Who is behind the Make It Macclesfield website? How is it funded? Who is managing it? Who is driving this? What's the objective? Unless I'm missing something, I can't see the usual Contact Us or About Us links most web sites have......
Found the answer afterall under the get involved page... http://www.makeitmacclesfield.co.uk/who-we-are
I have been trying to find out about this organisation and have sent a number of emails to them and not yet had an acknowledgement. So I tried the Council (the contact for the breakfast meetings) to find out about the Economic Forum, how to get an invite to the breakfast meetings and who is in the "Make it Macclesfield" thing and they haven't replied, even though the lady promised to call back. I suppose that one question that is current for many of us is whether Wilson Bowden are members of the Macclesfield Economic Forum or linked either to it or to the "Make it Macclesfield" thing?
And... how many people posting on this forum are employed or retained in some capacity by Wilson Bowden or to promote their plans for Macc
The owners of this site are as follows:- Domain name: makeitmacclesfield.co.uk Registrant: Verve Brands Ltd Registrant type: UK Limited Company, (Company number: 5840153) Registrant's address: Guildford House Heather Close Lyme Green Business Park Macclesfield Cheshire SK11 0LR United Kingdom
Yes, I got that info from the web. And It was the webmaster I repeatedly emailed with no reply, so presumably Verve Brands are the ones who don't want to talk. Given their inability or unwillingness to communicate effectively either on the site (maybe English is not their first language?) or by email, it makes me feel a tad uneasy. What I don't know is who is in the Economic Forum, who, apart from Verve, is in or behind the "Make it Macclesfield" thing and how one gets invited to the breakfast meetings. Does anyone out there know?
Still no response from Jenny Anderson, despite her promise! Thanks Col, I did have that number and may call them soon if they don't start to talk to people. However, it is really up to them to engage with people in the town; something they seem strangely reluctant to do.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Is anyone from MIM ever going to respond to emails or this forum?
After your rude and arrogant approaches they would be fully in their rights not to respond. I believe that many forums and boards refer to them as a "troll" or "flamer" who only exist to kill off any discourse which you seem to have achieved. No doubt you will make some further demands, or questions. I for one will try and ignore you and your comment and resist a discourse, if I can. Jerry Brown.
Pos and kettles, "Jerry", pots and kettles. Anybody can contribute, as you have just proven. Do you have any comments on MIM, the site, the lack of response or anything at all to do with the subject? It would be really interesting to discuss these things with you.
Aha, just had an email from Ms Anderson re. the next business breakfast (thanks). Things are looking up.
Hi Macc Spider, Haha, amusing posts. My only apology is I couldn't be part of the banter a little earlier. I am Jason Patrick, MD of Vibe Limited (formerley Verve Brands! we moved and at the same time decided we'd evolve ourself to reflect our proposition better. We are a Macclesfield company based at the bottom of Buxton Road.) and you're right that we registered the domain, built the site and created the new identity for Macclesfield. I don't know where you sent emails to but we have not received any, so we'll check this out. It could be with our wonderful web/thread editor Jane Munro (Loop and Treacle Market superstar). Unfortunately as well we do not frequent the site as often as we should due to time restrictions and our focus on things positive (and hopefully beneficial!) we have not noticed your posts to help you in your research. I hope you are now booked onto the business breakfast as I and other economic forum members would be delighted to hear what you have to offer in advice to make Macclesfield a warmly regarded destination town and possibly how you can contribute with time/services to help us all achieve our vision in these tough times. Thanks for involving yourself in the forum and hope to liaise soon, cheers
Hi It is the “vision” that is wrong and I think potentially counterproductive. It is also tired and derivative; how many similar slogans have been put forward by towns and boroughs across the country in the last 50 years and how does this stand out? As a vision, it is very poor indeed; it is simply not inspirational or visionary. Frankly, it is rather embarrassing. The logo is also drearily uninspiring; why tartan? What is there to be proud of in a tartan M? The responses I have had from people I have talked to (admittedly a small sample size), if they are aware of it in the first place, vary. Many wonder what right the MIM people have to impose this on the town and others comment about having a really good brand already - called Macclesfield. People seem to feel patronised by the tone and some of the things that have been said as well. I really wonder what the majority of people in the town would say that this does for them or even if they feel whether it is anything to do with them at all. The "vision" or aim does not really do anything for us in terms of long term prosperity or self sufficiency. It is the Greek approach to prosperity, relying on the fickle whims of tourists rather than building or continuing to develop a productive and sustainable economic base. As someone said earlier, Made in Macclesfield means more than Make it Macclesfield. The tie up that you have with the proposed development seems flawed; how will building