My New Year Resolution

Well hello there lovely readers!

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and are looking forward to 2014 with passion and excitement! This time of year always gets me energised - I love new starts! This year in particular has made me think though. I've been a graduate for over 6 months now, and although my job isn't exactly high-flying or fast paced, this little break from Aberdeen (I'm back home in Thurso for the holidays) has given me some much needed time to process.

And this is what I've come up with:

Simple, huh?

But actually, it took a lot of brain power to get to that decision. I mean, graduate jobs - that's like, being a buyer for Tesco, or an HR assistant for an Oil and Gas company. That's not what I want. I want to be a superhero. I want to save the world.

Well guess what? I don't want to be a Play Worker either. Because not only am I not a superhero, not saving the world, but I'm BORED. AND BROKE. AND SICK OF IT. Because what I don't think I ever realised was that, while, yes, [some] graduate jobs mean big money and big business and big corruption and crookedness, they also mean challenging and satisfying job descriptions, exciting opportunities, and generally NOT THIS. Because I spent four years working my a$* off to earn the title of graduate, and now I damn well want a graduate job!!

Growing up the way I did, I sort of internalised that you just don't ask for things. There was no money, we couldn't buy stuff, so you just didn't ask. If you wanted it, you kept it to yourself and then if you were lucky you figured out a way to get it for yourself, and if not, tough. You shouldn't WANT things anyway, it's greedy. Well, I think it's high time I got greedy, frankly. I WANT a graduate job. I want to KNOW for sure I can pay my bills each month, I want to WORK, really, really hard, at something that makes my brain hurt and my stomach dance and my nerves snap and that pushes me to be better. I do NOT want to spend my life sorting out spats between primary 5 girls. I just don't think I can do it!

So, sorry to sound greedy and ungrateful but, this year, 2014, I am leaving Aberdeen and I am DEFINITELY getting a proper, actual, graduate job.

And now I've written it here on les internets for all les folks to see, it must be done.

PANIC STATIONS!

Over and out,
Much love,
Happy New Year,
Naomi

'Cultivate' Admin Intern

Well hello there lovely readers!

Just a quick post for a change to tell you about my most recent venture, as Project Admin Intern for the Cultivate Training Programme. In April 2012 I was part of the pilot for this project, where myself and around 14 others spent 10 weeks (plus a few extra) working our way through an SQA Award in Volunteering Skills. What was meant to be a 10 week course to pass some time and give me a little something extra to stick on my CV has turned into something substantially more, as I've continued to be involved with the Creative Learning team (formerly Arts Development) through the Skirts & Tales project, and now through Cultivate round 2. This time I am helping out in a paid capacity, however, as Admin Intern. I help with documenting and archiving each session, with typing up assessment notes, with evaluation of the project and with the blog, which you can read here.  I am really happy to have been asked to stick around, and it's also nice to help others think about volunteering, to know the benefits for themselves and the organisation they choose to help, and to learn more about their skills and interests and how to find volunteer opportunities to match this. Incidentally, from my own experience of looking for volunteer opportunities in Aberdeen, the absolute best place to look is the volunteer centre. I've gotten a lot of support from the team at ACVO as well as Creative Learning, and the fact that I still have no idea what I'm doing with my life serves to highlight only my own fickleness and definitely not lack of quality support, which I've had plenty of from these organisations!

If you fancy a laugh I did something a bit stupid this week, and there's a Youtube video to prove it, which you can watch if you've a minute to kill.

Anyway, over and out for now. Be kind to each other and don't jump off of anything high.
Love love love,
Naomi

New Job: Taming Childerbeasts

Well hello there lovely readers!

