Hi there,
I'm with Paul on this - I think having 3 meetings over
18 months means I'll have to just pick which one I can afford to get to. I
agree that will lead to feeling spread thin (both for individuals and as a
network). I think Paul's point about regional meetings is good too and I
know that is something we could do with doing better in Scotland.
I do think I prefer annual meetings over biennial
as I wonder if those based in quite isolated settings (without cp minded
colleagues) might find a gathering once every two years a bit of a long gap
between meetings.
On another note - I'm very happy to help Jacqui
out. Jacqui could you email your contact details to the list so people who could
help out can get in touch with you to let you know how we might be able to
support you.
Finally, I do think we need to move fairly quickly
towards a decision about conferences/gatherings and when the next one is going
to be and who will host it as there will be plenty of organising that will need
to be done. Perhaps with all the interest in holding events we could look
long term and have the hosts of the next couple of conferences decided
...
Other thoughts out there?
Rebekah
My
view?
Too
many meetings.
I couldn't
attend Great Yarmouth because of a combination of lack of money and lack of
time.
For some
reason we seem to be having conferences every year. The European
Association of Community Psychology are doing the same. Why? Is the amount of
time and money it takes to organise such events and the time and money it takes
to attend actually paying off for us? I am sorry to be brutal, but my impression
of conferences, including community psychological ones, is that a lot of
delegates spend a lot of their time shopping and sight-seeing and
relatively little time actually attending talks. Certainly most conferences
I have attended have tended to haemorrhage delegates in this way shortly after
the ubiquitous keynote that follows registration. At times it almost feels that
conference organisers make it easier for us to disappear in this way by using
parallel session as the back bone of the conference timetable. I have heard
wonderful things about the conference in Gt Yarmouth and the team there must
have done a wonderful job, but I am not wholly convinved that conferences are
adequate vehicles to carry our aspirations for a socially just world, at least I
don't think they are improved simply by increasing their
occurrence.
If we start
organising events once every six months I think that the only people we will
regularly attract are long distance lorry drivers with a passing interest in cp
and a small group of people who have the money and the time (the resource rich)
to merrrily chug around the country having hug-athons with their similarly
richly resourced friends. My fear is that we will appear smaller and smaller in
number as members have to try and cherry pick which of the plethora of community
psychology conferences being run that year they are able to attend and we end up
spreading ourselves thinly. My finances and employment situation means that I am
lucky if I can attend one or two conferences a year. Maybe others are more
fortunate than me, I know that many, many are less.
If we really
had that much to talk about, wouldn't the cpuk list be buzzing more than it is?
Are we at risk of having more conferences than contributions to the list?
Indeed, the list might just become the publicity arm of our conference machine
broken up only occasionally by spammers selling us haemaroid
creams.
I am not
against the idea of conferencing (I actually prefer the word gathering [or
Ceilidh, as it used to be known in Scotland]). I also do like the idea of
regular regional meetings (I believe these do happen in some places). I woudl
prefer to stay local but to have a biennial uk conference where we coudl get
together and collectively seek to make our work impact at a national and
internation level.
There is an
old saying that psychologists respond to a crisis with a seminar. Do we want
that to be said of us?
p
Paul Duckett
Division of Psychology and Social
Change
Manchester Metropolitan University
England
Phone +44 161 247
2552
Fax +44 161 247 6364
Hi
All
Towards the end of
the conference at Gt Yarmouth which I enjoyed very much, thank you to Wendy
and all, there was some discussion about what to do and where to go next.
Suggestions included one day events and two day conferences. There appeared to
be a lot of interest in meeting in 6 months time to consider world events and
possible responses from community psychology. In addition there were possible
offers of further conferences. Myself, Carl
Harris and Jacqui Akhurst
have discussed a couple of options and as
agreed at the conference we would now like to open up the discussion on the
list.
Carl
would be willing to arrange a one day event in Birmingham in about 6 months
time, as I’ve mentioned there was interest in considering world events at such
a meeting. Jacqui has preliminarily offered to help co-ordinate a conference
in York for September 2007,
this offer is dependant on others being willing to lend a hand with the
organising of such an event. Myself along with a number of people from the
East
Midlands would be willing to
arrange either a one day meeting or two days conference in the
future.
So,
over to others, what do you think?
Bob
Diamond
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