Lights, colour, action

You’re all welcome to a piece of my virtual, colourful birthday cake. It’s in all the colours of the rainbow, is calorie-free and suitable even for those who are gluten-intolerant. Part of it is lemon cake, part is vanilla and part is chocolate, and it’s decorated with edible glitter and sprinkles in rainbow colours.

Kate Bentham blogged about an ebook with a rainbow cover, the first ebook to be published by Shropshire Family Information Service, in Ebook Publishing in Local Gov. It seems a very sensible idea to produce ebooks that provide useful information and advice if a Council is likely to have to reduce or cut budgets for publishing printed versions. Kate includes some tips that others will find useful if they try the digital publishing route.

Professor Angela Wallace had lots of colour in her post, The Northern Lights on the Ayrshire Health blog. It was a lovely metaphor for a scheme to develop and encourage future clinical leaders in the National Health Service. There were lights and sounds to produce pictures of parts of people’s insides in David Hill’s A Radiologist’s Journey  on the   Dumfries and Galloway Health blog. It was fascinating to read about how the technology and ways of working have changed since he started work (and I enjoyed his confession of why he chose this specialism!). Whenever I have had an x-ray or scan, I would have loved to spend more time looking at them. I love images and I love digital technology.

Copper featured in Joseph Conaghan’s blog as he wrote about infection control, use of microbial copper in hospitals, and his daughter’s very interesting degree work in Hospital Acquired Infections Require A Copper Bottomed Solution. I am very curious to know more about how copper works to lessen the spread of infections.

It was back to colour in Karl Green’s Fifty Shades of Green: Part 1 – It’s ’Orrible Being in Love When You’re 8 ½ (or 5 ½…) in which he told us about his first crush on a celebrity, and the following half-a dozen crushes (a lot of them on Doctor Who’s assistants). John Patterson was also remembering heroes of his youth, but of a more superhuman cartoon type, and wandered to considering the people that he now thinks of as heroes in Heroes are all around you. I totally agree with him that heroes are all around us, many helping in everyday situations.

Two people were thinking about good customer service this week. Rough Cat’s Death of an O2 Salesman will probably make you smile (and no actual salesmen were harmed in the writing of her post, as far as we’re aware. Please note: other brands of salesmen are available in most stores near you). Dan Slee had some really good advice about online customer services, written with the public sector in mind, but applicable also to the Third Sector, all businesses, and other organisations: HELP 2.0: What good Twitter customer service looks like.

Phil Jewitt took us for a wander through the ideas that came out of reading blogs by Catherine Howe and Elia Morling that so inspired him, he before 5am he was writing Context not cloaks and cliques. He thought about the need for leaders not just to be aware of social media but to understand properly, through experience, how it can be used. He also thought of a new kind of leadership and influencing, not about being high up in the hierarchy, but by curators. Do read his post – it is full of interesting ideas.

I didn’t go on my usual walk in town during May so put together a few snaps from several walks in the centre of Newcastle and on the eastern side of the centre in Ouseburn during the month: Urban walk May 2013. I really miss taking my DSLR for a walk. Snaps on my iPod Touch are fine for certain things but they are not the same.

Since the number of posts shared with Weekly Blog Club had dropped a lot recently, I had wondered if it might be time to suggest we end it. Derek Barron had recently mentioned us as being helpful when he wrote Ayrshirehealth Reviewed – a year of blogging. Kate Bentham had written recently about Weekly Blog Club encouraging her to blog. Then this week, I read John Patterson’s post in which he mentions being encouraged to blog by Weekly Blog Club. Then there was Karen Hart’s A love letter which starts off with surfing but is about something else, and includes mention of Weekly Blog Club encouraging her to write. I don’t want to give away too much about what she wrote because I want you to read it.

Perhaps I am just unsure generally about where to go from here, in life generally! Events such as birthdays make me try to review where I am and to try to see where I am going. At the moment I am still trying to see (urgently!) how to get back onto the path of paid employment. I am very busy with voluntary work in the meantime.

