings.

Future sessions will be held in private in a gym.

In practice, however, no gyms would take the risk, and practicing has merged with working. Additional practice sessions run in John Cole's Park on Sundays.

Gazette & Herald coverage

The local paper for the Chippenham area is the first in with the story, during the last week of September 2008.

Calne Xmas Lights

This project advertised Calne Town Council's Christmas Lights Switch On on Saturday 29th November 2009.

Name Change

The sponsoring name has changed to a personal trading name after the Sponsor disputed it's own usage of it's own name. So while NWAS tries to prosecute itself, the temporary name is "Hodson Holdings". Just incase any of that made sense, the office address, ie that of NWAS, has not changed, nor has the sponsorship deal, which is to provide business support, and then apparently delegate it all back again.

The phone number will change when there is a workable alternative number, yet another person to answer it, and spare cash to rewrite all the billboards, reprint stationary, etc.

Problems Solved

There have been many problems over the last months of 2008, partly due to a tight budget, partly to colds &c, but mainly because of the difficulties scaling up occasional stiltwalking stunts into a full-time venture. Various problems that have been overcome include weightlifting training and new printing techniques. Now a set of posters can be produced and on the streets within a working day. Persisting delays include drying/curing time for inkjet prints and design delays until new computer equipment is purchased.

Name Change II

We have a new name, Stand Above the Crowd. This is a trading name of Miracle Delivery™, a personal brand name of Robin Hodson.

The name change progressed in four stages:

1. Originally, it was to be “Stand Above the Crowd”,
2. but then North Wiltshire Artspace (our Landlords) insisted on us using their name, “it would be a lot less hassle” they said. Eventually we agreed, and several redraftings of the business stationary later, everyone was happy.
3. NWAS found out a few weeks later that it is illegal for a part of a charity to be a profitable commercial enterprise, and instead of telling us, started telling anyone who contacted them that we were Passing Off ourselves as them. This caused some confusion at the time; see above. However, there was never any cause for concern: At that time we were an experimental project rather than a business, and although we broke even, we didn't actually make a profit, and so no rules were actually broken by anyone. At this stage, a temporary name was created, “Hodson Holdings”.
4. Following a surge of business and an avalanche of business advice at Chippenham Folk Festival 2009, the decision was made to become a full and formal business, with the original name, “Stand Above the Crowd”. Isn't life complicated?

Ministry of Silly Walks

“Hello, I've got a silly walk and I'd like a grant to help develop it.” So goes the opening line to the famous Monty Python sketch with John Clease. The DWP (Department of Work and Pensions, a government ministry) have offered us two grants, one of £1000 and another for £800, as start-up capital.
Update: Both grants were turned down, and replaced by an £800 fine, as punishment for declaring all expenses and submitting a full set of accounts on time. No good will come of this. Supposedly there's another £1000 fine due this year, as punishment for not having enough money to pay the tax bill. I don't know where they think this money is coming from. The phrase "cloud cuckoo land" spring's to mind.

New Phone Number

Our new phone number is 07811 550086 [changed again]. The old number is no longer valid, largely because the person manning it has virtually moved to Taunton. His actual phone remains in Chippenham.

Extended Winter

The winter of 2009/2010 has gone on far too long, and keeps coming back, even in April. Cold temperatures bring the risk of ice, and thus the lack of stiltwalking, and also the lack of practice and preparation. This has had two effects:

1. Advertising for Trainwest 2010 being cancelled, with leafleting also being hit hard.
2. A cooperative software writing project with Hunch Inc. whom are something like Google® in the early days.

Safety Delays

Not helped by the freak cold spell in December 2010 (strangely the rest of the winter wasn't too bad), some essential safety gear wore out (body armour), and getting replacement gear in my size took quite some doing, and travelling. We were not able to do Calne due to the icy conditions (and unreasonable fines from the DWP as punishment for being serious about looking for work). Now we have some from Jenson in California, so training has begun again, as of Tuesday 26th April 2011.

Credit Crunch

Due to the recession, I am also in the market for any "normal" employed work, and it'd be silly not to put that here seeing as I have free advertising for myself. Have a look at my CV, on freedom.is/work.

I also have a video CV at freedom.is/staff

uxonym experiment

I've switched the office blog into twitter, so the latest updates will be on there, with events I'm attending on facebook

As an experiment, I'll be doing more stiltwalking without the boards, and instead "mysterious" little signs saying "@uxonym". This is my twitter-space, and it'll also be interesting to find out how effective various types of advertising are by watching how many extra Followers I attract.

The original office blog has been eroded somewhat by facebook and twitter microblogging, I am looking at ways to combine the lengthier stories of the blog with the news updates of twitter, perhaps turning the current blog into an archive in the process.

Old Phone Number

Our new phone number back to 07811 550086. Despite being asked to provide a landline number by a multitude of people, promoting it heavily, and picking up within one ring, no body has used it, and so we have withdrawn this service. Therefore the experiment with freephone numbers will now not being going ahead.

Lots more work

Thanks to social networking, beer networking, and a replaced promotions manager, lots more work has come in. Much of it for charity. We were out in force at the Emergency Services Show 2011 at Hullavington Airfield, helping BMRG again (your twentieth emergency service), covered in flashing blue lights and with a legal expert on site as we were not that far from the police stand. The next week it was Wootton Bassett High Street, taking part in a Rock Video. Don't panic though; no acoustic roles were assigned to us! And now it is the Christmas Lights season, with possible gigs in Swindon and Calne in the second half of November 2011, and festival bookings coming along nicely for 2012.

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