The Gathering, Edinburgh, February 19th

February 19th 2010
The Gathering, Edinburgh
Edinburgh International Conference Centre

Gerry Hassan introduced A Scottish Wave of Change to a group of participants at SCVO’s The Gathering on a Friday afternoon. The small group was made up of six women and one man. Gerry outlined the background and ideas of A Scottish Wave of Change, the Cultural Olympiad programme, and what this project was hoping to achieve.

Introduction

Wendy Woolfson, the main facilitator for the day, introduced herself and outlined the structure of the session, looking at family values, exploring Scotland’s past, present and future, and concluding with using the seven Olympic values and principles to explore values, meaning and the future.

Warm up – Family Values – 10 mins

Think of an object/word/image that relates to your family/family life.
Something with a personal meaning, something exclusive to your family
Mix with the rest of the group to tell the story.

Short discussion and words on flipchart
Words

Marriage, bonds, belonging, pride, happy, mazouzah, support, sentimentality, comfort, peaceful, recognition, extended families – generations, truce, acceptance, faith, nature – connection with outdoors, sacred places, food.

Exercise – Past, Present, Future – 20 mins

Gerry talks about Scotland’s past, present, future
Wendy tells story – ‘Sometimes you have to tie the camel’

A young boy is sent to his master to become wise and learns that sometimes he has to prepare for the future as everything will not just be handed to him.

3 minute brainstorm for individuals to write down what this topic means to them
They choose their own top 3 from each topic.
Each person reads out what their top 3 are and the group discusses to decide which 3 are most important for the group.

They write each one on a post-it and stick it up on the wall.





These were:

Past – Intriguing Mystical Traditions

Present – Regeneration and Reinvention

Future – Global connections

Discussion – 10 mins – notes on flipchart

Past

Storytelling culture based on stories
Communities learning about each other
Complex past – immigration/emigration

Present

Tried to be positive
Ambivalence in words
Working towards something – in transition
Officious words – structured way of looking at the future
“Scotland is quite purposeful at the moment”

Future

Connected to our future, lying in different connections
Land connections – past ways of travelling
Scots people featured in media globally – robust
Masai people have tartan robes.


Exercise – Scotland’s Values – 20 mins

Words have different meanings for each of us
Attention drawn to 7 Olympic values on the wall
Choose the 3 most important words out of the 7 on the wall.
Think of a personal meaningful story/anecdote you have connected to each one and discover another 2 words for each one word that you have chosen.
Write the new words on post-its and place on the wall next to the word it is related to.

Words on post-its:

Determination – challenge, satisfaction, love, bravery
Friendship – encouragement, comfort, lifelong care – physical and mental, admiration, comfort
Equality – consideration, awe, people, admiration
Respect – understanding, human rights, value, empathy, love, thanks
Inspiration – energy, people with learning disabilities, invigorate, re-connect, mind expanding, wild places, fulfilment, praise, courage, family and friends
Excellence – focus, need
Courage – moral values, keep calm and carry on, persevere, optimism, relentless, diversity

Discussion – Notes from flipchart – 10 mins

Anecdote more important than the words
Overlapping values – connected to many of the values
Hard to separate friendship and inspiration

Excellence

Business – certification
Driven by inspiration from other people to give them excellence
Company trying to have more empathy – avoid apathy
Excellence = demonic voice – “scares me”
Unreserved praise
Elevation of position
Curriculum for Excellence
Respect a bigger achievement

Other written notes from participants

Past, Present, Future

Past
Beautiful but slightly hostile to the English
Separated by hills, lack of links and communication
Historic festivities and national pride
Folklore
Magic, love
Trainspotting – issues addressed
Highland clearances – 4 generations later, still consider themselves Scottish
Defeat
Forgotton or marginalised history/stories
Placing value on them
Recognising value
Reinventing past beyond the myths
Disappearing things, places, buildings, landmarks
Diaspora? Clearances
Antonine wall
West highland fault
Science, invention – enlightenment
Extremes – rich and poor, light and dark, Jekyll and Hyde
Culture – storytelling, art, music, weaving
Struggles, romance, patriotism


Present

Disconnectedness in communication
Longing for something
Uncertainty and possibility
Scottish parliament, beautiful scenery, evidence of history and culture all around
New Scots tied to past of all Scots, being mix of all peoples
Diaspora? Again or anew or other people coming in
Drugs – how to address
Regeneration programmes – Glasgow and Edinburgh
A semi-good national side
Unemployment and graduate unemployment
Learning, love, adventure
Fast paced and friendly
Cultured and creative
Strong communities and individuality

Future
More communication between cities
More colour and brightness
Better accessibility
More learning, love, maybe less adventure
Trams, windmills - green transport, greener Scotland
Prosperous economy / employment opportunities
Commonwealth games – wooo!
Communities with greater control
New connections globally
Energy resources – water as value – wind as value
High speed rail link, Edinburgh trams
International connections – global
Insular society
Edinburgh takes over!
Less connection with nature


Scotland’s Values

Equality – being proud of anyone for what they achieve
Understand people
Respect – not belittling, appreciating, caring, consideration
Friendship – love, no matter what, be there for you
Understanding – Consideration – Encouragement

Friendship – comfort – Beki – primary school
Determination – mum – uni – children – love/happiness
Courage – lion – all the different things people need
Respect Equality – Nelson Mandela, admiration


All words connected

Equality – this word was left outside the mind map

Friendship – humour – understanding – moral values
        Courage
        Family
        Mental health issues – care – standards

Courage – lion rampant
        Relentless
        Bravery
        Moral value
        University year out

Inspiration – family
        People - courage
        Hard work
        Dreams
        Aspiration
I need to become inspired by someone/something to become motivated

All interlinking

Friendship – admiration – comfort
Determination – challenge – satisfaction
Inspiration – nature/wild places – fulfilment

Inspiration – needs time dedicated to it to invigorate
Travel – discovering the world
Connections to nature and to people
Taking time to listen to music, see art etc. hillwalking
Easy to be consumed by drudgery and routine

Courage – similar to Wendy’s – keep calm and carry on
World of opportunities
Discovering sense of self
Difficult time – getting through it

Respect – empathy, love, understanding


Summary

There was a lot of content for such a short workshop and each topic could be run as a half day workshop on its’ own.
There were seven participants, one male, from a variety of backgrounds.
The participants were prepared to work hard and to experience something in the workshop. They had expectation. This was helpful in having their full participation and interest.
The results were very insightful and seemed to spark much debate with possibilities for further discussion.