Delivering Dartmoor

Dartmoor National Park have set up a Delivery Board to put their Management Plan into practice. The value of Management plans is notoriously difficult to communicate to people let alone turn into a reality. Could this special board, made up of the all the delivery bodies be the way forward? Creating accountability where there normally isn't any? A group ready and willing to champion the work? A communication network embedded in all the other organisations? We'll watch with interest. Read more 

Zambia: Dancing Daze

Helen and Anna put on their dancing shoes this weekend to take part in a 2 day dance extravaganza - or so we thought. Emily from the Dance Factory in Clevedon, offered to put on a fundraiser event. Well, she may not offer again. After some serious publicity which included leaflets and posters in all local schools we were expecting a moderate if not good turn-out. Oh, how naive we were. 10 people came, most of them related to me in some way. We were down to 3 in the afternoon.Emily and I went home for wine!

Sunday was a glorious sunny day which did not match our mood. However as 11 o'clock arrived, so did all the people. We had a marvellous day of Ballroom, Latin, Street and Line dancing and raised £130

Our heartfelt thanks goes to Emily who kept smiling throughout.

Happy Quantock Hills

The Quantock Hills AONB team like their new visitor guide. 9000 copies were delivered today. The guide took a new approach; the Quantock Hills is more than just the heathland. It's really a beautiful combination of coast, heath and combe. That's what makes the Quantock Hills an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

Viper's experience of running rural projects has resulted in us being asked to facilitate future planning sessions for two organisations. The Trails Trust this week who need help creating an action plan so they can move from a local to a regional organisation. Avon Wildlife Trust, in a few weeks, want help to prepare a major initiative for the North Somerset area. A bulk order of post its please. 

Zambia: Barndance

All the intricacies of organising a Barndance are falling into place. We're inviting friends and family to this particular source of 'fun'. We've blagged the hall for free, well, we had to clear all the leaves from their car park. We've even blagged the 'caller' for free, a Mr Zikking has kindly agreed to do this. He's a professional Caller. I had no idea these people existed. 

Helen's done a fantastic job organising this. She's even got raffle prizes coming in; vouchers for the Alvis Bros farm shop, 2 free tickets to Noah's Ark Farm, beauty treatment and pies from the famous Pieminister. With more raffle prizes to come. Should be a great evening. 

Off to do more training for the Duathlon now.   

Zambia; Anon

An anonymous donation came through the post this morning. Just a simple letter saying they wanted to help us with the Bookbus trip. The Family Hardcastle wishes you thanks, whoever you are. 

Digital dimension key to success

According to a recent speech by Rural Affairs Secretary Hillary Benn, rural businesses have diversified and grown in recent years –  one in four of all businesses are now located in rural areas. England's countryside is home to around 1m businesses - a quarter of England’s total, employing over 5.5m people. Rural firms have an annual turnover in excess of £300bn. There are more businesses for every 10,000 people in rural areas than there are in urban areas. Innovation, especially in the digital dimension has been and will continue to be the key to their success.

Zambia: Snow fun anymore

As part of our fundraising to get to Zambia so we can help on the Bookbus I'm doing a duathlon (2m run, 10m ride, 2m run all off-road). Everything was going well; thanks to the people who have sponsored me, training was going well despite being given typhoid last week, carbs were loaded, training had peaked and my taper was tapering nicely. Then the snow came and the whole event was postponed. Got to go through the whole process again now. The event has been rescheduled for 8th March. The upside is this gives me time to find more sponsors!

Fresh New Approach For AONB Management Plan

Taking a fresh approach the Mendip Hills AONB Service asked Viper to produce an on-line Management Plan. No more boxes of plans propping open doors. Partnership members and stakeholders can now simply and quickly access the plan whenever they want. The plan will soon be supported by a State of the AONB interactive brochure

Local Authority Could Do Better... a lot better

Viper's registered office is in North Somerset, a place controlled, or so it would seem, by North Somerset Council. However when it snows it appears that the Community has more desire to keep communications flowing than the Council itself who missed the point of the power of web communication.

Picture the scene. Snow fall and closed schools. Many, many closed schools. Visit, as many of us would, www.n-somerset.gov.uk for an update on which schools are open and which are closed to be met with a page containing no information at all but advice to listen to a local radio station to get this information. Directly underneath this single paragraph is a statement that claims over half of the Council's entire budget is spent in providing education services!!

Now, without even starting to get political it is evident that the Community itself has been sharing information about snow conditions and the effects this is having right across the UK far more effectively and in almost realtime. Online social networking site http://twitter.com/ allows users to post geographic information about themselves. Pictures, comments and replies are all possible and there are literally millions of users of this service (amongst other similar services) around the world.

The snow falls and through a Twitter regular you can log into http://www.benmarsh.co.uk/snow/ where users have had the opportunity to post up to date snow reports, images and comments.

So as a Local Authority, perhaps it's time to develop a responsive and helpful online strategy for the Community using tools that are readily available and already being used by the people they are trying to serve. Could do better online... a lot better

Zambia; Jabs and Carbs

Back from the first set of vaccinations; Hep A and Typhoid. Tom and Anna had one in each arm, us oldies got away with a combined jab in one arm. Anna was worried and got a little upset at the sight of the needle but soon realised it didn't really hurt. Now booked in for 3 sets of Hep B and a course of anti-malaria tabs. Lucky us. 

Too cold for my 'last training ride' tonight, didn't want to slide on the ice. Well that's my excuse. Opted for the carb loading side of my training regime. More pasta please, washed down with some flapjack.   

Zambia; Tapering and Vaccinations

I'm tapering now. I think that's the official term for easing off the training in the build up for a race. So I'm tapering and carb loading - resting and eating loads of pasta. The duathlon is this Sunday, gulp. Tried it last year but only got half way round as I ripped my rear mech off! Hope the snow will have cleared by this Sunday but I bet the ground will be frozen.

Thanks to all the individuals who have sponsored me to do this. Even Jo the Bookbus coordinator and our friend Carolyn have entered to help raise money for our volunteering experience in Zambia. Huge thanks also to the Axentis Michael Charitable Trust who have sponsored us for a day over there.

We've got our first vaccinations tonight. Anna is worried about this but the snow has taken her mind off it I hope. I'll let you know how we get on.