So yesterday I finally put this page “live”. We’re at: http://salisburystrokesupport.org.uk

The only whiff of complication here is that I wrote a date generator, just so we can say firmly “our next meeting is on 1st January”, or whatever. If we just said “every fortnight” then we’d be forcing someone, even after they found our page, to contact us to find exact dates. The page had been sitting there for about a month, fully developed, and I finally got some feedback I was waiting for. Although the page was sitting there ready to go, there were two last-minute developments:

1. I spoke to a representative from the Stroke Association. All of the group had thought it more professional to use their Salisbury office (which is unmanned but which has an answer machine), as opposed to an individual, as the main point of contact.The Stroke Association originally seemed quite “up” for that, but on Wednesday, they said they weren’t. It sounds to me like there’s been some steer that they want nothing to do with us. But that doesn’t really matter, as the group has always functioned as a standalone group, at least since I’ve been going there. It does have implications, because the Stroke Association originally offered to get some flyers printed up for us, but the decision to say we’re a totally separate entity means that the offer has evaporated. So of course, saying this saves them the cost of those leaflets – which of course might well be the driver in the first place. But I’m clear on what this original offer meant – getting a few hundred leaflets printed up costs around £25 (I looked yesterday). So we were never being promised the earth, exactly. Of course, they might have seen these flyers as the thin end of the wedge… Anyway, I’ve just used my own name and number instead.
2. On the web site I had used the same font as the Stroke Association, basically because it associated us with each other. People would see their leaflets up at the hospital, see our leaflets, and make a link. I’d tried a few times to locate the origin of the font, with limited success. Yesterday, I happened to come across some copyright information for the font. It pointed to a London design agency, which sells……fonts! Again, I couldn’t find the font i wanted to use on their web site, but there were other fonts on there which they wanted to charge several hundred pounds for people to use. There was a vague “if you’re a charity, call us” but I judged that, whatever the cost, it was unlikely to be zero. In any case, we’re a peer support group, with no formal arrangement between us. And from my perspective, I really didn’t even want to spend even a penny, so instead I used an Adobe font (which I am licensed to do, by virtue of owning a license for one of their other products). Last minute change, therefore. As a bonus, this new font seems a bit crispier and smoother. It’s still quite “scripty”, which I think is informal, but possibly easier to read? You be the judge:

Old font:

 New font: