Cultural Awards Panel: Round 1

Well hello there lovely readers!

This week I have to be very careful about what I say, because I've been involved in some top-secret James Bond-esque stuff and I cannot reveal it willy-nilly to the world! Its about spaceships on Mars.

Running joke - no it isn't :(

Its about the fact that last week I was a panel member for Aberdeen City Council's Cultural Awards Programme. In plain language, this means that cultural organisations in the city are invited to apply for a grant from the council, and I was one of those who read the applications and, as part of a panel, offered recommendations to "the appropriate council committee" on whether or not the project met the award criteria and to what extent.

It was very exciting! I recommended all the money go to me.

I was rejected.

But seriously, I learned a massive amount from being part of this! I learned about the range of arts and cultural organisations in the city, and I now have an idea of what kinds of projects are happening around me. Nearly every second application had me thinking, "oooh. That sounds fun!" - and once I get this Uni stuff all wrapped up I might even find the time to do some of it!

I also reckon I could fill in a killer grant application form, and am in the process of making a list of do's and dont's I have picked up from my experience of reading them - hint: do read the questions, don't provide an income which is greater than your expenditure ;)

And please friends, FULL STOPS! AND BRACKETS WHICH FACE THE RIGHT WAY!
 )they don't go like this!).

One of the most useful things I learned though was to trust my instincts. The panel met for two whole days, Monday and Friday, and to begin with I had very little to add to the discussion. All the projects sounded lovely to me, and I couldn't tell the difference between a good budget and a Lidl receipt even if you paid me. By Monday afternoon though, I was beginning to recognise what to look for - does the project have an identity? Can you tell exactly how the project is intended to unfold? Are there in kind costs in the wrong column? Is there evidence of strong partnerships and an ability to link in with the cultural profile of the city as a whole?

I was able to give the second batch of applications a read before they were considered by the panel on Friday, and this was a big help. I had a chance to go over the applications in my own time - the other panel members were infinitely more experienced than me and could find what they were looking for way quicker than I could! But with the chance to read over beforehand I could offer my tuppence-worth now and again on the Friday and know that my suggestions were considered and valid. Still, quite a few times I'd have a feeling about an application form but not quite know what it was, until someone else would share a concern they had and I'd think "Yes! That's what I was thinking!" By 2pm on Friday though I was getting annoyed with myself for all the "thinking" and none of the saying! But I guess a little more experience will help my brain move faster to these conclusions!

All in all it was two days VERY well spent, and I genuinely had a good time. To top it all off as well I got 2 free lunches, although, apologies to those involved, but the lunches were very uninspiring! :)

So there we are, a nice short splurge for a change to avoid me saying things I shouldn't! Hopefully I've given some idea of the practical skills and general knowledge I picked up without saying anything controversial. I am sort of expecting some snide comments... and that's fine, but feel free to leave nice comments too! Also, give me a follow on twitter @NaomiBegg1 for more hilarious insights, and/or check my about.me for other ways to get in touch :) 

Over and out!
Love to everyone!
Naomi

Getting to Grips with Social Media and Promotion

Well hello there lovely readers!
I have spent the weekend being very techy and in fact I'm feeling so clever I'm pretty sure I could navigate Mars in a space-ship, should I need to! Broom broom! *crash*

Sorry. Anyway...

So, for a while I've been thinking about learning to make videos. I used to be quite good with the old video camera and editing software in my teens when I was doing projects with the Ormlie Community Association (OCA) and the youth club, but times have moved on ENORMOUSLY, and that plus the fact that I don't have access to a mac anymore, plus the fact I've gotten old (aahh!), means I'm just really not that sure what I'm doing anymore. But lately I've noticed that the volunteer work I do with Team Cultivate could use a video-etic dimension so I really wanted to figure it out. And yes, I did just make "video-etic" up, but it sounds good, no?

I should explain here that I am forever posting Word documents on the Team Cultivate Facebook group page. Because we are rarely all present at every meeting, sharing the "minutes" of each meeting online is a good way for everyone to keep up to speed. It is, however, BORING to read. I don't in any way mind writing them, but coming online to find screels and screels of words on a page is uninspiring and difficult to absorb. Cue, me spending most of Saturday morning trying to work out how to open the webcam on my laptop (I told you I had gotten out of practice). After some googling I figured out I had no webcam driver software, and then after some more googling I figured out how to get said webcam driver software, and then hey ho! Within seconds I was on my merry little way making silly videos of me pulling faces just to test it out. I had a slight momentary blip when I realised Facebook has banned me from uploading videos because of "copyright issues" - a while back I tried to post a video of my friend pulling faces with the song "Sexy and I Know It" as the backing track. Facebook didn't like that. It was a HILARIOUS video though!

So to get around this I posted the video on my Google+ page (which is here) and then shared the link with my Team Cultivate buddies. This sparked the genius idea of creating our very own Youtube profile, which of course these days means having an entire Google account. My whole afternoon, then, was spent creating a team cultivate email address, google+ profile, Youtube account, and public calendar. We've been needing a calendar that we can all access at any point for a while so it all couldn't have worked out better. The pages are in the early stages and there isn't much on them yet but I'm so excited to get making more videos and also to get everyone else involved in using them! Once everyone has access to them we can share info as well as market and promote ourselves much easier. We will be UNSTOPPABLE! We'll all be driving space-ships on Mars!

My only concern is that our Youtube page is public, so everyone else will be able to see the videos. As these videos are, for the moment at least, going to be videos of me talking about our meetings and therefore not really the kind of thing we want to share with the world, it would be better to have them hidden. I can make the videos accessible only to certain people by using email addresses but I foresee there being problems with that - I am willing to bet you need to have a gmail account which no-one in the group will have! BUT we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

For now, we have our very own google+ page and a calendar full of all our activities and events :)
And I happen to have a little insider info that tells me that calendar is going to get VERY full up over the next few months because we have plans to be really squeally busy out and about in Aberdeen.

I know you're all DYING to see our page now, and so without further flibbertygibbiting from me, here it is!
Our google+ page

And also if you check my page you'll be able to see the wee video I made to test my skills. And yes, I was still in my jammies at 2pm and I'M NOT EVEN SORRY.
My google+

As usual, feel free to comment in the sections below, follow me on twitter @NaomiBegg1, or check my about.me for other ways to get in touch :) 

Over and out!
Love to everyone!
Naomi