Old dog, new tricks

It's great when we get new volunteers joining our group - it doesn't matter whether or not they've got campaigning experience because meeting new people is great, but more than that, they bring new ideas and different perspectives. Last night's group meeting was a prime example of this. As you can see from our page, we've been busy booking events over the next few months - that's the easy bit, especially after a decade (yup) of looking after the Southampton group. What's less striaghtforward is what to actually do at them. Yes, we have our campaigns and whatever 'asks' go with them, but standing behind a stall maybe isn't always the best way to promote what we do and encourage new volunteers to get active. It is however what I tend to do when left to my own devices - mainly 'cos it works well enough (we get a lot of campaigning done and we do it well) and I have limited time, energy, headspace etc to come up with something different. So, an influx of creative yoof is very welcome indeed and it's already having an effect. Our next event (well, not ours, but we'll be there and there's a lot of overlap between our group and the organisers) is the Greenbeats Shindig - it's got DJs. It's got no stalls. It will (after last night's meeting) have, if all goes to plan, a polar bear inducing people to limbo under an icy pole. We will mingle and encourage freeform-stylee. I would never in a million years organise this. But it's great. So, bring on the new blood. I am an old dog, but I want to learn new tricks...