Recently I had a very nice letter inviting me to write for a publication (quite high status) and a follow-up phone conversation to explore further. In the course of this, the London-based publisher emphasised that wanting to reach outside their heavily London-focused circle was a big priority for them. Who can guess the next bit of the conversation?
Macc is a charity and put simply, our purpose is the city of Manchester. We work to inspire, enable and support the people of Manchester to get involved and build the communities where we live, work and grow. We are the support and development organisation for local charities, voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises. 
Macc is a charity and put simply, our purpose is the city of Manchester. We work to inspire, enable and support the people of Manchester to get involved and build the communities where we live, work and grow. We are the support and development organisation for local charities, voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises.
Would you like to share a story of your activity as part of the 2018 Spirit of Manchester Story Week in September?
Manchester City Council is leading the city’s arrangements to mark the anniversary of the Manchester Arena attack on Tuesday 22 May 2018. 
Those affected by those terrible events will want to mark the date in different ways, so the programme is varied and takes different forms, to make sure that people can feel connected to it.
"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was “Oh no, not again”.
Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now."
The NHS would like to know more about your thoughts of your cancer screening experience(s) within Greater Manchester and whether cancer screening is or is not a good opportunity to talk to people about healthy lifestyles and promote other cancer screening opportunities. A series of group discussions is taking place around Greater Manchester on behalf of Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.
You know that game where you have to pick the people, living or dead, you’d most like to have round a dinner table? Being a bit of an ideas geek, I have a similar thing about who I’d like to hear speak at my dream conference. I’m lucky that I occasionally get to hear some brilliant speakers from the world of charities and social enterprises.
We have extended the deadline to complete our State of the Sector survey to 18 December 2016.
We would like to encourage your organisation to complete our important survey as we want to know how the government cuts and economic recession have affected our sector. We need to know how many groups have lost funding, how many have had to reduce services and how many have had to close or are facing closure. But also how we continue to work together providing valuable services and support to the people of Manchester.
Macc’s purpose is to encourage, support and develop voluntary and community groups and individuals to have a real influence over the places and communities in which they live. So for that reason alone, we’re supporting the People’s Plan as a non-partisan, citizen-led movement bringing new and seldom-heard voices into the conversation about the future of Greater Manchester.