Weeknote 08/2023
I’m not sure what proportion of the North East population is in London for the Carabao Cup Final this weekend, but it’s sufficient that there are no sporting activities for our two kids on Sunday. That means Team Belshaw can go out for Sunday dinner as a family for the first time in a while. I’m looking forward to it.
This past week has been half-term for our two, while Hannah and I have taken a couple of days off work. It’s also been the first of three weeks of holiday that Laura is taking, so both home and work have been different. It’s amazing how those two worlds can collide, especially this week where we successfully used nonviolent communication techniques in a family setting to defuse some issues.
During my three days of work this week, I’ve been:
- Collaborating on a WAO response to a Catalyst brief around reviewing network learning practices.
- Iterating some Greenpeace work around workflows.
- Co-working with John on work for both Passbolt and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
- Meeting with Bryan to iterate images first seen in monochrome on So, er, what even is a worker-owned co-op?
- Co-working with Anne on tweaking the plan for the third workshop on open working that we’re running through CAST for the Sport England National Governing Bodies. We also worked on some stuff for Participate around the future of the KBW community.
- Helping a couple of people through CoTech Digital Candle sessions.
- Attending the first meeting of (what is currently called) the ‘member support’ group of workers.coop. We agreed that I would lead a session next week to explore scope and prioritisation.
Other than that it’s been the usual taxi service for my kids and standing on the touchline watching them play football and basketball.
My daughter played for Newcastle United’s U12 ETC against Doncaster U13 ETC and Tyneside Tigers, a recently-formed 11-a-side team comprising players from a futsal team — including several Sunderland ETC players. She played well, although for some reason they played her in defence for part of the Doncaster match! In her grassroots team’s game this morning she scored a hat-trick while playing in midfield and then striker, so it was business as usual.
My son is playing basketball this afternoon. Last night, we went to see Team GB vs Belgium at the arena where he also plays his games. Unfortunately, Team GB were well beaten, but it was a good atmosphere. Tonight, we’re planning to go and watch Plane (2023) at the cinema until late while my daughter and friend have a sleepover at our house.
Next week, I’m planning to lead a session on storytelling for the OSN Open Recognition working group, holding the fort a little while Laura’s away, doing regular client work, leading the workers.coop session mentioned above, and finding out more about North East rural co-working via a local in-person session.