an identikit town centre develop our prosperity? MIM and the development will, I suggest, lead to the development of few jobs. Many of those jobs will be totally reliant on people outside the town and the majority will be of the McJob type. Re. contributing to the current "vision", sorry, I won't. I contribute quite a lot to the town and have done so over the years and hope that they have been things that develop the town and its people or contribute to quality of life. I find it hard to support this dreary and misconceived approach. What I will do when I get to one of the meetings* is suggest more effective and more productive approaches as well as ways to engage people throughout the town. Ditch the current approach and start again would be my advice. That is the message I will take to the meeting when I get to one. We need to ask some fundamental questions, including: · What do we want the town to be? · What do we want the town to do (for us)? We can ask the similar things about the proposed development, including: · What is the town centre to be for? · What do we want the town centre to do (for us)? Until we have clarity about these and similar things then any “vision” is meaningless and will only succeed through chance. Finally, communication is king here and MIM has not done at all well on that. The website is atrocious; who wrote it? How many people will be able to understand it? Putting up a forum and then not monitoring it and responding quickly do not seem to be the best ways to get people involved. And communication with the majority of people in the town is not effective at the moment. Get the communication right (listen as well as tell) and then we may have a chance of really doing something different and inspirational. *This can be an issue as I own and run a company that works overseas, amongst other things. However, this means that I am an importer of wealth to the town and the country - and hopefully will open opportunities for employment here in the future. And I can proudly say that what I do is made in Macclesfield! (edited for rubbish typing)
Jason, I am surprised that you replied to Macc Spider at all. His comments and demands have been little short of being rude, ignorant, arrogant, and condescending. Perhaps the Avatar says it all. Some people are on here making some form of contribution, and in doing so are using their own names and identities, not hiding behind a rather silly pseudonym, constantly sniping from anonymity. If he/she really wanted to contribute, instead of bragging about running an international business he/she should us all what is his/her firm? What does it do? and What is his/her name? It might allow people to make a valued decision on that involvement. It was strange that when someone from Tytherington High posted asking for Work experience opportunities the silence from Mac Spider and his/her firm was absolutely deafening. Only one firm replied, so, thank you to Phil. I wish that he/she would stop decrying people for trying to do something positive. He/she need to think outside the box and come back down to earth and to reality. The Town Centre planning went through much discussion and contribution, and eventually one of the four plans was approved by the public of Macclesfield. It was not the scheme which I voted for as I would have gone away from Debenhams and gone for the scheme which included Asda. I now find it difficult to recall all the plans, as originally I had copies of them all but shredded them about 12 months ago. Macc Spider does not speak for the people of Macclesfield, only for his/her point of view whilst rubbishing and insulting any other opinion. He/she demands answers to questions, questions which have already been addressed and discussed several years ago, and decided. It is unfortunately a fact of life that you will always get people who are never satisfied and have a great regard for their own importance. If he or she does have a firm in Macclesfield then I thank my lucky stars that I do not work within that tired thinking organisation. With his or her abject criticism I doubt if anyone could take him or her seriously. In the meantime MIM carry on doing a great job. Jerry Brown
Fantastic passion Macc Spider. Soon we will get the time (inbetween working) to put up the brand style guide so you can see the intelligence behind the brand, unfortunately trying to fit this in for FREE for our community doesn't allow us to work as quickly as we'd like. But the shapes in the identity are actually golden rectangles (shapes used to plt up artwork in the silk designing industry) and they are crossed over as in the warp & weft process (also the silk industry). You may even denote that the logo sits over the word Macclesfield and it is a representation that we are situated at the foothills of the glorious Peak District. The 3 colours are primary initially (to reflect our genuine down to earth nature but the fact you can get all colours from these is representational of our ability to innovate - Silk/Pharmaceuticals/Etc.) and then we chose them to be heritage as this reflected the depth of history that Macclesfield is steeped in. Really I could go on about the identity but I am sure you'd prefer to hang fire and review it on the site soon. More importantly the identity has not meant to be an imposition on Macclesfield but something that we created together. As you are probably aware, when you have alot of passionate people rallied together the best way to unification is to create a shared vision and values, understand offerings, areas for development, differentiators and ascertain strategies so that tactics can be deployed in the attainment of the vision. This has all been done over nearly a 12 month