This feels like the ill fated double episode, where more budget is blown and yet there really isn't much more to see for the effort… but not in this case.
I’m starting to write these in a google doc on my way home on Thursday, I’m quite tired from yesterday — #OneGeenGov in Newspeak House. A cohort of fabulous OneTeamGov volunteers, speakers, people that came and people that joined in online ran a 12hr event on climate, sustainability and such like.
I left the house at 06:20 and got in at 23:40 it was by any stretch a long day, but a worthwhile day. I was in charge of catering (the food bits) and thanks to the sponsorship we had from NERC we went with what turned out to be a lovely excellent caterer — seven cherries https://sevencherriescatering.com/ and some delicious baked goods from Day Old http://www.dayoldeats.com/what-we-do. I also managed on Tuesday the day before, to call up Waitrose to cancel the additional bits and bobs order I had place back in December (I couldn’t remember my login details) on top of everything else Elspeth Body did the order for Waitrose. We had asked upfront in eventbrite about food allergies (we had 3) and dietary requirements just to make the process simpler. It’s a learning point form the past that you can ask questions twice but if you can roll it all into one it makes life simpler — the other learning I remembered was that it’s better to have thank you cards on the day rather than afterwards as we don't take peoples addresses because we don't need that data to do the event — still I forgot them on the day and the remained in my bag.
I think this was in part due to the nature of how we split the day up. We in effect ran three blocks of time am (9–1), pm (1–5) and evening (5–9) but what this meant practically for the people in the team that were there all day that it was more of a rolling affair and things started to blur (maybe that was just me). Now it’s important to note that this event(s) were part of a much wider more distributed set of events across the globe — in part due to the nature of it being Wednesday and thats the day that OneTeamGovers tend to meet up for chats, but not in every case. The Westminster breakfast crew that I often attend still went ahead — we even added one of the things they discussed as a suggested topic (it was James Arthur Cattell’s suggestion).
I’m really sleepy — sorry about the rambling, but it’s keeping me awake, last night on the way home after a bit of catching up on twitter, I went through my emails and then popped into the motzila hub that Heather-Lynn Remacle created, I really had hoped to help with setting that up, I didn’t but for me it’s something that I’m going to come back too — it reminds me of Minecraft before the rain came (if your a long time mincrafter you will know what I mean).
Tuesday this week was mainly spent in workshops for the beautiful and lovely side project that I’m working on, the week before a journalist found out about said side project and there was all manner of flurrying around making sure the eventbrite was private, I hadn’t done that the first time as I always feel copying and pasting a password is a barrier to entry. Also I had nothing to hide, still it’s a sensitive area and I understand my clients sensitivities. Talking of that, yesterday at OneGreenGov as on Saturday at UKGovCamp I attended the first session. I found on Saturday this really got me into the swing of things, and yesterday it did too — though I found myself not quite giving as direct as an answer I had hoped as I was the only servant (civil or public) in the conversation. Afterwards my proferation (is that a word) was to look across rather than look up, not to look what you want others (i.e. government) to do for you but what you can do for your peers (in this case 17–19 year olds). We were outside, though it was cold on the nose it was lovely, I have a warm coat and I ducked back inside for the second session.
What I like about the events we do in OneTeamGov is that their is always a sense of coming together — not necessarily with the same people, but just a sense of mucking in — and this comes out in the organisation too we have a ‘see a job do it’ approach, obviously there is some asking and there will always be someone who people tend to ask more — on Wednesday that was Elspeth Body and on Saturday it was (well I think it was more distributed than last year or the year before mainly as we have someone who is dedicated to the volunteers and organising them — David Durant, though Amanda as it’s her building and she MC’s was in hot demand.
I had a right dig dong with security while the wrap up was going on at UKGovCamp I was trying to get the coffee van into the loading bay [this bit is redacted because it’s clearly a flaw in the security] and to cut a long story short, latter on we apologised (the security guard and me) to each other, still the coffee chap was away quite quickly, he remided me about the book 1984, which I have not read yet. The creche took a while to disband, and put up, personally I think we need to rethink that a bit, maybe we could ask MOJ to build in a conference room on the public side of the security doors, they now have built pods for our breakout sessions :)
Monday was quite long as I recall, I wanted to get all my #OneGreenGov stuff done on the bounce from UKGovCamp, so I stayed to cut up card for lanyards after some the beautiful and lovely side project workshops. I also was in early to touch base with early birds in the Strategic Framework team Sarah, Scot, Simon and James W. We maybe changing our team name, I may also be doing videos to explain some stuff. Lots of exciting things going on.
On a separate note I have found possibly, the ball I have dropped. Now I’m wondering what is the difference between a dropped ball an an active deporitisation, and I think its just when I made the wrong call, based on bad data or incorrect assumptions. I could spend my time working though all the assumptions, I tend not to. I wonder if this needs to change. Its not that I don’t work through any its just that i don’t keep testing them… is it me or does it feel like I’m trying to wriggle off a hook? I fired off an email quickly to check said assumptions and in doing so picked up the ball — lets just hope its not a balls up. I was hoping to be at least 6 months in before my first one of those.
At UKGovCamp which I thoroughly enjoyed this year — apart from the swearing — a point was raised about weeknotes could be too glossy — and yes I have lots to say, but lots of it is just mumbling. Still they (not sure who) provided their non glossy questions for reflection. But I don’t seem able to find them in my notes that I made on my lanyard. Still there are other suggestions from those notes that I can use like things I tidied this week.
Many of the things I tidied had been related to the events, they have found their way back to their homes, that said I have borrowed more things today (Friday) it seems like I’m perpetually in a state of moving things around government — which I rather enjoy.
This was meant though more of a reflection on some of the things that I have done to curate things — I am almost up to date with making sure pictures on the camera I borrowed for the beautiful and lovely project are on the shared drive. In writing this I think I have more to do to make sure that I help curate things.
Talking of pictures Nigel Bishop released his on Wednesday from UKGovCamp https://www.flickr.com/photos/wnbishop/albums/72157712770717572/with/49421161337/ and that there Janet Hughes found this one of me https://twitter.com/JanetHughes/status/1220035219283156992?s=20
Onwards
