Social Reporters end of project meeting notes

This is edited from a group email from Charlotte the editor on the social reporters mailing list, from notes on agreements in various skypes, phone calls and meetings between the social reporters at the end of 2011's pilot to assess next steps.

We ran through the agenda and talked about our commitments, shape of the blog, topics and future meetings. Looks like everyone is up for it, yay! And there is a page on the microsite where you can put dates when you are away/not available.\

Structure

We agreed the blog would continue as a daily blog with weekends either:

1. as part of topic weeks
2. free - Saturdays for news-type items, Sunday for more reflective/issue-type pieces (Soapbox Sunday?) You might have some stand-alone posts for example that don't fit into a topic week you want to put out there.

We agreed we would take turns in leading weeks, which means we are in charge of that week's editorial content, sending out a short description to everyone before (two weeks min) and making sure the rota is filled, commissioning guest bloggers and uploading their copy in guestblogger (see next).

We will also introduce the week on Monday and comment when possible.

Other writers

1. Guest blogger will be a blog persona we can all use. We credit the author of the post at the end (in bold).
2. We all agreed we needed a few more writers on the core team so will keep a look out and invite people to write a slot in the topic weeks. Charlotte asked Justin Kenrick if he was up for more writing and he is happy to contribute. Teen mentioned we need more initiatives from the North. Charlotte to send Jo the original application list re London initiatives. Ed is also sending out a call for writers through the newsletter.

January

Almost everyone has filled in the rota now and we are ready to blog. I have moved Ann and Kerry from the first weekend to the following week (hope that is OK guys - if you want to write at the weekend I can post in the week no problem).

Looking Back reminder

• intro about three chosen blogs with links
• copy and paste one of those with original title as a header (check mine on Tues for ref if needed)
• upload pix (handy to right click and put them on the desktop first)
• credit reporter

Survey

Next Thursday Ed will write a report from the survey for the blog and the newsletter. There will be para about potential bloggers contacting us at the end.

Topics

we discussed several topics and some of those have gone up on the topics list. Do add as many as you like. I'll send a list for discussion after this so we can have something to go on. Mark, Adrienne, Caroline and I will discuss further at the topic meeting on the 17th and map out a three-month plan.

Edginess

was talked about as a Very Good Thing. Just to keep in mind our SR brief of grounding the work of our initiatives and not get stuck in warring opinions. For example, Adrienne came up with a great Elephant in the Room, Supermarkets. So here we would need to include local alternatives.

Funding

Marella mentioned the possibility for the project to get some funding. Anyone game for this?

Social Media

I have created a Twitter account for us to use. Our address (and hashtag) is ttreporters. Do use this to send out blog links (twitter button is at the end of each post). Let's build up our followers as we go and put initiatives in a list. I can retweet from transitiontowns. Ed, Rich and I put a shortening of our name (e.g. Char) in brackets at the end of the update so people know who is tweeting.

Anyone who doesn't know Twitter and would like to have a go, do give me a ring and I can explain (very easy) or send a wizard.\

Ed was putting SR blogs up on the Transition Facebook page when he was in UK, but now it is spasmodic. Anyone happy to cover this? Ed is also looking into using 'hootsuite' to smooth this and Laura may have more time in the future.

London meeting

Jo is up for our visiting Edible Landscapes before 3,15pm (thanks Jo!) We could meet before (around 11am) and then go to the Festival Hall, or around 2,15pm after our meeting. Which works best for everyone? There are wi-fi connections at the FH, so if anyone wants to join the discussion on Skype do let us know.

Summer meetings

Subject to travel restrictions, all of us were up for doing something creative, practical and inspiring at this year's conference which is probably in early June, definitely at Seale Hayne Agricultural College, Devon (skill-share workshops, display, presentation). Caroline was up for doing a radio skill-share as part of a possible Become the Media section. We would love to come to Ann's for a tented gathering!

Had a dream last night we were all staying in this really funky colourful house (provided by the Network) and there was the most delicious meal we had cooked in the oven and we were about to sit down and eat together. . . Don't think I need to psychoanalyse that one!

...See you in 2012!

About the author

Ed is the Web Manager for Transition Network. This means that he works on all the web stuff from the day to day support, to tactical activities to strategic and special projects work for Transition Network about linking up all the Transition Initiative websites without them having to come to the main site all the time for updates and news.

He lives in Bristol, likes digging and climbing, growing vegetables and reading, bicycles and books, swimming, camping and generally being outdoors.