This is a special blog post for two reasons! Firstly, it's my tenth and frankly I think I should get a prize for (more or less) keeping up with it this long, even though there has been the occasional gap here and there...! And secondly, its not about volunteering, as my usual entries are, it's about my REAL ACTUAL JOB, as a Playworker for Community Link Childcare.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have no idea how I ended up with this job. Everyone I've ever talked to about careers since I was about 13 has assumed I'm going to be a teacher, even people I barely know, and I've spent the last 10 years resolutely denying that I'm going anywhere near a bunch of snotty nosed kids. So of course, within weeks of finishing uni I went and got myself a job in a primary school, working with kids. There were two main reasons behind this. Firstly - I needed a job. I've decided against any kind of further study at the moment, and I didn't have a permanent job while I was at uni, so in order to avoid having to move back in with a parental (THE HORROR!), I needed to find some source of income, quickly. Secondly, although it would have been fairly easy to fall back on the old retail job, I was determined that if I couldn't move UP the career ladder, I would at least move FORWARD. Being a Playworker, while not a graduate job, is at least a source of valuable experience, and seems, to me at least, somehow vaguely related to what I might want to do as a career, whatever that is. So, I saw the job ad, went for the interview, got it, hey presto! Surrounded by children.

I can't lie either, I do like the job. I've been doing it for almost 6 months now and I think the kids at club are on the whole pretty fantastic. Running out of school childcare for 40 children with no money and no resources has its challenges, but I like my colleagues and I enjoy shouting at helping the kids to grow and learn.

HOWEVER, I can't be doing this forever. It's a term-time only job so it's financially not possible in the long haul, but aside from that, it's just not what I want to do with my life. Don't ask me what I AM going to do with my life - I wish I knew! But earning less money than it's even possible to live on while repeating the phrase "Not. Acceptable!!!" 8 million times a day is not it. So I've been looking at other options. I had an interview for an admin assistant job with Victim Support Scotland, but the interview surprised me with quite a few questions I couldn't answer on the spot (What does "high quality" mean to you?) and I didn't get the job. I'm a pretty resilient specimen, so I'm not too upset, but I admit, even I'm starting to get frustrated. I have moments where I think, I've been working so hard these last few years - volunteering, having various temp jobs, and studying - and yet I'm still not actually getting anywhere. The main issue, of course, is that I have no actual end goal, and it's pretty difficult to get somewhere when you don't even know where you're going! It doesn't actually help to think like this of course, and I can't magic an answer out of thin air, so I just keep plodding on as best I can. I've been doing a Project Admin Intern role for the Creative Learning team, so to hear a bit more about that check out the blog I've been keeping for them. I'm also doing a TEFL course (I KNOWWWW!! BUT I'M STILL NOT GOING TO BE A TEACHER!), so perhaps I'll just up-sticks and move to Central America, where I shall meet my Latin lover, Alejandro, and we shall tango our lives away while eating Fajitas and playing Flamenco songs...

Keep checking back to see if that happens ;)

So, to round up. Thank you for reading after all this time away - as you can see, not much has changed! I'll make every effort to update more regularly now that the summer of fun is well and truly over! I might go away now and do a small, mostly-pictures blog of what I've been up to since the last post, so you can see I'm not just being lazy.

As usual, please comment if you feel you have something to add! I look forward to it.

Over and out,
Naomi

VAA monthly update: May

Well hello there lovely readers!

This is the first of what shall be monthy VAA updates, where I'll give a run down - long or short, depends how busy my VAA schedule is! - of all the Voluntary Arts Ambassador-ing I've been doing over the month. To find out more about what a VAA is check my earlier post here. This has been the first month since I became official VAA that I've been able to really get started, and its been pretty exciting so far! Give it a read below, and if you can think of anyone who might like to read it also (I'm looking at you - people of the arts world in Aberdeen!) then SHARE SHARE SHARE! My main aim just now is to make contact with as many local arts and crafts voluntary groups as is humanly possible, along with anyone who is able to represent the voice of local arts and crafts groups at a higher level. So if you fall into either of these categories then get in touch - you can email vaa-aberdeencity@vascotland.org.uk and/or add me on Facebook, under "Voluntary Arts Ambassador Aberdeen."

Happy reading!

First Key Meeting

So on April 30th I met with Carol Stobie from VA Scotland, and Mike Melvin from ACVO for my first key meeting. This was a chance for me as VAA to connect to my local volunteer centre, and for VA Scotland and the Volunteer Centre to meet to discuss how best to support and represent the voluntary arts world. We talked about how arts in Aberdeen is becoming a hot topic just now what with the city's bid to become City of Culture 2017, and about how this is a great time to be VAA in the area. I came away with a lot of contacts to make: people from the bid team, various local arts and crafts groups, and people in the professional arts world who can help to support voluntary groups. I'm still making my way through the contacts but so far I've met some really helpful people! My main aim at this stage is to reach out to as many local, voluntary/amateur arts and crafts groups as possible. I can point groups towards Running Your Group, and sources of information, arts news, and funding opportunities, but even small, informal groups can benefit from being in touch with their local VAA. I often hear about free craft supply giveaways or local events of all shapes and forms, where local groups can get their hands on some goodies or get involved in events which might be of interest to them. Its my goal to make this happen as often as possible, and also to continue to make links with those involved in Community Planning so that if your wee group has any issues, I can try to bring that to the attention of the people who can really help. So, to return to the meeting, I came away with loads of great contacts to make courtesy of Mike (who is one of my favourite people ever) and I also signed myself up for a whole raft of promotional articles and interviews courtesy of ACVO's publications. So be expecting to see my face on a lotta stuff in the near future, and if you think you can help me on my mission then get in touch via the methods above!

ACVO e-bulletin

Speaking of my face being on a lot of things, the first appearance my mug made was in the ACVO e-bulletin (picture below). I sent them a "Meet your VAA" letter, introducing myself, VA Scotland and the role of the ambassador. I read the e-bulletins every week anyway (excellent source of discovering those free giveaways and events I was talking about above!) so it was a bit odd to open it up and find my face on page 6! But fun times, and it seems to be working because the ever-helpful networks man from ACVO got in touch and is compiling me a list of groups to get in touch with and has found a useful Facebook group for me to join too! So thank you to Simon, and if anyone else saw the poster and has been thinking of getting in touch - please do!

Interview for ACVO Magazine

And lastly but not leastly, just this morning I met with Sarah McGarva from, yup, you guessed it, ACVO, for an interview for their magazine. It was just a quick wee chat where I explained what I do as a VAA, what my aim is and how people can reach me. It'll be in the magazine at the end of June so keep an eye out for that, once it becomes available I'll post a link to it here. I must say, I really do owe the ACVO team a massive thank you! They have made my job soooo much easier, and I've heard on the grapevine that not all local Volunteer Centres and Community Planning folk are as open to arts and crafts groups as Aberdeen, so yay us and yay ACVO! That being said, I am aware I rely very heavily on them, so I'm looking for lots of help from other Aberdeen folks to make sure I represent and help as many people/groups as possible. So get in touch! Did I mention that already?!

And that's it!! There shall be more next month, and fingers crossed I'll be able to namedrop a whoooole TONNE of amateur arts and crafts groups in Aberdeen which you can join and which I can help! Once again, get in touch by checking my VAA Facebook page, or emailing vaa-aberdeencity@vascotland.org.uk

Over and out!
Naomi

Two Months, One Post

Well hello there lovely readers!

Long time no jibber-jabber, how've you all been? Good? Great! I myself have been pretty busy since my last post, hence why its taken me a while to get round to writing this one! I'm just going to do a whistle-stop tour of my life over the last two months or so, and anything I think I should talk more about *may* appear at a later date, provided I get the chance. So here goes, fasten your seat belts because the spaceship is about to lift off ;)

10th April - Interview for ACVO Internship

Way back in February I applied for an internship through Third Sector Internships Scotland (TSIS). The post was for an Events Organiser intern at ACVO, helping organise their Celebrate Aberdeen parade, the Third Sector Fayre and some other events on the team calendar. In early April I got an email to say I'd been selected for interview, and then followed a mad panic to remain calm and prepare as best I could. This is one of the things I think I'll take some time to write a whole post on, but in a nutshell: I did a practice interview with the careers team at uni, bought some lovely new interview shoes (no matter how many interviews I do I can never find an outfit I'm really happy with!) and I spent about 30 hours on the ACVO website learning about Social Enterprises, ACVO's strategic objectives, and the Change Fund. I was pretty nervous but that more or less subsided during the interview, and I think it went quite well. Unfortunately, I didn't entirely capitalise on my previous events-organising experience, and the internship went to someone else. However I've printed out the really helpful feedback I got from the panel, and its in my careers journal, so I now know what I need to work on. All in all I'm calling this one a success!


