Before the Bank Holiday
First of all I would like to say a big thank you to the staff here at RSA for burning the midnight oil for the past week in the final push to launch the new website. It went live yesterday evening, but apparently takes 24-48 hours to propagate around the world to all the different servers. So keep checking the site, it will soon have a fresh face and greater functionality.
Thinking about brains, as I have been this week, I was interested in the Thought for the Day on the Today programme this morning. Abdal Hakim Murad explored the Muslim take on the Academy of Medical Sciences report about the use of brain enhancing drugs.
The issue of psychoactive substances is not a new debate in the Muslim tradition. For example, coffee is allowed because it enhances brain function, but alcohol is not because it impairs the mind. In his three minute slot Abdal Hakim Murad moved from this issue to a broader perspective arguing that humanity is distinguished by the God given miracle of consciousness.
Many scientists and philosophers would replace ‘God-given miracle’ with ‘evolution-given illusion’. One of the challenges in debates about the brain is the way empirical and policy questions about advances in neurological research jostle up against what philosopher Owen Flanagan has described as ‘the really hard problem’ of meaning and consciousness.
This week I’ve been interviewing some excellent candidates for a new Fellow outreach coordinator for Scotland. It is clear that the Scottish Fellows are going full steam ahead, delivering not only the RSA mission, but thinking hard about how to build a distinctively Scottish brand identity and agenda.
So it was perhaps not surprising that at our excellent new Fellows evening last night, a Welsh Fellow was astonished to hear from me that the Welsh fellowship is subsumed into our West and Wales region. Of course, this reflects the pre-devolution development of the RSA and I don’t sense any unhappiness in the region with its current configuration. But I guess it’s only a matter of time before our Fellows in Wales are seeking to develop their own relationship with the devolved administration.
I’m on holiday next week for the school half term – but between my holiday postings and contributions of colleagues the daily blog will continue.
New website launch
Thursday, 21 May 2008, 16.30 is when
we will be initiating the go-live procedure for the new website
enshrined in the diaries of all the staff here at JAS and beyond and
I’m immensely proud of the web team for their Herculean efforts in
making this new website possible.
There are many new features which will enable Fellows and the wider
public to gain a better understanding of our work. The blogs, of which
mine will be but one, are windows our different areas of work. This
blog will become much more of a test bed for my thoughts and ideas
regarding new enlightenment thinking, pro-social behaviour,
neurological reflexivity and new collectivism: in short how we become
the people and society that we need to be in order to respond to the
challenges of progress.
One of the great things about the RSA is our fantastic lecture series. Just this week we’ve had, Matt Frei, Jon Ronson, Misha Glenny, Philippe Sands QC and Darius Rejali.
Because of the high quality our lectures are almost always full, though
it’s always been possible to do audio podcasts on our site, we are now
launching Vision. These will be videos of our best speakers, enabling
more people to see our amazing public lecture series and join in the
debate about issues raised there.
Another video feature that Meet a Fellow, where we showcase the
diversity of our Fellowship, allowing a wider audience to see the work
that they do and the issues close to their hearts.
There might be some ‘downtime’ tomorrow afternoon, during the
transition from the old to the new site. So if you can’t see it please
try again after a little while. Any please send any comments or feed
back to webmaster@rsa.org.uk.
Volunteering at Surrey Docks Farm
Last week several RSA colleagues volunteered at Surrey Docks Farm. I asked Anna Leikkari who organised the day to tell us more -
“Last Friday the RSA organised its first ever Volunteering Day on Surrey Docks Farm in South East London.
The idea of the day was not only to make a positive and hands-on difference in the city of London in a small but scalable way, but to build team spirit and shared purposes across the organisation and unite Fellows with other Fellows and like-minded people, making new connections and potentially come up with ideas for new networking initiatives and projects (see current ones on the RSA Networks platform).
We picked Surrey Docks Farm as our project site as it has been recognised as one of the most innovative and successful city farm education projects in England, and was in great need of voluntary help as it relies on voluntary sector grants and donations, and does not employ many full-time staff.
The day was brilliant. 10 RSA staff and 13 Fellows arrived at the farm at 10.00 am and after a thorough briefing we divided ourselves into three groups and set to work.
The projects we were given were varied: carrying and organising heavy concrete slabs, wooden beams and bricks, clearing a large shed for bee keeping materials and the grounds free of rubbish and broken equipment and materilas, filling a large skip, turning hard ground around for planting vegetables and flowers, weeding a massively overgrown children’s storytelling area… and many other jobs that, at the end of the day, had visibly transformed the site. The farm manager said we were the best volunteering group she has ever had and was extremely pleased with the results!
