Skills or roles people could pick up to help make another collection include an influencer with networking skills who can encourage contributions, collator of material/reviewer of content, editor and proof reader, formatter, publisher able to assemble material to print-ready stage, PR person to promote concept and advertise book sales, and fundraiser to cover print costs and expenses.
Alison says what she enjoyed about the Rotorua Retro project was seeing people sharing their memories, and then seeing how surprised they were that anyone would be interested in them.
"The launches were wonderful because people were seeing their story in print and meeting other contributors who were feeling the same way.
"The joy that bubbled around was like absolute magic.
"I just loved seeing people getting pleasure from something they'd done and hadn't known they could do."
She thinks whoever may pick up the next collection would also enjoy the same things.
"Anyone taking over could do it their own way, they don't have to follow the template of Rotorua Retro.
"They've got to be free to do it whatever way they want."
Alison says recording and preserving people's memories is important.
She says she knows very little of her mother's and father's life.
"We didn't ask, us children, because parents didn't talk about themselves in my day, so I know virtually nothing about my mum's life in India, as my dad was there for the war.
"That's something that should be recorded - how did the British in India manage their lives during World War II?"
She says, "In Rotorua there's a spread of memories and people are sharing them verbally, and they should be written down before people die and their memories go with them".
If you have an interest in starting up a new collection like the Rotorua Retro series, send an email to weekender@dailypost.co.nz
