Hi guys,
This email has become quite long so to help you navigate through it, I've split it into blocks!:
1. Hello and thanks
2. Notes/summary of our meeting last week
3. Notable date for future - Check 2 gathering!
4. Important information about the current campaign focus and its relation to you with specific representatives in Glasgow.
1. It was great to see you (and meet some of you for the first time) last week; thanks for your hospitality in various ways - putting me up for 2 nights; buying me drinks etc.and generally making me feel welcome! Glasgow is great (It feels like Manchester in a strange way)!
2. For those of you that didn't make it, I'm sorry to have missed you! :(
We talked about how the 'group' has been functioning (or not) and how to harness its potential. We reviewed your previous decision to end regular meetings due to the fact that people have been busy, but the intention of seeing each other even ocassionally and eg. watch an informative film, has not really happened. However there was general consensus that SPEAK still has a distinctive voice to represent in the city and amongst the older generation too! It would be good, for example, to link up with student activity and support them eg. through prayer and telling them about local events ... hence Rachel Farr will be joining your email list! (Social Action and Missions Co-ordinator for Glasgow CU). Esther also suggested that everyone on this list says hello because it's got to the point where we don't know exactly who is on it and still interested! Is that right, Esther?
3. We also talked about how these issues relate to the wider Network: viz. as people graduate - what space there is for people to input into, and to represent, SPEAK's values and the Network. We will be discussing these issues at a one-day gathering in June ("Check 2": 24th June) so if one or 2 of you were able to come and represent your situation that would be perfect! However, recognising that it is a generous distance to make for one day, I can take notes and relay them back to you (equally it would be good to have any points you want mentioning emailed to me beforehand). As an added incentive, Lucy Smith is having a birthday barbecue at her parent's home in Crawley the following day, and you are all invited!
4.Finally, I wanted to mention something which might be of interest to you specifically. As part of the "Alter-EU" coalition we are challenging the fact that the lobbying power of Multi-National Corporations in Brussels influences EU decision-making processes therefore meaning that their interests are sometimes placed above environmental and development concerns. This lacks accountability and transparency; we are thus calling for greater transparency in this lobbying process so that organisations lobbying for MNCs don't have priviliged access. Anyway, there are a couple of individuals in Glasgowon this coalition who are academics supporters, and I thought it might be worth you knowing of these "allies" - they might be willing to come and do talks about it, for example. See www.alter-eu.org for more info. Their contacts are:
William Dinan, Department of Geography, University of Strathclyde, and
David Miller, Professor of Sociology, University of Strathclyde .
I've attached the draft pdf format of the new Pray and Postcard which will be reaching your doors in the next fortnight if you wanted to have a look beforehand.
That's all for now I think! Keep in touch and let me know any thoughts/ideas/prayer requests etc.
God bless,
Ele.
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