July 22, 2008
Warwick Wombles at the Finish
Woohoo - 24hrs 33mins 37secs. The 138th fastest team out of the 288 that finished!
Wombles rock at Trailwalker.
Getting up at 5:30 on Saturday, starting off at 7 and going right through til 7:33 on Sunday morning. 100k in a fraction over 24 hours.
So far we have raised just under £3K for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
For every blister, for every extra minute of extreme fatigue, for every mini picnic egg and every jelly baby, for every argument avoided and every melt-down averted - help us make it all worth it by sponsoring us at http://www.justgiving.com/warwickwombles
July 15, 2008
Big Birdie Skirt from Clothkits
Clothkits is back! Woohoo! I am dashing out the door to buy a sewing machine before I forget how dreadful I am at sewing.
I was a Clothkits Kid - and loved it.
Many years later, we were having a summer bevarage en-famille in a beer garden and wondered over to a car boot sale next door….
There we found mine and my sister’s Clothkits wardrobe for sale at a considerably marked-up price! My mother’s handiwork had stood the test of time.
See more at Seventies fad of kit clothes is born again and Is home made better than off the peg? and while we’re having an ethical bent see Chazza shops entries at CK’s Random Ruminations (Happy 30th CK).
June 26, 2008
My blogging mojo has returned. I lost it for quite a while there - but the important thing to remember is, it’s just like a diet, if you fall off the wagon, don’t give up altogether just start again….
A lot of colleagues used to ask me how I found the time to blog - and I always used to reply that it takes no longer than writing an email.
But actually, I’ve found the catch, the actual act of writing takes no longer than writing an email, but if you haven’t found the time for personal reflection then you have to factor that it - and that really is timeconsuming!
Firstly, I don’t make time for reflection when I’m stressed and secondly some topics of reflection are not suitable blog material.
Well, I have two new blog entry stumps to work on:
- Laura Dewis has asked me to film a vblog entry entitled “What I’ve learnt from You Tube.”
- I took part in a workshop on Tuesday about facilitation
- What is it? How can it help the OU? Should we train managers or offer a crack team for on-demand support?
More on these, and more in general later….
May 30, 2008
A recent harvest of our intranet staff noticeboard…. you couldn’t make it up.
From now on the phrase
“as cheap as a student nurse”
will be replacing
“cheap as chips”
in my lexicon!
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Wanted
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Sideboard
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Daughter and friends are house sharing and are in need of a sideboard (free or cheap as a student nurse).
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contact
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location
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Milton Keynes
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Help Me
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Dog Stripping
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Can you recommend someone to hand strip my dog. I know that lots of dog groomers do not do this.
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contact
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location
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Milton Keynes
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May 1, 2008
In keeping with today’s adopted persona, I am suitably behind the curve on trying out Twitter.
We’ll, I’ve signed up and had a bit of a faff with it, I’ll now set my subconscious on thinking of internal comms applications for it.
I was very interested to see how organisations are using it - particularly Downing St.
April 29, 2008
If you haven’t yet given to our ultra-marathon competitors in training then empty your pockets into www.justgiving.com/warwickwombles immediately!
On the 19-20 July 2008, 4 individuals of questionable sanity will be taking part in the Trailwalker event organised by Oxfam and the Queen’s Gurkha Signals Regiment. The event consists of teams of four walking 100 kilometres (62 miles) in less than 30 hours along the South Downs Way.
In order to ease the pain (at least psychologically) we’re trying to raise a minimum of £2000 for Oxfam and The Gurkha Welfare Trust. We’ll have a support crew on the ground to help deal with blisters and any sense-of-humour-failures, but we desperately need sponsorship from good people like you in order to make this endeavour worthwhile.
Money raised during Trailwalker goes to Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust (GWT) to fund their work tackling poverty and suffering: giving hope of a better, more secure future to people and their communities. While Oxfam works all over the world, GWT works specifically in Gurkha communities in Nepal.
Trailwalker is the largest ultra-marathon in the UK (the equivalent of two and a half marathons and an ascent of Ben Nevis - all in one go) and it is really going to hurt! We’re hoping that as a result of our physical efforts and the generosity of our sponsors, the event will assist communities to achieve a self-sufficient and safe environment in which to live.
All proceeds/profits will be donated to Oxfam.
April 18, 2008
What is the boundary between a healthy self-help culture and an organisational silo?
And, where do you go next when your central/corporate advice has been politely but flatly refused?
A degree of self-help is healthy in any organisation - but guerilla activity of varying quality can create an uncoordinated messy communications environment with clogged channels.
And this can make even your perfectly-managed and manicured corporate channels uneffective.
So, in my book, before you get to your funky all singing and dancing web 2.0 portals and pull-only information, a bit of pruning and air traffic control is needed.
My solution. An Internal Communications Network. Let’s break down those barriers and encourage guided self-help along prescribed channels.
So, what does any Internal Communications Network offer?
- A chance to meet other people, from all levels of the organisation, who play a role in communicating to staff (either across the organisation, or within particular parts of the organisation)
- An opportunity to co-ordinate your activity with others so that certain stakeholders aren’t inundated with conflicting messages at particular times
- Access to training opportunities including cross-training from other members of the Network
- Input into organisation-wide communications approaches, project and channels
- Relationship building with owners of key institutional channels
And what’s in in for the Comms Manager?
- Relationship building with those important people so they are less likely to refuse your advice
- Opportunity to upskill those important people
- An insight into what’s going on in the organisation
- A feed for stories for publications
- A sounding board for ideas
- Honest info about how people are feeling and what they are thinking
My final top tips is to keep it informal, relaxed is best - you’re more likely to get undefensive honesty rather than party line backwatching.
So, the inaugural lunch of the IC Network at this organisation is next Thursday…
