Yesterday was a rather special day for AMB Cote d'Azur as we held our first Senior Editorial Meeting at our offices in Chateauneuf-de-Grasse. I'd been wanting to have a group get-together for some time but when Ineke asked if she and her partner Michael could come and stay with us for a few days - the occasion suddenly presented itself.
With Ineke joining us from the UK, the team was made complete with Martin Hills and Carol Hellyer up from Provence while Reverend Anne Naylor, Stephanie Brown and Jill Shepperd, who live in our part of the world, made the short drive over from their respective villages. After initial introductions we first had lunch outside by the pool made more refreshing with a chilled glass of Rosé (well, it can't all be serious can it?) before we got down to the nitty-gritty - dissecting the new website. I must admit that everyone had already received a prior glimpse of the test site so were fairly familiar with the new layout. However, in the mean time I had continued filling it with yet more articles and features, so there were new elements that needed to be discussed and reviewed.As I sat outside with the AMB Team, I cast my mind back to the origins of the site and how it all started - rather simply using FrontPage, one computer and a small corner of our living room. Four years later we have our own offices, the website has become almost a living, breathing creature and we have a total of nineteen contributing authors. I still marvel at it all.
Ineke wanted to know why I'd called it the AMB Senior Editorial Meeting and was it because most of the group had reached the half way mark in their lives? Good Heavens No! I replied and said it just sounded better. After years of working long office hours and arranging multitudes of business meetings - old habits die hard. Anyway, I've decided to call it something different next time round . . .
Next year I've decided we'll hire a coach and bring the Cote d'Azur group over to meet up with our Provence group and make a special day of it. I might even manage to remember to take a group photo!
