The top ten things inspiring the Catalyst Producers this month.
Autumn is now upon us. I’ve been enjoying the colourful and hearty food and the mushrooms begging to be foraged.
As we approach Samhain at the end of the month, there is a natural drawing in, a chance to integrate the lessons we’ve learned in the previous seasons, a harvesting. Here at Catalyst we’ve been following a similar pattern. We’re reflecting on the activities of the year, with our strategic review being underway. We’ve gathered people around to help us through the winter, so we can emerge next spring with a newly invigorated vision, mission and identity. We’ve even curated a wonderful new steering group to guide us on our journey (more on that soon!)
Here’s a list of our top ten sources of inspiration this month:
- Ellie Hale, Catalyst Producer, has written an update piece reflecting on our recent work. Lots of lessons learned; including ‘collective governance spaces and interactions need specialist, dedicated facilitators.’
- Joe Roberson, Catalyst Initiative lead, reflects on how he is like the dog he walks, Hamish. And how our values-led approach has influenced him. A joyful read!
- If you missed the meteor shower at the weekend, fear not, there’s another one incoming in November, the ‘Leoind’. Eyes to the sky.
- Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you!
- We love this handbook from Enspiral, particularly the sections on the parameters of being a Catalyst (resonated hard!) plus the decision making protocol which we’re going to base our newly documented one on.
- Books I’ve been reading this month include Deborah Levy’s ‘Real Estate’ - the final part in her autobiographical series. In it she explores the role of the female character in fiction and in real life, and how it is usually presented with no visible desires or needs of her own. Some of the best musings on the patriarchy I’ve encountered.
- If part of your role is community building this infographic is gold, shared in slack by Ross McCulluch, our Initiative lead.
- It’s Black History Month in the UK. Catalyst Producer Siana Bangura shared this wonderfully clear explanation for why we capitalise the B in Black when speaking about people versus talking about the colour.
- We have been interviewing all month and are now nearly at full complement! We love to give feedback to everyone we meet. Siana found these great resources from Transition Network on creating a feedback culture and how to give feedback in a meaningful way.
- There’s so much we can learn from fungal networks and trees, particularly in relation to community and network weaving.
And finally, here’s a good reminder that:
‘Urgency is a manifestation of white supremacy, which descends from colonialism, and how this grind culture keeps us so busy surviving that we don't have time or energy to build community and coalitions, that set the foundation for the better future we’re envisioning.’ Thankyou, Dr BlackDeer!
If you have a resource of any kind that you think we should have on our radar, please share it with us! We would love for the wider community to influence our work and provide creative input.
Drop us a line at hello@thecatalyst.org.uk Or tweet us @wethecatalysts.
Image by Егор Камелев from Pixabay
Autumn is now upon us. I’ve been enjoying the colourful and hearty food and the mushrooms begging to be foraged.
As we approach Samhain at the end of the month, there is a natural drawing in, a chance to integrate the lessons we’ve learned in the previous seasons, a harvesting. Here at Catalyst we’ve been following a similar pattern. We’re reflecting on the activities of the year, with our strategic review being underway. We’ve gathered people around to help us through the winter, so we can emerge next spring with a newly invigorated vision, mission and identity. We’ve even curated a wonderful new steering group to guide us on our journey (more on that soon!)
Here’s a list of our top ten sources of inspiration this month:
- Ellie Hale, Catalyst Producer, has written an update piece reflecting on our recent work. Lots of lessons learned; including ‘collective governance spaces and interactions need specialist, dedicated facilitators.’
- Joe Roberson, Catalyst Initiative lead, reflects on how he is like the dog he walks, Hamish. And how our values-led approach has influenced him. A joyful read!
- If you missed the meteor shower at the weekend, fear not, there’s another one incoming in November, the ‘Leoind’. Eyes to the sky.
- Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you!
- We love this handbook from Enspiral, particularly the sections on the parameters of being a Catalyst (resonated hard!) plus the decision making protocol which we’re going to base our newly documented one on.
- Books I’ve been reading this month include Deborah Levy’s ‘Real Estate’ - the final part in her autobiographical series. In it she explores the role of the female character in fiction and in real life, and how it is usually presented with no visible desires or needs of her own. Some of the best musings on the patriarchy I’ve encountered.
- If part of your role is community building this infographic is gold, shared in slack by Ross McCulluch, our Initiative lead.
- It’s Black History Month in the UK. Catalyst Producer Siana Bangura shared this wonderfully clear explanation for why we capitalise the B in Black when speaking about people versus talking about the colour.
- We have been interviewing all month and are now nearly at full complement! We love to give feedback to everyone we meet. Siana found these great resources from Transition Network on creating a feedback culture and how to give feedback in a meaningful way.
- There’s so much we can learn from fungal networks and trees, particularly in relation to community and network weaving.
And finally, here’s a good reminder that:
‘Urgency is a manifestation of white supremacy, which descends from colonialism, and how this grind culture keeps us so busy surviving that we don't have time or energy to build community and coalitions, that set the foundation for the better future we’re envisioning.’ Thankyou, Dr BlackDeer!
If you have a resource of any kind that you think we should have on our radar, please share it with us! We would love for the wider community to influence our work and provide creative input.
Drop us a line at hello@thecatalyst.org.uk Or tweet us @wethecatalysts.
Image by Егор Камелев from Pixabay
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CAST and Catalyst: the journey, the transition - and beyond
