Was it worth it?

Last autumn (2007) a cohort of bright-eyed social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneur advisers sat in a room in an unfashionable part of Nottingham in some anticipation of what was to follow over the preceding six months. This was the start of the course for social enterprise leaders and advisers. After the obligatory stand up and say who you are session the group settled down to find out what we had signed up for.
 
Looking back across the year my main impression of the SE course is one of being part of a part time big brother show. Every session there would be fewer and fewer of us. When the ‘evictions’ settled down leaving a core of students the second round of diminishing returns was concerned with who would submit work for examination and who would not.

I am not entirely sure how many of the original cohort completed. Those that did not missed a golden opportunity. How often these days can one study for something worthwhile and have the fees supported automatically by being accepted on a funded course?  I am sure that anyone still paying off their student loans will appreciate the rarity of this opportunity.

Well, I finished and am glad to say that it was worth it. The funding of the course by GNP was vital to me being able to undertake the course. Without that support I would not have been able to afford the study. Cheers chaps.

It would be most interesting to hear what everyone else thought.
In reflective mood, Alan

Say it loud, ‘I create and I’m skint’

Last night I attended the launch of Nottingham’s Creative Business Awards. The event was hosted by a spanking new casino of all places. Last year Area Four Records was shortlisted so I suppose its only natural that I attended this year’s bash.

This year I have left all conventional creativity behind. I have embraced the triple bottom line beloved of social enterprise culture. It hurts. Envelope stretching projects are no longer the norm. These days it’s below the bone costing, very little profit snf even less sense of the new, fun and “I don’t know, let’s find out together shall we?”

As a creative social entrepreneur all I ever want is to make work that both my client and I can be proud of. Working mostly in the V.C.O. sector has left me feeling that emotions like project ambition and project pride have given way to make do and pander. It is the difference “why and who” verses “what and how”. As a third sector media social enterprise we try to raise communications to be on a more strategic level; but to be met with constant micro management by people who are not interested in what is involved in delivery leaves me hankering for the shallow life I have put behind me.

The way I see it, you wouldn’t buy a dog and bark yourself, would you?

This by email recently…

“Dear Alan,
I am pleased to tell you that Third Sector Media has achieved the full emda Quality Assured standard. You can now log onto www.embrokerage.co.uk to view your star rating, and a summary of any brokered activity that occurs will appear in a table at the top of your homepage.”

Phew that’s a relief, I wonder how I dropped a star? Still, its nice to be scored the same as a McDonalds worker… Time will tell how handy this proves to be.
Alan

!STOP THE PRESS! (11/7/8)
I am now working through my first referral through this database so I suppose the stars can’t all be bad! – ACD