Tweet tweet!

It’s been a whopping six months since my last blog and for this I apologise. On the plus side during the past six months I have been busy spending more time on social media for the Scotland National Rural Network website. Not only has this been a lot of fun, we have also made some excellent connections and encouraged more contributions for the website. Twitter (follow us @SNRNwebsite) remains my social media tool of choice, but I’ve also been enjoying Facebook and the recently launched kiltr.com for folk with a Scottish connection.

Last week I took the train down to Glasgow for the second Be Good Be Social event. Be Good Be Social brings together third sector professionals interested in social media for social good.  The events are a chance to learn, debate and connect with others working for non-profits, charities and social enterprises. The evening event at the Big Lottery Headquarters at Atlantic Quay was a great opportunity to meet other people in the third sector using social media to fundraise, to engage with their client groups, to raise awareness of their work and a whole lot more.

There were excellent presentations by Sara Thomas of MND Scotland, Rob McAllen of Cumbernauld House Trust, Marc Bowker from Quarriers and Rob Dyson from Whizz-Kidz and the Guardian. After three hours of chatting, presentations and workshops I came away from Be Good Be Social with even more enthusiasm for social media and its potential, plus many practical hints and tips that I can now use in my own work. The fact that the events are in the evening and deliberately informal really appeals to me. Networking and knowledge sharing turns into chat over cakes and proceedings even ended with a raffle!

Here are some of the top tips I took away:

• Don’t do social media just for the sake of it
• You don’t need a social media strategy, but you do need a fundraising strategy and a communications strategy
• Be authentic, be honest, be first person, be informal but still professional
• Don’t be defensive – no-one likes an argument!
• Photos and video are an excellent way of bringing people into Facebook
• Conversation is key rather than broadcasting
• Always try to engage people – ask a lot of questions and encourage conversations
• On samepoint.com you can find who’s mentioned your organisation on the web
• Annotate objects and people in flickr and add URL links
• Reference outside media
• Tell your stories everywhere – cross promote all of your sites
• Good will spreads – recognise the smallest community fundraiser up to the biggest
• Staff and your organisation’s users are storytellers too

The event was streamed online and you can now get photos, video and presentations on the Be Good Be Social website. The next event will be held in October 2011.

The perfect gift?

There are only 57 days until Christmas. The more organised among you will already have started squirreling away presents in cupboards. Some of you will be running around shops on Christmas Eve in a desperate attempt to find suitable gifts. I like to think I’m somewhere between these two on the Christmas shopping scale. I’ve just started having a think about what to buy my family and in the next few weeks I’ll probably start my shopping – with most of it happening online.

Now, while you’re shopping online for the Doctor Who annual and faux fur trimmed slippers, wouldn’t you like to be raising a little money for a good cause at no extra cost to you? Well you can at www.easyfundraising.org.uk And as the name suggests it is almost too easy to be true to raise funds for a national charity or a small local group.

All you have to do is log onto Easyfundraising and then search for the retailer you’re looking for, or browse by category of retailer. You then click on the link which takes you to the retailer’s normal site. By taking these few easy steps the retailer will then donate a one-off payment or percentage of your spend with them to a good cause of your choice. There is no difference to the price you pay with the retailer.

Lots of the big names are there including Marks and Spencers and Amazon (other retailers are available). Last Christmas I raised about £20 for Highland Alternative Music, a youth music project my other half’s involved in in Dingwall. Now that might not seem like a lot of money but if 10 or 100 people use Easyfundraising when buying stuff online the figures soon start to rack up, especially if you’re buying larger items. (I’m going to be buying an oven soon and it will raise about £15!) 

If you’re involved in a group or organisation you should add yourself to the list of good causes so your friends and families can support your group through Easyfundraising. You just have to fill in an online form to Register your cause. It’s a great opportunity to raise some funds that could go towards buying new equipment for a sports group or new toys for a playgroup, for example.

