#cong19 Attendee Briefing Note

Instructions and Schedule for CongRegation 2019 #cong19

With there weeks to go to CongRegation #cong18 (Nov 22nd – 24th) I wanted to give you one centralised run down and briefing to make the event as enjoyable as possible.  In total there are 8 events so this is a long read.  Please take time to read and check the centralised registration link.

Overall Schedule.

Friday 23rd Ashford Castle (Booked Out)

19.00-22.00 Community Talks.  Reception followed by 5 Presentations in the Private Cinema.

20.00-23.00 Maker Meet in Danaghers Hotel.  (earlier session for those not attending Ashford Castle)

Saturday 24th Unconference. Cong Village

9.30 : Registration Children’s workshops in the Crossroads Centre

9.30-10.20 : Registration in Ryan’s Hotel

10.20-10.30 : Opening address and move to venues.

10.30-11.30 : Huddle 1

12.00-13:00 : Huddle 2

13.00-14.00 : Lunch

14.00-15.00 : Huddle 3

15.30-16.30 : Huddle 4

16.30 : Photo at Cong Cross

17.00 : Reception in Ryan’s

18.00-19.30 : Dinner in Lydons/Ryans/Danaghers

19.30 : Poetry Open Mic Danagers.  MC Paul O’Mahony

20.00–21.00 :  Whistle Your Way to Music Glory – Tin Whistle Workshop.  Jenny Mulvey

21.00-22.00 : Hyphurm – New Ambient Music by Max Hastings

Sunday 25th. Mindfulness through Daftness, Cong Woods.

Assemble at the John Wayne Statue

11.00-13.00: Hangover cure breathing to mindfulness session in Cong Woods (weather permitting).  Led by Derval Dunford.

Ashford Castle Evening

Themed under a ‘Community Talks’ our speakers will share stories of community insights from the Quiet Man Movie, explore the concept of belong, explain what bonds communities together, share the insights of how a community project went from zero to 5 countries with no budget in under a year and finally how to really hear and know what your community thinks. 

This event is fully booked out with a waiting list on the registration sheet.  The venue can only hold 32 people so please check the sheet to see if your name is included. The full line up is the website.  Also, please note although we may have a reception beforehand, please grab something to eat before you get there as we won’t be serving food.

There is a reception in the castle from 7pm with presentations kicking off at 8pm sharp.  Parking is in the car park located behind ‘Cullens At The Cottage’ (on the right before the bridge entrance) as the hotel is fully booked. There will be a shuttle service from the car park to the castle for attendees who would prefer not to walk but it a 1 minute walk.

The provisional running order is:

• Professor Pat Dolan, NUIG on ‘The Quiet Man …. and the not so Quiet Man’

•          Leadership and Development Coach, Nadine McCarthy on ‘ Weaving the thread of Community – From I to We (…whilst still including me)’

•          Author Kevin McDermott on ‘Belonging’

•          Semantics Expert Alastair Herbert, LinguaBrand on ‘Why Listening Beats Talking’

•          Community Builder, Tracy Keogh, BOI/Grow Remote on Building a Community from Scratch

(Note this event is now full but you can leave your name on the waiting list – see below.  No food will be served at this event so please ensure you have eaten before you get to Ashford Castle)

After Ashford Castle we will retire to Danaghers where Pamela O’Brien, Chris Reina and Hassan Dabbagh will run a special ‘Maker Meet’.  Expect engineering and electronics challenges.  There will be two sessions – one at 8.00pm for those not attending Ashford Castle and after 10pm.

Saturday Unconference Running Order

Registration takes place from 9.30-10.15 in Ryans Hotel with huddles beginning at each of the 8 venues at 10.30 sharp.  On arrival you will be given a number along with lanyard.  Your number and the spread sheet tells you what venue you will be in and at what time.  Each venue has a chairperson who guides proceedings and will be completely briefed. The chairperson will ask 3 people to volunteer to speak at each huddle.  You have 10 minutes to discuss your topic, followed by a 5 minute Q&A. You choose how, where and when you wish to present.  This year we have a card/clock system in operation and you will be given notice of 2 minutes left (green) and 30 seconds to wrap up (red).  Each huddle will kick start with a short introduction of who you are and what you do but please limit this to a few short sentences (plenty of time at the breaks to share more about you).  The ice breaker is a ‘life hack’.  This is tip for helping with personal or business life and could range from a handy online tool you use to philosophical perspective.  This is designed to get everyone contributing from the start and is really helpful to all.  The earlier huddles will start with 3 speakers and the later ones may have two but this all depends on the final number on the day.  Those who have experienced CongRegation previously might volunteer for early presentations to get things moving.  The chair has a difficult task to keep things running smoothly so I would ask you to follow their guidance especially on timing, keeping on topic and including everyone in the narrative.  Expect robust exchanges but please be respectful and probe with questions rather than direct conflict.  Be willing to agree to disagree. 

The spreadsheet on your lanyard is designed to try to ensure you meet new people at each session.  Each session lasts one hour and you have 30 minutes to move to the next venue and chat with the other attendees. There are 4 sessions through out the day – two in the morning and two in the afternoon.  We finish at 4.30/5pm with a group photo at the Cross in Cong Village.

We will all congregate in Ryan’s Hotel for a post unconference reception.  Dinner will be in Ryans/Danaghers and Lydons.  We are also exploring the option of a special banquet. 

Free Headshots

As part of your ticket you can get a free headshot taken by professional photographer Gerry, Dreamline Photo Studio.  Gerry will set up a mobile studio in Ryan’s Hotel and send them to you following the event.  Make sure you brush your hair. 

Thypia – Creative Muse

Over the course of the CongRegation you can simply enter a problem at www.thypia.com and a creative muse will deliver an anonymous personalized response to your problem.  All we can promise is you will get a creative response.  Our muse is already working on problems so you don’t have to wait until #cong19.  Try it out today

19.30 Poetry Open Mic

At the inaugural poetry open mic in 2018 I was stunned by the calibre of original poetry and the willingness of people to grasp the opportunity to recite their favourite poems.  A cliché I know but you could hear a pin drop.  Thankfully Paul O’Mahony has agreed to MC once again.  Put your name down on the sheet if you intend to take to the stage but you can also decide on the night.  These are rapid fire sessions.  

20.00 Whistle Your Way to Music Glory – Tin Whistle Workshop

This year we are embracing the humble Tin Whistle.  We will have 30-50 Tin Whistle at this fun 1 hour workshop starting with the basics and finishing with a jamming session under the expert guidance of Jenny Mulvey.  If you have a tin whistle (or your children’s) bring it along or you can buy one for €7 each.  This session starts at 20.00 until 21.00.  This is a great chance to meet some new people, create a piece of music and collaborate.  We might not get beyond ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ but should be fun.

21.00 Hyphurm – New Ambient Music by Max Hastings 

Following the music session you will have a chance to sit back and listen as Max Hastings, who has attended many CongRegations, will demo his new ambient music material under the Aklivitus label.  You can sample some it on his Soundcloud.

Sunday Mindfulness through Daftness 11.00

We are lucky with the vast skills of CongRegation attendees and Derval Dunford will lead a fun but practical mindfulness session in Cong Woods.  For those who over indulged the ‘Hangover Cure Breathing’ could be particularly attractive.  Sturdy boots, hat, gloves and full waterproofs just in case of bad weather are a must.  Meeting point is the John Wayne status at 11am.

