Maddy Macfarlane is a CMTO Trainer and Mentor. Maddy has been broadcasting at PBS 106.7FM in Collingwood, Naarm (Melbourne), since completing her announcer training 2006. PBS is a music-focused station, and she adores how vibrant Melbourne’s music scene is. Maddy has also become a trainer at the station, teaching their announcer course, and a course for short audio-story production aimed at folk feeling excluded from, or misrepresented by, mainstream media. She really enjoy skill-sharing, and always try to create a safe learning space – I first accessed PBS when she moved to Melbourne from the country and was seeking a sense of community, and acknowledges that there are all sorts of barriers that can make accessing a long-standing organisation challenging. Maddy says “I have loved mentoring through the NFDS. This training program is a chance for learning and experimentation, as students find their story and find their own way to tell it. Mentoring is a way to hold up a mirror for the students, and to act as a bit of a safety net or sounding board, for them to really make their unique piece while putting a whole lot of new skills to the test. There’s no ‘right’ way to tell a story, so working with students for them to find their way to tell a story is extremely rewarding.”