Hello, my name is Jan Gillett, and some of you will remember that I led the Leamington Cafe Sci group, together with several others, through the 2010s. 

Background In about 2010 I was glad to hand over to John Holroyde and Andy Burnley, who together with Denise Holroyde, ran our Cafe Sci. You may already be aware that John died suddenly last Autumn, and since then we have added to the speakers he had arranged, and now have an interesting programme the end of 2026. You can view the details on the Events area.

Prospects Andy is already busy with other volunteer groups and cannot take on the Cafe Sci leadership, Denise will continue to support the events but is not able to take the leadership job. I am celebrating my 80th birthday in May, so I am not going to take on the role again. However I am happy to help in supporting a new team, and keep trawling for speakers.

The challenge: In order to continue operating Cafe Sic from January 2027 and onwards we need a small group to take on the role.

The nature of the leadership role. Cafe Sci is not like other community organisations in many ways. We do not need a “committee”, and our occasional meetings are very informal. We deal in cash and do not charge for membership, so the financial and admin role is very light. We have an established website and email management system (for GDPR matters) that is well hosted for security and so on.

The leadership people go about the task of finding speakers informally, through a network of contacts at universities and others at various institutions. Cafe Sci is very well respected and people are always happy to help. We are invited to all kinds of events that are interesting and provide a fertile source of possible session leaders. You, the audience, play an important role in welcoming and challenging the speakers who always comment on how much they enjoy the experience.

Our proposed process for bringing a team together. It started with the short request made at the April meeting, and this note, which will find those who did not attend. Our request is for you to consider your position and hopefully decide to help. Let us know before the May meeting and we can start to organise a get together for the who would like to know more. The job can be done by only one, but it’s much more fun to work as an informal group. If you have any questions please let us know.

If there are no volunteers. We will start to run down the organisation to clear the arrangements for room bookings, the website etc from January next year.

Looking forward to many more Cafe Sci meetings with some of you as organisers!