James Arthur Cattell - Week notes

Week 14, 2026

2026-03-30T00:00:00.000Z

also known as weeknotes,
covers 30 March to 5 April.

The Pensions Regulator

✅"External" Microsoft Team successfully tested with external user by Steven (my hero💚)

✅Domains to allow list for above ^^^ sent to Dan (now waiting on Change Advisory Board)

✅Draft content agreed with Lisa Allen for 14 April 2026 meeting of industry working group

✅Content design crit + 2i booked with Chris for draft content above ^^^

✅Informal user research "test run" with new industry working group community member

✅13 other sessions like above ^^^ are either now booked or requested

✅Digital, Data and Technology (DDAT) All Hands lightning talk on Person Standup on YouTube

✅Personal standups for Monday, Tuesday and Friday (today) published (not Wednesday because #AprilFools day)

✅Initial chat with Ruth about "Learn Lawyer" training

✅Transition Plan Working Group planning session with Ellis, Imran, Leanne and Sarah

✅New terms of reference for Industry working group progressed with Chris and Leo

✅User journey mapping of Industry working group with Windahl

✅Ruled out adding the "Technology" part of DDaT to Industry working group remit, thanks to Richard

✅Hosted a get together for people interested in user research

✅5 hours of other work related meetings

Week 11, 2026

2026-03-09T00:00:00.000Z

also known as weeknotes,
covers 9 to 15 March.

Cheadle Community Library

Lead trustee Ivan Wozniak asked me for updates as follows:

Group email

Emails to trustees@cheadlecommunitylibrary.org.uk are sent to all library trustee's private email addresses. They can they reply to the sender from the group email address (not their private one), but this hasn't been successfully tested yet. This service uses Google Groups.

This does not affect Jenni's management to the volunteer's rota, which uses a completely separate email address.

Trustee calendar

Most trustees use paper calendars, so this shared calendar has limited use. Anyone can view the calendar, though its currently empty. Trustees can be invited to new events by adding trustees@cheadlecommunitylibrary.org.uk to calendar invites, but this hasn't been successfully tested yet.

Bookings diary

This service is in testing. Anyone can view the library events calendar. It's updated by logging on as info@cheadlecommunitylibrary.org.uk and making changes in Google Calendar. I'm ready to train volunteers how to keep it updated.

Wi-Fi

Volunteers and visitor can use 2 available wireless networks:

Your Library (3 megabits per second, i.e. very slow)
GovWifi (80 megabits per second, i.e. very fast)

Your Library requires a library account and internet access enabled.

GovWifi has no requirements, and can be joined by texting "Go" to 07537 417 417. Initial setup can take a few minutes, but only has to be done once per device. This has been successfully tested on 5 devices.

Office Laptop

It runs an old, unsupported version of Microsoft Windows. I suggest we either:

migrate it to Fedora Workstation for free,
replace the whole laptop with modern kit.

Printing from mobile

Successfully tested from 2 different mobiles, but simplified instructions for public use need creating.

The Pensions Regulator (the day job)

Busy week chatting to industry working group members and arranging subgroups meetings.

Week 7, 2026

2026-02-09T00:00:00.000Z

also known as weeknotes,
covers 9 to 15 February,
started Friday 13 Feb.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR)

Last Thursday I caught an ear, nose and throat inflection. My doctor put me on antibiotics. I tried to restart work on Monday but quickly had to give up. In total I spent 5 days in bed.

Tuesday I got up and realised I was supposed to set off for London at 09:00. Managed to make it and eventually arrived at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) around 12:15. Met my TPR colleagues and then the FCA Innovation team. We spent the day together swapping notes. Was a great day but exhausting, and had to spend half of Wednesday recovering. In total I only managed to work 3.5 days this week :-(

Health

Started with a new therapist this week, this time in-person. They've recommended Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. We spent this first session mapping out my past, present and future + coping mechanisms.

Week 49, 2025

2025-12-01T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
covers 1 to 7 Dec 2025,
published 13 February 2026.

The Pensions Regulator

Working group

Blog post about the first meeting is ready for final approval.

Guidance

I have two bits of existing guidance published in 2014:

Community development framework
Community development handbook

The framework has a nice, shorter URL:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/community-development-framework

The handbook not so much:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-development-handbook/community-development-handbook

The handbook is referenced in the GOV.UK Service Manual and has been mentioned elsewhere. The framework not so much.

Volunteering

OneTeamGov North

The oneteamgov.uk website will move servers soon. This follows a discussion on the associated WhatsApp group, and a meetup.

ADHD Pathfinding

Met up in London with Sian, Himal and John. Prioritised some things to do for the first three months of 2026.

Mental health

Therapy

Had a good session at the start of the week. Going to do a venn diagram.

Sleep

Better, I think?

Drugs

Have reduced my ADHD drugs by 50%. I feel less fidgety.

Week 43, 2025

2025-10-20T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
covers 20 to 26 Oct 2025,
started 24 October 2025,
published 13 February 2026.

The Pensions Regulator

Working group members

The official list of the 15 members of the pensions data and digital working group has now been published. INSERT LINK

I've already had one-to-ones with 13 of the 15, and have got one more next week on Monday. That means I can now start the analysis of everything I've learnt from those one-to-ones, which will influence the design of the first meeting at the end of November.

1-2-1 engagement

Mary and I had a really interesting conversation about whether it should be called research or engagement.

This followed a really useful conversation with kat Gordy, the head of user centre design, and at the head of user research, and their colleague Robert.

Marion's suggestion was that rather than say I'm doing informal research with members of the working group, I should say I'm doing one-to-one engagement with them.

This made me realise that I have an in ner user research voice that wants to be heard and seen. But as I'm not professional user researcher, and barely an amateur one, I think Marian's suggestion is brilliant.

Although I will be taking a lot of work, cat Anna and Robert said, especially the idea of coming up with an overarching user research question, rather than a research question.

This in no way shape or form is because I don't value user research, I really, really do. It's more that I need to recognise that my role as engagement, not research.

