Behind the scenes at Stan’s Cafe there’s a freezing cold office and behind the freezing cold office is the toasty warm meeting room at Elias Topping where our board of directors met on Wednesday. Our board get very little public recognition but are a key part of the company. They provide us advice and support. They are a bulwark and encouragement. Officially they meet four or five times each year and legally they employ all the staff.

We’re tremendously grateful to all our board, who undertake their duties on a voluntary basis and are without exception tremendously committed, positive and active supporters of the company, we value all their input. We are particularly grateful to Alan James who, in his seven year stint as Chair has led us from The Cleansing of Constance Brown, through The Steps Series, the second world version of Of All The People In All The World and the birth and development of @ AE Harris. In December, after this marathon period at the front, Alan decided to drop back into the peloton. His position as leader has been taken by Rob Elkington.

It is a demanding time for the board as a new Arts Council Application is due in a month which would see us through until 2018, this application must spring from a revised version of our business plan. On Wednesday an early draft of the plan was put to rights by the board – the general message being “give clear evidence of all the assertions you make and don’t be too modest. Sage advice. Time will tell if it works but if not it won’t be the fault of The Board who are great.