Marie Basting, Our New Networks Coordinator!

Marie Basting
@riewriting


SCBWI British Isles has a new Networks Coordinator!
The British Isles chapter is currently divided into ten area networks and SCBWI writer, Marie Basting has stepped up to coordinate SCBWIs from the south west of England to the south east of Scotland!



About Marie

After many years of working as a Change Manager, Marie decided she fancied a change herself. So she took redundancy and signed up for the MA Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School. Marie is now in her second year of the course, and as well as the academic side of things, has enjoyed being involved in delivering a range of creative writing and educational activities to school children as a University Ambassador.

Marie lives in Manchester with her husband, son and a stuffed koala called Tommy. She is currently working on two main projects. A chapter book for 7-9 year-olds, which she is rewriting for the six millionth time and a Young Adult novel set in 1990, which is based on her family’s appeal to free her Dad when he was a hostage in Iraq. At the time Marie was a student in Nottingham, so the novel is a bit Skins takes on Saddam Hussein. If she’s had enough wine at Winchester, she’ll probably tell some of you about it.

Marie says...

I’m really excited to have joined the regional team as Networks Coordinator. There are so many great things happening in our Networks already, and I’m looking forward to working with the Network Organisers to develop this further. I’ve spent the last few weeks getting to know the team and I’m so pleased to be working with such an amazing bunch. We’ll be meeting in Winchester, before the conference, to talk about our plans for the Networks in 2015.

Over the coming months I’ll be looking to try and ensure that the Networks support the wider development agenda for the British Chapter of the SCBWI. It would be great to get the Networks more involved in delivering activity for our published authors and I’ll be talking with the Pulse Team about how we might do this. I’ll also be looking at our links with potential partner organisations, for example Universities and festivals, with a view to strengthening our local presence.

Finally, I’m keen to look at how we can build a stronger presence in the areas where we haven’t yet developed any local activity. I’m particularly interested in how we can support and involve members in some of our less densely populated areas, where because of geography face to face meetings might not be practical. Technology permitting, I’ll be exploring options such as on-line buddying or localised chat groups.

Effective communication and collaboration is a theme that cuts across all of these agendas and I’ll be working hard to build on our already strong relationship with members. I’d love to hear from you if you have any thoughts on how can develop Network activity.



You can find out more about Marie via her blog http://riewriting.wordpress.com/ which you may have seen appearing in the Ten-Minute Blog Break.




5 comments:

  1. A very warm welcome to you Marie - it certainly sounds as if you have a damn fine plan. Great stuff!

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  2. Thanks Nancy, and a warm welcome right back at you!

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  3. Thanks Nancy, and a warm welcome right back at you!

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  4. Welcome Marie! It was really great meeting you at Winchester, look forward to working together!

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  5. Thanks John.Lovely to meet you too, and likewise I am looking forward to working with you.

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