I will pick this up with cat, Anna and Robert and see what their thoughts are, but for the moment I'm doing one-to-one engagement, not research

Threads in Teams

Towards the end of the week, I had a brilliant chat with SD, who introduced me to threaded replies chats in Microsoft teams.

I knew this had been coming for a while, especially after learning that department for Education is going to be switching slack off in favour of teams, and the lots of the criticism that's invoked that threading wasn't available in teams.

But now it is🙂

Yes, the user experience is nowhere near as good as it is in slack which is a very mature product with excellent chat features.

Yes, I do worry about Microsoft's unstoppable Mark take over the whole other digital data and technology sphere.

But I'm a pragmatist, and I realise that being able to have threaded chats in teams is much better than having two separate platforms in the same organisation (I'm thinking about DFE here, not CPR).

Tidy kanban board

Also, it's the end of the week I tided up my public kanban board which is on Trello.

Channelling my inner Russell Davis, I've probably been trying to reduce my work to three things which are:

Manage the working group,
Develop The wider Community,
Update my guidance on how to work with both.

I do love a nice tidy kanban bored 🙂

Volunteering

Cheadle community library

Had a really good session with Lee trusty. Ivan and his fellow trustee Mike in the library on Saturday.

Earlier in the week, a bunch of trustees and other volunteers had met to talk about how they could improve the layouts of the library.

So Ivan, Mike and I sat down and talked through those plans, and then walked around the library looking at things and moving and figuring out what we could do.

We've put a date in for Saturday the 8th of November to prioritise the work, and then start redesigning the layout of the off of the library.

Earlier in the week on Thursday afternoon, Ivan and I 10 attended some training for charities on communications.

Home is a little bit wary of this. Having spent over a decade learning the hard way how to use social media properly, but I was pleasantly surprised about some of the contact content but especially the interactions with other people that were there for the course.

The only downside of the course was that they hadn't left enough space for discussion and conversation between people that were there.

This meant that the content was quite rushed and delivered quite fast, which meant by the end of the session I was quite frazzled.

Fortunately, they handed out feedback forms which everyone filled in there and then, and I made some what I thought we used for suggestions on the pace and the content and the design.

I'm really thankful to Ivan for suggesting that we go on this training and I have definitely come away with stuff that I can use to help the library.

OneTeamGov North

Tuesday was the monthly one-team governor North lean coffee and co-working day.

Although I was quite knackered when I arrived, I sat with cat quartermaster fellow UKgovcamp organiser and mainly listened to the lean coffee, but occasionally chipping in here and there.

It didn't seem to be many as people as last time that stayed for the co-working day, although maybe the office in general is just quieter than normal.

But stay person, Stephen Gill, Dan and I all fellow wanting of North organisers managed to have some time to ourselves to sit and think about what we want to do over the coming months.

ADHD Pathfinding

Sean Murphy is now the service owner for the ADHD pathfinding, and she and I had a brilliant backlog refinement session with himmel who set up the project and John who's training up to be a delivery manager.

Sean, use the awesome ice water! Steamway of prioritising everything in the backlog.

If you're not familiar with it, you basically look at each item and decide. Is this steam as in it's? It's currently in progress. Is it water? As in? We know enough about it to get going and it's probably going to happen soon. Or is it ice which you can probably guess what that one is.

UKGovCamp handover

David Durant has found us an awesome Treasurer who is going to take over from me.

Manny is a certified accountant and has worked in the Civil Service and elsewhere and has loads of experience.

I can't think of anyone better. I'd rather be handing over the financial reins of gov. Camp too and Manny and I had a couple of conversations and chats on slack.

David Durant now has access to the admin account and all the passwords and stuff that go with it and I know he'll do an awesome job of tea keeping on top of all of that.

I'll be down in London on Wednesday night to attend the transform. Gov talks that David runs and also spend some time with him and Manny to sign all the stuff so that they can become selling access to the bank account and so that hmrc's knows to contact them not me and future.

I plan to leave the UK gulf Camp organisers channel on slack next week, which will be sad, but I think important that I draw a wonderful blue line underneath my time at UKgovcamp, again.

And no, I'm not coming out of retirement again to run ukgovcamp. This is my last time and I'm very happy that there's a team in place that will carry on this awesome event and Community.

Mental health

Much better than last week and the week before where I had to do a lot of peopleing.

But I was genuinely knackered by the end of the week to the point where I had to ask my colleague Lucy if we could reschedule a meeting till Monday, which I'm very proud of for taking care of myself.

Psychoeducation

The last of the eight autism psycho-education sessions happened on Monday.

This last session was really interesting, as the organisers invited is to talk about their experience of our journey to getting the diagnosis and being on the training.

Over the next few days about 10 people join the group and I made them all admin so that it was fair and equal access to the group.

I then did a series of polls asking about doing an ongoing support meetup starting with the day and then the time of day and then a particular hour we could meet.

WhatsApp poll feature was really useful cuz it all just happened inside the group and didn't have to go off to a third party.

But when we eventually agreed on the time and day, I should have gone with my gut instinct of using something like Google meet, rather than using whatsapps built-in event creation tool.

When it came to the actual meetup, it turned out that it was actually a little bit challenging to join on anything other than mobile, so I've asked the people that turned up about their experience in the hope that will use something different next time.

Therapy

I'm really enjoying therapy at the moment, and blessed that I've found the therapist I have.

They do an excellent job of creating space And leaving pauses for me to think and fill in the blanks.

This is in stark contrast to the therapist I had before, he felt that they had to fill the empty void with questions and comments when I didn't immediately answer.

Sleep

Still waking up around 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and going downstairs for a little midnight snack.

Need to get on top of this and I know what to do. I'm just being lazy.

Week 42, 2025

2025-10-13T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
covers 13 to 19 Oct 2025,
started 24 October 2025,
published 13 February 2026.

The Pensions Regulator

Pensions UK Conference

This week I spent 3 days at the pensions UK annual conference in Manchester.

