Do you live or work in rural Scotland?

[Tim Stobart Tree Surgery]

If you consider yourself to live in, work in, or have an interest in rural Scotland then this year there is an interesting event taking place.

 

In November, Oban hosts the inaugural Scottish Rural Parliament. An event to give people from rural communities a platform to voice views and discuss matters with policy makers.

 

There is currently a survey being conducted to set the agenda for this event, please take the 2 minutes it'll take to fill it in: Themes for the Scottish Rural Parliament Survey

 

Forestry is not on the agenda, but land use and reform is, which may have a huge effect on some of us.

 

If you want to know more about the event, check out the website:

Get involved

[agrimog]

the rural parliament is a good idea, unfortunatlly it is already turning into another "jobs for the boys" group, there has been very little notification of it and its all been kept "in house" by a very select group......more waste of the tax payers money

[Tim Stobart Tree Surgery]

the rural parliament is a good idea, unfortunatlly it is already turning into another "jobs for the boys" group, there has been very little notification of it and its all been kept "in house" by a very select group......more waste of the tax payers money

 

You may well be right, it could be. Just out of interest, what do you mean by 'jobs for the boys'?

 

From what I know, it's only just getting going, and it's working on a timescale that seems IMHO fairly short to get it all going in, but such surveys are key to getting it 'out of the house'. I know some new directors have just been appointed to the organisation that is running it (Scottish Rural Action). Whether it proves to be a waste of the tax payers money or not will probably not be clear until a few years down the line, but it's an interesting project.

 

I only know what I do about it as my good lady is the project coordinator, though her background is from running an outdoor activities charity, to managing a community forest then onto this role. Again definitely not 'one of the boys', nor is her assistant, the other paid member of staff, who like us lives over here on the Isle of Bute.

 

If you've got any suggestions for how you would promote it then I will pass them on, as I know that they are really only just getting into this phase of the project, so any idea's are appreciated. They and I will be at the royal Highland show in a couple of weeks.

 

Tim

[Marko]

You may well be right, it could be. Just out of interest, what do you mean by 'jobs for the boys'?

 

From what I know, it's only just getting going, and it's working on a timescale that seems IMHO fairly short to get it all going in, but such surveys are key to getting it 'out of the house'. I know some new directors have just been appointed to the organisation that is running it (Scottish Rural Action). Whether it proves to be a waste of the tax payers money or not will probably not be clear until a few years down the line, but it's an interesting project.

 

I only know what I do about it as my good lady is the project coordinator, though her background is from running an outdoor activities charity, to managing a community forest then onto this role. Again definitely not 'one of the boys', nor is her assistant, the other paid member of staff, who like us lives over here on the Isle of Bute.

 

If you've got any suggestions for how you would promote it then I will pass them on, as I know that they are really only just getting into this phase of the project, so any idea's are appreciated. They and I will be at the royal Highland show in a couple of weeks.

 

Tim

 

Tim,

 

I know nothing at all about the work or objectives of the newly formed group so have no axe to grind.

 

The only observation I could offer would be my definition of Jobs for the boys as unfair patronage within a closed group.... What is often perceived as 'jobs for the boys' is when people who have made a career out of well paid public funded positions move/drift from project to project with such ease.

 

The only way to attain real credibility is to engage a mix of people who can work the grant system with a good dose of people who have had to face the fiscal realities of life from the private sector. Once some real hard talk descends then, perhaps, the necessary credibility and respect will be earned amongst the target audience.

 

I walked out on the last quango event I was invited to. It was a very lavish event being run by people who had their hand deep into the public purse and attended solely by other groups who themselves had their hands deep in the public purse. Not one person was present from the potential group that the whole collective was supposed to be helping. I believe the only appropriate term to describe the event was 'a buggers muddle'

 

Hopefully not a rant (alright a little bit of a rant), but an insight into how others might view public funded projects. I sincerely hope this will be different as, at face value, is a very important topic as rural anywhere is getting badly short changed.

[bobh]

I wish your wife luck in this but I think she'll end up feeling like she's hitting her head against a brick wall, you can have all the meetings, consultations and surveys you like but if the decision makers take no notice then it all becomes pointless.

Filled in the survey BTW and look forward this initiative making a difference.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Arbtalk mobile app

[Tim Stobart Tree Surgery]

Tim,

 

I know nothing at all about the work or objectives of the newly formed group so have no axe to grind.

 

The only observation I could offer would be my definition of Jobs for the boys as unfair patronage within a closed group.... What is often perceived as 'jobs for the boys' is when people who have made a career out of well paid public funded positions move/drift from project to project with such ease.

 

The only way to attain real credibility is to engage a mix of people who can work the grant system with a good dose of people who have had to face the fiscal realities of life from the private sector. Once some real hard talk descends then, perhaps, the necessary credibility and respect will be earned amongst the target audience.

 

I walked out on the last quango event I was invited to. It was a very lavish event being run by people who had their hand deep into the public purse and attended solely by other groups who themselves had their hands deep in the public purse. Not one person was present from the potential group that the whole collective was supposed to be helping. I believe the only appropriate term to describe the event was 'a buggers muddle'

 

Hopefully not a rant (alright a little bit of a rant), but an insight into how others might view public funded projects. I sincerely hope this will be different as, at face value, is a very important topic as rural anywhere is getting badly short changed.

 

Sadly this is too often true, and it's something that Emma (my partner) is keen to avoid (the venue is to be a community owned leisure center in Oban over a lush, multi-national owned hotel in Aviemore). The difficulty is engaging such widespread and diverse group of people, in less than twelve months. Where these projects have been successful they have built up over a number of years, and been community led, so the key at the moment is engaging as many people as possible in the process.

 

My post is just that, trying to help get the project into peoples minds and get people contributing to it by filling in the survey, but it's gaining some insight to how these projects are viewed.

 

Interestingly, this project has got Emma working 5 and her assistant 3 days a week. Apart from that everyone else involved is a volunteer.

 

Cheers

[Wood wasp]

To be honest sounds like a three day talking shop and all the usual suspects will be there. The countryside needs less "management" and plans, leave people in peace to get on with it instead of a multitude of quangos and charities all driving their own agenda.

 

To quote Ronald Reagan "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

[countrryboy]

Don't mean to be negative but i would agree will be most likely a complete waste of time and money.

If it actually made a difference they wouldn't be letting u do it.

 

When u can have a survey with 87% off respondents against it but then just ignore it and carry on with the new law anyway (new airgun law)

 

Bottom line is they already know wot they want to do and i doubt anything will change there minds, and certainly not people who know wot there talking about or actually live and work with the mess they create.

[ArthurBottlesworth]

Down here in Wales They were "looking for people" to get involved in a project, as I had some experience I thought I go and see if I could help

 

Turned up for first meeting, load of mates and me, didn't get invited to second meeting cos serious money was invoved, it was so clear it was all dodgy......shame the vicar was involved .....

 

If local government stinks, why isn't central gov't cleaning it up? Can only think it's even dodgier.......

[Tim Stobart Tree Surgery]

Interestingly with this project the managing organisation has been created for it, but the directors (who are all volunteers) have been drawn from all over Scotland, with, as far as I know, no previous connections to each other. As I say, it may be another project that goes the same way, but I know Emma will do her best to stop that.

 

Anyway, the point of my post was to get people to fill in the survey so that as many people could put forward their opinion and bump forestry (land use) up the list, if they felt it worthy. I thought it was a bit of a tenuous link to the forum so sorry if it's gone off track!