Okay, I will start by telling the truth. I REALLY wanted to go to the drumming workshop this morning but on the principle you "dance with the one who brung you" I went to the Policy Workshop instead. I arrived vaguely depressed, promptly spilled coffee on the floor - barely missing the computer set up with the speakers' powerpoints and settled in feeling somewhat sad and hoping my employer recognised the sacrifices I make.
Imagine my surprise to find the speakers compelling and informative, the topic brought alive and seeing the potential for engaging policy in a very real way emerging. The material and the ideas came from clearly skilled and experienced speakers who were alert to and responsive to the issues and interests in the audience. The ideas and concepts were clearly well grounded. The political and reality based astuteness of questions and answers was exciting. I walked away with an idea for a "Plinko" based tool that could help groups figure out what kind of policy, and what policy level, they would need to include in their action planning; a fun way to ensure policy issues are not left out of our work. This is based on the fact that for most of us policy is such a scary, mysterious thing that most of us run from it.
After the session, walking out I thought about the lessons: not making assumptions, being open to what is in the room, all those commandments of our community based work, that I had so blithely broken on my way in. Just goes to show, you never know what's in the room, until you are in the room.
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