Excellent merch

There was a lot of well-known companies that had spent a lot of money on their stands. One in particular had a pizza chef that was working from midday, which of course I went to and had several helpings of.

In particular, a lot of stands had notebooks and pens which were just awesome. Towards the end of the last day I do the last minute merch run and got a load of books booklets that hadn't been taken.

Lawyer, turned hacker

Over lunch on the second day I got chatting to someone who turned out to be a trained lawyer, who had a deep interest in artificial intelligence.

They were using AI to help with Investments, and had made a 35% gain over the previous month using the advice the AI had given them.

It's really fascinating to see people using AI to enrich their lives, but obviously word of warning that your Investments can go down as well as up.

Mental health

Awesome chillout room

During the pensions UK conference there were a couple of meditation sessions run by someone that had been hired in.

I found them really useful to centre myself whilst doing sorry in between doing a lot of peopling at the conference.

The same person is also set up a quiet room on the ground floor entrance to the a lot of where the seminars were being held.

At the end of the last day, my colleague Marion and I sat in the quiet room and had a nice chilled out conversation about our work and what next and lots of other stuff.

Person who'd sets up the room also joined in and we had a chat about their work and different ways they try to help clients, which was really useful.

Week 41, 2025

2025-10-06T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
covers 6 to 12 Oct 2025,
started 24 October 2025,
published 13 February 2026.

The Pensions Regulator

This is my third(?) week as a Design lead engagement specialist, at The Pension Regulator (TPR).

The Brighton Office

The only physical challenge of working for TPR, is that their office is on the south coast of England in Brighton.

From where I live in rural Staffordshire, it takes me 4 and 1/2 hours to get there. So doing a daily commute is not an option.

If I was a permanent member of staff, I would have to spend 8 days a month in the Brighton office. As a contractor this rule doesn't apply to me, thankfully.

But it's still useful to meet a lot of people face-to-face, so I made the effort to spend 4 days in the office this week.

I set off early Monday morning and arrived for my first meeting at 10:30.

The offices are really nicely laid out, look like they've recently been decorated, and have lots of meeting rooms of different sizes that you can book.

Open plan kitchen facilities with seating areas to eat and chat are also really nice.

But my favourite areas of the office are the activity spaces that have workbenches and power sockets and huge multi-touch screens for doing video conferences and collaborative stuff.

Walk in the park

My focus at the moment is setting up the first meeting of the new pensions data and digital working group.

A lot of the work to source and select applicants was done by my colleague, Matt Andrews.

Just over the road from the office is Preston park, so Matt and I walked over there and had a walking meeting discussing the history and potential future of the group.

We also got some chance later in the week to sit down with our awesome colleague Lucy stone, and talk through plans for what we needed to do.

Team Dominica

A short walk from the office, heading back into the centre of Brighton town centre, is a wonderful cafe.

Not only do they do awesome food and drinks, but they're also a charity to help mentally challenged people getting to work.

As someone with a range of mental health and neurodiversity diagnoses, I really appreciated what they did and basically ate there all week.

You can follow their efforts on their website and social media.

Mental health

This week was hard on my mental health. Being in a new office, seeing people in the flesh for the first time, and having to contact switch between 121 meetings and group meetings has been stressful.

I can afford better

It's really important to me that I get a good night's sleep. But due to my penny pinching nature, I picked an Airbnb in a relatively good location that was cheap.

I can afford something a bit better, and should prioritise my mental health over saving money in this area.

Week 40, 2025

2025-09-29T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
covers 29/9 to 5/10/2025,
started 6 October 2025,
published 6 October 2025.

We have a date!

Completed my 2ᶮᵈ week at The Pension Regulator (TPR) 🥳 I've now heard back from all members of the new Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) working group. This means we have a preferred date for the group's 1ˢᵗ meeting in November. Its not unanimous, but we need to crack on.

Work in public (service)

Had some lovely feedback from 1 of the DDaT working group members. They liked my public kanban board and week notes. Will share the feedback internally.

Also very grateful to Lisa Allen for feedback on week 39's note. I share my note here, on socials and internally at TPR, so its important to use the right language. This is especially true about the pensions industry, which I have a lot to learn about.

Also thankful for my other half, the awesome Janet Hughes. She shared the "donkey, sheep, fox, owl" model for thinking about language and its impact.

Janet suggested I'm sometimes too much of a sheep, i.e. full of integrity but lacking in political awareness. An example is talking publicly about "Open Pensions" without 1ˢᵗ discussing the concept internally with TPR comms teams.

The Civil Service code guides us to be honest, objective, impartial and do everything with integrity. I once had my integrity called into question for tweeting about Microsoft too much (even though I was being critical). So its probable I've over compensated for a while.

What I actually need to be is more owl, i.e. full of integrity and political awareness. This means seeking more permission and less forgiveness. I can easily achieve this by getting a 2ᶮᵈ pair of eyes to check anything new or that gives me pause.

Volunteering

Last week I listed all the volunteering I do, with the aim of picking just 3 of them and stopping the rest.

I've decided to focus on volunteering for:

This means relinquishing my UKGovCamp treasurer role (which will take a month or 2), DeliverCon and anything else I'm still involved in.

Feels good to have made that decision.

What I learnt this week

Week 39, 2025

2025-09-22T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
cover 22 to 28 September 2025,
started 26 September 2025,
published 27 September 2025,
updated 28 September 2025.

New project 🥳

Last week I finished up 3 fab months with Transform. I’m eternally grateful to Peter Rottier for the opportunity. Sure I’ll be back at some point. Transform’s my kinda company 💚

This week I joined The Pension Regulator (TPR). The potential engagement and community work is amazing. The potential outcomes are even better.

This will be my 16ᵗʰ public sector project. But 1ˢᵗ time contracting. So the pressure’s on, even more than usual.

Design led engagement specialist

In my humble opinion, the role is:

stakeholder engagement,
community development,
event management.

