This week I made it down to the Harris Associates HQ - and epicentre of SRP admin world - at Dartington Hall. In all my years of SRP membership I’ve never ventured this far down south (being from Yorkshire, I’m never quite sure if I’d be allowed in), usually spending most of my work jollies at the very other end of the country in Thurso. However, a trip to Falmouth provided an excellent excuse to drop in to see Tessa, go out for a lovely lunch in the nearby bagel shop, and take a tour around the beautiful gardens.

At first, I was concerned that I’d got the address wrong on google maps. Driving down the country roads leading to the office it looked more like the journey you would take for a picturesque day trip out to a National Trust site rather than the approach to an office. The sun was out and the fields bright and green as I travelled further into Devon along the narrow winding road, admiring the scenery, until a local bombed past at 60 mph (at the speed limit however it felt very fast for such a small road!) clearly very annoyed that a “tourist” was tootling along without a care in the world, holding them up from where they needed to be!

The office itself isn’t huge. A decent space for 3 desks, a relic of the pre-covid past when people actually worked in offices, and a storeroom, mainly full of Outreach items, including the place that The Bee rests their weary head after a long day of Outreaching. The Dartington Estate also includes a lovely cinema (which I’ve mentally filed as being perfect for a Schools Event show), and the medieval Great Hall which was quite something to see. As far as offices go, it is pretty picture perfect and although I do love my new working from home setup, I think if the Jacobs office in Birchwood was more like this, I’d be more inclined to go back to the office full time!

It was back in 1993 that HA signed their first contract with SRP, and they’ve been with us ever since. 30 years of event organising, making sure we pay our subs on time (you’ll have just had that email, and no, Tessa did not pay me to remind you all!) and working away in the background making sure that the society runs smoothly. I think that everyone would agree with me when I say that we simply would not function as a society without them. Not only are they masters of organisation, they are all, without exception, really really lovely people. So, this is just a very short blog to acknowledge all their hard work, and to say a very big thank you to all of Harris Associates for all they do.

Sarah Hunak, SRP Director of Engagement

As always, if you have any questions or comments then please get in touch on the usual:
engagement@srp-uk.org
Twitter: @chai_khaneh
Instagram: @Saragol