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All hands on deck!
Friday 25th June 2010, 11:06
Wednesday was a gloriously sunny day in Sheffield, and saw CDX trustees and staff team gather at St Mary’s Conference Centre for an away day. It was fantastic being all together and contributing ideas and opinions around some of the big questions arising from the changing context which CDX is operating in.
Nick Beddow got us all started with an exercise called The Ship, in which we thought about CDX as a ship and considered what state our ship is in, what forces help and hinder it, and what our roles in the ship are. I’m pleased to report that HMS CDX is seaworthy and has a full crew on board, including captain, look-out, navigators, rowers and people ready to raise the sails!
If you'd like to find out more about how to use The Ship exercise, Nick has written a guide below.
- The Ship: How to use it (Word, 33.5KB)
Developing our position on the Big Society
We spent some time discussing the Big Society idea, which is rapidly being developed by the coalition government. We feel that it is important to influence policy makers in relation to what community development has to offer the Big Society idea, as we are concerned that development of the idea so far hasn’t taken in to account challenging discrimination and addressing inequalities, or thinking about cooperation and collective ways of working in communities.
We agreed to inform CDX members about the ideas in the Big Society through our Magazine and Ezine, and then listen to CDX members views through responses to our blogs and through online policy discussions. For those of you who remember Beth’s PARP, we are thinking along those lines, and Emma is busily developing something which you’ll see soon.
Relationships with regional CD networks and national and UK organisations
Another focus of our away day discussions was around our relationships with others. We are eager to strengthen relationships with existing regional CD networks, and to formalise our relationship with the regional CD networks forum. Tanwir is also working with CDX members to develop regional networks in areas where there aren’t any.
On the national front, Nick is meeting regularly with Janice Marks (Head of Agency) from FCDL and Alison Seabrook (Chief Executive) from CDF so that we develop a clear understanding of what each of us offers to the national CD picture and to work on joint messages. This builds on the joint Parliamentary Reception that we organised together in February. CDX is also an active member of the Community Sector Coalition, and our relationships there are important to us and we will continue to invest in them.
Finally, we also discussed our membership offer, recognising that we want to reach beyond those who readily identify with CDX and taking in to account that many people now network online. So don’t be surprised if we start asking you about what you would like from your CDX membership. And if you have any thoughts right now about what you value in your CDX membership and what you’d like, email denise@cdx.org.uk so that we can consider your views in our discussions
Lorna Prescott, Chair of CDX