It is an undeniable truth of everyday life that our interests and leisure time generally cost money. Sometimes it feels as though we are spending a lot, especially if we are going to the theatre, to a gig or to a major sporting occasion. Attending an event such as The Graham Greene International Festival is no exception. The Birthplace Trustees are aware of this and have taken two steps this year with the aim of informing you about the Trust’s finances and asking you for your opinions about the centre-piece of our work – the yearly festival.
Informing You
The Graham Greene Birthplace trust is a charity. We run on ‘slender means’. We are immensely proud of our ability to stage a four day festival each year in Greene’s birthplace, Berkhamsted. But it is expensive to organise and to run, despite the generosity of our sponsors Greene King and Berkhamsted School. Given that it is not cheap to attend either, we urge you to take a little time to read the attached Annual Report and Financial Statements which will show exactly how your money is spent both as a festival goer and, hopefully, as a Friend of the Trust.
If you are not a Friend already, please consider joining by going to the Membership page of this website.
Click the tab below to access the Annual Report and Financial Statements
Asking You
The Trustees are currently preparing a short questionnaire which will be available at this year’s Festival. We want your opinions on what you like and don’t like about the Festival, the kind of talks and other events you would like to see and whether the social occasions meet your needs. We will certainly report back on our findings. As you might imagine, planning takes the full twelve months. The next Trust meeting is in November and on that occasion our Festival Director will be ready to give us an outline plan for Festival 2019. We want to be in a position to be able to use the feedback from our questionnaire to inform next year’s event.
The questionnaire will be made available on this website shortly so if you are unable to attend this year or even if you have become disillusioned and no longer join us in Berkhamsted you can still have your say – and we would very much welcome your views.