Venues and Chairs

The chairs and the 8 venues for #cong19 are:

1.         Robbie Canavan | Byrne and Fallon | Two groups here. Lunch served.

2.         Mags Amond | Danaghers | One group in the café to the right. Lunch served.

3.         Ruairi Kavanagh | Puddleducks | One group. Table at the window. Lunch served.

4.         Don Delaney | Elizabeth Togher’s | One group. Round table. Lunch in Byrne & Butler.

5.         Barry Kennedy | Lydons | One group. Downstairs. Lunch served here.

6.         Averil Staunton | Rare and Recent | One group. Lunch in Ryans.

7.         Mike O’Rourke | Byrne and Fallon | Two groups. Lunch Served.

8.         Tony O’Kelly | Ryans | One Group | Upstairs area over the bar. Lunch served.

WIFI

All venues have wifi but be warned it can be temperamental at best, so treat as a nice to have rather than guaranteed.   Similarly on phone coverage, some sides of the village are better than others.

Tea/Coffee/Lunch

You will have free tea/coffee in all venues and lunch on Saturday is all covered by the generous support of the sponsors – Mayo.ie, Advanced Productivity Skillnet, MKC Communications and Blacknight.  Outside of the four venues (Togher Photo Studio, Rare and Recent book store) lunch will be in the last pre lunch venue.

ATM

There is now one ATM in Cong located in Danaghers Hotel but best to bring some cash with you.  The next nearest ATM is Clonbur Village about 5km away.

Dinner

We are exploring the option of a special CongRegation Banquet in Butler & Byrne (minimum of 25 people) but dinner is also available in Ryans, Danaghers and Lydons on Saturday night from 18.00.  This really is a great opportunity to connect with each other and explore some of the areas discussed.  There is a nice range of choices available and individual billing is available.

Children’s Workshops

We are expecting over 30 children for the ‘Maker Meet’ and Drama/Clay Modelling workshops in the Crossroad Community Centre on the way into Cong Village.  You can check your children in from 9.30 and please collect them after the group photo before 17.00.  You will be asked to sign your children in and out.  Please let us know of any allergies in advance.  We would like to take some photos/video of the workshop in practice.  Let me know if this presents any difficulty.

If you intend to avail of this I do need to know in advance.  Food, drinks and movie at lunch time are all organised with a garda vetted minder overseeing the day so the children will be in good hands and have a blast.

Blog Submission

In preparation for #cong19 I really encourage you to read the other submissions and start the process of connecting with each other by either posting them on social media or commenting on the website.  The synopsis will help you speed read and focus on the ones that interest you. Community was a challenging topic for this year and impossible for one submission to cover it all but I have been fascinated by the range of perspectives and angle that you have all taken.  For any still to submit please send them to me as soon as you can or let me know how you are getting on.  We are flexible on timing but really need to know that you will be there on the day.

Parking

Please use the large car park at the entrance to the village at the roundbout or behind O’Connor’s Spar Shop/Garage (closes at 7pm) and behind Ryans Hotel (be care of the tight turn – we have had a few bumps in the past).  Please do not park in front of Ryan’s Butchers and narrow points of the road (especially the front of Ryan’s Hotel) as large trucks have difficulty passing.  Daily we have in excess of 40 large articulated trucks passing through the village.

Getting to Cong

Most people are driving to Cong and the list of those willing to car pool is on the registration sheet.  If you are happy to take someone with you (great chance to get to know people) please let me know and similarly if looking for a lift please consult and connect with people.  There are a number of people looking for lifts from Galway.  You should allow for at least three hours for the car trip from Dublin.  If you are travelling by car for Friday evening in Ashford Castle my strong recommendation is to avoid Galway City and to detour off the Motorway for Claregalway, Corrundula and then back on to the Headford road to Cong Village.  This involves 20 mins of national roads but will save you a lot of time getting through Galway traffic chaos.  On Saturday morning this will not be a problem.

Buses to Galway are available every half hour from Citylink, GoBus and Bus Eireann. The nearest train station is Claremorris (30 mins), Galway (45 mins) and Castlebar (40 mins)

Weather

Let’s assume it will be wet and cold so please bring warm clothing and wet gear especially if planning on walks in the woods.

Accommodation

As it’s a tourist venue Cong has a good supply of hotels and B&Bs but most of the immediate rooms are booked out.  If you have yet to book please check out the listings on the site but a quick search will produce more options a short trip away in Clonbur Village.  It is best to phone the hotels as they have block booked rooms for us. Taxi services are available to get back to your accommodation if outside the village.  There are also some nice options on AirBnB.  There are still places available in Ryans and Danaghers but these will vanish pretty fast.

Centralised Registration

I have centralised registration booking for the 8 different events on this sheet to give us rough numbers.  This covers all the different events but the really important ones are Ashford Castle (we cannot squeeze any more than the lucky 32 in so check if your name is on the sheet before going to the castle), the Children’s workshops, the Tin Whistle session (all can attend but we have only bought so many Tin Whistles) and the Sunday Mindfulness. Please check out the different tabs and put in your names and numbers.

Health & Safety

Dr Michael Regan is the nearest doctor located near the entrance to Cong Village in the Lynn Medical Centre  (094) 9546006.  The is one modern pharmacy in Cong Village run by Cormac on (094) 954 6119.  The defibrillator is located outside O’Connors Spar Shop.  Please report any medical incidents to Eoin on 086 8339540. 

Problem Solving Muse.

Once again this year we recruited our CongRegation problem solving creative Muse called Thypia https://www.thypia.com

We challenge you to input drop in whatever problem you are facing and our creative solution provider will deliver a personalised response to you by email.  We cannot promise it will be the perfect answer but we do guarantee that a creative muse will review, analyse and give an anonymous response.  You can start adding your problems now through this link but we will also have cards on the day that you can fill out.

At this point we are on target for over 80-100 attendees, 8 chairs, 30 children and some observers.  Your attendance is really important to the smooth running of the event and if by any chance you cannot make it please let me as soon as possible as we will need to find replacements.  It is also not too late for new people to attend so if you know of anyone please share this email, direct them to me or the website.

In the event of something unforeseen happening could you please add your mobile number to the registration sheet or send to me.

Respectful Debate

The range of perspectives in the submissions this year will be a catalyst for lots of debates and sharing of insights .  Expect divergent views and opinions.  I just ask you to be respectful but don’t shy from challenge and the richness of discussion this offers.  I am also extending a challenge to the more confident to encourage the quieter voices through inclusive contributions.  Please also take the guidance of the chairs who have a difficult task and only wish to have all voices heard.

This event would not be possible without the generous support of Mayo.ie, Advanced Productivity Skillnet, MKC Communications and Blacknight and I would like to show my sincerely appreciation for their leap of faith in enabling this event to take place.

I am really looking forward to seeing you in Cong and I really appreciate the great effort you are making in a taking the trip and producing some inspiring submissions.

 

November 2, 2019 news No comments yet

What’s your community? #44 #cong19

Synopsis:

Online communities form because they have an internal need or in reaction to an external event. By identifying your community type, it will help you develop your marketing plans, budgets and capabilities to best engage with the community.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Understand why your community would form.
  2. Use it well or lose it!
  3. Members are on a mission, know their mission.
  4. Know where to spend your budget.

About Noreen Henry:

Noreen is a technology lecturer on the Mayo campus of GMIT since January 2000.

With a background in software and technology management she has in recent years pivoted into the area of Social Web Strategy and educational areas such as Learning and Innovation Skills.

She co-delivers the Marketing Strategy Theory and Application module on the Springbaord funded Postgraduate Certificate in Digital Media & Marketing.

Contacting Noreen Henry:

You can follow Noreen on Twitter or send her an email.

