Wallingford Freelancers Club
Rachel Viney, a freelance writer and PR consultant, ran the Freelancers Club until 2010. Now it is run by Marc Carlucci and Laura Bosley, two of its members.
Rachel recalls: When I started the group I was a sole trader working from home. I teamed up with Mark, an educational consultant. We knew each other socially and remarked how nice it was to have chance to talk about how our businesses were going, and how boring it was based at home.
We wrote a short piece for the Wallingford magazine saying we were setting up, and we put a notice in the local stationery shop which we thought other freelancers would use. It was always intended to be for local people and was called the Freelancers Club from the beginning.
Mark and I were relaxed. We started in a local pub and now we meet in the Old Post Office restaurant on the last Friday of the month We have a Linked In group and an email list of around 27. About 15 meet together regularly.
Freelancers are very busy people with many commitments. They are out and about a great deal and don’t need much office space.
Until 2010 Mark or I were at every meeting, taking responsibility for its smooth running. After all, the organisers are the character of the group. People could meet if we weren’t there and if we want to keep it going we are going to have to develop some people to take over from us.
This is not an aggressive networking environment. We have generated two or more clients directly from the group but our work comes through building up relationships.