Laydeez n Gen’l’men! Last Call for Founder Members

I don’t know exactly what day London Historians started. It began in my head around this time last year, certainly during August. I wanted to join a London historical society, but couldn’t find one. The London Society and the London Topographical Society – excellent organisations both – kind of fitted the bill, but I felt the need for something altogether more active, more social. I also wanted to cast as wide a net as possible that would include not only keen amateurs like me, but also academics, authors, museum and heritage professionals, bloggers, archaeologists, genealogists, tour guides, and so on. And so I decided to see if I could make such a thing happen.
Well, here we are, one year on. There have been many highlights. We’ve had parties, tours, walks, pub meets, visits. We’ve published articles and newsletters. We’ve had competitions and prizes. For me personally, I’ve made dozens of wonderful new friends but far more importantly than this: we’ve helped other people to do the same. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see London Historians members liaising on something or another via Twitter, Facebook, or whatever. That’s the buzz for me: that’s at the heart of what London Historians is about.
But what have we achieved on paper? One year on, where are we? We have 3,000+ Twitter followers (amazed);  we have over 300 Facebook followers; we’ve had more than 30,000 reads on the blog (modest, as these things go, but on a very sharp upcurve); we’ve done over 200 blog posts; we’ve published 12 newsletters and given out 12 author-signed history books.
We have 175 Founder Members.
Unlike the other naked stats, this number is not round enough. 200 Founder Members sounds much better, don’t you think? It would give a satisfying sense of symmetry to our first year. We had an excellent flurry of new joiners after my previous post on 1 August. I’m hoping that if you’re still not a Founder Member, that in the coming eight days you’ll join our happy band of London history enthusiasts.  On 31 August, we’ll be rolling down the portcullis on founder membership.
Irrespective of the above, if you’re reading this, thanks once again for your support.