PowerPoint: How to avoid disempowering yourself — and others!

I wrote this blog on June 29, 2009.   I don’t believe any of it any longer, having read Cliff Atkinson’s wonderful book, Beyond Bullet Points.   I’ll put that in another blog. For now, here are SOME salutary warnings… but it still won’t work!   See: https://beyondbulletpoints.com/   PowerPoint: How to Avoid Disempowering Yourself… Continue reading PowerPoint: How to avoid disempowering yourself — and others!

The Wheel of Participation (or Empowerment)

25 June 2009   I was speaking about Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation the other day to a group of students and I said that I thought it’d been eclipsed (in the past forty years) by other, better, models. I noticed an embarrassed look on the teacher’s face. Perhaps they had not updated their… Continue reading The Wheel of Participation (or Empowerment)

Community Engagement with Older People

24 June 2009   I have something to tell you   I guess everyone who’s been a speaker has had an experience like mine. But when it happened I was initially devastated. I’d been asked to speak to an aged care organisation’s conference. I’d written a story about a feisty older woman who was moving… Continue reading Community Engagement with Older People

Community Engagement: 18 Considerations

 23 June 2009     Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Community engagement is a tricky matter.   We need to be flexible and still keep our eyes on the ball. It’s a changing landscape. A bit like navigating white water rapids in a small canoe.   When we add the issues of “sustainability” to… Continue reading Community Engagement: 18 Considerations

Appreciating a Mentor: Clare Cooper Marcus

22 June 2009, 8:06 am     I met my mentor, Clare Cooper Marcus in 1973. So we’ve been friends and colleagues for over 35 years. She and her husband, Stephen, were visiting Australia from California.   “You’d like my wife,” Stephen remarked.   Stephen was right: I liked his wife. Finding a shared interest… Continue reading Appreciating a Mentor: Clare Cooper Marcus

Remembering Mary Ann Hiserman

20 June, 2009 at 8:08 pm   My friend, Peter, the local real estate agent, came over the other day to see how the building was coming along. He’s been cheering us on, especially during the storms and floods. I found a plan and we walked around the building site.   All on one level… Continue reading Remembering Mary Ann Hiserman

Community engagement with children and young people

  Secret Kids’ Business, Eagleby, Gold Coast, 1999 Photograph by Kelvin Walsh, 1999   A few weeks ago the communications officer of a local council responded to my plea to include children and young people in their community engagement strategy.   Chidren and young people are not our customers   “Children and young people are… Continue reading Community engagement with children and young people

Kitchen Table Sustainability launched at Bond University

9 December 2008 Successful book launch at Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, 3 December 2008   I love the new building of the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University. It reminds me of the concept of “eco-revelatory design” made popular by a great new book by Randy Hester, Design for Ecological Democracy (2006).… Continue reading Kitchen Table Sustainability launched at Bond University

Rapturous reception at Avid Reader book launch for KTS

After years of drought, Brisbane was treated to a sparkling evening shower on Friday night, December 5th and a rapturous reception for Kitchen Table Sustainability.   Four of our book’s five authors were present at the book launch at popular West End bookstore, Avid Reader.   Cathy Wilkinson flew in from Swedish Lappland, Steph Vajda… Continue reading Rapturous reception at Avid Reader book launch for KTS

Kitchen Table Sustainability launched in Adelaide 22 November 2008

Reflections on the Adelaide book-signing event, November 2008 When I emigrated to Australia in October, 1968, the second person I met was Hugh Stretton, now widely regarded as one of Australia’s foremost urbanists. Ideas for Australian Cities In his kitchen at 61 Tynte Street, North Adelaide, actually at his kitchen table, Hugh was putting the… Continue reading Kitchen Table Sustainability launched in Adelaide 22 November 2008