WELCOME to THE SOUTH's first newsletter of 2004. February in a leap year always has that extra special something. And, boy do we need those extra 24 hours!!

In 2004 THE SOUTH will be adding an extra special something of its own - a commitment to the radically innovative presentation of literature and written arts to complement our mainstream, more considered approach to poetry and fiction. You'll find our programme for February and March set out below.

The overall theme for all our activities in 2004 is MEANINGFUL WORDS picking up the theme of our first and highly sucessful Brighton Poetry Festival last December - coming again in the first weekend of December 2004. To make our own words more meaningful we plan to improve our communication with all our audiences and participants through direct mail to those who prefer information by post, through a redesigned and repurposed web site and through attractive and collectable posters, postcards and flyers. To achieve this we have the kind support of pioneering London design agency Curious and web wizards Codesign.

To improve our responsiveness to audiences, artistes, funders and sponsors, we are delighted to have arranged professional admin, project management and marketing support.

Diana Roberts, an experienced database administrator and office manager has sorted out our mailing list and will provide much needed admin support on a day to day basis. This is of special importance as we launch the membership organisation so many of you asked for in our surveys.

Tamsin Xerxes, studying for an MA in Arts Management at Sussex University will spend a placement day a week with us through to April and brings her project management and planning expertise to bear on our programme of activities - she's already looking ahead to 2005.

And marketeer and writer Anna Packham will be providing much needed marketing and PR support from mid-February. By the way, if you would like to advertise across THE SOUTH's media or you would like to sponsor any of our activities please contact me on 01273 242850 or info@thesouth.org.uk.

John Davies
Chair
THE SOUTH