By Noreen Henry

There are two reasons why a community will form online:

1. Because they want to, they have an internal need. These are referred to as passion communities.

2. Because they are driven to, in reaction to an external event these are trigger event communities. (Hlavac, 2014, pp. 12-14)

If you understand why your community should form, what they seek and how they engage with peers, influencers and experts, you will be positioned to build your social strategies.

A Passion Community Defined: Is one that contains highly focused brand and lifestyle advocates often on a third-party (one which you have no control over) website that the brand does not manage. This is a high-intensity group, containing members that pose opportunities to engage with influencers, but also risks of brands being unable to manage in a scalable manner. The most engaged members of these communities, we will refer to as Passionistas. (Owyang, 2012)

Passion communities address topics members care passionately about. They want to hear from the influencers who identify key trends. But, they also want to talk to their peer to express and hone their opinions. As a business, you will want to engage members by giving them the newest content and ample opportunities to have peer to peer engagements.

Passion communities are permanent communities with stable members, who are always interested in looking for new trends and information.

To enable a successful passion community:

• Have opportunities for peer to peer engagements.
• Keep information current and on the cutting edge.
• Ability to interact with influencers and experts.
• To hone and validate their opinions.

If you engage or create a passion community but don’t keep it current and on trend, you will lose your members quickly.
Passion communities have permanent members so once we acquire them, we can keep them if we give them a reason to stay and engage. This means you can minimize your acquisition budget once we acquire members. But need to spend more on new content and new ways to engage.

Trigger event communities are the exact opposite.
A Trigger Event community forms to support individuals during a life change (for example having children, going through divorce) or social events (such as #blacklivesmatter and #bringbackourgirls) that touch people while they are happening but are bound in a certain point in time.

Permanent communities with temporary members, created to address a life stage change or external event. The knowledge they seek will change as they move from the start to the finish of a trigger event e.g., planning a wedding, retirement, pregnancy. If you can help them achieve their goals they will welcome you into their community.

Members are on a mission to accomplish something. They want proven information and tools to help them achieve their community mission. They are on a journey (possibly your customer journey!). You need to be able to identify where they are in their journey and get them the information they need to accomplish it. Your objective is to help them move from where they currently are to their destination. If you help them, they will keep coming back.

Your acquisition budget should tip the content budget because you can reuse content as your community members traverse their journey but once they have accomplished their goal they will naturally move on therefore you need to have a constant supply of new members.

Regardless of the type of community you have, you need to be the trusted expert within the community. You need to provide reliable content, information and guidance highly relevant to your community.
By identifying the community type, it will help us develop our marketing plans, budgets and capabilities to best engage with the community.

Bibliography
Brudner, E. (2017, 08 28). 30 Types of Sales Trigger Events and How to Track Them. Retrieved from Hubspot:
Hlavac, R. (2014). Social IMC – socail Strategies with Bottom-Line ROI. Nort Charleston: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Owyang, J. (2012, 10 18). Breakdown: A Strategy for Engaging Passion Communities. Retrieved from Jeremiah Owyang: 

November 1, 2019 2019 Community No comments yet

Why Community Mustn’t Mean Market #43 #cong19

Synopsis:

Too often, those of us in business tend to see people as potential customers first. Communities are far too important in our lives for us to mistake them for markets, as a collection of people to be sold to.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Too often, those of us in business tend to see people as potential customers first.
  2. Communities are far too important in our lives for us to mistake them for markets, as a collection of people to be sold to.
  3. When we consider a person purely in terms of their buying power, we devalue our sense of community and become instead a market where all we share are those common purchases.
  4. We must see community as meaning much more than market and build markets to serve our communities, rather than the other way around.

About Gerard Tannam:

Gerard Tannam leads Islandbridge Brand Development (www.Islandbridge.com), a team of specialists working to build great relationships in the marketplace that bridge the gap between buyers and sellers.

Contacting Gerard Tannam:

You can follow Gerard on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, send him an email or see his work in IslandBridge

By Gerard Tannam

I remember as a young boy hearing the adults talk about the prospects of Ireland joining something called the EEC, which I later learned stood for European Economic Community. I don’t recall much of the detail of what they discussed, but what I do remember seemed to centre only on the economic advantages of joining rather than on any of the other benefits of being a part of a much wider community.

In the meantime, of course, we discovered that we had much in common with our continental cousins-by-marriage, and found ourselves exchanging far more than the goods and services that were the focus of our discussions back then.

I was reminded of this recently as I listened to the various parties in the UK argue the priorities around agreeing a deal to exit the European Union, when it again appeared to me that the benefits of being a part of a greater community beyond national borders carried little weight.

Of course, as both citizen and business-owner, I have a vested interest in our being able to continue to trade easily and profitably with our nearest neighbours, but it dismays me that our discussions around their leaving seem to be much more around their exiting the common market than withdrawing from our community.

Now, this commercial take on community isn’t confined to discussions around Britain’s exit. More and more, we talk about communities as though they were simply markets. And the more we talk about and think about our neighbours in this way, the less likely we are to enjoy the real benefits of being part of this wider community.

When we put a price on participation, when we consider a person purely in terms of their buying power, we are in danger of devaluing our sense of community and becoming instead a common market where all we share are our purchasing behaviours and attitudes.

Whilst access to a common market may continue to be one very important benefit of being a part of a community, it’s vital that we don’t overlook the more essential benefits such as shared values, common interests and collective projects, all of which enable us to achieve far more together than alone.

When we see community only as market, we are in serious danger of growing cynical around our relationships with others in our communities and, in the words of Oscar Wilde, ‘knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing’.

Whilst it’s always useful to understand the cost of the contributions we make into our relationships with neighbours and colleagues, viewing those costs in isolation without appreciating the return on our investment in terms of the great value to our wellbeing and the greater richness of our experience means our sums will never seem to add up.

And so, we must see community as meaning much more than market and understand that our markets are built to serve our communities, and not the other way around.

This is not to suggest that markets built on such foundations cannot be commercially successful. We only have to visit some of the great food markets in continental Europe, or indeed in our own city of Cork, to see that a market can thrive when it is founded to meet the needs of the community.

As we survey the market-stall holders and their customers in full flow, and see the fruitful exchange of produce for cash, the evident sense of prosperity and well-being makes it easy to appreciate that there’s far more being traded than what’s changing hands before us.

In that moment, market does look very much like community, because in that moment, the market is serving the community, and buyer and seller is each a vital player adding to the greater value that’s being generated in every transaction.

October 31, 2019 2019 Community 1 comment

Community At A Crossroads #42 #cong19

Synopsis:

Much of Ireland has suffered in recent years, once bustling regional towns have fallen into decay and communities are struggling to survive. Many attempts have been made to tackle the issues but we’ve witnessed only limited success. It’s time we pushed aside our own self-interest and truly come together to help solve the challenges we face. Our communities are at a crossroads and it’s up to us to decide which route to take.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Lend our voices to identifying the challenges that exist in the communities around us
  2. Advise our networks to look for collaboration rather than individual efforts
  3. Seek out existing community forums and strengthen them by our participation
  4. Support community initiatives as they arise
  5. Spend our income in the communities in which we live
  6. Share our learning’s with the world

About Darragh Rea:

Darragh has worked in communications since 2002, helping his clients successfully navigate an ever-changing media ecosystem. Over those 17 years much has changed but the importance of telling impactful and relevant stories based off true insight and amplified across the right channels hasn’t. ​

Darragh has led the huge growth of the Edelman Digital business in Dublin over the last 5 years building a team of paid, creative and strategy experts who work with clients such as KBC, Mars, Unilever, Irish Distillers, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, SSE Airtricity, Deep RiverRock, Xylem, Jacobs and Novartis.​

Darragh is a Council Member of the Marketing Society of Ireland, a judge of the All Ireland Marketing Awards, a speaker at DMX Dublin and a Board Member of Triathlon Ireland. He graduated with an honours BSc. Economics and Finance degree from University College Dublin and has completed numerous additional training courses including the Digital Marketing Executive Programme with the Marketing Institute. ​

Contacting Darragh Rea:

You can contact Daragh by email,  follow him on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn or see his work at Edelman.