25th April - Handed in my Dissertation

The usual story here - wrote the majority of it in the last week when The Fear finally kicked in! Felt very anti-climactic to hand it in, too. Handing it in pretty much marked the end of my undergraduate career, but I haven't had the chance to sit and think about that yet. Or maybe there's nothing to think about - I love uni but its done now, and that's cool because I get to choose what to do next! EXCITING!

30th April - First VAA Key Meeting

As I'm sure you all remember, I'm the Voluntary Arts Ambassador (VAA) for Aberdeen City. I had my first key meeting with Carol Stobie from VA Scotland and Mike Melvin from ACVO at the end of April, and went away home with pages of ideas and contacts to make, etc. This is another of those things that'll get a post of its own, but basically this was an incredibly useful meeting. I've signed myself up for a billion things, including a "Meet your VAA" spread in the ACVO e-bulletin (pictured below), an interview on SHMU radio, and attendance at the Celebrate Aberdeen parade and Third Sector Fayre. I'm in the process of getting the details of some local arts and crafts groups from ACVO's Simon (thank you Simon!), and I also have a few other ideas of where to look for people. If you're reading this, maybe you're in an Aberdeen-based voluntary arts group - if so get in touch! I can point you towards VA Scotland's excellent resources, and if your group has any issues or ideas you'd like those further up the food chain to know about, I can try and help there too. Just search "voluntary arts ambassador aberdeen" on Facebook or email vaa-aberdeencity@vascotland.org.uk

5th May - Started working at Drummonds Cafe

Talking of what to do next - priority number one is being able to pay the rent, so I managed to wangle myself a bar job.The name "Drummonds Cafe" is a bit of a misnomer because its actually a bar/music venue, and I am the finest new barmaid they ever did see! Except that I can't pull a pint to save my life, I think I'm half deaf because I can never hear what people are ordering, and I have to count up all the prices in my head and I failed high school maths, so I'm probably charging the wrong prices most of the time. BUT, I smile a lot. So its yin and yang really.

17th May -First day working as a Playworker for CliCC

This one's an exciting one!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got another new job as a Playworker, based at Skene Square After School Club. I'm not going to lie - even I don't really know how this happened. Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) always asks me "Why don't you be a teacher? You'd be a good teacher." and I always have to reply that I don't WANT to be a teacher, and when they ask "why?" I never have a good answer. I also have no good answer as to what it is I DO want to do, so I'm a bit hopeless really. This is another thing I'll do a separate post on, but suffice to say that after 6+ years of telling everyone I don't want to be a teacher and don't really want to work with kids, I got myself a job in a primary school working with children...

...and I'm liking it...

24th May - First kiddies session with Skirts & Tales


Annnnnnd finally, the S&T team hit a local primary school on Friday with our amazing storyteller, Pauline Cordiner. The school have given us (given us? loaned us? provided us with? I don't know) a group of 12 P3/4s who will be part of our project. We met with them on Friday for the first time, and Friday's session was learning the story (The Fisherman and his Wife), re-writing parts of it, and designing pictures. The pictures and story will be printed on a giant train to be worn as part of the parade, and the kids will be in the parade, shaking the train, singing songs, and hopefully having a grand old time. Once we get photo consent double-confirmed from the parents we'll be updating the S&T blog with more information, so keep your eyes peeled for that! I'm so happy with Friday's session and with the whole team, they've made managing the project so enjoyable! ENTHUSE!

And that's it! Two months in one post, more to come, very soon! As usual LEAVE ME A COMMENT, I love to read them, and/or get in touch via google+ or twitter @NaomiBegg1.

Over and out,
Love to everyone!
Naomi 

Youthly Adventures: The CPP

Well hello there lovely readers!