As you can probably tell, I’m a big fan. I’m trying to get everyone I know to register on Easyfundraising as it’s such a quick, easy way to raise a bit of extra cash for groups and charities.

So, this Christmas why not shop online and raise funds for a local group? That part’s easy. The hard part is deciding what to buy!

Capturing the Seasons of Rural Scotland on camera!

The new photo competition from the Scotland National Rural Network website challenges you to capture the Seasons of Rural Scotland on camera! The competition will run until 31st August 2011, with staggered closing dates for each of the four seasons.

Previous photo competitions were very popular indeed and the standard of entries was extremely impressive. We’re looking for the same high standard with our Seasons of Rural Scotland competition, and we’re confident you’re going to exceed our expectations!

With the four seasons as your themes you’ll be able to submit photos with a wide range of subjects including landscapes, wildlife, people and events. You can submit in advance for each theme, and judging will be quarterly. So, although Autumn is our first season deadline, you might want to submit your Summer photos in advance!

We’ll be publishing sesonal galleries with the entries, so the competition is going to build up a pictorial story of a year in rural Scotland.

Choosing winners and runners up for each of the seasons is going to be tough, and we’ll need your help to do it. We’ll be shortlisting five photos and asking you to vote in an online poll for your favourite. And at the end of the competition, you’ll be asked to vote for your overall favourite.

We’re also calling all young photographers to get involved. If you’re under 18 you can enter under any of the seasons until 31st August 2011. The team here will then have the difficult task of choosing a winner in two categories – up to 12 years old and 13 to 18.

You can get more information, and find out how to enter, on the Photo Competition section of the Scotland National Rural Network website.

Pete Ritchie presenting at the Borders regional event

During the 20 regional events from the Scottish National Rural Network which took place from November 2009 to May 2010 there were many truly inspiring presentations. One of them, and I’m sure anyone who attended the event would agree, was from Pete Ritchie at Whitmuir Organics who gave a presentation at the Scottish Borders event.

Whitmuir is a small family farm with a food hall and farm shop, a licenced restaurant, an art gallery and a home delivery service. They raise cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and turkeys and grow vegetables, salads and soft fruit. Their produce is organic and all their meat is butchered on the farm. Whitmuir the Organic Place has the slogan/strapline Food with Attitude not Additives. Pete talked enthusiastically about their work and aims. It was one of those presentations which makes you want to go and see the project/enterprise in action. (You can hear Pete speak about Whitmuir Organics in the short video from the Scottish Borders event.)

Well now I can, and you can too, as Whitmuir Organics will host the project visit of the EU Rural Cooperation Fair taking place in Edinburgh next month. The free event is on 23rd and 24th September at Murrayfield Stadium. As well as the project visit, the event will feature keynote speakers, including Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment Richard Lochhead, six themed workshops run by people from across Europe, a market place and a conference dinner and ceilidh.

The event will be  a fantastic opportunity to meet people from across Europe’s rural communities and to find out what’s worked well where they are. There will also be a chance to explore opportunities for cooperation projects with other parts of Europe.

If you don’t want to miss out on a place at this event then email EUruralfair@scvo.org.uk for an invitation. I look forward to meeting you there!

You can find out more about the event in Register now for EU Rural Cooperation Fair.

Access to the Antonine Wall event

Every once in a while you hear about  a campaign for a site to get World Heritage status, for example Loch Ness had a bid in a couple of years ago (I’m not sure if it’s still going).

But what do you do with World Heritage Status once you’ve got it? Having the status is bound to bring more visitors to an area, and is a recognition of a man made or natural site that is important to the heritage of the entire world. But how do you make the most of the benefits such status can bring?

Back in February, at the Rural Network East Renfrewshire regional event, we heard a very interesting presentation from Gillian Barrie at the Central Scotland Forest Trust about the Access to the Antonine Wall project. The Antonine Wall was designated a World Heritage Site in 2008 and is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire site which also includes Hadrian’s Wall. It is one of only five World Heritage Sites in Scotland.