What I love is the user-centred design (UCD) focus. Hence the job title, “Design led engagement specialist”. This is down to the awesome Dr Marion Lean. She leads TPR’s Innovation and Design team, and she’s the reason I joined TPR (via an intro from Lisa Allen).

Pension industry innovation

My 1ˢᵗ task is a new Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) working group. TPR DDaT director Paul Neville’s recent blog post describes the group as:

a cross-sector initiative to shape the future of pensions through DDaT transformation,
a diverse mix of people including tech innovators, pension trustees, data specialists and voices from academia, civil society and other sectors,
focused on key challenges like data quality, regulatory efficiency and digital integration.

Basically; bring us together and make things better (my professional motto).

Work in public

Lisa and Marion shared a brilliant handover doc with me at the start of the week. It contains everything I should be doing (so far). Channelling my inner Jukesie, I’m converting it into a public kanban board.

As always, it’ll be interesting to balance openness and whatever pushback I may get (not that I expect any, yet). I’m new to TPR and I suspect they’re new to my style of working. It’ll be a fascinating journey for both of us.

Open Data Camp

To prepare myself, I attended Open Data Camp in Edinburgh this weekend. Was great to see Pauline Roche, Mike Rose and others. Unfortunately the font of all knowledge Owen Boswarva wasn't there. I hoped to learn more about Open Banking and how it might work in the pension industry.

So I pitched a session titled Open pensions: Open banking part deux (that link takes you to the session notes) which 8 of us attended. I was very glad Mary Drabble was there to share her pension industry knowledge.

Near the end of the session I asked for ideas to take back to TPR and got:

unique (via Dr Amy Roberts) - If needed, use properly unique identifiers that contain no personal identifiable information, e.g. random string of characters such as 0009-0003-2340-207X which is the format used for Open Researcher and Contributor IDs (ORCID),
opportunity (via Mary Drabble) - Give pension scheme providers opportunities to help customers improve their financial strength and resilience (in return for their mandated help with the Pension Dashboard Programme),
clarity (via Naomi Penfold) - Build for users, i.e. make sure whatever TPR or the pension industry design and build is simpler, clearer and faster (Naomi mentioned the Pension Bee app has a good user experience, irrespective of their business model).

Open pensions

A big focus of the TPR DDaT working group is pension industry data. Make data better, make data open. Surface it via APIs. This is helping the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) which’ll let you see all of your pensions in 1 place.

I was at the Service Design in Government conference earlier this month with Marion and others. There was a brilliant PDP related talk from service designer Alix Speed and user experience (UX) consultant Lia Emanuel. It was about how service designers can apply "zoom level" systems thinking to address public sector design challenges. The context was money guidance services, hence the PDP link.

Just before the talk started, Marion turned to me and playfully said, “This is your job!”. Turns out a large minority of pension scheme records aren’t digitised or available via APIs. The PDP needs this in order to give users what they need. So I’ll need to help the TPR DDaT working group tease these records out of the pension industry.

Open Banking is a model that Open Pensions could use. But Open Banking took 8 years to implement. My contract with TPR is for 6 months. So I need to crack on and get the DDaT working group set-up and working fast.

Volunteering

Outside of work I currently volunteer as:

webmaster for a local community group,
ADHD Pathfinding delivery manager (DM),
UKGovCamp treasurer / DM mentor,
OneTeamGov North organiser,
DeliverCon organiser,
…and more.

Some volunteering only involves occasional meetings, such as DeliverCon and ADHD Pathfinding. Others take ½ a day, such as my local community work.

But channelling my inner Russell Davies, I want to pick just 3 things which are:

definitely my local community work - a great way to meet people and learn more about where Janet & I now live,
ADHD Pathfinding work, as I’m still learning about my ADHD and Autism diagnoses (plus I want to “give back” to the NHS for everything they’ve done),
but I'm not sure about what comes 3ʳᵈ 🤔.

UKGovCamp is close to my heart (it’s where I met Janet) and it's a brilliant event / community. But OneTeamGov North is based in Manchester, closer to home. Mind you, UKGovCamp 2026 will be in Birmingham, so swings and roundabouts.

Will have to think on this more. Feel free to get in touch if you have thoughts or other suggestions.

What I learnt this week

The pension industry is fascinating,
Its okay to be a contractor,
I love where I live.

Thursday morning's commute to work

Week 15, 2025

2025-04-07T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
cover 7 to 11 April 2025,
started 11 April 2025,
published 11 April.

In an effort to cut myself some slack, I’m not following any format this week. This’ll mean I can publish something quickly, without faff.

On the up

It’s been a good week.

I’ve managed to get up, get out of the house and get stuff done. That might not sound like much, but I’ve been depressed for a while. So, well done me.

3 times this week I travelled to and worked from the free Work Café Cheapside, London. It recently opened and isn’t (yet) as crowded as the Triton Square branch, so is less distracting.

Managed to tidy-up / add stuff to my public kanban(ish) board, including plenty of Civil Service delivery manager (DM) jobs. Though I still haven’t heard back about my application for the Government Digital Service (GDS) DM job I really want. Maybe next week.

Moving movement

Still haven’t got an exchange date for the house Janet & I are buying up North. But we’re getting closer, with all the potential blockers but 1 now out of the way.

Will be nice to have more space and less noise / traffic / etc. But the city dweller in me wonders how I’ll react to living in a village which has no shop and is surrounded by farmland.

Fortunately my inner geek is revelling in the internet access conundrum. Looks like I’ll be load balancing between 1 or more mobile and fixed broadband providers, in order to get anywhere close to the 1 Gigabit fibre we currently enjoy.

I refuse to buy Starlink, but will look into OneWeb or other providers.

Have also started reaching out to locals, looking for volunteering opportunities. More on that another day.

Art

1 of the benefits of working at Work Café Cheapside, is its closeness to Tate Modern.

My 3 visits this week have resulted in inspiration, both for myself and people online I’ve shared stuff with.

Here’s some samples of what I’ve enjoyed this week.