Warning: Caithness dialect used!

So as promised, the theme of this post is my youthly do-gooding adventures. I have briefly mentioned being involved with the CPP (Community Partner's Programme) in a previous post so I'm going to talk about that a bit more, as well as some related stuff. This should be quite a trip down memory lane, and you will be pleased to know it includes some VERY, VERY embarrassing pictures!

To begin this story, let me take you to a lonely and rather windy corner of Northern Scotland, circa 2000. Having just been named one of the five poorest communities in the UK, Save the Children had set up camp in the dreich wee area of High Ormlie, in the most north-easterly part of this north-eastern expanse, to try and, well, save the children I imagine. On a Highland Buses bus carrying 30-odd primary school children back home to Ormlie, a boy says to a chubby red-haired girl: "Here, Nyomi, urr yoo comin' 'till 'at group 'hing ehmorro?" ["Naomi, are you coming to the new after school club run by Save The Children tomorrow evening?"], to which the girl, who has never heard of eh group hing and has no idea what eh boyagie is talking about, says, "Yeah. Obviously." 

Obviously I'm so in the loop and I know what you're on about. *flips hair like a teenager and continues to play with tamagotchi*

And that was it. Aged 10 I joined the CPP which initially was run from our school, and although the focus was on teaching us about our rights - did you know that the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child has been signed by all the countries in the world apart from the USA and Smarties Land? I mean Samurai Land? And did you know that according to Article 31 it is my right to be able to play here even though its bed time? - I do think part of the attraction of the groups was the large supply of Pringles and fruit juice, and the fact Anita didn't give us into trouble for mixing all the fruit juices together into brown sludge like teachers did.

Admittedly, my memories of these groups probably don't always focus on the important things they should, but then I was ten years old at the time! What I do remember is drawing myself on a desert island, along with the three most important things you should take with you (Linkin Park CDs, CD player, food), some random conversations about the acceptable things to take on a desert island (Ewwww why are you taking your girlfriend with you? What're you gonna do with a girlfriend on a desert island? She'll just eat all your food!!), and making a giant wooden jigsaw puzzle where every different jigsaw piece illustrated something we'd like to change about High Ormlie. Like dog poo. Or big black fences. Eventually, thanks to a community association that was gathering speed and strength, and, I'd like to think, at least a little bit thanks to our beautifully decorated dog poo jigsaw puzzle, the CPP managed to find a new home. We were no longer in the Community Education building in the school grounds, but in our very own community centre, bang in the heart of Ormlie. Annnnd, Prince Charles came to open the centre and I got to meet him, but I can't prove it because I can't find any photos of it on google. But it definitely happened because I wrote it in my scrap book that I met Prince Charles and he's famous. 

I remember making videos too, where we put cushions on our heads and pretended to be aliens. But that came later.

I actually couldn't even begin to list all the things I remember doing, there are thouuusaaannnds. I remember picking out play area equipment to put in the new Skate Park, and pointing out to the architect that he'd not put any lights in the park at all when this was Thurso we were talking about and it doesn't even get light half the year, doesn't he know?

I remember going to the AGM to talk about what the CPP had been up to and getting voted as Children and Young Person's Representative. I remember at the same AGM we sat in the same row as Charlotte who was a grown up and she farted and we all had to not laugh because Lorna was talking and this was a serious meeting.

I remember meeting a lady MSP, but I have no idea who she was or why she was there. She was very enthusiastic about whatever it was though.

I remember being very touched that Anita said we could come into her office whenever we wanted to. She always had really hard colouring books with swirly patterns in them, and a post card of somewhere in the Netherlands (?) with water and coloured buildings on her board, and she did a sort of line thing on her eyes with makeup that I'd never seen before, although, as you'll see from the pictures which are yet to ensue, eyeliner is something I'd become more familiar with in later years.

I remember planting flowers outside the community centre, and I was helping one of the younger kids and Anita told me I was good with children. For many years after that I wanted to be a teacher.