Everyone who participated on the day said they would love to do it again and would love to see it become a regular occurrence. It was a great way to get Fellows and Staff together and some of the conversations we had during the day and afterwards in the Wibbley Wobbly riverboat pub were truly inspiring.
Personally, I felt elated at the end of the day as I think we had really made a difference on site, thus affecting many lives – especially those of children and young adults with learning disabilities who regularly come to the farm to learn about sustainability, the environment and farm animals. My most vivid memories will be of Jonathan (Deputy Director, Programme) lifting gigantic concrete slabs off the ground with a wrecking bar, of Rosie (Ideas Assistant) dancing her way through the site with a bee-keeper dummy and of all the happy faces of the volunteers when they were giggling at the little piglets and kid goats.
The fact that everyone was already talking about the “next RSA volunteering day” halfway through the day told me that it was a success and that we should do it again soon.
A massive vote of thanks to William Wong who, as a Fellow and colleague helped organise the day!”
Second thoughts
This week in Fellowship…
Wow, it’s been a busy one, my feet have barely touched the floor.
Last week’s event at the Baltic in Newcastle went well; I met lots of interesting enthusiastic people, several of whom promised they would check out the Networks platform after I had demonstrated it, and were excited by the opportunity to contact more Fellows and be more involved, unhindered by geographical distance.
I also got winked at by the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Then I got lost trying to find the station and had to jump in a taxi. But I managed to impress the driver with my knowledge of Sunderland’s success under manager Roy Keane.
Back at home, I have started a social sciences course with the Open University. They are the biggest university in the UK, and the course ‘Understanding Social Change’ is their most popular and my tutor said that applications for the course had doubled since last year. Maybe this marks a growing appetite for social innovation and progress? Let’s hope so.
It’s the end of the day here, and now I’m going to do my homework. Hmm, voluntarily increasing my work load…what was I thinking?
Until next time
Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.
(Photographs by me – this one of my insightful note taking skills)
Beginnings
Freshly back from the bank holiday weekend – and it feels that spring has definitely sprung, and the cobwebs are clearing.
The past few weeks have shown enormous promise and progress in terms of the Newtworks project, and much us this is down to the enthusiasm of Fellows.
With this in mind I hope you won’t find it too self serving if I start this weeks blog with this fantastic contribution from FRSA Tessy Britton.
Six months after the launch of the Networks project I feel more enthusiastic about it than ever. This is not because the practicalities seem easier, but the importance of what is being attempted is genuinely quite thrilling.
The RSA Fellowship is made up of extraordinary people, drawn to the RSA undoubtedly because of the organisation’s uniqueness and breadth of vision.
Where the RSA networks project adds to our Fellowship enormously is the invitation to participate. The shift in paradigm from being an interested but largely passive member to valued contributor is a really significant one.
It changes the questions from ‘what is the society doing for me?’, to ‘how can I contribute?’, it challenges our passions, time, imaginations and our commitments. It even challenges our abilities. It shakes us up, sometimes uncomfortably, to examine how, on a very personal level, we can not only talk about social change, but do social change.
The RSA is now saying to us that it is holding open a new sort of space for our ideas to be heard, to be animated by conversation with others and to be supported in many different ways. This is an incredibly inspiring thing to do, mostly because the long-term success of the developing network is dependent almost entirely on the interest and enthusiasm of Fellows to enter this space.
By these actions and attitudes the RSA is exposing the possibilities that are energised by individual generosity. It is rejecting the reductionist, remedial view of society and humanity and is firmly putting its trust and confidence into our innate capacity for collective good. What could be brighter or more optimistic?
Take this paradigm out of the RSA into local government for a moment. Imagine a local council where they put real value into their members – all of them. What would happen if those members were stimulated, inspired, encouraged and supported to form connections and groups in those communities for positive social change?
It can be hard not to envy the nimbleness that other innovation groups can offer, especially in these early stages. However, the RSA comprises a disciplinary diversity and geographic penetration that is wholly unique – and it is through its determination to create these connective opportunities, these equalities and freedoms across disciplinary, social and regional boundaries that I feel some of the most exciting projects will emerge over time.
While others may surely look for evidence of innovation in the output of social projects already, I am simply delighting in watching and helping the process, which for me is the real innovation. And it is amazing.
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