A bit of a catch up

I've been pondering the best way to keep the 1st Class team up to date with all the goings on.  I decided a blog might be a good way to do it and people can chose to subscribe, or not, read, or not, as the fancy takes them.  I'll do my very best to post something at least once a month and it's going to be a bit of a chat, a bit of information, anything that's happened that I think you might be interested in.

As you know the last year has seen lots of changes.  Closing the office in February 2013 and reducing the staff was a considerable change that didn't happen lightly and was a difficult time for everyone.  However, overall I would say that the change has been for the best and after a tricky year there is light at the end of the tunnel and we're definitely coming out stronger. 

At the moment the permanent staff structure is as follows:

Myself - Dawn (hi) - quality control
Laura, transcription manager
Lesley (Monday/Tuesdays and Thursdays), admin support
Emily (Friday's and full-time outwith term time), admin support

In the background we have Mark who runs 1st Class Media but also helps us with IT support and keeping the website up and running.

We also have some ad-hoc help with the quality control.  For the past year we had the help of Helen Davies, a qualified proof-reader and copy editor, who stepped in to cover holidays, sick days and those extra busy days when we can't even see the end of the list of files waiting to be checked to go back to the clients.  Helen moved on to a permanent job at the end of May and we were in despair.  However, a long standing member of the transcription team, also Helen, stepped in and was able to provide cover for me for a couple of months - enabling me and the family to have a much needed summer holiday.  During that time we were able to find some additional help in the form of Jen Toyne.  Having had a bit of a baptism of fire she's now going great guns and is going to be a valuable resource for us to call on as and when required.

Sometimes it can be a bit like musical jobs, when Laura's off I do her job, Jen covers for me!

I don't want to make this first blog so long you fall asleep half way through it but I thought it might be nice to tell you a bit more about the two people you probably don't hear so much about, Lesley and Emily.

Lesley joined us in February and provides a huge support to Laura.  She is the person responsible for downloading the files that the clients upload to the website, logging all the details in the internal database, updating the website and downloading the transcripts completed by you, the 1st Class Team.  In the past month we've had over 1,000 files to transcribe so that's no small task.  She's also the dragon at the gate for the multitude of sales calls that we receive and makes sure that only the right people get put through to the appropriate person.  Lesley is also based at home but doesn't live too far away from me and is on hand to deal with our grumpy postie when we're away (as well as looking after the stick insects and watering the tomato plants).

Emily has been working with 1st Class for probably about 4 years.  She started coming to the office as a 4th year student for work experience on a Friday after school and during the school holidays.  She's now at college studying an HND in music - she's a very talented trombone, baritone, piano player and singer and is hoping to move on to Uni next year to do her music degree and then on to teacher training college.  Like Lesley she manages the file uploads and downloads but has been honing her transcription skills and can pretty much tackle anything we throw at her!  Unfortunately she has to suffer the heat of our little office (which can be a joy when there's three of us in here on a day like today) but never complains. 

One last thing before I finish.  It's not very often I get to meet any of the 45 team members - you're all spread so far and wide.  There are a few based locally that we do get to see from time to time and it's always lovely.  I was thrilled to learn that one of the team, Angi, who has worked with us for nearly 10 years, would be coming to Edinburgh for the day in July.  It was during our time on holiday but we weren't too far away and I was able to get the train in to meet her at Waverly Station for the afternoon.  It was so great - didn't talk about work once, mainly cats and books - and had cake in Jenners' tea-room, overlooking the Castle and Walter Scott Monument on a glorious day.  We then had a dander along Princes Street Gardens (and a sneaky wee ice-cream) before heading back to the station to catch our trains heading in different directions.  Here's a photo from our meeting - Laura wasn't happy that she didn't get cake.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll come again.  Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to.

Dawn