Logistics and assumptions. I started my ‘cheese dreams’ project and the time has gone rather fast, i set aside a couple of months to find 5 volunteers around the UK… i wanted to have a good ‘diverse’ group of people, and preferebly people that i didnt know involved. I was also keen to advertise for them outside of the ‘art opps’… I kind of wanted people to think of the imediate gratification of having free cheese for a month, rather then making their dream diaries look good because they will be exhibited. I advertised for volunteers on the cheese shop (love cheese, york) website and twitter, and I got a huge response from females based in york…so next time (?!) I will have to focus specifically on Yorkshire based women! I ended up though, with 3 male volunteers and 2 female volunteers. Currently I have kept a good dialogue with 4 of my volunteers but have received no communication since the initial agreement to take part from 1! Part of me thinks I should have trusted my gut (or taken the sluggish exchanges via email) and not chosen this particular person, BUT I am again, assuming! And still have my final cheese package to send on Friday! In the first package my volunteers got a diary, a contract and their first week of cheeses (all English) the second packahe contained all French cheeses, and the third contained spanish and italian! The last one is going to include processed cheeses like dairylea, cheese strings etc, which I do feel slightly bad about, as its not exactly ending on a high note is it! Logistically challenged? Nope! Despite packaging 35 little cheese samples (and labelling of course) taking a really silly amount of time, getting in the way of everyone at my work and baffling my local post office ( I am notorious there anyway as I’m always on their photocopier making zines, posters and sending ‘interesting’ envelopes so ‘stinking of cheese’ is just another to add to the list) it’s actually gone rather smoothly! Postage & Packaging wise a. The packages get there the next day b. The packages arrive in a fine condition and still chilled C. It’s not as expensive as I thought it would be So, there we go! Things aren’t as hard as I thought they would be thanks to people being supportive and genuinly showing an interest in the peoject! My work place and my chilled out volunteers have been great so far!