Adore><Abhor 1994 by Helen Chadwick 1953-1996.

L'Heure des Traces (Hour of the Traces) 1932 by Alberto Giacometti 1901-1966.

Week 13, 2025

2025-03-24T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
cover 24 to 28 March 2025,
started 24 March 2025,
published 11 April.

Job search

Janet & I will leave London in April or May 2025. We want to be nearer friends and families, plus have more space. So we’ve found a lovely place in Staffordshire.

Now I need a local-ish job.

Civil Service Jobs occasionally has delivery manager roles in Manchester, which is a cycle + train journey away.

I could also check Jobs Go Public and NHS Jobs.

Week 9, 2025

2025-02-24T00:00:00.000Z

also known as week notes,
cover 24 to 28 February 2025,
started 28 February 2025,
finished 1 March 2025.

President and Vice President versus President

I started typing these notes on Friday, but stopped to watch the full video of the Trump-Zelenskyy fireside chat (on YouTube).

You can see President Zelenskyy is visibly disagreeing with things, but it isn’t until Vice President Vance goads him that it really kicks off. Then President Trump joins in and it goes from a fireside chat to a fucktastrophe.

Never seen anything like it 😔

Top 3 notes:

UK Gov Camp grants,
One Team Gov reboot,
Midlands job search.

UK Gov Camp grants

I did the UK Gov Camp finances earlier, and there’ll be £4,317.85 left for grants from March. Originally Steph, Vee & I decided among ourselves if prospective grants would be successful. But now Steph’s stepped down and Vee’s thinking of doing the same, I’ve made some changes.

Applications are now published in #grant-fund channel of our Slack instance. Members then have a week to comment on and approve 👍 or reject 👎 them. After which I make the final decision if there’s a tie in the voting (which there hasn’t been so far).

I still need to automate the whole process, but apart from that it seems to be working well. It’s good to see people getting involved and making suggestions. I wonder what else can be done this way?

One Team Gov reboot

The One Team Gov breakfast restarted this week, with Derek taking the reins for the first one. We had 10 people on camera at 1 point, with a 50/50 gender split and 1 person of colour. Good mix of conversations using Lean Coffee Table to source and manage them.

From next week it’ll be called the One Team Gov Wednesday meetup (virtual) and there’s already 30 people signed up. I’ve also invited everyone who was on the old invite list, plus shared it on the One Team Gov Slack and all the socials.

Some fellow One Team Gov organisers and I met a few weeks ago, and talked about rebooting it, hence the resurgence. I’m hoping it leads to more events, but we’ll see.

Midlands job search

Janet & I put our house on the market recently. This week we accepted an offer, which is good because we’ve made an offer on a house in Staffordshire (also accepted).

I thought our nearest city would be Manchester, so started looking for work up there. Seen a few delivery manager (DM) roles come up on Civil Service Jobs, but nothing that’s really grabbed me so far. That typed, I know there’s some DWP DM roles coming up soon, who I’d love to work for again.

by OpenStreetMap contributors, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109995356

However, turns out my nearest city is Stoke-on-Trent on the Crewe–Derby line, with Crewe and Derby also easily accessible, obviously.

If I change train just once, I can also get to Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham in around an hour.

So I’ve started looking for roles back in local government, including:

In terms of aggregator sites, so far I've found:

Local Gov Jobs (seems to focus on senior roles),
Greater Job (Chesire, Derby and Manchester),
WM Jobs (West Midlands).

Even tempted to start a delivery manager job mailing list, modelled on Jukesie’s excellent Internet of Public Service Jobs.

So anyway, if you know of anything delivery or community wise in the Midlands, let me know.

Learnings

I have so much to learn about the middle and North of England.

In summary:

Excited to be moving,
I need a new job,
JD Vance is a…

Listening history

Week 2, 2025

2025-01-06T00:00:00.000Z

are also known as weeknotes,
covers up to 10 January 2025,
published 19:17 Friday 10.

This week's note is a bit of a catchup, as I haven't blogged since week 26 of 2024. Normal service will resume next week. BTW, there's no week 1 of 2025 as I was on vacation.

Top 3 notes:

2025 ~~goals~~ habits,
Reflections on 2024,
UKGovCamp’s next week!

2025 goals habits

I use the new year to set goals. But not this year. Instead I will focus 2025 on how I achieve goals.

I will establish, improve (or stop) habits that get stuff done (or not). More on this as the year progresses.

FYI, this was inspired by a Next Big Idea Podcast episode which features an interview with James Clear who wrote Atomic Habits.

Reflections on 2024

My goal for 2024 was to come to terms with my imposter syndrome. I made a lot of progress with this, to the point where I now instantly recognise when it happens.

I stopped working in the public sector in April 2024. Then hung out at a co-working space and picked up gigs back in the private sector. Turns out I’m not ready to be a freelancer, but might try again in a few years.

I helped setup and run the Community-led World Summit London 2024 doing:

speaker coordination,
stage management,
technical support.

Delivered lots more unconferences including:

The Community Community’s 2nd unconference,
LedBy Community’s 1st Unconference Plus,
2nd Facilitator’s Unconference,
2 x DeliverCons in Cardiff and London,
Prepped the next UKGovCamp (see below)

I got paid to do 2 of them, so there’s still hope I can 1 day just delivery manage unconferences, and nothing else.

Also worked with Conexen as event manager for a few months. But fell ill towards the end of the year and had to stop.

I’m better now and looking forward to my first unconference of 2025.

UKGovCamp’s next week!

The biggest, annual, public sector unconference is back - and it’s next week on Saturday 18 January 2025.

I’m the lead organiser (AKA delivery manager) and it’s been more challenging than usual, mainly because we started planning late and I was unwell.

But this time next week (it’s 6:37pm as I type) my fellow organisers and I will be setting up the venue, then heading over to the social event nearby.

I really look forward to this every year.

Oooh, and I'm also now the treasurer.

