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Well it’s here.  After all the waiting and procrastinating (by me!), NYA2008 is here and I’m not sure what to say about it.

As I said before I have history with this thing so it’s a little odd being here.  Despite not having been at the National Youth Assembly for several years is seems in some ways as though I’ve never been away.  There are lots of people I know, lots more than I was expecting.

I met with my team in person after planning our sessions using the wiki and all seemed well.

Staff worship was brilliant. Linda led us through a beautiful commissioning service which really moved me.

And then it was off to join the delegates and begin.  The start was ok.  Great video intro from Boycey but then a bidding song that didn’t seem to fit well after the noise and images, but maybe that’s the point.  God comes to us in unexpected and sometimes incongruous ways amid the noise and the distractions.

The theme for this year is ‘End of Part One’.  Part one of what?  Not sure where that is going but I missed Steve’s session last night so may have missed the unpacking of the theme.

Mark Yaconelli, our keynote speaker, was great.  What a gifted story-teller.  He’s a lot like his dad.  I know I hate it when people say that to me, but it’s meant as compliment.  I was a big fan of his dad, Mike, before his untimely death and Mark fills me with the same excitement and wonder.

The first debate sessions came too quickly, and without explanation.  They are different this year.  Instead of the usual General Assembly type debates we’re having four sessions to explore issues before we debate them on Monday.  That seems to have taken lots of people by surprise, mostly because they haven’t read the information provided!  But that’s another story.

People seemed tired and maybe we talked too much to fill the gaps but some folk came up and said they liked the session.  I really appreciate people’s feedback, especially when they can be honest and open about the good and the bad.

I spent the rst of the night changing tomorrow’s session to be a little more structured so we’ll see how that goes.

There are some photos of flickr with lots more to come.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

So, 24 hours until NYA2008 begins.  How am I feeling?  Well I’m just beginning to get excited after a day of not really caring much.  I guess that happens when you’ve been working on something for a while and it eventually comes around!

This event is a bit of an technology experiment.  We’re using multiple platforms to enable people to read, write, tweet, comment and generally say stuff about the topics up for discussion and it would be great if you wanted to get involved in that.

You can see the topics we’ll be talking about and when through the links in the blog.  The blog should be pretty interesting with a range of people sharing their thoughts.  Your comments would be very welcome!

Hopefully you will be able to see some of the comments and questions on the twitter feed.  Feel free to follow NYA2008 on twitter too and send us some messages!

Finally, there will be photos on the NYA2008 flickr group or search for nya2008 tags.

So, I’m off to pack soon.  My sessions are about as done as they are getting for now.  I’m hoping they will evolve with the conversation over the weekend too.

So what does one need to make all this happen?  Well, a laptop, a camera and a phone.  Seriously, that’s all.  You could even do without the camera if your phone has a decent camera.

I’m getting excited.  And nervous.  I’m still not done!

Today’s news is that NYA2008 will have its own blog with a team of bloggers posting their thoughts and impressions as we go through the weekend.  We hope to have some thoughts from our keynote speaker, Mark Yaconelli, some delegates new and old and maybe even some of the event team.

The blog is over at http://nya2088.wordpress.com

I’ll also be blogging here throughout the weekend.

Where has the time gone!?!?!  I’ve known about NYA2008 for ages and been working on it for months and I’m still not done!  How come?

I got the programme information today and it looks amazing!  Some really good stuff happening about mental health and the human library sounds fascinating.

My sessions?  Well, Authenticity, Information, Privacy and Participation are our headings for an adventure in Social Media.  Sound interesting?  I hope so.

I’ll be blogging as we go along and posting on the wiki.  If you’re not coming you can follow the back-channel chat (or just backchat) on twitter.  Follow us over the weekend, or say hi!, using NYA2008 in your tweet.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about last night’s thoughts and I think my obsession with this event is about making a difference and seeing the value it has.  If not then it really is an obsession and I need help!

Now, no more of this procrastination.  Back to work!!!

It’s 4 days until the Church of Scotland’s National Youth Assembly in Dundee.

If you follow my blog or my twitter feed you will probably have noticed that this event seems to have taken up lots of my attention over the past couple of months.  I wanted to try to write about why that might be because it’s not like me to get so obsessed with a project.

We have history

Lots of history.  Yout Assembly has defined some pretty important points in my life.

I was a delegate/participant/sent to the first of the modern Youth Assemblies in 1994.  I was still at University and my dad was on the presbytery committee that got the job of sending someone.  He didn’t look much further than the other side of the dinner table.  I went, I liked it, I got picked to present a report from that Youth Assembly to the General Assembly.