Thank you very much to all who contributed posts, Liked, commented or tweeted about them. If I have missed out any posts, please do say. Lovely Kate Bentham is taking over Weekly Blog Club for Week 24. The [entirely optional] theme could be:

1. my favourite way to spend a sunny day in June;
2. volunteering;
3. privacy in the age of PRISM;
4. a walk (town or country).

If you want more inspiration, just tweet us. You can join in blogging any time and can find more about how to on our About page. Note that “weekly” is more of an aspiration than a rule. If you want to volunteer to look after Weekly Blog Club for a week, the details of what it involves are on our Admin info page.

Have a good week. Kate, over to you…

Janet

Janet E Davis

Summary of Week 23 posts

A Radiologist’s Journey by David Hill on the Dumfries and Galloway Health blog.

Fifty Shades of Green: Part 1 – It’s ’Orrible Being in Love When You’re 8 ½ (or 5 ½…) by Karl S Green.

Ebook Publishing in Local Gov by Kate Bentham.

HELP 2.0: What good Twitter customer service looks like by Dan Slee.

Death of an O2 Salesman by Rough Cat.

The Northern Lights by Professor Angela Wallace on the Ayrshire Health blog.

Context not cloaks and cliques by Phil Jewitt.

Heroes are all around you by John Patterson.

Hospital Acquired Infections Require A Copper Bottomed Solution by Joseph Conaghan.

Urban walk May 2013 by Janet E Davis.

A love letter by Karen JK Hart.

A love letter

I feel it would be a spoiler to tell you what Karen Hart’s love letter is about. I will tell you that it starts with surfing and mention of the film Point Break, but that’s only the introduction…

A love letter by Karen JK Hart.

Context not cloaks and cliques

Phil Jewitt was so inspired by a couple of posts by Catherine Howe and Elia Morling that he ended up writing his thoughts at 4.38 in the morning* (and managed to come up with an alliterative title that works). He writes about the need for leaders who understand social media from a practical angle, for bringing the gaining of digital social skills into the mainstream, curators who can provide a different type of leadership, and creating confidence.

Context not cloaks and cliques by Phil Jewitt.

*Top tip for bloggers looking for inspiration. Have a break, concentrate on reading interesting things, and you’ll probably get inspired as Phil did.

Warmth, compassion and new starts

After some variable and decidedly chilly weather in May, we seem to have started June with much sunnier weather and that was reflected in a few of the Week 22 contributions to Weekly Blog Club. There were also some tough topics tackled.

In a week when right wing groups and those demonstrating against them gathered on the streets in English cities, it was sad to read of issues regarding attitudes towards Indigenous Australians and of a specific incident in Australian football in Racism In Sport – Still A Long Way To Go by Trent Masenhelder on the @SportingWag blog. It was good to read that there was some positive outcome in the case of this particular incident.

Back in the UK, there was a lot of talk at the weekend about the 12th Doctor Who and whether he could be black and/or a she. Karl Green had been wondering about the possible extra Doctor Who? in a different way, before the news broke of Matt Smith’s departure later in the year. If you’re a fan of the series and have not yet seen the finale of the recent series, Karl’s post contains spoilers.

Although Doctor Who is a very hands-on sort of Time Lord, I wonder if some time spent on a community secondment might help his understanding of humanity? Chris Bolton wrote about a discussion he had on Twitter and a post by someone else in  If I ruled the world, all public sector senior managers would do a secondment in the community by @Jargonautical. What do you think? Would senior managers gain more understanding and compassion if they spent some time on hospital wards? Do people need regular experience of the front line work in order to understand the people there? Join in the discussion in the comments on Chris’s post.

Someone who knows all about the front line is Thomas Whitelaw and he shared his story  about his mother who has dementia and his role as her carer in My Filmed interview Mums story – part of the Patients story library acute services training. He makes some vivid visual points about the number of people with dementia and the number of their carers in Scotland.

On the Dumfries and Galloway Health blog this week, Dr Angus Cameron explained how  Guidelines in Medicine had been developed over the years to standardise and improve treatments. He writes about why he is unlikely to be invited to dine again with Members of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, and what he is concerned might start to influence the guidelines in the future.