The UKGovCamp logo

Week 46, 2024

2024-11-11T00:00:00.000Z

are also known as weeknotes,
cover 9 to 15 November 2024,
published 23:45 Friday 15.

Top 3 notes:

New client(s),
Juggling stuff,
ADHD meds.

New clients(s)

I picked up 1 new client this week, and collaborated on a proposal with another. This means next month I can cover all my bills + some. No more relying on my savings, which is nice.

I haven’t yet asked for permission from my existing or new clients to blog about the work openly. But I know I’ll start getting mentioned in socials soon. Maybe I should start typing internal, client facing week notes? I like that idea 🙂 Have scheduled it for next week.

Eventbrite has paid me for The Facilitator’s Unconference 2024, so I paid fellow organiser Mark his expenses. Now waiting on an invoice from the venue, before paying Fiona and myself for our time.

On the voluntary / currently unpaid side of things, I did stuff for:

UKGovCamp 2025 (ukgc25) - weekly organisers meeting, technical setup and treasurer stuff,
Community People’s Unconference - conversation with Maryblessing about a Nigeria event,
The Community Community - monthly leadership meeting, Happy Hour and event planning,
DeliverCon 2024.2 - event retrospective meeting (aka retro) part 1 with Elodie and Sam,
OggCamp 2024 - event retro part 2 with Gary, Terence and fellow volunteers,
Liberating Structures London - promoted the prototype reboot event.

Juggling stuff

In last week’s uncompleted note, I had an empty section titled, "Something has to give...".

I now realise I was coming out of the tail end of some depression / undiagnosed seasonal affective disorder. It’s been 2 weeks since the clocks changed, which tends to hit me quite hard at this time of year.

But the big reason is Janet’s been away all month, due to a family bereavement. Not having her next to me when I’m sleeping is challenging - I miss her. Last night for example I tried a hot bath, applying all my Protopic ointment and having the bedroom windows open (I prefer a cold sleeping environment). But I was still tossing and turning at 4am 😞 That typed, I’ve got quite a bit done today. Plus I’ve been taking my very limited supply of ADHD meds all week (see below).

Upside of last night’s temporary insomnia, is that I went through my public Trello board and trimmed it, which made me feel better. ~~List~~ trim all the things!

ADHD meds

I currently take 72mg of prolonged release Methylphenidate. I take the whole dose in the morning when I wake up and it helps me focus throughout the day. It does a pretty good job and has certainly helped me this week.

But:

I will run out next week,
my nominated pharmacy can’t get hold of any more,
Boots’s prescription stock checker is also empty (and I’ve tried various places around the country.

Computer says no.

There are reports of supply shortages on various government and NHS websites, but nothing about a solution. So I reckon I’m gonna have to change medication, probably to Lisdexamfetamine Mesilate. Will message my Doctor’s tomorrow. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻

Listening history

As I’m not a big reader, this is an experimental section to share podcasts I’ve been listening to.

I set up an IFTTT applet to log details of my Spotify listening history in a Google Sheet. But turns out it only logs music, not podcasts. Will look into that later. In the meantime, here’s my manually typed podcast listening history for this week, in reverse order.

Friday

Thursday

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday

Open browser tabs

Another experimental section, this time to try and nudge me to read / close the browser tabs. Here’s what’s currently open and unread on my mobile:

In summary:

so many browsers tabs,
things are getting better,
I miss you Janet xxx.

Week 45, 2024

2024-11-04T00:00:00.000Z

are also known as weeknotes,
cover 2 to 8 November 2024,
were published 11 November.

Top 3 notes:

Deliver Con 2024.2,
Ignorance as a superpower,
Something has to give...

Deliver Con 2024.2

Deliver Con is an unconference for delivery managers in and around the public sector. It’s been run in person annually since 2018, with the exception of 2019 because of COVID.

In 2024 it became biannual, i.e. run twice a year. First in Cardiff on 18 April and second in London on 7 November. The latter was organized by Samuel Hoskin, Elodie Farrar and I.

Unlike conferences where the agenda is set in advance, unconference agendas are set on the day. And the agenda’s full of discussions, not presentations.

To source the agenda, I used the David Heath / Liberating Structures method. It combines Impromptu Networking and 25/10 Crowdsourcing.

The 25/10 part requires a card and pen. On the front you write your discussion topic. On the back it gets scored. To simplify the scoring, we stamped the back with rows of numbers that people could circle.

Things needed for 25/10 crowdsourcing

Samuel sourced the cards, rubber stamp and ink pad. Then we sat with Elodie and stamped the cards.

When it came to actually doing the 25/10 Crowdsourcing, I created some slides so people could follow along with.

Slides: Delivercon 2024.2 Agenda Creation

Feel free to copy or download the slides if you like. Please do give me some feedback on what you think / how you used the.

Ignorance as a superpower

1 of the first sessions at Deliver Con 2024.2 was, "Top tips for being a great delivery manager". I sat listening for a while whilst updating the online agenda.

Then I heard Nic Macken talk about using simple questions as a way to create safe spaces. I've been using this technique and thinking about it for a while. So I wondered over and joined the discussion circle.

After listening for a while, I put my hand up and eventually said, "As delivery managers we use ignorance as a superpower to create safe spaces".

Something has to give...

[GOT TO HERE AND DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO FINISH]

Week 43, 2024

2024-10-21T00:00:00.000Z

are also known as weeknotes,
cover 19 to 25 October 2024,
were published 25 October.

Top 3 notes are:

New client,
ukgc25 team,
TCC Happy Hour.

New client

Earlier this year on:

Friday 26 April 2024 I left Digi2al / Ministry of Defence,
Monday 29 April I did nothing except watch Civil War (2024),
Tuesday 30 I went to a Coworking & Meetup for Community Leaders in London.

The latter was awesome. The combination of host Francisco Opazo from Led by Community and venue Fabrik were just awesome.

So I joined both.

Which led to several paying gigs, including an unconference I facilitated. At which the awesome Ilker Akansel introduced me to a friend from Cambridge, England.

