Social Network for RSA Fellows

RSA online news + improvements to RSAFellowship.com

Dear Fellows,

We hope you’re having a great summer, and enjoyed the Olympic successes.

We’re trying out a few changes to the RSAFellowship.com online community which we hope will improve your experience with the site. We would appreciate your feedback on these.

The changes are:

1. E-mail notifications of new content
These notifications of new content (eg in any of the 50+ groups you have joined on the site) now include the actual new text rather than just a link - which should make it easier to read in your inbox, and respond immediately if it’s something you’d like to reply to.

2. Re-structure of the RSAFellowship.com homepage
We’ve moved some sections to different locations on the homepage so that any new content (eg new posts in groups) is more visible rather than being pushed down ‘below the fold’ of the webpage.

The colour scheme has also been changed, which should make headings for different sections easier to read. We also moved the over-long 'Welcome' information to a new ‘About this site’ tab.

Do get in touch if you have any comments (or encounter any problems).

Other RSA news

Live-streaming of RSA lectures and other events
From September 2012, every RSA lecture will be available as a live-streamed video - which provides an opportunity to organise Fellow events locally around a live-streamed lecture, as it happens. (You can also tweet in questions to be asked in the room itself, by the Twitter monitor).

The webpage for any specific event that is being live-streamed will include a link to the ‘Watch live’ page: http://www.thersa.org/events/watch-live - which will go live around 30 minutes beforehand.

Please let the Fellowship team know if you plan to organise a live-streamed video event.

‘RSA Connectors’ network worldwide
This year we have been developing a global network of ‘RSA Connectors’, in particular to support Fellow activity in countries without an existing RSA infrastructure.

The list of Connectors (with their photos, interests and inspirations) is here: http://bitly.com/RSAconnectors

If your country is not included, would you like to be considered for the Connector role? (Or is there an RSA Fellow who you think would make a great Connector in a country not yet listed? NB we have Fellows in around 100 countries).

New Fellows’ Tools and Techniques webpage
A page of resources for Fellows (eg how to organise local meetings; RSA projects to get involved in etc.) has recently been created = please find out more at: http://bit.ly/Fellowresources

Do take a look. What do you think? Are there any resources you would really value - that would help you become more active, engaged and effective as a Fellow?

One additional page of advice that is in the pipeline is a guide for new Fellows (this is something that some Fellows have requested during online discussions, and seems like a great idea).

RSA House in September

Keep an eye on the Fellowship newsletter for news of some great events you won’t want to miss in mid-September, when the refurbished House (and Great Room) has its public re-opening.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

< Previous Post

Comment by David Wilcox on August 23, 2012 at 20:49: Thanks for these improvements and updates, which are creating the basis for much better networking. However, because use of this site is (I suspect) relatively low, Fellows don't realise what is possible. That's one reason why connectors are really important - joining up people, ideas and activities.

The connectors you feature look really interesting people in their own right too .... so can we have some UK connectors? I think that Fellows would volunteer for that role if, perhaps, there was an opportunity for some good networking between the connectors, and scope for learning about networking and network building.

The RSA has a strong reputation for its work on network analysis and local network building through Citizen Power. The network of connectors could be a good place to put that experience into practice nationally and internationally. I know we have a group of digital champions, but that's rather different. Network building is more about relationships than technology - so "connector" is more relevant in this context.

Comment by Matthew Kálmán Mezey on August 28, 2012 at 10:26: My manager Jamie Cooke has responded to David's suggestion about the potential for having 'RSA Connectors' in the UK - as well as around the world - on a thread on the RSA's linkedin group.

It's a short - but interesting - thread (5 comments so far), take a look.

Here is my initial post:

Help RSA find 100 'RSA Connectors' - can you recommend a Fellow?

We have new 'RSA Connectors' in India, Mexico and UAE.

RSA Connectors is a new and growing network of RSA Fellows worldwide who act as a first port-of-call and a ‘friendly face’ for new Fellows who want to find out more and get involved, and who help local Fellows to organise events and collaborate on projects.

See this webpage for the (almost up to date) list so far, including photos and interests: http://bit.ly/RSAconnectors

If you know a good RSA Fellow in a country that is not yet on the list, please let me know asap.