Naturally, getting World Heritage status raised the expectations of the local community and agencies, but there were a number of barriers to accessing the Wall.

For example, if you wanted to visit the Wall which are the best bits to visit? And where do you find information about the Wall?  The barriers are largely because of the nature of the site – the Wall is not a continous feature and in many places the setting is degraded.

In our latest Featured Project you can find out about the Access to the Antonine Wall project. The pilot project proposed to:

• Focus on an agreed stretch of the Wall
• Explore what the Wall meant to local people
• Look at how they currently accessed and enjoyed the Wall
• Consider what barriers and opportunities to accessing it there actually were

In the Featured Project: Access to the Antonine Wall article, Gillian Barrie tells us about the aims of the project, who’s involved and their biggest achievements so far, including a celebratory event and the the production of an asset map about the Wall.

If you’re involved in a heritage project, and want to get more people from the community involved or improve the access to your site, then I’d encourage you to take a look at Gillian’s article. And if you want to share the story of your project by taking part in Featured Projects then get in touch by emailing editor@ruralgateway.org.uk.

Two months after it came out, the 2007 Scottish elections delivered a new government and the document and all the work that went into it appeared to just fall into the gap between administrations.

That’s not to say that the new SNP administration didn’t take rural issues seriously – given their electoral heartland it would be amazing if they hadn’t. From SCVO’s point of view, their commitment showed itself in several ways, including the funding of the Rural Direct service to support communities trying to get rural development funding for services and facilities (a funding stream that had stalled for years under the previous administration), support for our Village Halls Summit and a major piece of research on community buildings.

They also moved on other fronts including broadband, reduced ferry fares, land use strategy and a major review of farm subsidies, although their cutting back of Highlands & Islands Enterprise came in for considerable criticism in the north, and some were disappointed at the lack of further movement on the Community Right to Buy.

What the administration’s rural policy did not have was an overall framework, despite the existence of the the 2007 document which could have been used at least as a point of reference. One of the reasons it was sidelined was, I think, because it was based on a consultative process that only involved stakeholders sitting round tables in a government office. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: the policy community’s “usual suspects” play an important role in connecting up the activities of the people they represent with the actions of government. But a document produced only by policy people for policy people is unlikely to have deep roots, and can too easily be blown away by a change in the political weather.

Now, three years into the SNP administration, a new overarching rural policy document has appeared, called Speak Up for Rural Scotland. Although it is published by the Government and was introduced in last week’s TFN by Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead, it was written by the Rural Development Council, a body appointed to advise the Minister on how rural Scotland can best contribute to sustainable and economic growth.

The difference between this and the 2007 document is that it is being presented as a first step – a basis for discussion which is out for the widest possible consultation, through the Government’s usual channels and also a new consultation feature on the Rural Network website and a series of consultation meetings in early autumn.

An analysis of the consultation responses will be published in December and, although there is no overt commitment to turn them into a definitive statement of rural policy, Lochhead clearly states that its purpose is to “settle the future policy directions”. That settling will only happen if large numbers of people and organisations with an interest in rural Scotland read it and comment on it. The broader the response, the more difficult it will be for it to be swept away, whether by the election of a new government or a change in political priorities.

The trick is not to be put off by the ‘rural policy’ label. Most rural policy issues are not related to farming, forestry or environmentalism. They are subsets of housing, transport, health and social care, youth services and all the other issues that the Third Sector deals with every hour of every day. Whatever issues or sectors you and your organisation are involved in, there is very likely to be a rural dimension to your work, and your experience and ideas will have a place in this consultation.

