Giotto
How Giotto Began
Giotto was started in 1986, the
year of Halley’s Comet. It seemed to me a pity that the
international contacts made by our students in their teens should
disappear with the passage of time. It is not that they did
not wish to keep up the contacts, it is just not easy to continue
correspondence after the shared experience of the Course has
faded from the memory. Nevertheless, I felt that these contacts,
good in one’s teens, could be even more beneficial later
on. I decided to contact all our past students to see how they
felt. It was my biggest-ever mailshot and the response was overwhelming.
This organisation was named Giotto
after the collaborative European space-probe, Giotto, which
was sent up in February 1986 to observe Halley’s Comet.
No one knew at that time if it would succeed or fail. In fact,
it succeeded. The probe Giotto was so named because Halley’s
Comet features in a work by the Florentine painter, Giotto.
When I decided in 1986 to collate the names of our students
from 1972 to date and create this international organisation,
I did not know if it would succeed or fail. That the Giotto
Book is now in its 13th Edition and contains more than 2000
names, suggests to me it is succeeding. It became so huge
and heavy that I put it all on CD. Now that the Web is so
universal, I have decided that this will be Giotto's only
medium. Some people now in the Book are rather young, but
time will put this right. In a few years, the Giotto Book
will include many interesting and useful people in various
fields who are willing to be contacted.
Everyone who appears in Giotto is indicating a willingness to be contacted by anyone
else in the Book. If you are visiting or need help in another
country, here are contacts - people you already know and others
you don’t know yet.
Giotto is open to those who have been
with us as students, staff or parents. The only ‘condition’
is that everyone in it is willing to be contacted.
I do, however, reserve the right to exclude those (very few)
that I have absolutely no wish to have anything to do with
ever again....
Giotto is completely financed by Vacational Studies in order
to further its aim of encouraging international contact. The
international contact concept of Giotto is ideally suited
to the World Wide Web. Giotto is a web in itself.
Several parents have contacted me
about their children’s continuing education in Britain.
I am happy to help, to suggest suitable schools and to follow-up
students there. I make no charge. I receive no commission
from the schools I recommend. I, in turn, have received much
assistance in various projects from contacts worldwide.
I welcome comments on the website
and on Giotto itself. It exists only to stimulate the positive
international feelings that our Courses develop in the summer.
Copyright Note
Great though it is to have this information at your fingertips,
like all good ideas, the Giotto Book can be and has been misused.
We all receive enough junk mail and I do not wish any more
of it to be inflicted on you. Also, I do not propose to allow
free access to my client base to an unknown organisation -
or even to a known one.
Everything Vacational Studies produces,
either in print or on the web, is my personal copyright. I
have keyed in every word on these web pages myself. I have
not allowed any other organisation to use my ideas or designs,
nor have I allowed anyone to use the Giotto Book as a mailing
list. I never shall! I specifically forbid the use of the
material in this book for any commercial or mailshot purposes.
All addresses and phone numbers have
been deleted. They are available to VacStuds people who request
them. E-mail links only are included.
Use of Country Names and Other Contentious
Issues
The names in the Giotto Book are arranged alphabetically according
to address beginning with the largest unit, the ‘country
name’. All address information given is as supplied
to me. My linking of the name of a person or a town with a
‘country’ only indicates a postal address and
is not intended to be interpreted as a statement of political
recognition. Yes, I really have to say this! With some countries
in the process of fragmenting and old hostilities re-emerging
even in our enlightened times, at least one address in the
Book has caused comment. I am not in the business of making
historical or political judgements on such matters, so let
me state here that I am merely reproducing addresses as given
to me. If I change an address that is given to me, I can upset
someone; if I leave it as it is, I can upset someone else.
Sorry, but I can’t win! I can only print this disclaimer.
Would you like to send us an E-mail
or request an address or phone number? Click on giotto@vacstuds.com
to do so.
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| "Thank
you so much again for the everlasting memories."
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