The rest of Sunday’s session went ok I think. We got into some of the upside to Open Source church and talked about how we could use social media to continue (or start) conversations like we have with Facebook and Twitter.
Sunday night was Christmas!!! We had a full Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings followed by a Hootenany, a party where people get up and entertain the masses. It was great fun with ‘The Unknown Magician’ and Ishbel’s completion of Tam O’Shanter definately the highlights.
Monday was debate day. The deliverences (motions or statements) were presented by Avril for Healthy Relationships, Me for Media, Kenny for Sustainable Living and Angus for Future Church and you can see them on the wiki.
There was lots of discussion and lots more around the social media one than I thought there might be. People were really in favour of the church engaging with the web and the communication tools available. We suggested a weekly ’sabbath’ from tech to remind us that face to face relationships are important and that we shouldn’t be at the beck and call of our email. I got the feeling people didn’t really get the idea of a sabbath with some people thinking we were suggesting not using technology on a Sunday.
We tried using twitter as a back-channel with NYA2008 as our keyword and put the feed on screens at either side of the room. It worked really well… but around lunchtime got very silly in a hurry and was pretty distracting so the screens went off. As you will see from the previous post we got pretty prolific… and made it to the top of Twitter’s trending list.
Thoughts of moving on filled the end of the day. We recognised Robert Paton, a young disabled man who through his faith, his dignity and his quiet persistence has changed both the Youth Assembly and the General Assembly to places which are much more aware and welcoming of people with disability. Robert has reached the grand old age of 25 and is too old to return next year. He was presented a ‘Friend of the Youth Assembly’ award and during communion he and those others who are too old to come back next year were annointed and prayed for as the step out beyond the community into the next phase of their church life.
Communion ended the day and included another great input from Mark Yaconelli. It was great to meet Mark and I wish I had more time to speak to him. I met his dad Mike years ago and suggested that Mike come to Youth Assembly. We met at Greenbelt and even though Mike was 10 minutes from doing a session to hundreds of people he insisted we go and find somewhere we could sit and talk. Most people give you their agent’s email address, but not Mike.
Mike sadly died just six weeks after his trip to Scotland and Mark told us how much the chance to visit Scotland had meant to his father. Mark was presented with the same gifts we presented to his dad, a bottle of finest Scotch whisky and a quaiche, a Scottish cup of friendship. A fitting gift for a gifted man.
It’s too soon to reflect with much clarity on the weekend but there are some things that will probably occupy my thoughts over the next while:
Did the new debate structure work? The programme felt too full… was that just me or was more space needed? Are deliverences the best was for Youth Assembly to say what it thinks? If they are, is there a way to not spend all of the discussion changing a word here and there? Could the debate teams have been a little more informed?
My personal reflection would be that I didn’t seen to have time. I’d have liked to speak to more people, especially Mike. I’d have liked to relax a bit more but I think that may be my fault. I did get to spend a little time with Neil, Laura and Chris and I valued that.
My favourite part? Staff worship, especially the first service where we were commissioned. Linda created a space where we were affirmed and equipped and valued and heard beautiful words and thoughts from the Psalms.
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.
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!!!
DK at Media Snackers has been on a bit of a campaign to get Youth Workers in the statutory sector to blog. It would seem that there are very few who do (he’s found one!), which perhaps is a consequence of Local Authorities attitudes to their staff having any kind of online profile (it’s BAD).
The same is true of the church. Rumour has it that the powers that be added Facebook to the list of blocked websites in the Church of Scotland’s offices the day before Gordon Brown (yes the Prime Minister) gave social networking a big thumbs up at the General Assembly. Facebook was unblocked shortly after.
This seems broadly representative of local churches and even denomination’s approach to the Internet. ‘I don’t understand it so it must be bad.’ I’ve had youth workers tell me they are not allowed to have BEBO or Facebook sites, they can’t have forums on their websites and all kinds of stuff about not being online. The reason most given is ‘Child Protection’. What a load of nonsense.
The online world is just as safe (or unsafe) as real life. What we should be doing is having sensible conversations about APPROPRATE online interaction with young people. There are lost of ways to have open and transparent contact online with young people.
It’s probably a good idea for you not to IM your youth group. But there’s no reason you can’t have a Twitter account telling them what’s coming up this week, or reminding them what to bring.
Having a group blog also let’s young people be creative in collecting content, writing and presenting what they have been up to. A blog would give your group a higher profile in the community. It would allow parents and supporters to see the value of your group. You might even get new members or more funding.
