February 2012 Blog Posts (8)

Thursday 15th March - 16:00 onwards

This event is about bringing the region together.  Taking stock of where we are now and exploring together what we want 2012 to look like.  Not only for us as individuals, but also what it needs to look like for a sustainable and promising North West.  There are a number of challenges on the horizon…  In what ways can we individually contribute to turning these challenges into positive regional developments?  There are also a number…

The New Fellows event a couple of nights ago was thoroughly stimulating. We had the opportunity to hear more about the RSA, to chat to each other, and to introduce ourselves to the whole group of about 50 with 20 seconds each to say our name, what we do, and what we are passionate about. I came away thinking that with that amount of passion and energy in the world, all is not lost! It would be good to connect more, which is why I have joined this group. Look forward to hearing more about…

Life is a strange commodity. We all have some of it. We value it variously. It can run out surprisingly quickly. How to use it is an interesting question amongst many interesting questions on life. How many years we have in life will never be more important than how much life we put into our years. Some would talk about experience as fundamental, and some of these say experience is as to intensity not duration.



We know we would all astound ourselves if we did all of which we are…

If you feel your mobile devices are eating up too much of your time, and even your life, then read on. If you love your always-on connection and feel no problem, then read no further.

One of the most important steps you can take is to reclaim your home, and the concept of placement can help here too. Your home is a number of spaces. A house has various areas such as kitchen, dining and living room, bedroom, bathroom, garden etc. Even a studio apartment has several spaces. These spaces…

While the RSA has been trying to define what Big Society is and the media has all but lost interest on this topic, like most of the people of this country by the way, it doesn't cease to amaze me that this debate is still continuing in some sectors.

I am sure spin doctors are laughing all the way to the pub, since it is obvious that this concept was mere electioneering, devised in such an obfuscatory way to make it virtually impossible to define clearly, so that as much ink as…

I learned the other day that access to the new single benefit payment will be digital by default. I'm not sure whether some unthinking civil servant has had the idea that we can close the digital divide by enforcing dependency on digital channels, but let me tell you now, it won't work. There are two reasons for this and I can support this with real life examples.

The first relates to a close relative of mine who finds himself homeless. He has a rare, genetic condition that became…

Following on from the fantastic launch of the Social Renewal theme which we had with Newcastle University on Tuesday (more to follow shortly), I wanted to draw the attention of Fellows to the recently launched report by the 2020 Public Service Hub at the RSA.  They have been conducting work analysing Sunderland's Community Leadership Programme for the impact that it has on the community, and the potential for learning lessons for other contexts.

There has been a lot of talk…

This is a new type of fundraising project for us.

We launched only a couple of days ago and I'll keep you updated here on our progress and lessons learnt along the way

https://www.buzzbnk.org/ProjectDetails.aspx?projectId=63

Buzzbnk is run by Theresa Burton, a Fellow who is finding new ways to make this model work for social enterprise. Why I chose this one above other crowdfunding networks is that it…