Caroline Bennett

If you believe What the trend?, tracking Twitter’s trends is useful.  So useful that they charge $450 per month to analyse the trends for you!  Now, I’m not suggesting that any of you engage their services, however, the fact that this service is one of the many available to track the trends on twitter and other social networking sites indicates there is something else going on here, and something that might be worth the VCS having a look at.

Turns out Citizen Smith was way ahead of his time, and would probably be horrified by this adoption of his favourite slogan, however, the new government’s civil  society agenda, the ‘Big Society’, expands existing initiatives to improve society by empowering local communities.  But what does this really mean to the people of Britain and to the VCS in particular?

According to this recent article, mobile phones are now being used mostly to download information and data rather than to chat on. Originally used primarily for work, the expansion of capability in mobile phones over recent times has lead to an increasing number of people accessing online information on the move. For the VCS this has a number of implications, including the ever increasing need to have information accessible at all times and having an accessible presence online.

With £6bn of spending cuts to be announced in the next week, people are getting increasingly nervous as to where those cuts will be made. This article suggests that with much of the money likely to be cut from public services, the future of these services may be in the hands of people immigrating to Britain as we struggle to fill the gaps left by people emmigrating.

Related to the above point that skills gaps and shortages may ease, I have just read an article showing some anecdotal evidence that non-profit organisations in the USA have seen an increase in volunteers since this time last year. This has been a suggested outcome of the recession by many people, so it will be interesting to see if this increase happens in the UK as well. In preparation you might like to consider the following:

The ruling of the European Court regarding compulsory retirement in Britain must have come as a bit of a shock to many people.  With an ageing population, increasing flexibility at work and relatively new age discrimination legislation, it was expected by some that this would be the first of many rulings signalling the end of mandatory retirement.

At today’s training session for Development Workers on Understanding the External Environment in Yorkshire and the Humber, the final question asked was what are the arguments for doing strategic analysis? What can you tell the organisations you support on why this is important? Here are some of the thoughts:

*It helps you focus your organisation and team’s thinking – helps everyone work to the same goals and understand why you are working in the way you are

Get your views heard, and talk about the issues with others.

Have your say in researching drivers for older people’s organisations

Date: 25^th February

Venue: NCVO

Time: 9.30am – 4pm

The second in our series of events exploring drivers affecting organisations working with/for older people.

Twitter offers some great opportunities for VCOs. Have a look at Louise’s post if you’re interested in finding out more.

I saw an interesting quote in the New York Times today which seems relevant to this point:

“It used to be an elite few. Now anyone can make a book and it looks just like a book that you buy at the bookstore.”
Eileen Gittins, chief executive of Blurb, a print-on-demand publishing firm.

The aim of Blurb is to democratise media and make it accessible to all, a drive which seems to be becoming more and more relevant in today’s digital world.

The government has recently announced new funding for volunteering programmes which bring the generations together, the aim being that bringing the generations together will help tackle issues in the local community. It might be worth looking therefore at your organisation’s work, and whether there are opportunities here for you.

I’m interested by the assertion above Olly, that having a more active voluntary and community sector undermines local democracy. How does it do this?

To me local democracy is about being able to take part in the decisions that affect you, your locality, and the community in which you live. Your locality also involves the places where you spend your day, whether that be at work, where your children go to school, where you go shopping; it is the places that make up your personal geography.

Don’t forget that the deadline for applications is 5pm on 30th January!

Despite the current economic climate, it appears that long-term, regular charitable giving is on the rise.  UK Giving 2008, found that although cash donations have fallen, the amount of planned giving has risen, with donations by direct debit rising from £2.4billion to £2.5billion, whilst payroll giving increased from £88million to £96million, and overall, giving before the banking crisis was at a record £10.6billion.

The financial times has carried out a series of interviews with what they term ‘chief protagonists’ of the credit crunch about their thoughts on what happened, and how they think finance will change when the economy recovers. Some interesting viewpoints and well worth a watch

We've had some interesting applications for this project, but would love to hear from you if you think it would be something you could benefit from! Don't forget the deadline is this Friday...

Are the organisations you support bogged down with day to day problems with no time to look ahead?

I read an article this morning which stated that the most trusted source of information on the economic situation is not the Prime Minister or even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston. This raises interesting questions about trust in institutions and where people get their information about events impacting on their lives. Something to think about for information providers?

In this time of economic uncertainty, it is more vital than ever that you have a committed, effective workforce. Recruiting is a costly business, which no-one wants to have to do too often!

Do you understand what may impact on workforce in the future? What external trends and forces can change the shape of your workforce? This awareness and planning is key to attracting and retaining a workforce that will enable your organisation to realise its full potential.

In September, local futures and the LGA held an event on Place shaping and the Sub-National review. Although I didn’t attend the event, I have since read the presentations, and they raise some interesting points regarding local infrastructure and capacity. Worth a look at for anyone more interested in the topic in general.

And the thing I think a lot of people forget (which I guess is what Caroline alludes to above), is that your strategy should speak directly to your mission, vision and aims. If it doesn’t, one or the other needs looking at!

I found these earlier:

‘It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.’ Anon

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.’ Dwight D. Eisenhower

‘He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.’ Francis Bacon

Date: Tuesday 18 November 2008
Time: 2:00 – 5:00pm
Venue: Room 1, NCVO, Regent’s Wharf, 8 All Saint’s Street, London, N1 9RL

NCVO’s Conference Suite is fully wheelchair accessible. Teas and coffees on arrival

Apparently, the latest hot investment is Russian collective farms . The investment and re-structuring of the farms has the potential of massively increasing Russia’s agricultural output, which could lead to less pressure on other agricultural nations and an easing of the overall global pressure on food production. It also has the potential of increasing Russia’s power within the wider global market and it remains to be seen whether this will be positive or negative.

At the moment I quite like being British.  I don’t always feel that way, but as we win ever increasing number of medals at the Olympics, it seems to be having an impact on my feelings towards the country I live in.  Don’t worry; this is not about to be a monologue on how wonderful it is to live on this small island.  But it got me thinking, if it affects me in this way, who else might it be affecting, and what effect might this have on the country, and the VCS within it?

Ippr have recently published a discussion paper on the Sub-National Review (SNR).  Useful as both a summary and a prompt for further thought and action, the paper outlines the objectives of the SNR, and outlines positive and negative aspects of the decentralisation policy.

Since Megan wrote this there has been some media coverage of just the issues described above. New methods of publishing are disrupting services and people are increasingly finding new methods for getting their message out. The following two articles examine these movements further: Book publishing in America unbound and Millions of books to choose from – yours will only take minutes to print

Need a nudge?  This seems to be the buzzword of the moment.  The Conservatives view themselves as the British champions of this movement, and many other groups are embracing this as a method for change.  Although not a new concept (first analysed in 1950s it was widely investigated by social psychologists in the 70s), it has only recently risen to prominence due to its popularity amongst certain high profile politicians.  

Anyone else ready to jump on the enterprise bandwagon?  Dragons Den is trying to make entrepreneurs of everyone, enterprise has now entered the national curriculum, and everywhere I turn, it seems that organisations within the sector are embracing enterprise with a gusto usually reserved for voting on Britain’s got Talent.  The capacitybuilders programme has recently announced a £6million investment in social enterprise, and Gordon Brown aims that ‘enterprise is truly open for all’’. 

‘What’s the use of running if you are not on the right road?’ (German proverb)

Earlier this week I took part in an excellent course on Strategic Planning, run by CES as part of the National Performance Programme providing support and training to people who work supporting frontline organisations. Beautifully clear, the course clarified issues surrounding strategic planning, and guided us in how to lead others through the process.