The Dumfries and Galloway Health blog was inspired by the example set in Ayrshire by Derek Barron. This week, Derek wrote Ayrshirehealth Reviewed – a year of blogging. Happy birthday, Ayrshirehealth blog! When we first started receiving contributions from them, I did feel anxious about whether I would understand the posts well enough to do a micro summary post. Some weeks, I have had to read through a post more than a couple of times to understand some of the jargon, and sometimes the subject matter has been tough to read, but I have found each and every post well worth reading. It has been fascinating to understand a little more about the concepts behind approaches to care and management, and how the National Health Service for Scotland is changing. I feel  honoured that the Ayrshire health bloggers trust us with their posts, and admire how Derek has not only encouraged people to blog in his own area but has inspired others elsewhere. I know it’s not an easy think to do. I look forward to the next year of posts.

Sometimes, the health bloggers write about ways of doing things that are highly applicable to sectors other than health. Susan Hannah’s on the Ayrshire Health blog this week was a great example as she used an ancient Greek tale - A Warm and Sunny Lesson From Aesop - to show how a more collaborative approach to management can be more effective.

Richard Overy shared a wonderfully sunny picture of smiling people in Lady & gentleman at a windmill. The bicycles in the background suggested it was a leisure outing. Some people prefer to create their picturesque views at home. Samuel-James Wilson’s post this week described how he constructed a Folly/Garden Feature for a private garden. Graham Budd wrote about getting park rangers in his local authority involved in telling people about the work they do (including setting up new beehives) in A new reason to bee excited. He was so successful that they now want to contribute so regularly that they need their own blog.

Mark Braggins wrote about the proposed end of the Knowledge Hub that was set up for local authorities to use and share information and advice in Knowledge Hub: Good CoP or Bad CoP? He and others have been talking about what they can save and possibly doing things in a new way.

It was Out with the old and in with the new in Mark Wood’s post this week, as his work involved photographing the outgoing and incoming Mayors of Walsall at the formal ceremony, and then taking a set of photographs of the new year to be used as his publicity pictures for the year.

There was a surprise in Graham Budd’s second post of the week, hinted at in the title - Aloha: goodbye and hello: he is heading off to exotic parts to do a new job (I’m not telling you where or what because you should read about it in Graham’s own words). I’m sure that other Weekly Blog Club members and others who know Graham would want to join me in wishing him a very happy time in his new home and new job. I, for one, am already looking forward to his posts and really hope he will get into photo blogging because I want to see what his new environment looks like.

Karen Hart could probably do without the distraction of Graham’s pictures of his exotic new environment because she is a virtuoso at the gentle art of displacement activity. In fact, this week she had BAGs of displacement activity! I do hope she also managed to get the writing done by the deadline.

Finally, in a week of news of yet more protests elsewhere in the world, Louise Atkinson’s post, Practice as research [Week 33] Why art is not protest, seemed especially relevant. Louise considers art and protest, from the agitprop forms that began in the 1917 Russian Revolution to work by the world-famous British artist Banksy, and the Chinese artist, Ai Wei Wei.

We set the [entirely optional] theme last week as heroes/heroines and this could continue as a theme this week. You could write about your childhood heroes/heroines; how you relate to a particular, famous hero/heroine; or unsung heroes/heroines whom you think should be recognised. It’s also National Volunteer Week from 1st to 7th June, so it would be great to see posts about volunteering.

If I have left out anyone’s post, please do say. It is not always easy to keep track of which posts are to be included in a week when handing over from one host to another.

Thank you very much to all who contributed by writing, reading, liking, following or retweeting the Week 17 posts. If you are inspired to join the contributors, more about how to can be found on our About page. As Derek mentioned in his post, it is really helpful if you retweet posts via Twitter or post them as links on other social media channels you use.

Help with looking after Weekly Blog Club is always welcome. It does take some time, but those who try it have found it rewarding. The people who contribute posts here are lovely.

Have a wonderful week.

Janet

Janet E Davis

Summary of Week 22 posts

Guidelines in Medicine by Dr Angus Cameron on the Dumfries and Galloway Health blog.

A new reason to bee excited by Graham Budd.

A Warm and Sunny Lesson From Aesop by Susan Hannah on the Ayrshire Health blog.

Doctor Who? by Karl S Green.