Speak Up for Rural Scotland is a very readable document, divided into seven sections on the economy, land use, renewables, empowerment, sustainability, infrastructure and partnership. Each of these includes a number of Step Changes – 37 in all – that the authors see as necessary to the realisation of their vision for rural Scotland. By my quick reckoning almost half relate in some way to Third Sector activity, with a strong emphasis on engagement and activity across sectors, based on the view that rural people should make the choices that will determine their future. There is also a recurrent recognition of the importance of partnerships, skills development and capacity building, all of which are springboards for the Third Sector to set out its stall and to defend and expand on its achievements and ambitions in rural Scotland. I’ll come back to this in future issues of TFN and on this blog but meanwhile your homework assignment for today is to go on to the Rural Network website, take a look at Speak Up for Rural Scotland and consider what you can contribute to building a stronger and longer-lasting statement of policy for Scotland’s rural communities.

This posting is also published as an Analysis column in TFN.

On location at Rural Aberdeenshire event

From November 2009 until May 2010 I travelled the length and breadth of the country with my colleague Beverley Maclean, Scottish National Rural Network (SNRN) regional coordinator, and other members of the SCVO Rural Team, delivering a series of 20 regional events.  Sometimes the going was tough – there was snow, ice and even volcanic ash to contend with! But from Shetland to the Borders we met over 1000 people involved in their rural communities and heard about some truly inspiring projects and enterprises.

I’m delighted to say that we have now uploaded videos from all 20 events to our YouTube channel and you can also watch them on the Video section of the SNRN website. It’s a great chance to get the highlights from the events, hear from the people that attended and see folk talk enthusiastically about the things that are working well in their communities. And of course it’s a chance to spot yourself and people you know! You can find out more in Rural Network regional events videos now online.

You can also get event reports, photos and presentations from all the events in the Rural Network Regional Events Archive.

Matt Tyrer is busy planning the second year of regional events at the moment (Beverley is currently on maternity leave). If you were at one of the 20 events earlier in the year, we’d really appreciate it if you could take five minutes to fill in our short online survey. The results will feed into the planning for the next round of events. You can contact Matt at matt.tyrer@scvo.org.uk or 01463 251 727.

Speak up for Rural Scotland

A new major new Scottish Government consultation on the future of rural Scotland has been launched – and you can take part on the Scotland National Rural Network website. The ‘Speak Up for Rural Scotland’ consultation was launched this week by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment.

Last year, Mr Lochhead asked the Rural Development Council to provide him with specific advice on how best rural Scotland could contribute to the creation of a more successful country through sustainable economic growth, and how to face up to the challenges of the 21st century. The Speak Up for Rural Scotland consultation document outlines their views and proposals, including 37 ‘Step Changes’ on a range of themes including Renewable Energy and Working Together.

As well as being able to respond in the usual ways – direct to the Scottish Government – you can also get involved by adding your comments to the Speak Up for Rural Scotland consultation on the Rural Network website.

This is the first online consultation we’ve run and we’re encouraging as many people as possible to take part. There are proposals on a wide range of rural issues – from local food to afforable housing – so there is something of interest to everyone living and working in Scotland’s rural communities. Getting involved on the Rural Network website is a great way to make your voice heard. It’s easy to do, you don’t have to answer set questions and you can say as little or as much as you like. So if you’ve never responded to a government consultation before, why not make Speaking Up for Rural Scotland your first?

You can get more information in Speaking Up for Rural Scotland, and you can add your comments to the Speak Up for Rural Scotland consultation.

Some delicious soup

For Christmas last year my brothers bought me the new Rick Stein book Far Eastern Odyssey. It’s a great book full of recipes from Mr Stein’s travels in the East. I cast my eye over mouthwatering recipes for Thai chicken soup and Massaman curry and I couldn’t wait to get cooking.  I needed shrimp paste and I needed it fast.

The Ross-shire town of Dingwall boasts award winning butchers, a fruit shop and bakeries, but as yet no international food store. So, I had to do my exotic ingredient shopping online. I spent about three quarters of an hour looking up ingredients on one of the websites recommended in the book, adding spices and dried food suffs to my basket. I could almost taste my spicy soup.

Then I went to the checkout and was aghast to find that because I live in Dingwall it was going to cost me about £20 to deliver a parcel which probably weighed no more than a packet of Monster Munch. I did the same on another website to find the same ridiculous delivery charges applied. This got me riled.

