The Objectives for Establishing the Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland Were

1998 Innovation Grant Project Cairns City Library Service as Administrator for - Atherton Shire Library, Cairns City Library Service, Cardwell Shire Library, Cook Shire Library, Croydon Shire Library, Douglas Shire Centenary Library, Johnstone Shire Library, Mareeba Shire Library and Weipa Town Library

Establishment of storytelling Guild of Far North Queensland

This project, to establish a Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland, was jointly undertaken by the Council libraries of Cairns, Cairns, Cardwell, Cook, Croydon, Douglas, Johnstone, Mareeba, and Weipa Shires. Introduction The establishment of the Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland was made possible by a successful Innovation/Project Grant application from the Library Board of Queensland. The grant was for $24,300 and was a joint application from the Council libraries of Cairns, Cairns, Cardwell, Cook, Croydon, Douglas, Johnstone, Mareeba and Weipa Shires. The grant was administered by Cairns City Library Service, with Ms Lee Finklestein as project manager. The grant period was from March 1998 to June 1999. Objectives The objectives for establishing the Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland were:  to facilitate the learning of storytelling skills throughout the community;  to establish a co-operative resource base of storytelling skills, training sessions and materials that is able to be accessed by all interested community members;  to increase cross cultural communication and understanding by establishing storytelling amongst all cultural and indigenous groups in the community;  to encourage awareness in the community of library staff, as a first point of contact, and of libraries as resource centres and venues for storytelling;  to reinforce cooperation between regional public libraries and local community organisations with an interest in promoting literature in line with the objectives of the Young Peoples Services Department of the Public Library Services of the State Library of Queensland. Starting the Guild The first task of the project was to establish a Committee for the Guild. It was decided that any representatives from the library services involved with the grant could join the Committee at any time. It was also agreed that whilst the Guild was using grant money the positions of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer must be employed at one of the library services involved with the grant. All accounts and control of the grant money was handled by Cairns City Library Service. The Chair and Treasurer being signatories on the Storytelling Guild’s bank account. The first task for the Committee was to employ a Coordinator. Firstly a job description needed to be written and then approved by Cairns City Council. Due to restructuring and staff changes at Cairns City Council, there was a delay in getting the job description approved. (This meant that the initial establishment work was performed by the Committee and not the Coordinator as planned). The issue of whether a casual position had to be advertised also had to be clarified with Cairns City Council. These two issues should have been resolved before the grant was applied for, ensuring that there would be no problems in appointing a Coordinator.

State Library of Queensland Version 1.0 1998 Innovation Grant Project Cairns City Library Service as Administrator for - Atherton Shire Library, Cairns City Library Service, Cardwell Shire Library, Cook Shire Library, Croydon Shire Library, Douglas Shire Centenary Library, Johnstone Shire Library, Mareeba Shire Library and Weipa Town Library

Membership A membership drive was used to start the membership of the Guild. Each participating library service was asked to submit to the Committee a list of names and address of organisations and individuals that might be interested in joining the Guild. These lists were compiled and memberships forms posted out. Media releases were also sent to local papers promoting the Guild and asking for interested people to join. It was initially decided by the Committee that the fees for membership of the Guild would be $20 for individuals, $30 for families and $50 for institutions. The more we thought about it, the less convinced we were that people would pay these amounts to join an establishing storytelling guild. After much deliberation it was decided to change the fee structure to $5 for individuals and $20 for institutions. People have joined the Guild throughout the grant period, with the majority of members joining whilst attending workshops. At the beginning of June 1999, the Guild had 17 institution and 48 individual members. Committee The Committee of the Guild consisted of Lee Finklestein – Chair (Cairns), Karen Seymour – Secretary (Cairns), Karen Waltham – Treasurer (Cairns), Francis Utzinger (Mareeba) and Joan Anderson (Doulgas). Cooperation between the Committee has been effective and has allowed us to achieve our goals. It has been beneficial that the Executive Committee (Chair, Secretary and Treasurer) have previous experience of working together. This enabled the allocating of tasks based on individual strengths to maximise success. The personal attributes of the Executive Committee included : passion for the project, previous experience in establishing a storytelling guild, contacts with other storytelling guilds and professional storytellers, organisational skills, financial skills, level mindedness, ability to be honest with each other, and drive to keep the project on track and ensure deadlines were meet. Participation on the project has been a problem between the independent library services. The first problem was level of commitment to the project once the grant application was successful. This varied from non existent to one hundred percent. All members of the Committee knew that they would have to allocate work and personal time to the project. The second problem was the developing view that the project was not work related. This meant that whilst some of the Committee could attend meetings during work hours, others could not. This resulted in members of the Committee having to make extra commitments of their own time. With is in mind the Executive Committee recorded 32 hours on the project during work hours and 284 hours in their own time. Committee members recorded 6 hours during work time and 31 hours in their own time. It would be advisable for anyone considering future joint applications that set guidelines for participation and allocation of work time be developed, agreed to and signed before applications are submitted. Library staff from Cardwell, Cook, Croydon and Weipa supported the project but due to distance it was difficult for them to be fully involved in the tasks and events the Guild was undertaking. The verbal and written support received from these libraries was greatly appreciated by the Committee. Distance was also a problem for the secretary who experienced a three hour return trip for meetings and workshops held in Cairns. Communication by email did not solve the distance problem of the