If Anita had work to do sometimes we'd go see James instead (same office), and edit videos or listen to the Pixies or ask him questions about what his nephews in Estrella were doing lately/that day/that second/did you know Luke from Estrella is Leah's guitar teacher and we can hear him coming before he gets there because he plays his guitar on the way to her house?

I remember Christine also helped lead the groups and she had big hair and rode a bike. She wasn't around for long but I bumped into her one day almost ten years later, just as I started Uni, and she still had her bike.

I remember interviewing for Christine's (or someone else's?) replacement, and I was on the interview panel. We interviewed one woman who wore a low cut top and spent most of the interview bent over exposing her breasticles, but Tanya was the best person we interviewed, and we all agreed so she got the job. 

I remember writing articles for The Ormlie Blah, and I remember someone knitted a little person (Ormlie) and a little dog (Blah) and they were in Lorna's room in the office.

I remember ordering a replacement cable for a camera from Lorna's computer and it arrived the very next morning.

I remember Anita and James left, and I vaguely remember a party, but I don't remember much else because I don't think I wanted to remember them leaving.

This is literally only about 5% of what I remember, and not even the important stuff. We were involved in the creation of the Community Centre and the Skate Park, the Home Zones, and National Play Day. When the 5 year CPP project came to an end and Save the Children left we went to the Edinburgh council chambers to some kind of grande finale. There were three young people there to represent Ormlie, and we spent about a week filming and editing a video to showcase everything we'd done only for it to break when we got there, and I had to stand up and give a presentation to a room full of councillors and community folk. I made it up off the top of my head, but it must have been ok because afterwards a woman approached me and told me I was a "wonderful public speaker," and I have remembered that ever since. One woman also told me I had fantastic shoes.

My "fantastic" shoes. I was about 15 and fully into my goth phase by then. I'm actually planning buying another pair of these though look how COOL they are!!

I remember making a video with a local video guru Gavin about a gas heater, and it won some kind of national film making award. 

I remember meeting all the other CPP groups in Carbisdale Castle which was haunted and we made videos about ghosts and we also moved all the beds in our room to the wrong place and told the other girls it was the ghosts. We had also planned a whole load of ghostly pranks to play on the other people and even bought a white ghost-lady dress from the Red Cross Shop. Then Neal wore it to try it on in Leah's garden, and then he put balloons down the dress like big boobies and he was walking about pretending to be a ghost lady and his mum saw him.

I really have to stop now because to be honest, the CPP and the friends I made from it were my life for about 5 or 6 years, so to describe all the things I remember would be to describe 5 or 6 years of my life! Suffice it to say that far from being the typical kid from a single parent family in a regeneration area, or "disadvantaged" as my high school teacher tried to write on my University application form, I had a whole boat load of opportunities and a family who supported me to the ends of the world and encouraged me to do better. From public speaking to video editing, to running AGMs, and knowing the process of finding funding for projects and the fact that you have to fill in a consent form for everything, even blowing up balloons (this time not for Neal's boobs), the things I learned from the CPP are quite phenomenal. And as I got older, what had started as a group that met once a week on a Thursday had grown into a group of "old hands" that met on a Thursday as well as two newer groups that met on a Wednesday (too many to fit into one group) and one for even newer kids that met on a Tuesday. And I was also able to start helping out with these younger groups, going full circle and giving them opportunities to learn all the things I'd learned.

There are so many more things I could talk about here, but I managed to find these pictures below, so hopefully they'll give some idea of all the things I missed out. If any of the old Ormlie folk are reading this and have any more pictures, I'd love to see them!

The CPP and some others as the Skate Park was being built

I won a competition to design some new "Welcome to Ormlie" signs and this was the finished product

One of many big clean up days, if you look closely you will spot my cat shoes!

In the House of Lords accepting an award the Ormlie Community Association had won

Me, the OCA Chairperson and a local councillor. I'm getting an Award but to my shame I'm not sure what its for!

Me (again) in Ackergill Tower accepting an Award for Outstanding Citizensip and Volunteering. I'm the one on the left.

