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Sunday, February 12, 2012 Take 2,500 snow shovels, tubs of rock salt and high visibility vests. Add a band of willing people ready to help their community. Sprinkle generously with snow...
You may have heard about Snow Champions taking to the streets of Sandwell in the bad weather. They’ve certainly been making an impression on Twitter and on the Sandwell Facebook page.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 
by Dan Slee
So, Facebook is the biggest platform the web has ever known but has the UK public sector actually cracked it?
There’s 30 million people in the UK using it and there are not masses of examples on how it can be used well.
Look around there’s lots of tumbleweed pages and people scratching their heads.
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be talking about Facebook rather a lot, both on Twitter and here on the site.
Sunday, February 5, 2012 In January 2011, Monmouthshire County Council gave all its staff access to social media. I work in the communications department and I've championed its use ever since I saw how well people responded to a MySpace page I set up to get the community behind the restoration of Shire Hall in Monmouth: suddenly we had a way for people to talk to the council in a convenient, informal way.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 
by Dan Slee
For inspiration William Wordsworth used to climb at night over the Cumbrian hills.
With stick in hand he found through walking inspiration from unexpected places.
Sometimes, talking to comms people can be a depressing experience. Rooted in the past, battered by the present and fearful of the future they fear change as a coatless walker fears bruised clouds that promise rain.
A walk along Cardiff Bay to the Pierhead Building for the LGComms social media session ended in some real inspiration.
Monday, January 30, 2012 I’ve been lucky enough to attend and participate in a couple of excellent events this past week or so. The first UKGovCamp in London and the second an LGComms seminar on social media in Cardiff.
A key theme running through both events was that of the shifting nature of the communications landscape, and the differing ways in which organisations are reacting and redifining activity. The sands are certainly shifting at speed for some, for others they're moving at a far gentler pace.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 As a communications officer for Friends of the Lake District – a conservation charity that works to protect Cumbria’s amazing landscapes – I was tasked with promoting our largest ever volunteer conservation days. Our regular volunteer days usually attract 10-20 people, but last Autumn we held two bigger events – mass volunteering events called ‘Fell Care Days’.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 
by Dan Slee
This social media thing. Are we doing it too much or too little? It's an internal argument going on in the head of many comms people.
There's been some useful research done on social media take-up by Ashford Council's Dean Spurrell.
Sunday, January 22, 2012 On Friday 20 January I woke at 4.15am – and for once, it wasn’t because of the kids - to set off for 'the smoke' to attend UKGovCamp.
A long, long day was in store, a day which helped me to crystallise some thoughts around comms approaches in 2012.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 
by Mark Allen
As a local government press officer I am in the privileged position to interact with and read a wide range of social media, traditional media and new media sources on a daily basis.
Social and new media has enriched our knowledge of what people think and how they come to conclusions and is a very good thing on the whole.
I've have blogged since 2003, Tweet and use Facebook and Linked In and so am hardly a Luddite.
At a recent conference I was struck by how many people – mostly local bloggers – seemed to write off the newspaper and local radio industries.
Sunday, January 15, 2012 
by Carol Grant
One of the most prized leadership attributes at the moment is resilience. In uncertain times, it can be the key survival skill. Some people assume that they just need to develop the hide of a rhinoceros and they’ll be fine.
However, a thick skin can make you insensitive to subtle changes taking place around you. To avoid extinction, it pays to know what true resilience looks like.
If you can keep your head…
As Kipling said, keep your head while all around are losing theirs. This doesn’t mean having all the answers. It does mean keeping calm in the face of uncertainty. If you can, you’re better placed to evaluate choices and options.
Sunday, January 15, 2012 The world has never been more full of stats, figures and data. Bank losses, Facebook numbers, job cuts – the list is virtually endless and the transparency agenda has only increased the numbers maze.
Closer to home, our working world’s are also all about metrics, ROI’s, sales figures...
And our home lives are stacked full of numbers too – bank balances, school league tables, weather forecasts, mortgage rates, the price of fish.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 
by Dan Slee
Sometimes a simple idea pings around in your head and nags away.
One such was mentioned at Shropcamp in June held at Harper Adams Agricultural College amongst the summer fields.
'How do we make it really easy for people to take part in the decisions local government make?,' the idea runs.
Don’t think for a second you needed to be a local government anorak to get this. A patchwork of small Town Hall decisions affect your everyday lives every day. Schools, roads, libraries, leisure, parks and 695 other things. They’re all local government.
Monday, January 9, 2012 
by Adrian Short
Adrian Short is a freelance designer, web developer and data analyst. He's also passionate about local government. In this challenging piece from his blog, reproduced here under a creative commons licence, he rolls a hand grenade under council news online and suggests ways it can be better presented.
Too long, too dull and far too pleased with itself. Little more than an exercise in vanity publishing. Irrelevant to the vast majority of people.
The complaints are numerous but at least you come here to read my blog not to find out when it’s bin day.
Sunday, January 8, 2012 
I would have agreed with this popular consensus 12 months ago when I stood in front of ten down to earth engineering directors and extolled the virtues of ‘twitter’, LinkedIn and, to a lesser degree, Facebook.
Monday, January 2, 2012 
by Darren Caveney
New year’s resolutions… I’m sure that I read somewhere over Christmas that 86% of us don’t stick to them. So, the choice is pretty simple: either don’t make any, or only embrace those which are do-able and will make a real difference.
Career resolutions are just as important as the obligatory ones about health kicks, weight loss and being better with money.
But will we all stick to them? Er, well, approximately 14% of us will, then.
