The Website...

Our Website...

We love the website for The Black Birch... there are things we want to tweak. Mostly how quickly we popup in search engines, but largely this will be remedied with time and traffic and links, and metatags or somesuch, not to mention seo and slimy words and things my brain doesn't retain. I think our friends, Cleo and Troy, who coded and now maintain the site feel the same way about the website. Our designer, on the other hand... well we love her too. Probably more than the website.Part of loving her is knowing that she is never really satisfied with her work. A tweak may become an overhaul in the matter of a conversation. And that overhaul may call for a meeting.

When I was dreaming about a business of my own, I loved meetings. There were a few types; some enjoyable, some enjoyable because of how foreign and unenjoyable they were supposed to be. The later were mostly with officials and the sort of low level bureaucrat that you never hoped you would have to speak with. They were licensing and inspection issue meetings. They were lawyers and finance people that occur in offices that try to feel comfortable but never lose their catalog sterility.
The first type of meetings, the ones that were the most enjoyable mostly, for the past few years, Gavin and I took meetings in restaurants, coffeeshops and bars. We took meetings seriously for the first few pints. And, I am fortunate to say-- we took them often. I can't say that they were always efficient, or that they ever seemed productive. But they were all exceptional.

Lately, the meetings we set have little of the jovial bustle of a coffeeshop, the swagger of a barroom or the endless options of toppings at the Bratskellar. The meetings feel a bit more sterile and there is less pizza. Well, at least they had. And then I got an email from Liz... it was addressed to myself, Gavin, Cleo and Troy. It proposed a meeting to discuss the direction and potential redrafting of the website. But it proposed the meeting to be held at Cleo and Troy's farm over dinner. I have had the good fortune of having had dinner at the farm several times over the past few years. Well, we haven't cemented a date for the meeting, but the prospect of dinner, conversation and too many bottles of wine is just the medicine I need for a snowy afternoon. Regardless of the outcome, I guarantee it well be one of my favorite I've attended in quite some time.

Cheers,
Ben