Aloha: goodbye and hello by Graham Budd.

Folly/Garden Feature by Samuel-James Wilson.

Knowledge Hub: Good CoP or Bad CoP? by Mark Braggins.

My Filmed interview Mums story – part of the Patients story library acute services training by Thomas Whitelaw.

Practice as research [Week 33] Why art is not protest by Louise Atkinson.

Ayrshirehealth Reviewed – a year of blogging by Derek Barron on the Ayrshire Health blog.

If I ruled the world, all public sector senior managers would do a secondment in the community by @Jargonautical by Chris Bolton.

Out with the old and in with the new by Mark Wood.

Racism In Sport – Still A Long Way To Go by Trent Masenhelder on the @SportingWag blog.

BAGs of displacement activity by Karen JK Hart.

Lady & gentleman at a windmill by Richard Overy.

Ayrshirehealth Reviewed – a year of blogging

Happy 1st Birthday, Ayrshirehealth blog!

Derek Barron shares the aims of the blog, the pre-planning of it, and statistics that provide some evidence of how much they have achieved over the first year. The blog has even exceeded recorded desired outcomes. Well done, Derek and all the Ayrshirehealth bloggers on publishing posts for a whole year! Thank you for all your contributions to and support of Weekly Blog Club. We look forward to the next year.

Ayrshirehealth Reviewed – a year of blogging by Derek Barron on the Ayrshire Health blog.

Knowledge Hub: Good CoP or Bad CoP?

The Local Government Association (LGA) plans to close down the Knowledge Hub in order to save money. Mark Braggins explains what the Knowledge Hub is, what it was supposed to be, and the discussion about saving it.

Knowledge Hub: Good CoP or Bad CoP? by Mark Braggins.

A new reason to bee excited

Graham Budd has been trying to get colleagues to contribute stories of what they do in their daily work to share with the public on Facebook. He writes about getting the Parks Rangers to record and contribute something about their work from repairing paths to setting up bee hives. Now their interest has grown to the extent that Graham is having to set up a new online space for them.

A new reason to bee excited by Graham Budd.

Blogging for beginners part 1

A fabulous post this week from Janet Davis offering some very helpful tips and advice for anyone thinking about blogging but not really sure how to go about it, or concerned that they may not have the skills or technical know how with how to blog. Janet has lots of blogging skills and experience which she so willingly shares in this Blogging for Beginners post.

Blogging for beginners part 1 by Janet Davis

Demons, downloads and daffodils

Hello, it’s me Kate Bentham again this week, starting with a shuffle of the feet and staring at the floor apology for the delay in getting this summary to you. My standards are slipping. I’ll try harder. Am I forgiven?

So, let’s cut to the chase and get on to those blogs, you’ve waited long enough for them after all. There were 12 perfectly formed blogs this week, which turns out to be one of the quietest weeks we’ve had for a while. If ever you are struggling for inspiration then just get in touch on the #weeklyblogclub tag, and someone will tweet you some ideas. If time is your issue, we can’t help there, but if you found a solution then do share.

A couple of blogs posed questions to us this week, one of which was an important one was around mental health. Susan Munro asks Are You Aware?, do we know enough about mental health issues and the impact on a person’s life. Susan questions if enough is done to raise awareness of mental health to the general public and also questions whose role it is to do this. It’s also important to consider what success might look like, how would we know that people are aware. A very interesting blog to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.

Rough Cat aka Llana Rockette  blogs this week about being Scottish and the all of the fabulous things associated with being Scottish. In Scots Abroad – Surely Not That Obvious? Rough Cat looks at Scottish stereotypes, such as accents, weather, communities, sun bathing, and lager. 

Mark Wood is often asked Why hang around on mountains then? In his blog this week he not only explains why but also shows us why. As a talented photographer Mark patiently stands for hours on the snowy Welsh hills to capture stunning images of military jets.

Richard Overy regularly shares wonderful photos with us, which may have been lost but are now found again. This week Richard shares a group photo entitled Wilson & Mrs W. Hoskin  which possibly shows generations of neighbouring families. There are lots of interesting faces to look at in this glimpse of the past.