period and it really is a shame that you went under the radar and we haven't had your invaluable contributions to help us make a success of the town and get you on board. Maybe there's still time!! Anyway we ran a 6 week survey spending a couple of thousands of pounds getting leaflets, posters, rickshaw livery, radio slots, etc. together to try and get as much participation as possible. We also did personal group interviews with key stakeholder groups around the town to extrapolate your forementioned queries. Out of the meetings and surveys it was conceived that communication was poor around the town, we had alot to offer we just weren't shouting loud or effectively enough, we had no way of articulating what makes Macclesfield, we had no common unifying goals to make the most of the assetts/resources and we had a whole host of other USEFUL suggestions to help us become better. So, now with an identity in place an economic forum has been put together from ambassadors of key stakeholder groups-such as education, business, property, visitor economy, housing, etc. Who currently are devising strategies to 'make Macclesfield a warmly regarded destination town'. This vision (Not a slogan- that's advertising) summises in a very short and memorable way our desire to make Macclesfield a destination not only for visitors but for our community (and both residents and businessew)- somewhere you are happy to live/visit/do business in/etc. and the warmly regarded part is self explanatory. The economic forum is now working with the community to develop strategies to meet this vision, statements that say what needs to be true to actualise this statement. Then tactics will be put together for this board to lead and rollout to achieve the strategies...and all of this is being done FOC by these people. Oh yes! Make it Macclesfield is two dimensional. Internally it is used to stimulate us to actually stop whinging and get on and 'MAKE' it Macclesfield and the other direction is for visitors consideration....for X make it Macclesfield. (It also stems from the research we made into the origin of Macclesfield and the fact it used to be called Makers-field...so hopefully we'll bring back that positivity and proactivity that made us back then!
Wow. Well, I now feel sutably patronised. Must remember not to whinge and to get on. It really doesn't matter how you planned this thing, the results are dismal. It is a slogan not a vision (I could go on for a while about what makes an effective vision, and this simply isn't one. Trust me, I know what I am talking about). Which "key stakeholder groups" did you interview. What about the ones that you didn't consider to be "key"? How did you decide who was "key"? Are rickshaws and leaflets the best way to communicate with people? How many pepople listen to local radio? I have no doubt that you put effort into the research but I wonder if it was effective and how you arrived at this dreary result. I would be delighted to advise you on how to carry out effective needs analysis and research etc. I think, also, you have ignored much of what I said. The town already had an identity. Imposing this dreary slogan is not creating an identity. And the concept of making us a destination town rather than a busy, vibrant and productive town is misconceived. The logo is dire and tartan. That fact that you have to explain it in such detail demonstrates that it doesn't work. Face facts: it is just a tartan M. The website is in places almost incomprehensible in places - did you write the website copy by any chance? Now, it is great that people are putting energy into the town* but you have set off in the wrong direction. You can either get defensive or you can listen and maybe we can really get something going that engages everyone. As it is, this is simply not going to work; it is heading in the wrong direction and will do little for the town in the long term. Worse, it distracts people from doing what is effective and there is a real danger of it contributing to initiative fatigue. There is a real difference between being busy and being effective. I suspect that we'll see the MIM crew go into defensive mode and dismiss alternative views as those of whingers, but I really hope that I am proved wrong. *Although the implications that a. nobody did before, b. if we don't agree with what you are doing we don't support the town and c. there is no proactivity [terrible word - it just means activity] or positivity, are just plain wrong and insult the very many people in this town who contribute to its financial and social development.
Oh dear "Jerry", it is so easy for you to hide behind an anonymous web identity (or many of them in your case) isn't it? My identity is public (perhaps you haven't looked) and I haven't hidden it like you have! Perhaps you'll disclose as much as I have in my profile. Anyway, I loved your post. One of your best, even better than the ones you have posted elsewhere under so many, many sock puppet identities. Excellent, keep them up. They always bring a smile to my face, thank you. I'll look forward to the next one.
Apologies Mac Spider I just tried to explain what we have done and the reasoning behind it. Not really defensive more an explanation. Anyway, really look forward to receiving some of your knowledge and suggestions as to steering and helping our town to a better place. Either at the business breakfast or my offices if you get the chance...as we could do with as much support as possible. If you attended the business breakfast it is an open forum to raise issues face to face and with access to people with far far more acumen than myself which could be great for a man of your education and opinion. Look forward to meeting you soon
