I took on board Colin and Catherine's point about not rushing into anything without taking the time to broaden the constituency and engage more interest. The timescales Colin suggested, in terms of regional meetings possibly in January, seemed sensible and realistic. However, in the meantime, we seem not to have gathered much more interest, at least here on the blog, and risk losing momentum, I think. I appreciate that there seem to be technical difficulties with the blog, and it would be good if we could move to a form of online participation that is as accessible and open as possible. Maybe a small group, with some technical expertise, could take this forward? Colin and Sharon, did the contact with NIACE lead nowhere? Does anyone know what was decided about the Literacies online forum with SFEU? Perhaps we could take some of the discussion into that forum to reach a wider audience?
As for regional meetings...I think, on the ground we might be able to generate interest in the different geographical areas and possibly the face to face contact might rejuvenate both ourselves and others. Perhaps we could plan towards an open Scotland-wide meeting, building on regional meetings, early in the new year. I am happy to try to work with some others in the north to try to get a regional meeting in January. Graeme, Chris, Alasdair are you willing to help me with this?
There's obviously quite a few of you in Glasgow...what about Edinburgh? Catherine, could you help with this, connecting in the people you have already had conversations with? What about the south? Are there other exisiting 'nodes' that would make a sensible focus for regional meetings? Kathleen...what about Stirling? Ayrshire?
If we had a definite timescale for a national meeting, with some people at regional level working towards this, we might be able to pick up the momentum again.
I'm not much in favour of 'leaders', but if we are to get something national off the ground it seems we need champions in each area, and each aspect of the project, who will help move things forward.
Personally, I am still convinced that there is a need for an independent association - some things seem to be getting worse in Adult Literacies in Scotland at the moment rather than better. Certainly the problems identified early on in this blog are not going away - but it's going to be an uphill struggle to move this from being an extension of TQAL to something that is genuinely inclusive. I am convinced we CAN do it though if we work together and don't lose heart.
I'm going to start trying to get a northern meeting organised. I'll keep you posted as to our progress with this.
Aileen Ackland
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I agree with Aileen here and I have had conversations with Colin about setting up a regional meeting in Glasgow in the new year. Can I have an indication from those of you who would be willing to attend/support this?
I think I will also post a message on the CoPAL site as well to spread the message. Any meeting we have will need to try and sort out what our purpose is or should be. I have very definite ideas about what an association should be doing but I know this will be different from others expectations so a regional meeting would seem like a great place to iron out our differences and consolidate our shared aims and goals.
In terms of those in the Edinburgh area I have some contacts but not many. Are there any TQALers from the area who could act as champions?
Come on lets get the ball rolling again before this fizzles out.
Catherine Watt
It seems to me that it has already fizzled out and that our main problem has been in opening this up to those outwith TQAL. I have mentioned our proposals to several people but so far nobody seems to have taken an active interest. It doesn't look as though we will be able to generate interest until we have a definite vision and the means to create our website, which will need to have some kind of a hook; perhaps a notice board where ALN job vacancies can be advertised.
I am currently working full time in Falkirk, so any meetings would be difficult to attend unless they are in the evening.
I feel that we are in a sort of chicken/egg situation, and hope that there are some among us who have an idea of a process that will take our forum forward.
Apologies for sounding so defeatest, but I do feel that we are losing the momentum (that seemed so powerful on that last day of TQAL).
Hi everyone,
It is fizzling out because their is no co-ordination. Why can't a few TQAL people get a steering group off of the ground where one of the objectives of that would be to bring in other non- TQAL'ers towards setting up an association? I don't see the problem. I would rather it was viewed initially as a TQAL initiative but grew into a national one, than never grew at-all - which is what it is in danger of doing.
A steering group is not a leadership it is only a co-ordination towards something else. Until we did TQAL we didn't have the support and confidence to do anything before. TQAL brought us together to do that and what we felt was a united passion on that final day as people who had just travelled a similar journey together and who had become empowered enough to speak out and do something. I have invited others onto the blog but they haven't been part of that TQAL experience so are less confident in speaking out therefore haven't contributed. That doesn't mean they won't or are any less of anything. They just haven't been part of TQAL and therefore don't necessarily 'get' where we are.
I just think we should consider those points.
Regarding the website - I have a small side business as a web-site developer. I have set up hosting for and designed a couple of successful ones. I usually charge for designing them but I might do it for free on this occassion if that is somehting that is vital for developing this initiative quickly. However, a site of this nature will need a lot of maintenance and updates so I cannot host and maintain it for free. This would need to be at a charge unless you can find someone else to do that bit for free. The building it is on offer to you if you want it and then we can decide where you want to go from there.