Samuel-James Wilson also looks at the past this week, with a focus on our cultural and architectural heritage. In St.Andrews Church – Starbeck Church – Update Samuel-James updates us on his campaign to protect the integrity and heritage of this local church, sharing some of the recent correspondence he has received from the local council and company carrying out the work, which does not actually address the professional and informed questions he asks. We wish Samuel-James well with this important campaign.

We regularly get health related blogs and this week is no different. We have a real personal blog by Ros Gray called Daffodils in full bloom , which was posted on the Ayrshire Health Blog. In this blog, Ros looks beyond the technical care of patients and focuses on compassionate, person centred care, and ensuring patient safety. Lots of important questions are asked in this blog, but have your tissues at the ready; it might bring a tear to your eye.

Anyone who likes the sporting section of the weekly blog club summary will be pleased to read there are two sports related blogs this week (sort of). First up we haveThe Sporting Wag who argues that it’s Not All Bad For UAE Rugby But Much More Needs To Be Done, after a recent defeat against Japan. The sporting wag, aka Hannah Chia, suggests that the amateur status of the players of the UAE team will continue to struggle against professional players, unless some investment into a league is taken forward.

The other sporting (sort of) related blog is from Kenny McDonald who in Living life the Wigan way  looks at the leadership and management style of Wigan Football club manager Roberto Martinez. Kenny greatly admires the professionalism of Roberto and how he worked to strive to implement his strategy to avoid relegation. We can all learn something about leadership style from this manager, I even learnt a bit about football.

We have a very helpful blog from  Louise Brown called A quick look at targeting your Facebook page posts this is an particularly useful blog for anyone who manages a corporate Facebook page. Louise has produced a step by step guide for anyone who wants to know more about targeting posts.  Graham Budd shares an interesting blog this week called Getting your name “in the paper”. The blog looks at why someone might object to their name appearing digitally but are very comfortable with other elements of their public profile – I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on this? Why might digitally differ? if you have any ideas include them on Graham’s blog.

Fragmentation of TV Audiences and Illegal Downloads by Karl Green this week looks at how TV audiences are becoming more and more fragmented as a result of technological developments. Karl also looks at how pay to view channels are causing some audiences to illegally download programmes. A great read.

Finally My personal demons by Karen Hart looks at procrastination and perfectionism, two characteristics she is cursed with. Karen blogs on how they cripple her into inactivity and a feeling that  nothing is never any good. I can certainly see myself in this blog, I often faff about until the deadline, and then sometimes that comes and goes and still I’m not finished. Thank goodness for the invention of Squidgy Deadlines. I’ve certainly needed one this week for this summary. Thankfully I’m not cursed by perfectionism – but you already knew that, you might have read this far to find that out.

If you have enjoyed the blogs this week, be sure to let the blogger know, a simple like, comment or share is really encouraging and motivating. If you have been motivated to write a blog for next week you can find out more about how to on our About page, it really is simple. Or if you have felt motivated to have a go at being a guest curator you can find out how to here, that’s really simple too – and very enjoyable.

I’m back again for the week 21 summary. So until then, take care, eat some cake and keep blogging.

Kate 

Summary of Week 20 posts

1. Living life the Wigan way by Kenny McDonald
2. My personal demons by Karen Hart
3. St.Andrews Church – Starbeck Church – Update by Samual-James Wilson
4. Wilson & Mrs W. Hoskin by Richard Overy
5. Scots Abroad – Surely Not That Obvious? by Rough Cat aka Llana Rockette 
6. Daffodils in full bloom by Ros Gray
7. Why hang around on mountains then? by Mark Wood
8. Are You Aware? by Susan Munro
9. Fragmentation of TV Audiences and Illegal Downloads by Karl Green
10. Not All Bad For UAE Rugby But Much More Needs To Be Done. by The Sporting Wag
11. Getting your name “in the paper” by Graham Budd
12. A quick look at targeting your Facebook page posts By Louise Brown

A quick look at targeting your Facebook page posts

Louise Brown writes a really helpful post for anyone who manages a corporate Facebook page – and wants to know more about the Targeting Posts feature. Louise offers a step by step guide to setting up this feature.

A quick look at targeting your Facebook page posts By Louise Brown