Yesterday, I manned a booth at Melksham's Food and River Festival (there again today) - main intent to reach the public with information about the autumn program at the Assembly Hall (including next weekend's ClimateFest) and train times for the Autumn. Modern methods let us typeset leaflets in our own home and have them delivered within a few days - is doing so any use, or should we be simply talking to people and telling them to use their app, or should we simply be telling people about these things though social media?

It is .. fascinating to talk with Joe Public and see how (s)he reacts to the booth and the information we are providing. On rail

* Lots of people still want printed timetables. A number say "I use an app" or "I look online". And a number say "I don't use trains" in a dismissive way making it clear that they would never consider doing so. But many, many people take the timetables.

* There is - almost - a joy at having a simple line-of-route table; we have taken a management decision in a trifold leaflet to stick to just the Swindon to Westbury line. Questions are raised from time to time about other destinations (Bristol, Oxford, Weymouth, Cheltenham, London) but there was no way they could all have been covered an it would have diluted the readability of the leaflet.

* The "all day, every day" message - including evening trains - is a good one and well received. Concerns expressed are reliability (strikes especially causing concern) and ticket price - in some cases perceived, and in other cases actual. Getting the right ticket is also a concern; at Melksham we don't have station staff nor was there anyone who established themselves as an informed travel help point at the cafe or other local business there. Some people don't know where the station is, whether they can park there, and thinks it's way out of town.

* Leafletting has always been a wasteful process, but I came away with the feeling that a proportion of what we were distributing will be kept, attached with a magnet to the fridge, put in the pocket. Statements of intent, some of which will be carried out, to that effect.

* "Cold Calling" equivalents - walking up to those passing by and offering them leaflets - was very effective. With train timetables and Assembly Hall programs we very much had a positive re-direction of many people onto our agenda, with then carrying on better informed than they were as they walked along between stalls and funfair. I was joined by good friend Mike on the booth - who did a fantastic job; he has previous exhibition booth experience in a more commercial environment and was very much surprised at the positive reactions we were getting once we declared what we were promoting. We very much have the local groundswell o support.

* At the Assembly Hall, indications are that the autumn program is going to see big audiences, with certain tribute bands and comedians generating early excitement. There's a repeated desire to see more comedians - our offering is thin as we (as councillors) declared our senior Assembly Hall manager redundant and created a gap in specialist experience in our team, without any immediate plugging of that gap or plans to do so.

* The cancellation (midweek) of the Town Council stand at the Food and River Festival, at which the Assembly Hall program was to be distributed, gave me the opportunity to co-ordinate rail, ClimateFest and Assembly Hall volunteer interests into a new single stall, and I am delighted as to how well it worked. More notice would have been nice as it would have allowed for a much wider volunteer availability to help - most busy people ere already committed. A big "thank you" to the festival organisers in finding a pitch for the Town Council when they reversed their decision at the end of the week and said they wanted to come along after all.

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Internal discussions about the various cancellations by The Council his week by all means - but I am gobsmacked that it got to the stage of pulling out of events and (in one case) rebooking.

In hindsight, my first choice would have been NOT to cancel the quiz night and attendance at the festival. For the Town Council to have asked for help which would have been willingly given.

My second choice - once being relinquished - would have been to let the community take over. For the quiz night, I asked about us re-instating later on the day it was cancelled, but didn't hear back in reply to my email; I suspect the staff were off duty. For the festival, I heard via my wife from the festival organisers who were co-ordinating another booth, and managed to help the organisers fill the gap usefully.

As volunteers, our booth's working well - writing mid-event. In a way we ended up with third choice - I would rather the Town Council, once decision made, had NOT reversed its position, leaned on the organisers to create a pitch, and set up a second Assembly Hall stand. They had individual event flyers, and fortunate for them I have a plentiful supply of autumn programs in the van. For them to turn up without even knowing how their key marketing piece was to reach them has left me appreciating, once again, the enormity of our decision to dispense with the Assembly Hall Manager tasks.

Putting this into context - Town Council presence and events are not my decision. I'm just one of 15 part time volunteer councillors and we employ a professional team to deliver. So where we are this weekend is not my choice, nor should it be. Personally, I would prefer the staff member on the Town Council booth to beputting his trust in volunteers, and his time into getting the Assembly Hall roof fixed. A manager should step in where necessary as is being done this weekend, but that shouldn't in my view have been necessary.