Author: Deborah Castellanos
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Searching a Newspaper Archive Effectively
I remember sitting in the basement of the old library, the air thick with that peculiar, sweet scent of decaying paper and damp stone, squinting through thick spectacles at a microfilm reader. My fingers were stained grey, and my eyes… Continue reading
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Volunteering Around a Full Time Job
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall back in ’94, staring at a stack of glossy brochures promising that “meaningful civic engagement” required a formal board of directors and a thirty-page constitution. It was nonsense, of course. People were… Continue reading
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Getting an Item Onto the Parish Council Agenda
I remember sitting in a drafty village hall back in ’94, watching a well-meaning group of residents get absolutely steamrolled by a single, overly-defensive clerk. They had arrived with nothing but passion and a handful of complaints, and they left… Continue reading
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Reading a Planning Application Without a Degree
I remember sitting in a drafty parish hall back in ’94, surrounded by twenty-five furious neighbours, all clutching photocopies of a developer’s proposal like they were holy relics. We had the passion, certainly, but we lacked the clarity; we were… Continue reading
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Nonconformist Records and Where They Hide
I remember sitting in a drafty parish hall three years ago, staring at a pile of crumbling, water-damaged ledgers that smelled faintly of damp wool and old tobacco. A well-meaning consultant had told our little committee that we’d need to… Continue reading
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Writing a Planning Objection That Counts
I remember sitting in a drafty community hall back in the nineties, watching a group of perfectly lovely, well-meaning neighbors crumble because they thought they needed a high-priced solicitor to make their voices heard. They spent hundreds of pounds on… Continue reading
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Reading a Church Like a Document
I remember standing in the drafty vestry of St. Jude’s back in ’94, clutching a stack of damp, crumbling blueprints that looked more like a jigsaw puzzle than a floor plan. My committee was convinced we needed a high-priced surveyor… Continue reading
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Telling People What You Did With Their Answers
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall in 1994, watching a local officer hand out a forty-page glossy binder to a room full of skeptical residents. He called it a “comprehensive summary of engagement,” but all the neighbors saw… Continue reading
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Six Weeks of Promotion, Week by Week
I remember sitting in a drafty parish hall back in ’94, staring at a pile of expensive, glossy flyers that we’d spent our tiny budget on, only to realize not a single soul in the village had actually seen them.… Continue reading
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A Survey With Six Questions
I remember sitting in a drafty church hall in 1994, staring at a stack of fifty survey forms that had been returned with nothing but blank spaces or, worse, scribbled insults in the margins. We had spent weeks trying to… Continue reading