Committee, as one member of the Committee had no direct internet access. This meant numerous phone calls and faxes across the Tropical Far North. Coordinator A Coordinator was employed on a casual basis by the Guild to provide secretarial and administrative support. The duties included: creating and maintaining a membership databases, minute taking, organising workshops and other events of the Guild, correspondence and to edit, compile and distribute the newsletter. The Coordinator was directed by the Executive Committee. Due to space problems and the provision of access to a personal computer, the Coordinator worked from both home and a branch of the Cairns City Library Service. The Committee did not have much success with Coordinators. During the grant period the Guild employed three Coordinators, each one leaving due to finding full time employment. The departure of each Coordinator created problems for the Committee. The first problem was that there were delays in finding a suitable replacement. This meant that the Committee had to continue with the Coordinator’s work. Each coordinator left just before a major event needed organising or the newsletter needed producing. The work completed by the Coordinator had to be compiled and handed back to the Committee. The Committee then had to appoint a replacement and explain the objectives of the Guild and the required tasks to this person. Between the Committee doing the establishment work and the three Coordinators, we ended up with information on different computer programs, with some information having to be reformatted. When the last Coordinator left two months before the end of the project, the Executive Committee decided not to replace the Coordinator and continue the work themselves. Launch The Guild was officially launched on Saturday 24th October 1998 by Councillor Ford (Cairns City Council and Member of the library Board of Queensland) and Lady Hortense (alias puppeteer Dennis Murphy) at the Smithfield library. A morning tea followed and 20 people attended. Workshops The innovation grant enabled the guild to bring professional storytellers to Tropical North Queensland to conduct storytelling workshops. Travel expenses, accommodation and professionals’ fees add up to substantial costs. Four workshops were organised by the Guild and attended by a total of 96 people. The workshops being: Zoe Robb (Sydney storyteller) conducted a storytelling techniques Workshop on Saturday 15th August 1998, in Cairns. A storytelling and puppeteering workshop was conducted by Dennis Murphy (Sydney storyteller) on Saturday 24th October 1998, in Cairns. A free workshop for Guild members and public library staff was conducted by Helen Fitzgerald (Brisbane storyteller) on Friday 14th May 1999, in Cairns. The theme of the workshop was storytelling in institutions.

Helen Fitzgerald conducted a Storytelling for Early Childhood workshop on Saturday 15th May 1999, in Babinda. Costs to attend the workshops were $5 for Guild members and $15 for non members. All the workshops were held either in Cairns City Library Service or a building that had public liability insurance. The problems and costs associated with accidents were high on the Committee’s mind at all times. Storytelling Cafes Storytelling Cafes are gatherings where members of the Guild and the community come together for an informal storytelling session. The Cafes have been organised in the regional areas of Cairns, Mossman and Kuranda with various Shire libraries playing integral roles. The Guild has assisted in these cafes by providing guest speakers, posters, publicity, refreshments, storytelling ideas and general support for activities performed. Mossman and Cairns both have monthly cafes with numbers varying to 6 to 12 people each café. Resources Provision was made in the grant for the purchase of resources for the Guild. Purchased resources include 90 books on storytelling techniques and story books, 3 puppets and story accessories. Initially it was decided that the resources of the Guild would be stored, catalogued and lent from the Cairns Shire Council Library, via an interlibrary loans system. As time progressed it was realized that this idea would not be suitable due to distance, postage costs and accessibility by Guild members. Its was decided that a core collection of storytelling resources would be donated by the Guild to each library service associated with the grant. Non core items would be stored at Cairns Shire Council Library. A list of the core items held at each library service and the non core items held at Cairns will be listed in each issue of the Guild’s newsletter. Handing over the core resources to participating libraries was performed by Ms Annette Pike, Senior Consultant, Local Government Services – Public Library Services of State Library of Queensland, on 21st June 1999 as the last activity of the Guild for the grant period. Newsletter At the commencement of the project the Committee believed that it would produce four newsletters. "Turn the Page" includes articles about storytelling and three regular columns entitled Web Watch, Upcoming Events and Resources. The issue of selling advertising space in the newsletter was discussed but no action has yet been taken. At the end of the project, three newsletters have been produced and distributed. Newsletters 1 and 2 were produced by the Coordinator and formatted using Microsoft Publisher. The newsletters feature interesting page formats, fonts, shading, pictures and logos. The third newsletter was produced by the Secretary (who cannot use Publisher) using Microsoft Word. The newsletter is now a rather bland two column piece, but better than no newsletter at all. The Committee is hoping that the position of Newsletter Editor will be filled at the upcoming Annual General Meeting.

Conclusion All Guild activities have been successfully promoted and publicised through local newspapers, local radio and the internet. A publicity folio has been kept by the Committee to record all publicity about the Guild. The establishment of the Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland started as a dream. This dream is now real and boasts the following achievement:  17 institution and 48 individual members  4 workshops which were attended by a total of 96 people  10 storytelling cafes attended by a total of 84 people  resources  3 newsletters In achieving the establishment of the Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland four of the five objectives of the project were met. The Guild:  facilitated the learning of storytelling skills throughout the community;  established a resource base of storytelling skills and training sessions in the community  it established a resource of storytelling material in the library services of Cairns, Cairns, Cardwell, Cook, Croydon, Douglas, Johnston, Mareeba and Weipa  increased awareness that libraries were venues for storytellers  reinforced cooperation between regional public libraries and local community organisations interested in promoting literature  developed cooperation between the library services of Tropical North Queensland One of the Committee’s aims for the upcoming year is to achieve the last objective of establishing storytelling amongst cultural and indigenous groups in the community. In concluding, the establishment of the Storytelling Guild of Tropical North Queensland has been a long but worthwhile project. It has met an underlying but obvious need in the community to bring people together to share in the learning and enjoyment that storytelling can provide. Copies of the newsletter and meeting minutes are available upon request.

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