So. That's my life! And the end of my second blog post in two days because I'm on a roll! As always, leave me comments and check my links for other ways to get in touch. Ormlie folks - leave me a comment of your CPP/Ormlie memories? <3


Over and out!
Naomi




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Voluntary Arts Ambassador Training

Well hello there lovely readers!
Heads up, this is a particularly long flibberty-gibbit from me :D

So you might remember some time ago I mentioned a secret I had that I couldn't tell anyone? A new volunteer project which could not be divulged? Well, now is the time to 'VULGE!

In November I had an interview with Voluntary Arts Scotland (from now on known under the cunning guise of VA Scotland) to be a Voluntary Arts Ambassador, and I was successful. The whole thing was to be unconfirmed until I did my training, and that happened last week in the lovely wee town of Larbert in Falkirk.

VA Scotland is an organisation which aims to promote participation in voluntary arts and crafts as well as support existing groups to develop and expand. They also work hard to generate respect for and recognition of the important and valuable contribution voluntary arts groups make. As a Voluntary Arts Ambassador my role will be to make links with voluntary arts groups in Aberdeen and find out what they are doing, what they aim for and how I can help. I can sign-post groups to VA resources such as Running Your Group, I am available for individuals to get in touch and find or discuss opportunities, and I am also working to build up a relationship with voluntary agencies where I want to represent the voice of local voluntary arts and crafts.

There was quite a gap between my interview in November and the training in March, and that together with the fact that this last few months has been such a whirlwind - final year at uni (ONLY 51 DAYS LEFT!), researching and developing the Skirts & Tales project, being involved in the Dance and Celtic Societies, and more recently applying for jobs and internships - meant that I'd not had much chance to get excited about being a VAA. BOOM new story now! Meeting all the other VAAs and getting more idea of what we'd be doing and how to go about it has got me uber excited!

I left a pretty miserable Deen-land at about 2.30 on Thursday on a west-bound train. I should point out I'm notoriously terrible at directions and travelling, and, true to form, at 2.31 when the conductor read out the list of train stops and Larbert wasn't one of them I heaved a giant sigh of "really, again?"-ness that came all the way from my feet to my gob. All was cleared up though when I asked the conductor wifee why my stop wasn't available, and she revealed to me there was a change-over at Stirling. Well, actually, she gave me a look that said "how can you not already know this?", and THEN she told me there was a change-over at Stirling. I'm well used to that look though.

So anyway, fast forward and I made it all the way to Larbert without any further blips at about 5pm, where I was met by Carol and Gillian from VA Scotland and they helped me back to Carronvale House. After dumping my bag in my room I headed downstairs to meet the rest of the VAA team and get a cuppa, and we had a half hour or so of getting to know each other before dinner. I got to sit at the cool table for the first time ever and got some hot tips from Social Media expert Fin Wycherley, and then we filtered back to the lounge area for some more of Fin's wisdom in the form of our Social Media training. I have to say I was impressed! As someone who spends a shameful amount of time on Facebook I still learned a lot from Fin's presentation, and I've been managing to drop little nuggets of internet wisdom here and there to my friends and now they think I'm all techno and with it. Innit blud?

After Fin's excellent talk we had a fantastic little pub quiz, at which I managed to fail all questions relating to Scotland but know all the Scandinavian ones (little Swedish fan girl...), and I use the word "fantastic" because MY TEAM WON, WOO! 13 out of 18 and a clear victory. And we won chocolates, although I'd made my way through quite a few quality streets and a 2 course meal prior to that so it was something of a bittersweet victory. There was also wine on the go by this point too, and knowing my unpredictable reaction to alcohol (sometimes I can drink 25 jagerbombs and still manage to spell brobdingnagian, and other times I'll have half a glass of wine with lunch and still be drunk 2 days later) (I have never actually drank 25 jagerbombs), I decided to have a small glass of rose, just to be sociable. I failed in my attempt to keep it minimal though, when the "tiny bit" left in the bottle I chose turned out to be quite a lot, and I ended up wandering about with a glass so big the ladies from Ab Fab would have been proud of it. By this time the evening had taken a more casual turn, and people began to head to bed or continued to mingle, and I met three excellent VAAs in Nigel, Rosa and Brian - although by the time One Direction came on the radio I decided it was bed time.