I got a job with the Church of Scotland and became part of the team that delivered the event and spent a year talking Guilds into raising money to support it.

I was even put in charge of running one.  2001 at West Park in Dundee.  Possible still the highlight of my career so far.

All good so far, but then for a number of reasons I wasn’t at or was only partly involved in the next few.  I felt disconnected from the whole process but in many ways I think that was a good thing.  Distance gives perspective.  At least that’s what I thought.

Then I was invited to speak at the celebration of the 10th NYA a couple of years ago and thought that was the end of that.

I’m Back

I was surprised to be asked to this year’s NYA.  As I said, I thought I was done with it.  But apparently not.  I’m leading a team (that in itself is worth a post) who will deliver and resource ( I hope) a series of discussions on Social Media.  We’ve not been able to meet in real life as a team so we’ve used a wiki to plan and I’ll be doing the delivering and the whole team will be doing the resourcing of the conversations.

So what’s big deal?

I seem to care.  More than I think I should.  And I don’t know why. I’ve set up the event wiki and a planning wiki, a flickr group and some other stuff.  I’ve made suggestions about the event way beyond what I would do normally as an invited guest.  I’m not sure why.

One of my frustrations with FURY Assembly (the URC’s version) is that I don’t feel that the skills of the CYDOs (that’s me and my colleagues) are used effectively.  I think NYA is better at providing an informed and really challenging environment.  Not that I’m trying to big up myself.  I’m pretty terrified of this task and maybe that’s why I’ve given it so much attention.  Social Media is something that interests me but I’m not an expert.  I’m an enthusiast.  I see all kinds of possibilities and pitfalls and I think I get some of the challenges for the church but that needs translating for an audience of young adults.

Or maybe it is to do with investment.  I know how this event changed my life.  I probably wouldn’t have worked for the church if I hadn’t gone to that first Youth Assembly.  So, given the opportunity, perhaps I want to make the same kind of investment in this group of young people.

Maybe it’s about me wanting to impress my former colleagues and the new guys.  I used to do your job or something like it.  Performing in front of your peers is always pretty scary.

Maybe I should get some therapy and find out what it is about this event that gets me worked up!  But it does.  So the next week is going to be interesting, not least because I’ve still not finished my sessions.  I’m going to try to blog the process because it’s an interesting event with interesting people and I want to see what it stirs in me and if that helps me make some sense of how this thing affects me.

Oh, it’s in a 4 star hotel with a pool and gym and a spa.  Just thought I’d mention that!

Stock.xchng is a brilliant free stock photo site.  Great for high quality photos for your presentations like this…

Come to think of it, I have no idea what i’d use this photo for but I now have a strange urge to go pour a gin and tonic!

Together@MCT starts again for a new year tonight at 5.30pm at Saughtonhall Church with pizza and plans.  Together will happen every second month on the last Sunday but those are all the plans we have so far.  Tonight we hope people will help with ideas and get a little more involved in how Together happens and what it looks like.

Today my brother-in-law treated us to a great day watching the Jonnie Walker Championship at the beautiful Gleneagles centenary course.  We spent the morning with Darren Clarke, Justin Rose and Mark Warren and then followed Lee Westwood in the afternoon.

We witnessed some great shots and some of the longest hitting I’ve ever seen from Westwood.

All that and free Jonnie Walker cocktails… what more could you want?

I don’t listen to the radio as much as I used to.  I almost always listen to my iTunes on shuffle at my desk but when I’m in the car I listen to the radio and every time I do I think I should listen more often!

There are two shows I get little snippets of every now and again that I love.

The first is Radcliffe & Maconie on Radio 2, weekdays from 8pm - 10pm (GMT).  Mark and Stuart talk nonsense and sense in a way which makes it difficult to tell which is which but their passion and knowledge of music is captivating.  They play music you never hear anywhere else and wonder why not!  Well worth 2 hours of your life.

The second is Tom Morton on Radio Scotland. weekdays 2-4pm.  Tom broadcasts brilliant music and proper random chat from his home, a croft on Shetland.  I discovered Tom’s show by accident.  I sometimes listen to the news or football on Radio Scotland and had left the car radio tuned in.  I’m glad I did.  Again, Tom plays a blend of proper music that rarely makes it onto daytime radio.  He is knowledgeable and passionate about music, and Scottish music in particular.

Both great listens and both available online.  Give your ears a treat!

Chris Abani’s amazing, moving and inspiring TED talk, Stories of Humanity.