By Darragh Rea

I grew up in a thriving market town, it was the type of place you felt safe in and new amenities were added every year. We had a 25m swimming pool when very few other towns our size could get one, a state of the art sports complex was opened in my teenage years and would play host to many a game of indoor soccer, squash or badminton. Our cinema might not have shown the newest films but it did provide an option on a wet day. In latter years there was a vibrant nighttime scene with good restaurants and plenty of pubs to entertain us. But when the sun shone the place really transformed from stunning walks in the glen to cycle rides along quiet country roads, pitch and putt in the hills and hurling and football on the fields.

Many of those facilities remain in the town and we’re still blessed with some of the most breathtaking walks in all of Ireland but on my most recent visit back I was struck just how much the town has struggled. The main street where once we enjoyed street parties is now a collection of rundown buildings and closed pubs, restaurants and shops. Clean, safe streets have been replaced with dirtier, rougher alternatives and even the really good businesses that I grew up with are feeling the strain. Friends who still live in and around the town talk of anti-social behavior, closed businesses and a community under pressure. There is some hope that the recent confirmation of Deis status on the town’s schools will help, but mostly there is a sense of exasperation that it’s fallen so far. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is the result of some mass exodus to find work further afield but in reality the town’s population has grown substantially over the last few years. We could spend decades asking why and how this has happened but the truth is these are complex questions and finger pointing won’t change the past. We must instead focus our energy on what we can do to change the direction of this and many more regional towns who have suffered similar falls.

I’m heartened by the fact that we have so many of the ingredients required to help turn the town around but the frustration I sense from friends is the lack of co-ordination of collective efforts to arrest the decline. So what can be done?

I’ve been attending Cong for the last 5 years and each year I’m blown away by the experience, the participatory nature of the day, the openness to listen, to debate, to share knowledge and expertise. It feels like a brilliant study in what community should be about – and moreover a template as to how we can start to direct our collective efforts towards the betterment of the communities in which we live and operate.

Unfortunately, all too often, and mostly despite the best intentions of those involved, efforts to support community are too fragmented and instead of fulfilling the mission they strive for, they often become an unwitting part of the challenge.  For many this is down to a desire to have “ownership” over a particular activity, for others it is simply due to a lack of credible focus for their efforts. Take any major community challenge from housing to education and you’ll find examples of multiple stakeholders, all with the same stated end goal, working on separate and not always complimentary programmes.

I believe we need to examine the existing approach to community engagement where we sometimes inadvertently let self-interest get in our way and instead look at ways to collaborate and create an environment where participants unite to solve common challenges. This collaboration calls for stronger roles from our local chambers and councilors and greater participation from the wider public. To do this we need to create a forum whereby we can actively identify the major challenges a community faces and start to look for meaningful solutions from all interested parties. This could be through financial commitment, policy review or by simply directing the energy of volunteers to a common purpose.  We’ve had examples of this type of collaboration in the past and in some parts of the country there are already hugely active Local Development Companies working tirelessly to create meaningful outcomes but effective collaboration shouldn’t be the exception it should be the rule.

I’ve always been hugely impressed by communities like Clonakilty who have a hugely progressive and engaged grouping of businesses, NFPs and committed individuals who are creating tangible positive outcomes. You only have to look at the pioneering work they undertook to become Ireland’s first Autism Friendly town.  They did so by working together to solve what was a real challenge for some in their community and in doing so have inspired others to follow.

If we can foster such collaboration and create functioning forums whereby problems can be identified together, then people within the wider business network can make informed decisions on where we can begin to direct business resources and energy to meaningful community impact.

In the case of the town where I grew up, I can imagine a future where local businesses supported by government and community stakeholders can begin to truly share their views on how to reboot the story. Perhaps it’s a change in how we use our town centres and a return to the market structure of old, maybe it’s a dedicated tourism effort that unlocks the beauty of the surrounding countryside, or maybe its these and more – the fact is unless a credible forum is created where everyone connected with the town can truly partake in its future we’ll end up with more false starts and disappointing closures.

October 31, 2019 2019 Community 1 comment

Powerful Online Learning Community – the Ultraversity Project #41 #cong19

Synopsis:

Ultraversity was a new design for undergraduate, work-focussed, inquiry based learning for those students for whom university did not fit. It ran from 2003, petering out after 2007 as the university it was hosted in ejected the foreign organism from its nest! Nevertheless in November 2006, 144 graduates met each other face-to-face for the first time after three years of online learning as a community. Substantial relationships had been established in a powerful online learning community through experienced facilitation and a purposeful, motivated membership.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. online community is often the only possibility for some learners;
  2. place – university is too far away;
  3. time – university teaching is often at the wrong time and synchronous;
  4. substantial and meaningful relationships can be formed with good facilitation and strong motivation.

About Richard Millwood:

Dr Richard Millwood is director of Core Education UK and a researcher in the School of Computer Science & Statistics, Trinity College Dublin. Current research interests include learning programming and computational thinking and in relation to this, he is currently engaged in the development of a community of practice for computer science teachers in Ireland and also creating workshops for families to develop creative use of computers together. He gained a BSc in Mathematics & Physics at King’s College London in 1976 and first became a secondary school teacher. From 1980 to 1990 he led the software development of educational simulations in the Computers in the Curriculum Project at Chelsea College London. He then worked with Professor Stephen Heppell to create Ultralab, the learning technology research centre at Anglia Polytechnic University, acting as head from 2005 to 2007. He researched innovation in online higher education in the Institute for Educational Cybernetics at the University of Bolton until 2013, gaining a PhD by Practice ‘The Design of Learner-centred, Technology-enhanced Education’. Until September 2017, he was Assistant Professor for four years directing the MSc in Technology & Learning and supervising six PhD students. He is now working for Eedi / Diagonostic Questions as Computing Lead.

Contacting Richard Millwood:

You can follow Richard on Twitter or send him an email

By Richard Millwood

The Ultraversity Project was developed at Ultralab at Anglia Ruskin University. Established in 1990 it conducted many globally- significant action research projects.

Foremost amongst these were the Notschool.net project which provided an online learning community for adolescents for whom school did not fit.

Another major project was Talking Heads, which connected the headteachers of the UK in an informal online learning community.

These projects informed the design and development of the Ultraversity project in 2003. Staff worked online from their homes around the UK. The team had worked closely together in this way for three years on previous projects.

There was a need for higher education for working people, who could not afford to be at university due to financial, family or access issues.

The aim was to create a BA qualification where the students’ driver was the desire to improve their ‘work’ context.

It was intended to enable students to do this whilst full time working and living life.

‘Work’ is defined broadly and includes voluntary and domestic activity. The activity needs to be capable of improvement and research.

Action research was the core discipline in this fully online course. The first time students met was at the graduation ceremony – 120 students did so in November 2006.

The students could not attend normal university because they needed to keep their job or care for family. For many, the Open University route would take too long and they were prepared to put in the spare time to study more rapidly.

