Objective 1: Enhance communication within the (CoLab) network and externally to connect individuals and organisations.
Writing monthly newsletters. – The monthly newsletters have been published every month, on time. It has new sections promoting diversity, and both an engagement and events section.
Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis. – There are new “About permaculture pages” that have been added to the website. There are web pages now for Learn services, Funding services, and Digital services. The project pages were updated in September and will be updated again in December. A page of downloadable resources has been added to the website. A CoLab blog page has been added. Other web pages receive reviews and updates when needed.
Add adhoc events and job openings as request in #colab-communications-engagement. – These are included on the website, and now also on the newsletter.
Quarterly roundup of NS project updates. – These have been completed and published in a timely manner. The Q4 roundup will be produced in December.
Video to introduce CoLab. – This has been completed. There were contributions from several CoLab members. Charlie did a lot of recording and Hans did the editing.
Objective 2. Research ‘engagement with network weaving practices and processes’ from local to international, focusing on pinpointing needs. – A quick picture-forming exercise revealed that for this objective, we want to find good ways to reach permaculture people and projects on the ground so that we share the wealth of resources, events and services offered by the International Permaculture CoLab. We designed and published a survey to find out how permaculturists communicate. Analysis of responses is in progress, with a report coming soon.
Objective 3: Outreach work from CoLab to the wider permaculture audience.
Objective 3a. Review persona work from year 1 – This has been completed. The persona pages are active on the CoLab website and will be used for outreach work when sending emails etc.
Objective 3b. Collate information from around the colab about services, circles and projects in order to update the website, to be used as a basis for the outreach package. – This work is done on an ongoing basis.
Objective 3c. Collate information about current outreach. – A document reporting the current situation was collated and subsequently a marketing strategy document was produced and published.
Objective 3d. Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding. – This work has been done and is ongoing.
Objective 3e. Finish work on the website started last year (review and implement) – This has been completed.
Objective 3f. Write outreach pieces to be published in e.g. Permaculture Magazine / social media and network websites & mailing lists. – This has been started. We are in communication with Permaculture magazine and plan to produce articles next year. We are also surveying CoLab members about which platforms they use.
Objective 3g. Mail out to target organisations by persona type. (collate email lists, draft copy of emails, possibly translate to eg. Spanish). – This has been done. We sent an email to permaculture associations in Europe and Australia. So far there was no response.
Objective 3h. Publish and curate resources from NS and other working groups artefacts – This work is being done and is ongoing.
Objective 3i. Set up outreach database and tracker (NextCloud sheets) – Initial version has been created, further updates are planned.
Objective 4: Prototyping to bring in national and regional/other networks to support the wider permaculture movements & the CoLab
Objective 4a: Outreach prototype with Nordic permaculture – contact was made and the results were collected as a case study, however the outreach was not successful in getting any new customers or members. Primarily because we overestimated how developed the organisations were. Outreach with EUPN was very successful and now we have a relationship going between Digital Circle and EUPN.
Objective 4b: Outreach meetings with external community network – participated in skillshare sessions on behalf of Pemaculture CoLab in a session about digital permaculture organised by EUPN – we are getting better at cross collaboration since then.
Objective 5: Network weaving and building on the work started with capacity plus in particular cross network training and knowledge sharing events.
Objective 5a: We have been designing training for CoLab members who wish to represent CoLab in their other networks. To be delivered in Year 3 (CoLab Champions).
Objective 5b: Representation in the General Circle – This has been ongoing with positive feedback from other circles to the work done within this project.
Objective 6: Weekly co-working time and reporting – we have maintained a regular co-working time this year.