So, here’s a plea. Just because you don’t ‘get it’ don’t think it’s bad. There are loads of tools and opportunities around to make your youth work better. Don’t miss out because you don’t know where to start.
If you blog about your youth work, let me know.
If you would like to know more about getting online then in the next session I’ll be doing some training to get you started. Keep an eye out on the blog and the dates pages or get in touch from the contact page.
In the meantime check YoMo’s guide to youth work blogging HERE.
I like writing. It’s definitely one of my favourite tasks although sometimes it takes a while to get into the groove. Deadlines seem to help with that!
I’ve spent a good part of the past week writing part of the ’spiritual’ section of the new Girls’ Brigade (Scotland) programme for Juniors (8-12) and I’ve really enjoyed it. My sections have been on ‘Bread of Life’, ‘Water’, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Harvest for the World’ and each one of the four topics has 6 sections with a few activities. So that’s somewhere around 72 activities!!!
They will be doing nature walks, finding our where their food comes from, discovering what communion is, painting, drawing, singing, talking, reading and acting. Good fun I think.
looks like a brilliant idea. The idea is simple. Post what kind of people you want to meet up with and why. Name a time and a venue. People come. It’s that simple. Still not sure? Watch this:
This seems to me like a tool we (the church) should be using lots to network children’s workers, youth workers, ministers, people…
Today was the end of What Do You Think? (WDYT?) and the beginning of General Assembly. At WDYT? this morning we had a look through the report of the Youth And Children’s Work Committee and had a mock debate to see how the General Assembly works. A coat stand was employed as the microphone and it was amazing to see how quickly people started treating it like a real mic, standing close and holding on to it as a comfort blanket!
After lunch we had a ‘break’ until General Assembly started at 3.30pm. The break included creating a display of youth and children’s work and making sure everyone got checked back in and registered and stuff.
I decided it was my duty to make sure JB and LR got some well deserved time off so they were dragged kicking and screaming to the nearest golf course for 18 holes. We played at Silveknowes on the banks of the River Forth and somehow managed to escape the rain which was falling all around us. A good time was had by all I think.
Tomorrow sees the Assembly start in earnest with Youth & Children’s Work tomorrow morning. I’m not allowed in the hall so I’ll be hanging out in the foyer watching the live feed on TV. The most important thing for consideration tomorrow is my job title so check back to see it we get something shorter than Youth And Children’s Work Development Officer. I do hope so. That one doesn’t fit on forms!
T in the Park (Scotland’s amazing music festival) is also on this weekend so I’ll be watching/listening/wishing I was there too. It’s online and on TV & Radio. Feeder are on now rocking up a storm.
Tomorrow sees the start of the URC General Assembly. This year’s venue is nice and close for me! It’s Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh so I get to come home and night and sleep on my own bed which is always a bonus.
Assembly will debate 45 resolutions including a chance on Saturday morning to affirm the existence of the Youth & Children’s Work Training and Development Team, of which I’m a member, and with any luck shorten our job title! The YCWT team (as we’re known) has been reviewed recently and this Assembly will discuss some of the recommendations of that review alongside a proposed ‘Vision for Youth & Children’s Work’ which I really like.
The early part of this week has seen What Do You Think? gather almost 40 young people from around the UK. They come together to get to know each other before the General Assembly, read, study and discuss the reports and explore some of the big issues around the church and the world. The FURY (Fellowship of United Reformed Youth) reps are usually the best prepared of all the delegates and this year is no exception. They take their presence very seriously and I think show the church a great example.
You can download the book of reports from the URC website.
There is free wi-fi at the conference centre so I’ll try to keep you up to date with the highlights but I’m not a member of Assembly so won’t be allowed into the Assembly itself. I, and all the other hangers on, get to watch on the overflow screen.
Maybe I’ll hang out with the Children’s Assembly instead. It’s bound to be much more fun!!!
You know that there are loads of cool new webtools around but you forget where they are, who they might suit or what situation they might be useful in?
What is great about the list is the ‘every kind of learner’ bit. The 100 tools are listed under learning preferences so you can see quickly which of your young people / group / you / whoever might enjoy using the tools.
I am Stewart Cutler, a Youth and Children's Work Trainer with over 15 years of experience working with volunteers, students and professionals in the Christian Church and in communities around Scotland.
Welcome to my blog and website where I've been sharing thoughts about God, the church, youth ministry and life since 2006.
I hope you find this site helpful. Let me know what you think.
The opinions expressed in this website are those of the author, Stewart Cutler. They do not necessarily represent the views of his employer, the United Reformed Church, or any of the agencies he works with.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 UK: Scotland License.
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