Most students were from the school workforce, but a significant minority were in the health service and there were others from a broad range of contexts.

Cohorts were important in order to build communities where students are sharing the same challenges and able to support each other as they work to common timescales.

Left to their own devices, together with a commitment to improve the workplace, students researched the issues that were current and relevant.

The course combined several innovations to create an approach which focusses on the development of a graduate with confidence, sustainable learning skills & habits and competence to use technology independently.

The regionally distributed team who developed this model, maintained a successful online community of practice themselves as they grew in confidence and know-how to offer the degree, and this is one of many departures from typical university practice.

The outcome was a mature practitioner comfortable with innovation, contributing to knowledge in the workplace and beyond, confident to critcially question initiatives and initiate proposals.

Initially students identified where improvement can be made in their workplace. After checking what was known about the potential, they planned action, did it and reviewed, repeating several times.

The degree depended on online community to function – students helped each other and challenged each other as they learnt together. The strength of this community was hypothesised to achieve depth in learning

Students were quick to say how much they had been rewarded by the strong friendships which had developed online.

For assessment, students were encouraged to communicate often, in relatively small pieces, using a range of genre and media.
The key element was the ‘stitching’ of these pieces, reflecting on the learning journey.

Ultraversity developed a process curriculum, which does not define any detailed content, focussing instead on the disciplines of action enquiry, digital creativity and exhibition. These disciplines, when linked to the twin drivers of personal fulfilment and workplace improvement set up the learner for lifelong learning and the employer for considerable assurance of improvement.

October 31, 2019 2019 Community No comments yet

Communities in Space and Time #40 #cong19

Synopsis:

Eventually, when we voyage to the stars we will be sending, in effect, small communities. The questions are, what sort of communities will they be?  And how will they be constituted? Also, what kind of belief systems will they have to subscribe to that will bind together a multi-generational mission.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Can a community be designed from near enough scratch?
  2. If so, then who gets to do the designing?
  3. Human bonds go beyond present relationships and travel across time.
  4. Human meaning is possible, even in the void.

About Tom Murphy:

Classics and Philosophy student at NUI Galway

Contacting Tom Murphy:

You can follow Tom on Twitter.

By Tom Murphy

The nearest star to us in the galaxy, Proxima Centauri, is thought to have orbiting planets that contain the possibility for human habitation and colonisation. The only problem is that with the current state of space engineering it will take 6,300 years to get there. Therefore, an expedition to Proxima Centauri will have to be a multi-generational project. Mathematically, there exists a possibility that more people will die getting there than will actually arrive. The interesting idea is; how many people do you have at the start? The second interesting idea is; what sort of community they will form?

To answer the first question, Frédéric Marin and Camille Beluffi, both of whom are based in France, crunched some numbers. Allowing for possible disasters that might afflict the crew along the way, they came up with the result that, at the minimum, 98 unrelated breeding partners would be needed to initialise the expedition. This number takes into account the avoidance of the hazards of in-breeding and allows for natural catastrophes such as plagues that may occur.

At the beginning this would make for a quite unnatural community of human beings. There would not be anyone involved in the first part of the endeavour who would be too young to breed nor too old to actively reproduce and care for children. But this would change in just two generations. The first generation would have the young to care for, and the second generation would have the elderly to care for. Forty or fifty years into the project we would have a community that would look like just any human community back on earth that has ever naturally existed.

The children born in space, unlike the initial cohort of adults, will never not know what it is like not to be in space. The spaceship will have to serve as a microcosm of planet Earth.  But with a difference; the community will have to have a framework for its fabrication. This is the opportunity offered to the mission designers whose it is to decide what constitutes a community.

This community will not emerge naturally as the original communities did on the savannah and in the rain forests. They will have to construct from the ground up a community that will operate on what has been known to work best for communities and to avoid factionalisation and other self-destructive behaviours. It is a design issue with manifold implications for whether the mission will arrive at its goal intact and in a coherent form or fail dejectedly in the void of space.

The goal of the mission for most of the participants is for their far flung offspring to reach a, hopefully, inhabitable planet in Proxima Centauri. But will that be enough of a motivating force adhering to the goal or provide a deep enough existential reason for existing?

One could easily reduce these astronaut’s roles to that of reproductive automatons. But you can imagine a young voyager coming to the age of reason and asking themselves in a very human way; is that it? Is this all there is to my life?

So, how would the designers of the community constitute the mission’s values so that the negative consequences of nihilistic thinking could be avoided? How could they make the over-riding purpose of the mission so powerful a motivating force, and so compelling an idea, that legions of the yet unborn will buy into it?

It is to our present communities that the nominal designers of this notional mission will have to look. Albeit, that while we reside on planet Earth we are still travellers through space and time.

The first consideration they ought to make is to observe that we are very much our history. We know from Greek and Roman thinkers that our own present day mind-sets and dispositions are barely different from theirs, if in fact, they differ at all. There is a direct line of communication through time to our forebears. Not only biological information but traditions, rites and folklore too.

So, the designers will have to make sure that materials are present on the ship that will educate little ones across thousands of generations of who they are and where they came from. Hopefully, the knowledge that they are continuing the human race, if in very unique circumstances, will give them a background of understanding that will situate them properly in the context of human history.

Care would be the next idea that I would advocate to the design committee. In a normal human life there is really very little time between being someone who is cared for to being someone who does the caring. One would hope that caring would come naturally to our galactic voyagers. But in the reductionist, atomistic world of a major engineering project one can see how something so elemental could either be taken for granted or over-looked completely.

As humans we all hope for better things for our children than we had ourselves. Progress is contingent on the belief that what we have now is better than what we had before and that things will inevitably get better in the future. But on a mission that is designed to last thousands of years the major resource is the ship itself. There can only be so much progress without self-cannibalisation. That is an argument that sounds familiar when assessing the resources of our own planet.

If the human race is to become a space-faring community it is going to have to think long and hard about what constitutes a valid, healthy association of beings that can live together harmoniously over almost unimaginable periods of times. Those of our descendants that will cast off the bonds of earth and who will depart for distant stars and far off planets will have to be more like us than we are ourselves.

October 30, 2019 2019 Community 1 comment

Creating Community Through Language and Stories #39 #cong19

Synopsis:

The glue that holds a community together is our ability to connect with each other on a social level. That social connection depends on our capacity to communicate with each other through language. Language allowed us as a species to form close knit communities, but it’s our imagination and ability to tell stories that grew these small communities to the global communities of millions and even billions that exist today. We can build and strengthen community with the language we choose to use and the stories we choose to tell.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. We all need to feel we belong
  2. Our ability to form close social ties is the basis for all community building
  3. Language and stories are powerful tools to build (or destroy) community
  4.  Let’s choose to use language and tell stories that create community

About Anne Tannam:

Anne Tannam is the author of two collections of poetry ‘Take This Life’ (Wordonthestreet 2011) and ‘Tides Shifting Across My Sitting Room Floor’, (Salmon Poetry 2017). Her third collection is forthcoming in summer 2020. Also a spoken word poet, she has performed her work at Electric Picnic, Bloom, Lingo, The Craw Festival (Berlin) and the Kosovo International Poetry Festival.

An accredited coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation, Anne set up her business ‘Creative Coaching’ in 2017, and works with individuals and organisations to successfully harness the power of creativity across all areas of life.

Keeping it in the family, Anne also works part-time with her brother Gerard Tannam in his business ‘Islandbridge Brand Development’, in her role as brand researcher where she gathers the stories and key insights that sit behind every great brand.

