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SEMINAR 2001 |
THE ARKLETON TRUST
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[CONTENTS] [NEXT PAGE] |
1: IntroductionThis document is a recollection, through notes and my own somewhat imperfect memory, of the issues, ideas, and examples of community development and empowerment that were discussed at the seminar. It is hard to convey the sense of cohesion and excitement that the topic generated within such a diverse group of people! However, we hope this will emerge at a later stage as we add to this report (on this website) the stories of local communities 'taking charge' of their health, education and development and as the plans for a follow-up conference in June 2003 take shape.As the seminar was conducted under 'Chatham House' rules, which protect the anonymity of the contributions, this is, appropriately, a record of my recollection of the event, rather than a 'true' record of what was said. As the opinions of the participants are not necessarily representative of the Arkleton Trust, nor always in agreement with each other, and as the participants' individual contributions cannot be accurately represented, this document therefore should be seen as an aide memoire to the terrain we traversed through our three days of discussion. However, I have benefited from helpful responses of participants to an earlier draft, and I hope that this report has improved as a result. The first day's requirement was to produce an outline of where we wanted the seminar to go, and what we could bring to that project. Although a subject area, and background notes, had been prepared beforehand, the precise agenda-setting was a participatory exercise. Notes of points made during the introductory session and round-table were taken on several White Boards (see Appendix 3: White Boards notes) from which the following framework for the seminar was derived:
This became the structure of the various sessions throughout the three days and was used to set general guidelines for the discussions. I will first report our visits to the major themes and, at the end of the document, mention a number of points which I feel are best viewed outside of the sections as they cross-cut both the themes and our collective project of facilitating empowered communities. I would like to thank the Arkleton Trust for organising and hosting the seminar, and, especially, Agnes Rennie for being such an excellent, facilitative, chairman. We also thank John Crawford and Tom McKean for providing the core music and song for the seminar Ceilidh. Speaking personally, I have never been to such an enjoyable and productive 'round-table' before, and my conversations with other participants assure me that I was not alone!
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