My goal this year is to, “Come to terms with and fix my imposter syndrome (assuming that's the issue)”.

When Ilker introduced me to his friend, I was preparing to get in my facilitation zone. So my pleasantries / small talk mode wasn’t engaged.

Fortunately, the same friend got to see me in 1 of my favourite flow states; unconference facilitation.

Which led to:

a meeting,
seeing their community in action,
my latest freelance contract for community event delivery (more on that soon).

So yeah. Thank you Francisco, Ilker and me (for giving myself permission to “just be” for a few months, with Janet’s support).

ukgc25 team

The United Kingdom's Government Camp (UKGovCamp) is an annual unconference for people interested in making the public sector better. I’m UKGovCamp 2025’s (ukgc25) delivery manager / lead organiser. And also now it’s treasurer (more on that soon).

4pm Thursday is the ukgc25 team’s weekly meeting. 45 minutes of work and a 15 minute afterparty (which I love).

This week really felt like we’ve found our groove, especially with:

Imran Hussain sharing some sponsorship ideas,
Kat Quatermass nearing venue search completion,
Dave Burton all over some potential policy changes,
Sam Villis joining as comms and engagement lead 🥳

It’s been a late / slow start for UKGovCamp organising this year. But it’s coming together and I’m proud of the team 🥲

TCC Happy Hour

The Community Community (TCC) is a community for senior community managers. I recently joined TCC’s leadership team as events lead. I got the job in part because of my ongoing hosting of Happy Hour, a weekly hour long chat on Slack.

TCC’s amazing founder Nikki Thibodeau runs Tuesday’s chat, and I run Thursday’s. We have 2 to cater for different time zones, with Thursday’s being 3pm Central European Time.

The format’s usually:

a warm up exercise / question,
3 other questions on any theme,
thank attendees and ask for feedback.

There’s a list of questions we’ve used before, so you can get an idea of the flow. But this week I doodled my prep / thought process and thought I’d share it with you.

I like to start with something really simple, to get people going. By simple I mean you don’t really need to think about the answer, you just share what’s happening. So this week it was:

How are you feeling today?
[share an optional picture]

Then I try to slowly increase the mental effort to answer the question.

So this week’s first proper question was:

Where or when do you feel most at peace?

Then I tried:

What do you really, really care about?

And finally:

What’s your greatest hope?

I finish off by thanking everyone for coming and seeking feedback. Once that last message is sent, I reply to it in-thread and personally mention / thank people who contributed.

Anyway, just thought I’d share it, as it’s something I love doing 🙂

Please do apply to join TCC if you’re interested.

In summary:

freelancing is fun,
people are awesome,
I’m on a roll, which is nice.

Toodle pip!

Week 42, 2024

2024-10-14T00:00:00.000Z

Also known as weeknotes.
Covers 12 to 18 October 2024,
Published 18 October 2024.

3 things this week:

I'm typing to:

a body doubling session with the awesome Imran Hussain,
no music this week (-:

Preamble

My goal this year is to work on my imposter syndrome. So I've been going to more things and putting myself out there, which helps.

OggCamp 2024

I was at the Manchester Conference Centre on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October to volunteer at OggCamp. This 2 day event has an open source theme, with 2 speaker tracks and 2 unconference tracks. My job was to manage the unconference schedule.

Although an unconference can be whatever you like, most of the unconference sessions were actually talks. Apparently there were some discussions, but they were in the minority. But that’s okay 🙂

I enjoyed getting to know a new crowd of people, and really getting my geek on for the first time in ages.

Ration Club

For the second week in a row, I attended this supper club at Newspeak House in Shoreditch, London. 1 or more of the residents cook, then we all sit down and eat. This week I mainly chatted with Anni Rowland-Campbell who’s had a fascinating life so far.

After food, I popped downstairs to the first London Civil Service Social run by Alexander Vince. Bumped into Ael and caught up, which was nice. Turns out we’re both interested in the Strategy Delivery Manager job at Camden Council.

ukgc25

UKGovCamp 2025 (ukgc25) is an annual event for people interested in making the public sector better. I’m the event’s delivery manager and this week we had our 2nd regular organiser’s catchup (4th meeting in total).

Registration is open and venue search is underway.

Just have a few more organiser roles to fill, then we’ll be up to full strength. Several of us regular organisers are standing down this year, so it’s good to welcome new blood and help them fly.

Personally, I’m moving into the treasurer role that’s been done by Steph Gray for many years. He doesn’t live far from me, so I cycled over and started the handover today.

In summary:

another reasonable week,
hooray for geeks,
roll on Monday.

Week 29, 2024

2024-07-15T00:00:00.000Z

Also known as weeknotes.
Covers 15 to 19 July 2024.
Published 19 July 2024.

3 things this week:

The PIE network launch,
community standards,
job interviews.

I'm typing to:

I took a pill to review everything I've been missin',

Colours and sounds are all different,

I took a pill, but it felt more like takin' a moment,

Paper in the rain, I'm forever changed.

Opening lyrics from Mother by George FitzGerald and SYML released 19 April 2023.

Preamble

Hmmm.

Not sure about this week.

I mean, it was fine, but I did something I thought would make me feel less stressed, which didn't. I may or may not share itwith you below (probably not). Don't worry, it was nothing dodgy.

My goal this year is to work on my imposter syndrome, which funnily got discussed at a meetup this week.

I shared what Janet (my other half) suggested doing, which is to imagine yourself at your most confident, then act like it in real life.

Other than that, a chat, a retro and an interview.

Monday

Reflect and recover from last week.

Tuesday

Was going to ~~write~~ type more of my book, but got distracted by preparing for interviews.

Wednesday

Did interview 1, had a conversation about community standards and prep for interview 2.

Thursday

Chat with Fiona about the next Facilitator's Unconference, a retro on last week's Community-led World Summit with Francisco (organisers) and Margaux (emcee / host).

Friday

Launch of the People in Events (PIE) Network, of which I'm founding member number 3.