Contacting Anne Tannam:

You can connect follow Anne on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or see her work in Creative Coaching

By Anne Tannam

‘Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
‘Pooh’ he whispered.
‘Yes Piglet?’
‘Nothing’ said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw,’ I just wanted to be sure of you.’

To feel alone in the world is unbearable. We all need to feel we belong. Our survival as a species depends on our ability to form connection within a tribe or community that accepts us and shares, or at least accepts, our values and beliefs. Being exiled from a community may no longer mean death, as it did for our ancient ancestors who could not physically survive outside the warmth of the campfire, but it can feel that way. Remember back to those moments in childhood when we were left out of a game, either by siblings or classmates, and that feeling of being invisible, of being on the outside looking in. Think of poor Romeo who, when forced into exile by the Prince exclaimed Ha, banishment! Be merciful say ‘death’.

The glue that holds a community together is our ability to connect with each other on a social level. That social connection depends on our capacity to communicate with each other through language. According to one theory, homo sapiens, just one of the many branches of the human race, survived as a species because we developed a language so complex and supple we could inform each other in detailed ways about our surrounding environment and where food could be found or what dangers might lie in store for us. Vital information, shared amongst those in a particular tribe, meant the difference between life and death. A second theory is we developed language sophisticated enough to allow us to gossip effectively, thus tracking the ever-changing relationships within our tribe which facilitates social co-operation. You can just imagine us back then, standing around the water hole during our morning break from hunting and gathering, spilling the beans on what was overheard at the back of the cave the night before.

Whichever theory we go with, our survival has always depended on how well we can communicate and how effectively we build those essential social ties that bind us together as a unified group.

Language allowed us as a species to form close knit communities, but it’s our imagination and ability to tell stories that grew those communities from small tribes of up to one hundred and fifty people (the number of people that can co-exisit without a unifying story to bond them together), to the global communities of millions and even billions that exist today.

Hardwired to make sense of the world through story, humans have evolved and sometimes have been destroyed on the basis of the stories they tell. Every civilization began with an origin myth that bound that particular community together; stories of how the universe came into existence, of the pantheon of gods that protect and punish, and the laws handed down that set them apart from other tribes. With the advent of written language stories could pass more accurately from generation to generation. The printing press was a quantum leap in how quickly stories and ideas could spread and the advent of the internet means a community can spring up, or be destroyed, almost overnight. Our methods of storytelling may have become more sophisticated as the millennia or centuries have passed, but the power of story to influence how we live as communities has stayed the same.

In the past few years we’ve seen language and stories used as weapons to break down communities. It’s always been so but the level and speed it’s happening today is mind blowing. Whether it’s fake news, dehumanizing, polarising language spreading across print and online media, or the stories that Cambridge Analytica were paid to spread across Facebook to create a narrative of ‘them’ and ‘us, communities are under attack from all sides.

Fight fire with fire. Share stories of belonging. We might need to look harder for them, but they’re there. ‘Humans of New York’ springs to mind, a project that perfectly illustrates how the telling of individual stories told through the lens of respect and inclusivity, creates community. Closer to home, tell and share stories of what it means to belong to an Ireland that seeks to embrace and celebrate our diverse population. If we don’t tell these stories, those that seek to divide will continue to shout theirs.

Choose language that seeks to engage respectfully with others that do not always share our views. Choose language that points towards what we have in common, not what sets us apart. Choose language that daily builds community, whether that community is sitting around the kitchen table, or in huddles across a West of Ireland village, or scattered across five continents. Choose to belong. Choose to take another’s hand. Choose what story defines us.

Note: “Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari and ‘The Written World’ by Martin Puchner gave me some of the background information for this blog.

October 30, 2019 2019 Community No comments yet

Community: Rotten Apples and Hidden Gems #38 #cong19

Synopsis:

Not everyone involved in voluntary organisations are good eggs. In April, Wexford Water Safety closed down our local training ground thus denying 90 athletes (mainly children and youths) access to our sport (Surf Lifesaving) without any notice or rationale. Within 24 hours, they had seized the contents of our container of equipment that we’d fundraised tirelessly for almost five years. Unlike most sports such as golfing and tennis, which are effectively corporate social networks, it is not uncommon to not know the surname or the occupation of your fellow Watersport enthusiasts. Hell hath no fury like a community scorned and within 24 hours, we rallied together a super sub-committee to get their groundless decision reversed. Parents and volunteers emerged with the exact skillsets needed to take on a national body – a barrister, a social worker, an academic and a QS who together poured over the documentation to make our case to Water Safety Ireland. What followed was a three month campaign that caught the attention of the media, politicians and community groups.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Not everyone involved in community groups is a good egg. Some go mad with power.
  2. I know it’s a cliché but adversity does bring people together.
  3. ‘Never Give Up’ will never get old.
  4. Tough Love, we can still learn and grow in tough times.

About Joy Redmond:

Joy is a design thinking marketer, content purist, sporadic spin dr, founder @trustwordie @wtfisart Qual/Quants geek @sonru, autism advocate, open water swimmer and mother of 2 sons who are smarter, taller and swim faster than her. Alas, I’m attending a service design workshop at CIT on Nov 23rd so I will not be attending. Enjoy.

Contacting Joy Redmond::

You can connect with Joy on Twitter, via email or follow her thinking on the Joy Redmond and TrustWordie blogs.

By Joy Redmond

Anyone that came across our training sessions on the Courtown burrow over the past four or five years couldn’t but see a community at its best – fun, fitness, and a healthy dose of competition. It’s the closest I’ve got to experiencing that multi-generational outdoor life I’d seen all those summers in Spain – young teenagers assisting the coaching of the primary school aged athletes, parents like me trying to keep up and not be lapped by the youths and grandparents and extended families minding the younger siblings, too young yet to participate but you know are dying for their eighth birthday to be able to join in. What was particularly galling was despite numerous invitations, no officer of WSI-Wexford has ever visited or attended a SLS training session in Courtown nor did they present any justification of their decision to stop training there. We were distraught.

Skills in the woodwork
Within hours of the announcement in April, the Courtown group formed an action plan to get the decision reversed and followed Water Safety Ireland’s complaints protocol by dealing directly with its CEO, John Leech. From the very beginning, John Leech was supportive and requested the Water Safety Ireland-Wexford (WSI-W) committee meet to reconsider their decision. It’s amazing to see in times of trouble, the exact skill sets you need to take on “the system” come forward. Who knew we had a barrister, a QS, an academic and a social worker in our midst who put together an impressive rebuttal file worthy of the high court? My role was to get as much media attention as possible and I’m pleased to say that journalists in both local and national print and broadcast media hounded both the area committee and the national body. The upcoming European election also helped solicit support and letters from local councillors, TDs and three Ministers. Water Safety Ireland was under pressure.

The Fight
For 3 months, we followed protocol and participated and respected the problem solving process being delivered by WSI. What we met was a rollercoaster of no shows at meetings, not being told of county trials, being told the decision was reversed then another U-turn that nearly saw us throw in the towel. I think the turning point was when representatives from Water Safety Ireland mediated a public meeting between the athletes, families and the area committee and could see the visible upset of the youths and children being denied access to a sport by a committee who had never been involved in it. The following day, Courtown was reinstated as a training ground and despite missing several months training, our athletes went on to compete at regional, national and international competitions throughout the year. We picked up some bling too but it really is all about the participation.

