Roisin Markham

Do you know how you learn? I often learn by becoming curious, intensely so and then just getting on with it, doing through learning. Its been a feature in my career, not always knowing how to do something, its never been a barrier. It is possibly to do with my first job after college being in a multinational tech company that empowered us to get on with things. The foundation was laid there, I learnt how to acquire knowledge and share it. I learnt how to navigate unknown spaces, unknown technology, ambiguity, chaos all part of constant change solving complexity bridging tech, engineers, linguists and third party vendors in flux that was normal.

So this thing that’s happened with Doughnut Economics, with beginning a Irish Doughnut Economics Network, IDEN well that just happened. I was there. I offered a space… people showed up and now I feel ownership. People are still showing up. We’ve been in action as a small core group since September 2020.

There is something about the framework of living within planetary boundaries, a fair just space for nature and humans to thrive and a strong social foundation, it seems perfect logical sense for what comes next.
Whether we end up in a post-COVID society or a living with COVID society it seems important not to wait. As part of my action for climate and social justice I want to bring the Doughnut principles of practice into action and support others to do the same.

I’m practicing one of the principles of being a 21st Century Economist and going with where the energy is. It’s also something one of my business associate’s Anna said to me in one of our first conversations ‘follow the energy’. So I am.

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I realised sometime last week that I have never quiet learned anything about managing a network, not in any formal way. I mean its a whole profession. I know I’m skilled at communities of practice, building teams, knowledge share, getting ideas into action, bring structure and pragmatism to whatever needs doing but… yeah! I decided last week maybe I should pay some attention to seasoned professionals.

Don’t get me wrong I did work for a membership led organisation for a few years at the turn of the century. I learnt somethings there about events, making things work, getting out of the way and letting members do their work. I also learnt that a smile, being friendly and welcoming can sometimes be the most important aspect of a network event.

But I thought if I’m seriously going to effect and empower a network lets look at what I can learn… via a newsletter I spotted a Network Management 101 webinar run by Collective+Mind. So I joined it Wednesday, gosh it was such a positive knowledge share with great wisdom, so thanks to the whole team there.

What did I learn:

Networks

• Governance
• Management; facilitation, co-ordination, administration, operational, project management, foundation for all, maintain network
• Production; tools, guidance, advocacy, policy, influence

Networks share a purpose – there is a reason to choose being a network, not an NGO or a business. That collectively there is value and impact.
Mission, values, strategy, funding/contributions, resources.

A healthy network – define it, live it.
Authentic relationships are key.
Transformative rather than transactional.
What role does power play? Power dynamics come in at some point.
Equity of inclusion, capacity of all member – some maybe be time or/and resources poor so how do you include all members? Its important to provide multiple options for participation.

There are different stages of development.

If your designing a network start with what a healthy network looks like.
Think about measuring impact.

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So I’ll continue to walk along the edges of my experience, living my questions until they are resolved.

I use the app Earth hero to look at my carbon footprint and try and reduce it. Last year I bough an EV and reduced our transport costs significantly both financially and in terms of carbon emissions. The app is great at suggesting what other actions you might take. One of the ways was to give a talk on climate action so…

This Thursday I am speaking at a local event and if you are based around Gorey in North County Wexford you might like to attend – virtually, yes we are meeting in zoom! But I am delighted that Ann Walsh has brought her events Down to Earth to a digital offer because we need to keep connecting as communities even if we cannot meet.

Ann and I meet digitally over the last few months of 2020, connecting through Wexford Environmental Network (WEN) and IDEN. Although we do not leave very far from each other we have not meet in person because of Covid. Such is the way of the world now…

So I am going to speaking about lots of things I have been thinking, writing and sharing – ideas on the circular economy, how we can live within the planetary boundaries with a strong solid foundation & I’ll be speaking about the 4 questions I’m living with and an idea for a local project.

I’m delighted Ann Walsh has asked me to share ideas on the circular economy, how we can live within the planetary boundaries with a strong solid foundation & I’ll be speaking about the 4 questions I’m living with #downtoearthgorey pic.twitter.com/ZQcsD8x26p

— @creativedynamix@mastodon.social (@CreativeDynamix) January 24, 2021

If you are curious about any of the ideas you read about in my blog, I am happy to answer question, discuss, collaborate, consult and mentor, you can reach me via social channels here. Not sure anyone leaves a comment on blogs anymore but you are welcome to do that too.