Of course it’s not the first time I’ve gone through the rigmarole of buying something online to find at the last stage that because I live in the remote wilderness that is Ross-shire it will cost me four times as much to get it delivered.

And I’m not the only one to get annoyed about being charged a huge surcharge because you live in the Highlands. There have been a couple of petitions about the issue, and it’s come up on the Scottish National Rural Network’s discussion forum, too.

So I was delighted to see Consumer Focus Scotland’s recent briefing paper to parcel operators. The key recommendations are better direct communication between parcel operator and the customer and the need to increase alternative delivery methods. Consumer Focus Scotland recognise that while issues of parcel delivery affect consumers right across the UK, the issues are worse for those in rural Scotland.

They say that clearer information should be provided at the point of sale on delivery charges, that customers should have a choice of parcel operators – including Royal Mail, and that surcharges should be kept as low as possible to avoid penalising people in rural and remote areas.

I couldn’t agree more and I hope that the parcel operators and online retailers take heed of the recommendations. You can download Parcel deliveries: Current Practice and Possible Solutions from the SNRN website documents library and read more about the briefing paper in Parcel delivery recommendations made.

And in the end I did get my shrimp paste and dried bird’s eye chillies, from an online retailer with the good sense to use Royal Mail to make their deliveries!

A little idea that snowballed!

This blog was almost called ‘Always take the weather with you’. That’s what seems to be happening when Beverley Maclean and I hit the road for the Scottish National Rural Network regional events. It snowed in Moray. It snowed in East Renfrewshire. And it snowed in West Lothian. Then the Rural Tayside event was postponed because of the weather.

But there’s been enough talk about the weather. Instead, this blog is about one of the themes that has been coming out during the regional events so far – the little idea that snowballed. During presentations, discussions and informal chats over coffee and lunch, I’ve heard lots of stories about projects, initiatives and businesses that started small and grew.

At the West Lothian event Rachel Sedman, Development Worker for the Fauldhouse Development Trust gave an overview of the history of the group and their activities. When they first started they were a voluntary board of directors and they wanted to start small. A community consultation was held, with a key aim to find out from local people what they liked and disliked about the village, and what they thought could be changed easily in the community.

The Development Trust  started with small areas of the village that need regeneration. They undertook the repair and renewal of the War Memorial. This was quite a small scale project but it had a big impact because everyone noticed it. On the back of that the community went on to rejevunate the Remembrance Day service. They used to have just a handful of people, but now there are around 200 people who attend every year.

These days, a few years on, the Fauldhouse Development Trust has funding for a member of staff and has big plans for the future – including a Community Hub. In her summary, Ms Stedman highlighted the importance of not taking on too much too soon.

And we’ve heard other examples of the same thing. Christina Noble during her presentation on the Here We Are project in Cairndow to delegates in Lockerbie gave a run through of what had happened at the project the day before. She’d been busy with lots of different things including a feasability study for a renewables project and a cookery book. She said there was no way in 2001 they could have sat down and put down any of the things that had taken place that day in a list of outcomes. She said the process was important.

In Rural Aberdeenshire we heard about a campaign to cut the use of plastic bags in a North-East village which led to much wider activity. At this event one of the discussion forum themes was ‘The Ripple Effect’ – one project providing the catalyst for others. And when we were in Alness for the launch of the Rural Network website, we heard that the floral displays and hanging baskets started wider regeneration in the community.

As the editor of the Scottish National Rural Network I often hear about the big projects – those that are innovative and large in scale. These initiatives require tremendous hard-work, commitment and drive from the people involved – and it’s great to celebrate them and share their stories of good practice. But it’s also nice to know that small steps can have big impacts and that little ideas can snowball and lead to things no-one ever imagined.

You can read more about the regional events in our Rural Network regional events archive. A list of events still to take place is on our Regional Events page.