Tough Love Lessons
It was horrible to see so many youths and children upset by unjustified decisions made by people they had never known but I hope they came away with the following life lessons:

  1. As these athletes are our future CEOs, team leads or even plain old employees, it’s good to learn early that it is not acceptable to swing in and make life changing decrees without consultation. As a leader to do it or a follower to accept it.
  2. It was a lesson in tenacity, so many times we felt like just rolling over but we couldn’t let irrationality and personal bias succeed. That kept us going and we prevailed.
  3. This is an important one. Children today are under such pressure to be popular, beautiful, cool – everything is orchestrated and curated to perfection. None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes so it’s important for them to see adults admit that and show that admitting you’re wrong or weak is actually a sign of strength.
October 23, 2019 2019 Community No comments yet

Thanks, Obama #37 #cong19

Synopsis:

Newspapers are all about community because they reflect our lives by being made up of citizens of those same communities. Journalism also engenders a sense of community among a particular paper’s staff given their shared goal of being as informative as possible to their readership.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. I’ve been fascinated with communities near and far since I was a kid… hence my interest in journalism.
  2. Being a journalist often conveys privileges such as literally getting a front row seat to history (see photo within article). But it’s the day-to-day coverage of events within communities large and small that really make the profession worthwhile… such as my job at The Salt Lake Tribune.
  3. I can’t tell you how damaging the use of the words “fake news” by authoritarian figures are to my profession… and our wider society.
  4. Thankfully, some authority figures do understand that a free press is one of the key pillars of a functioning democracy.

About Brian Mac Intyre:

Brian has spent three decades working as a storyteller in various forms.

He has been a reporter and sub-editor at a host of Irish national newspapers.

In addition, he lived in the United States for 12 years where he worked for The Associated Press in Little Rock, Arkansas and The Salt Lake Tribune.

He also spent time as a broadcast journalist and radio researcher writing scripts for top RTE presenters… and appearing on air occasionally himself.

He is also a corporate trainer, pitching coach and content marketer with his consultancy firm StoriesforBiz.com.

He has a BA in Economics and Politics (TCD), a Masters in Journalism (DCU) a Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing (Digital Marketing Institute) and an MA in Screenwriting (National Film School at IADT).

Contacting Brian Mac Intyre::

You can reach Brian by email.

By Brian Mac Intyre

Community literally means the world to me.

I’ve always been fascinated with what makes people tick… whether they’re nearby, or living far, far beyond our borders.

My keen interest in the globe’s daily comings and goings… i.e. news… started when I was a schoolboy, and it was fed as soon as I got home from classes.

I would spread The Irish Times on the carpet of our TV room and scan its headlines. I also used to collect Time magazines when historic events occurred, such as a new US president being elected.

I knew I wanted to go into journalism. And I had no idea at the time what a sense of community it would give me.

But I wanted a fallback too, so I decided to study Economics and Politics in college, given they’re what make the world go round… ie they help build functional communities.

I had a big interest in other countries’ politics too, especially Britain and the United States.

I remember watching Ronald Reagan being sworn in as US president in 1980. In part, it was a fascination with whether or not Iran would release US hostages held in Tehran at the time for 444 days.

The Iranians did so… right after Reagan was sworn in so that his predecessor Jimmy Carter couldn’t claim it as a diplomatic victory.

So I was part of a worldwide community of interested citizens watching events from afar.

And I never imagined that nearly 30 years later I’d be sitting in the front row for another Inauguration to witness the first African-American to take the same oath of office. In fact, I took this photo there. And Obama, of course, started out as a community organiser himself.

But that’s one of the privileges of being part of a community that gets to witness events as they unfold, some of them quite historic indeed.

In my nearly three decades in journalism I’ve gotten to cover the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games and even interview film stars such as Martin Sheen and Cameron Diaz, among others.

And throughout that time I’ve always felt a strong sense of community with fellow journalists, even from rival papers.

We’re all on a mission to inform readers, listeners or viewers of what happened in their world today… because knowing what’s happened in the past will make them better equipped to navigate the future. That’s because stories are all about solving problems, and thereby surviving.

The time I most felt a sense of togetherness and shared struggles was when I worked at The Salt Lake Tribune for nine years (1996-2005).

It was easily the best newspaper job I ever had simply because you felt you were really helping make a difference… in the community.

Our main competition, the Deseret News, was owned by the Mormon Church, while the Trib was owned by an Irish-American Catholic family (for part of my tenure).

And even though it was a majority-Mormon state, the Trib, which styled itself as “Utah’s Independent Voice”, sold twice as many copies as the Deseret News.

Our readers, Mormon and non-Mormon alike, appreciated our independence and, as a result, the paper was largely respected within the wider community.

That’s because, like everyone who works in media, we were part of the community too, with the same wants, needs, gripes, frustrations etc as everyone else.

But this is a fact that’s often forgotten… newspaper people really do care about the communities they live in and want them to perform optimally for as many people as possible.

But one thing that’s deeply damaging to our global media community in recent years is when authoritarian leaders undermine it by calling stories they don’t like “fake news”. It undermines the whole profession and is a deeply disturbing trend.

And Barack Obama, for all his faults, many of which he’d admit to himself, recognised this fact.

Although he brought a host of prosecutions against whistleblowers and leakers, he did make a point of standing up for the media in his last press conference at the White House.

He said: “You’re not supposed to be sycophants — you’re supposed to be skeptics. And having you in this building has helped this place work better.”

According to New York magazine: “The president suggested that the media’s persistent scrutiny of his reaction to crises such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the BP oil spoil had made his administration more responsive to the needs of the public.”
The magazine then quoted him saying: “So America needs you, and our democracy needs you.”

So thanks, Obama… for standing up for my community.
And all of our communities as a result.

October 23, 2019 2019 Community No comments yet

Bee A Community #36 #cong19

Synopsis:

A bee colony is a great example of a perfectly organised community. From birth till death each individual member performs tasks appropriate to its age and gender and all directed towards the health and wellbeing of the community. Deformities and weaknesses of any kind are not permitted and are dealt with in what we would consider cruelty. The products of the beehive, principally honey and wax, are well suited to local community based enterprises. Research at UCD has shown that Irish heather honey is of better quality (more antioxidants) than Manuka honey. Indeed honey marketed as local, using the locality as the brand name, commands a premium price. Though beekeeping has been practised by mankind for centaury’s, domestication of honey bees as we know it is only about 100 years old.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1.  A bee colony must get all its resources from within a 5km radius and deal with global threat’s.
  2. A bee colony is a society where the individual needs are directed to the common good.
  3. “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live”, A quote attributed to Albert Einstein.
  4. One teaspoon of honey is the life’s work of 12 bees.

About Patsy Cahalan:

Patsy Cahalan is a hobbyist beekeeper and lives in Claregalway, Co. Galway. Claregalway never fails to get a mention in the AA traffic report every morning. I am also a keen gardener, growing a variety of vegetables for our own use and for bartering with the neighbours for whatever they have, like eggs or cakes. I also love to spend weekends walking in the hills of Connemara. Helen is my queen bee and we have 3 adult children now living in Sydney and Dublin. We volunteer in local community groups such as our local drama and agricultural societies.

Contacting Patsy Cahalan:

You can reach Patsy by email or see Tribes Beekeepers.

 

By Patsy Cahalan

Mankind has been fascinated by the workings of honeybees and beehives since earliest times. Engravings of bees as well as honey have been found in the  tombs of the Pharaoh’s in Egypt. Here in Ireland St. Gobnait was held as the patron Saint of honeybees. Place names sometimes have a basis in beekeeping such as Corcog, meaning beehive, the first hill in the Maamturk range in Connemara.