See? Same hair and everything!

The next day was the main bulk of the training. We started with an introduction to VA Scotland and to being a Voluntary Arts Ambassador, which I have tried to re-cap for you above, and then there was an introduction to TSIs and Community Planning. This is where I started to be able to tease out the real nitty gritty of the job. I'm going to call it a job because pretending I have a job makes me feel better, ok? This was a great grounding in the voluntary sector, which, in case you didn't know, is where I want to be!! We got a little background on TSIs and how they were formed from various Volunteer Centres, CVSs and Social Enterprise Networks within a region, and also heard a bit about the resources, training, meeting rooms, opportunities and support TSIs provide. I already had some experience of my own TSI, ACVO, having approached them about the Saltire Award for Volunteering as well as using their phone to do the VAA interview. I always come out of the ACVO office feeling encouraged and armed with the information I went in for, and the staff are chatty and welcoming, so I feel much more confident about working with them in my role as VAA. Coincidentally, as a little side note, the hours I spent doing the VAA training actually took me up to a spookily accurate 200 hours on my Saltire Award, so I have applied for that and will hopefully have the certificate soon! Now I just need to reach 500 before I'm 25 and I'll have the full set...

The Community Planning introduction was useful too. When I was in high school I was really closely involved in an after school community group called the Community Partner's Programme, so to me, that's what CPP is. Its going to take me a while to get used to Community Planning Partnership, especially when they're so close! I'm going to do a blog on the CPP (my CPP) sometime soon actually - I've been applying for jobs these last few weeks and I'm discovering that even after four or five years, the skills and knowledge I learned from those groups is still proving to be invaluable. Its also helped me see how closely ingrained on my soul community issues are - the CPP and certain wonderful people I met through it have actually made and continue to make a phenomenal impact on my life. Its funny that it took me so long to work out what I should do with my life when now it seems inevitable that I'd end up in Community Education of some form or other. I guess it was all part of the process though! So, to return to CPP of a similar but different variety, the training highlighted how this works in relation to our roles - we heard about network forums and how TSIs have a seat in these. The aim of a VAA is to be also invited to the forums, so we can represent the voluntary arts sector and also help the real CPP people recognise how voluntary arts helps them to achieve their Single Outcomes.

 ...I really hope I said all that right, or I'm going to sound like a right booby.

I should really thank my friend for sending me this photo. He was being facetious but actually its very useful!

So I came away from these introductions with several pages of notes, musings, do-to's and explanations of anagrams - HUNDREDS of anagrams! CPP, SCVO, TSIs, VOCAL, if I remember them all it'll be a miracle! I keep re-reading my notes and every time I do I find something new to remember. We then had a quick lunch break of some lemon meringue pie...I think there was some real food in there too but I only remember there definitely being pie, and then we spent the afternoon preparing a little presentation. We were to imagine being at a network forum meeting and having 2 minutes to explain our role and why we were there. Two minutes is not long!! I made a little re-cap video of our project for the Skirts & Tales team yesterday - all I had to do was give a brief summary of what has happened over the last couple of weeks and delegate some tasks to be done over the next fortnight, and it came to eleven minutes! So to sum everything up in two was a challenge. I didn't manage either, I was cut short by Gillian and a giant knitted letter 'S'. Art folks.

And that was pretty much it for the VAA training! We had a few more minutes to ask questions, and then we signed contracts and came up with our 3 'next steps,' which I've not been able to finish properly because of essays. I'm fairly sure essay writing creates a giant black hole in the atmosphere into which all time is sucked and vanishes forever. But that might not be scientifically accurate.

Just FYI I was actually trying not to make any bad space jokes this time round! Sorry.

And on that intergalactic note, I shall stop talking. As usual LEAVE ME A COMMENT, I love to read them, and get in touch via google+ or twitter @NaomiBegg1.

Over and out,
Love to everyone!
Naomi