a week in the life of me at the mo

Current updates of CAT activities or a week in the life of someone navigating the community asset transfer system Monday morning I returned from a weekend away in Warrington by train, I had very little time to do anything except, - prepare for a talk I was doing to students at Glasgow uni, it was about the just transition movement and climate change, I’ve talked about this plenty other times at other events, but this one - I had prepared some slides for the lecture theatres projector, I wanted time to go over these before getting up to speak, all the text messages then came in about the PCH being mothballed regardless our work, Ma Heid wiz pickled! No time or brain space to go over what I had planned – I had to wing it, The organiser of the lecture said I was awesome and; - she said it with joy in her face (she meant it) , I could then get back to texting about the PCH and agree to meet up Tuesday morning, which clashed with the start of the funders fayre, needs must everyone needs to keep up hope and continue doing things regardless what we hear, IMO Attending the Funders Fair at BowHouse Community Centre Grangemouth, we were a little late in arriving due to our brief meeting, so; didn’t get around all the stalls that was a bit of a missed opportunity, I focused on the utility aid side of things, - I also quickly spoke with the NHS table who took my details and gave me a contact for food growing community initiatives, I also spoke to the Education Department who were giving away 2000 pound but only to SCIO registered groups or government education centres, I wasn’t sure about the play group side of things for that? further investigation required, hopefully from the people at the playgroup who said they might get involved after txtgate (or PCH v council brexshit gate) Lindsay was more successful in her networking and made a few good contacts, I sadly missed sustrans but that’s just another project to get moving on

After that I went from there to Grangemouth Town Hall alone, to take part in the public consultation on the local transport initiatives! this was worthwhile as I got confirmation, they would include the braes area for funding! I now know who to contact them as regards moving forward projects of traffic free trails throughout the area, I also spoke to two of Grangemouth’s counsellors that wasn’t as successful, I am slowly learning the difference between the council and councillors it’s a minefield (I’ve brushed on a couple of concealed mines and discovered some could be highly explosive – foot gently removed before I got hurt) there is large sums of money being thrown at this and we can tap into it I then had a meeting with Andy from Green Heart growers fife, and; Nige Martin of the newly founded Braes friendly growers (our new group) Andy told us all about his experience in starting community food growing initiatives -he previously done one in Glasgow for the YMCA before doing this one in Fife for the community of King Horn, He is keen to help us and hopes that by next spring we shall start to have something to plant, We also discussed rewilding home growing and ninja planting ( this is what some people would call gorilla planting) a good group of positive people with green hearts for growing community food,

Later at Falkirk Writer Circle (who have been at the Green Park Centre for 40 years) had a prize giving for the children of Lauriston primary, I spoke to their teacher mr Cooper to ask about - the outdoor education and climate change education of his primary school? they do have a teacher responsible for this and they’re one of the eco-school networks, I have no desire to be the person outreaching to children or youths, but; I do know that there is large funds available in this field pardon the pun, I showed Mr Cooper the under the tree web page for outdoor schooling initiatives, and also the web page for Earth Cubs who; do some excellent climate education, I wish some adults would learn the stuff made to help children understand what’s happening, The play group could definitely embrace this! And also, perhaps build an outdoor education centre group meeting place - A Hut or yurt or something? that could be used during the transition period, (if the huts get shut before a replacements in place)

On Wednesday morning, I got the web address for polmont ski slope from their website, its basic but informative, this got me thinking of our digital learning journey should we be looking at a web page along with social media? Wouldn’t do any harm! Not sure if we shall need one if the council remove their booking stuff, I emailed in to polmont hill ski group to reach out for help from them to us and us to give them, perhaps we could build an alliance sort of email, I’ve not heard back from them yet, Wednesday night I attended the opening screening for the hippodromes silent film festival at Boness, booking my tickets for this sold-out event did make me wonder? About: how we are going to get around taking our bookings in the future! as the Falkirk Council booking system - it’s not the best (IMO) I think Plean community cinema being linked in with the Macrobert centre booking system is much better, I know there is other hubs that are listing in their business plan - the screening of community films, I personally love this idea and intend to develop it at polmont Community hub (unless someone else actions it) I attended this with Nige which; gave us a great opportunity to get to know each other better and throw around ideas,

Then on Thursday night myself and Alistair bell attend the CVS event at Sheilhill community hall, Which was very nicely decorated it looks like it will be a good asset to the community, with a cool stage lighting and sound system and even a bar! the CVS event was based around compiling the business strategy, which was of great interest to me especially - as the example they showed on screens was from Brighton’s community hall, I took plenty screenshots with my phone and had a good chat afterwards with Moira from Brighton’s community hall, I also took some notes for actions for myself, then had a chat with Alistair and the CVS team it was a worthwhile meeting (do we need to design a logo)

On Friday I attended keep Scotland Beautifull’s event at the village Cumbernauld, another community asset transfer, I was invited there because polmont Community Council a number of months ago had sent me an invitation to become a walking tour guide, this is an SVQ qualification given by keep Scotland beautiful in partnership with archaeology Scotland, my assessor liked my work for this SVQ! She felt it was worthy of an award, I was presented my certificate! I am now a certificated heritage hero, I had a good opportunity to chat with Monica Lennon MSP about her make ecocide a criminal act, I’ve signed the petition for this act that’s going through the Scottish parliament just now, Falkirk High School were also at this event as they have just achieved the Blue flag to make them an eco-school (let’s do this for St Margarets or the playgroup) also in attendance, was Polmont Community Council represented by Kevin and Michael - they received their certificate for making the village beautiful. They had prepared a slide show and talk, After the awards and a lunch break, we went a walk around some of the other community projects of Cumbernauld Village, I really enjoyed this, the landriggs were fascinating, I was keen to learn more about their numerous community gardens and food growing enterprises,

Once home, I had some emails to sort and help to give to another group that - I will be a founding trustee on their – SCIO, landxsea is a climate-based film festival in Montrose, their paperwork constitution etc - is much simpler than PCH`s, taking on more paperwork/emails etc, is not wise when I have a backlog of actions/ emails work to do for PCH, I was planning this weekend that I would type up apologies for Monday night’s meeting as I have a gig, this big newsletter is my way of saying sorry for not making it on Monday, I also have to send apologies to polmont community council meeting on the same night, I shall add in what I wish them to say about that /discuss, as they will be debating events happening at the hub/centre and dates for these events could make all the difference to us,

Emails were put on hold on Saturday as I spent the afternoon helping polmont planters with their heritage garden work, I’ve also taken on the task of researching some local history to help with that,