Virgil (70BC to 19BC) saw bees as providing the model for a perfect society, where the bees loyalty and selflessness can be seen as a model of the co-operation on which security and survival depend. He gave wonderful poetic praise to the communal organisation of beehives.

They alone hold children in common: own the roofs

of their city as one: and pass their life under the might of the law.

They alone know a country, and a settled home,

and in summer, remembering the winter to come,

undergo labour, storing their gains for all.

Lets take a quick tour through the lives of bees to see why this high regard is so deserving.

The motto of my own club, Tribes Beekeepers Galway is the Irish seanfhocal  ‘’Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine”, literally “In the shadow of each other, we live.”

This says that in a community we all depend on each other, and the cooperation and help of our neighbours.

We need to help the bees face the challenges of globalisation and climate change and they will reward us in many ways.

Honey was once the only medicine available. It was used to seal wounds as it gave an airtight seal. It was the original sweetener and preservative and used to make the drink mead. It was a valuable commodity and given to newly weds to aid fertility for their first weeks of marriage, their honeymoon!

Beeswax has been used since earliest times for candles, waterproofing and cosmetics. In the days of smallpox, ladies covered their facial spots with beeswax. If it melted and people stared, they would say testily, ‘mind your own beeswax’!

We have a unique strain of bee in Ireland, the black bee, apis mellifera melifera. This bee is ideally suited to our climate in that the black colour attracts the heat and the bee being small is very frugal with its winter stores.

Each hive is a separate independent colony or community, headed by a queen. The members of this community have a unique smell or pheromone, which they get from their queen. This is how the guard bees at the entrance recognise their own and allow entry. The majority of the members of the hive are female, who do all the work. The males bees, the drones don’t do any of the normal hive duties such as collecting nectar or rearing the young. Neither do they possess a sting. Their only purpose is to mate with virgin queens and in pursuit of this they fly out everyday to drone congregation areas to await passing queens and compete to mate, after which they die.

At peak season the hive can have as many as 60,000 bees with the queen laying up to 1,500 eggs per day. The primary purpose of honeybees is to pollinate plants, and in so doing provide an essential service to mankind. For this they are rewarded by the plants with nectar and pollen. It is said that were bees to die out mankind would die within 3 years. Only wind pollinated plants such as wheat would survive.

The bees convert the nectar to honey by a collective process of evaporation and regurgitation.  A forager bee collects nectar and on returning to the hive passes it to a younger house bee before setting off again to gather more. The house bee swallows and regurgitates the nectar approximately 70 times, holding it on its tongue each time to evaporate the water before storing it in the honey comb. The nectar is approximately 80% water in its initial state, and when it is reduced to 17% water it is stored as honey and sealed in the airtight honey comb cell.

Pollen attaches to the hairs on the bees body when she alights on a flower. She scrapes all this on to the knees of her hind legs for transport home, hence we say the ‘bees knees’. The different colours of the pollen reflecting the colours of the flowers are visible on the bees as they enter the hive.

This sight is reassuring for the beekeeper as it indicates the queen is  laying and brood is being reared. The pollen is mixed with honey by the young nurse bees who add enzymes from glands in their heads to this ‘bee bread’ that is fed to the larvae before the being sealed while they pupate.

The worker bee emerges 21 days after egg is laid. Her first task is to clean the cell from which she has just emerged to make it available for the queen to use it again. For the next 3 weeks she will perform a series of age related tasks taking her closer to the hive entrance. She will feed young larvae, clean the hive, be an undertaker, feed and clean the queen, be a construction worker constructing the honey comb, accept nectar from forager bees for conversion and storing as honey.

Final hive job will be as a guard bee, a bouncer who will guard the entrance. Here she will with her sisters do other tasks such as fanning  air into the hive to provide air-conditioning, giving off alarm pheromones to warn her sisters of danger and giving out a special homing signal to help guide her sisters to the hive entrance. No wonder we say a ‘hive of activity!’

At 3 weeks old she will take a series of flights in ever increasing circles around the hive to help her position the hive in her internal GPS. She is now a forager bee and will work to bring in nectar, pollen, water and propolis. Propolis is a resin collected from tree bark and is used to seal the hive. It puts ‘No More Nails’ to shame such is its strength. Her flights could take her up to 5km from the hive and she can navigate her way back home. She will collect one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey during her lifetime before dying away from the hive if at all possible after a lifetime of service.

Bees have a highly developed system of communication through the use of various smells or pheromones. The queen is the only fertile female in the hive and her presence calms the bees. She also emits a pheromone which suppresses the ovaries of the worker bees ensuring the best genetics are past on.

The forager bees communicate information on the best sources of nectar to their sisters though the use of the ‘Waggle Dance’. Here a bee dances in a figure of eight while shaking her abdomen. The angle of the dance tells the bees which angle in relation to the sun to fly on leaving the hive, and the vigour of the waggle the distance to fly. That’s where we get the term ‘to make a bee line’! She also passes out samples of nectar to the watching bees so they know what to look for when they arrive at the destination. There are several waggle dances going on at any time in the hive and the bees decide through tasting etc. which one they will go to.

The summer season is obviously the busiest time in the hive as the bees store supplies for the winter. During this period the workers lifespan is about six weeks from egg till death. In the winter, with no brood rearing and little foraging winter bees live for about six months and rear the new bees in the springtime. When the weather gets cold the bees huddle together in a cluster and flex their flight muscles to generate heat. The cluster protects the queen and it moves slowly across the comb where each bee gets the chance to feed and get warm before going back to the outside of the cluster.

Our modern beehives with removable frames are a huge improvement on the original skeps made from straw and mud. The honey is stored in a separate compartment to the brood nest so may be harvested with less disturbances to the bees. Frames with wax foundation are provided for the bees to construct the honeycomb. Though the frames are rectangular the bees still construct in hexagonal shapes which give the best use of space in an irregularly shaped  space such as a tree hallow.   The use of the hexagonal also give great structural strength. The individual cells are sloped upwards at an angle of 16⁰ to the horizontal to prevent raw nectar spilling out.

But not all modern developments in beekeeping have been positive for the bees. Importation and cross breeding have had negative effects. There are diseases and threats now that didn’t exist in less than 50 years ago. The varroa parasite is the biggest single imported threat. It has come in from Asia where the local bees have evolved a method of grooming to clean the mite from the bees bodies. Our Irish and European bees evolved over millions of years without the presence of this parasite and so are now facing a struggle for survival. To combat varroa we have to use pesticides which are not natural to the bees.

But there is hope and some evidence that the bees are beginning to learn to cope with varroa. We are also beginning to appreciate the value and importance of our pollinators, and that offers great hope.

We associate bees and hives with peace and humming  contentment, with pastoral images of the early monks in the abbeys who understood the value of ‘brother bee’ and its place in creation. My own favourite image is from Yeats and the Lake Isle of Inishfree;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow…

So, can we glean anything from the life of the honeybee to benefit human society? I mentioned Virgil at the beginning. He looked to bees and their values as a model of society at the end of a civil war in Rome, and asked this question.

Could communities cooperate and pool resources to deal with existential threats from larger forces?

Bees are dealing with threats posed by the large chemical corporations, who argue they are aiding food production for an expanding human population.

I hope you’ll join with me in discussing this in Cong.

I’ll sign off by giving the advice of a honey bee for happiness and peace;

Create a buzz, 

Bee yourself.

Sip life’s sweet moments,

Mind your own beeswax,

Work together,

Always find your way home,

And stick close to your honey.

October 23, 2019 2019 Community No comments yet