Sharon
I agree with Sharon. If we had set up a steering group when we first started this blog, we would have been up and running by now.
I also think that we are in a privileged position of having completed TQAL, and are therefore much more likely to take action than those who haven't had the benefit of TQAL. I would never have joined such a group before doing TQAL for fear of reprisals from management, so I think we could be waiting a long time before non-TQALers join in - isn't that why we are trying to get something set up?
Sharon has made a really generous offer of designing and building a website. This would act as an online meeting place, which we can direct people to. This blog thing is so difficult to get into.
My main concern from all of this is that no decisions are being made because we want to be democratic, and include everyone. I don't think this is possible at this stage, so a few people need to take the lead, otherwise people are just going to read what we are doing and think it's another talking shop.
I would be happy to meet with other Glasgow practitioners in the New Year.
Annette
I don't know whether this blog still sends email alerts when someone posts a comment. I haven't received any at all, but then, no one has added any since December.
So, I'm posting this to ask, are you all in secret talks somewhere, setting up the Guerilla Literacies Front? Or, has everyone lost interest/too busy/doing a course/managed to find extra work/waiting to see if funding is renewed/lost their funding and no longer in literacies?
Whatever the reason, if you're reading this and you no longer wish to be involved, could you leave a comment so that we know who's in or who's not.
I still want to be involved, but since my last post my circumstances have changed. I have less time now to devote to this, but I still want to contribute in some way.
Just to reiterate Sharon's point from way WAY back, I think we need a steering group, I think we need a website, but before that I think we need some form of leadership. I vote that a small group of people meet to steer this thing. That's democratic is it not?
Maybe, the new TQAL students will join us soon.
Annette Currie
annettecurrie@hotmail.com
Hi there
I think Annette is right about including the new TQAL Students in this venture from the start. I'm disapointed in the lack of enthusiasum among my colleagues that were not involved in TQAL and I think this put on a bit of a downer with regard to our original intentions however having thought about it long and hard I also want to state my committment to this and to suggest a regional meeting (regional being Glasgow and surrounding areas).
If anyone is interested in meeting to discuss how wee can move this forward then please respond via this blog or if you can't remember how to log on then email me directly. I'm going to suggest meeting nearer the end of March because by that time we should all know if our funding is secure fo the year or not. What does anyone else think about this?
Catherine
Forgot to say that I'll post something on the VLE for the new students
C
I'm glad that someone has come back in here and encouraged us to get on and do something. I am still in and think that perhaps we should go for the idea of a steering group meeting to give us each some support to take this forward at regional level. I think it is a problem that, across Scotland, Literacies practitioners are feeling very vulnerable at the moment. Even more reason for the need for a national association.
I'm up for meeting at the end of March/beginning of April. Langside College might provide us with a room, if that's easy for people to get to? Even if there's only a small group of us, we can at least start something.
Do we have everyone's email address?
Annette
I am up for a meet too and I am sure I could arrange accommodation in Clydebank if need be.
Look forward to catchinh up with a few of you again, I'm missing the TQAL buzz!!
Alan
You are all correct!
A small group to explore possibilities and report back to those who are interested, is the way to go. Actually it sounds as if we have the start of a group here: Annette, Catherine, Alan, Sharon and me
I was, and still am, interested in being involved. I checked for so long but as nothing was happening, deleted the contact! Maybe others have done the same - this doesn't really matter, as we need to have something to talk about or act upon.
Perhaps we should set a date to meet in the Glasgow area initially, (the more, the merrier), then see what happens from there?
What if we met at the end of April week beginning the 27th.
If this sounds ok, then what day...
Mon 27th *
Tues 28th *
Wed 29th *
Thursday 30th? *
What time...
Morning (9 - 12pm)
Afternoon (12 - 5pm)
Evening (5 - 7:30pm) *
Where...
I think it has to be Glasgow as the small group of us are from that area - or am I mistaken?
If Glasgow, where...
Langside *
Clydebank
Other suggestion?
My preference(s) marked with a star.
When you send your preference, can you include your email address, or email me at annettecurrie@hotmail.com
That will help us form an email network.
Annette
Sorry Catherine, I didn't see your suggestion for the end of March. I picked April because by then we should know if we all still have jobs.
Annette
Hi there
April is fine (March was only a suggestion). How would we like to publicise this and how many people are we thinking should be in attendance? Should we look at getting the core group who are already engaged togeher at this stage with a view to moving this forward for a larger network meeting in June or thereabouts? I'm also aware that Tina has asked for anything we might want her to take forward to RaPAL, maybe she should take this forward and ask for support in terms of gathering information on how other practitioners set up associations/networks. What do you all think about this? I'm particularly thinking about where to get funding for setting up a website in line with Annette's suggestions.
Catherine
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