I led a lean coffee after lunch which threw up some interesting discussions.

Really enjoyed my time with the attendees.

Praise to Valentina for setting this up and bringing us together.

In summary:

Yeah, not bad,
No I didn't share the thing,
Hooray for people in events.

Week 28, 2024

2024-07-08T00:00:00.000Z

Also known as weeknotes.
Covers 8 to 12 July 2024.
Published 12 July 2024.

3 things this week:

meetups,
meetups,
meetups.

Preamble

“Hello ~~darkness~~ weeknotes my old friend,

I've come to talk with you again,

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain,

Still remains, within the sound of silence.”

Opening lyrics from The Sound of Silence by Paul Simon recorded 10 March 1964.

Thursday evening I sat outside, in the Summer Sun, listening to the Sounds of Solitude by Paz Sounds.

As I watched insects dance in sunbeams, Paz’s ethereal sounds chilled me out.

And girl, did I need it.

After 3 full days of community profession related stuff, I was done.

Let me lay it out for you.

Monday

Can’t remember. Next!

Tuesday

A meetup at Fabrik (Old Street, London) entitled Community-led World Summit: The Previa Meetup in London.

Basically, an unstructured pre-meet for the following day’s all-day meeting. Lots of people and noise in an enclosed space. Grabbed a desk and put my headphones on (I'm autistic). Did interact a bit, but knew when to take a break. Mostly.

Pizza for lunch.

Wednesday

A conference at Rich Mix (Shoreditch, London) entitled Community-led World Summit: London & Online.

I offered to help run this a few weeks ago. It’s a speaker-led event, as opposed to the participant-led stuff I normally do. So it was a good learning opportunity. I managed the speakers and their slides, sorting out their speaking slots and collecting slide decks / initial post-talk questions.

Fascinating to see the other side work.

So I arrived at the venue at 8am and helped bag the merch. Then moved on to setting the stage up and check-in with the hostess / emcee + the filming / technical crew.

Before each talk, I’d pop backstage and check with the speaker(s) about timings / questions. Then walk out and sit in the front row with a countdown timer, to keep people on track.

When there were panels or fireside chats, I’d move furniture onto the stage. The photographer helped me with the sofa. Plus put some water next to each seat.

There were some challenges.

The radio lapel mic had a mute switch, which some speakers would activate. So the next speaker couldn’t be heard by the online audience.

Mid talk, 1 of the handheld mics went dead, requiring a tech crew person to run to the stage and change the batteries.

Mid another talk, a 10% battery warning popped up on screen, covering a speaker's slides and disabling their handheld clicker for the slides. I calmly got up, walked to the tech crew’s box and showed them how to plug the power in. Tech support, ftw.

Stage lighting was suboptimal. Slides would be shining in people’s faces, occasionally with comedic effect. When speakers stood to the side, out of range of the projector, the tech crew rarely activated the necessary spotlights. Need an "x marks the spot" for standing speakers next time.

Communication with the hostess / emcee was challenging, sometimes. We used WhatsApp, but I guess there were signal issues backstage in the green room. So occasionally a talk / panel would come to an end, and I’d have to get up and run the Q&A with the audience. No hassle, as I love running about serving people.

At lunch there was a massive queue for sandwiches, blocking access to fire escapes. So I moved the queue into a snake formation by the tables with the food. Would have helped if the tables where in the middle of the room, rather than against a wall. I suggested to the lead organiser we move them, but it would have been tricky.

There was more, but that’s enough.

Basically I enjoyed it and learnt a lot.

There was an after party, but I needed to escape and cycle home. Again, I'm neurodiverse. Maybe a silent disco next time?

Thursday

An event back at Fabrik, entitled Connection: The Community Community Unconference.

Which was almost perfect, IMHO.

My co-host was comfortable with change, so we got on great. The number and type of attendee was perfect. The space was perfect. Just the cheap sticky notes initially let us down, but we soon came up with a workaround.

Unconference grid of all the talks.

We all walked to Whitecross street market for lunch on a beautiful, sunny day. Came back to the venue and ate / nattered.

Then had more discussions, followed by a really lovely wrap-up where people shared how they felt and anything they wanted to plug.

It was as close to perfect an unconference I’ve ever done.

Very happy (-:

Cycled home, slowly, stopping to listen to 1 of the attendee’s music (see Preamble above).

Friday

Back at Fabrik co-working space, where I’m a member.

I have a Civil Service interview on Monday at 11am. Thanks to being diagnosed with ADHD, autism, bipolar and dyslexia, I can apply under the Disability Confident Scheme and request reasonable adjustments.

Which I did weeks ago.

But my request hadn't been done by 11am today, as requested. So I sent a "disappointed / suboptimal process" email to the recruitment team and asked them to reschedule it.

To relax, I had a lovely walk and lunch / natter with a fellow member.

Then did some stuff and typed these notes, thanks to Agile in the Ether’s blog club.

Radio 4’s PM programme starts in 10 mins, so I’ll pack up and walk home listening to it.

In summary:

good week,
tiring,
but good (-:

Week 20, 2024

2024-05-13T00:00:00.000Z

Also known as weeknotes.
Covers 13 to 19 May 2024.
Published 21 May 2024.

3 things this week:

funemployed week 3,
2 unconference blog posts,
apathy / skin problems.

Funemployed

It’s 3 weeks since I stopped working. I feel more used to it now. It’s okay. This week I made new connections and restabilised or strengthened existing ones. I got out of the co-working space and worked from Tate Modern a couple of times.

Blog posts

I will publish my unconference book by the end of July. Inspired by a conversation with Sharon Dale, I published 2 blog posts on Tuesday:

I intend to go into my depth on the agenda creation.

Apathy / skin

Thursday and Friday I did very, very little. I was at home for both days. Not sure what happened, but I felt apathetic. Coincidentally, my skin’s been quite bad recently. I’ll work on both next week. A nice counterbalance to both issues was a visit to see friends on Sunday. Had a lovely time and felt much better afterwards.