Weeknotes 15/2022

Hello from the rainy west coast

I got a bit of a promotion, which I will talk more about once it’s properly flushed out. It’s exciting but involves switching teams so it’s a bit scary , but there’s lots of overlap with my previous team so I will continue to work with them closely. It’s a brand new team and role, so I’m looking forward to having a say in how we work and structure things
I attended FWD50 Virtually this week which made me feel really inspired. My favourite talks were from Emma Gawen (“Fix the damn websites”) and Pia Andrews (“Designing for Legitimacy”), but there are a lot I missed and need to catch up on with recordings.
I started #NaBloPoMo and I’m off to a good start, I even published two blog posts in one day! But I’m sure my energy and enthusiasm will wane, especially as I start getting into my new role. You can read what I’ve written here.
I spent a day at the BC Legislature learning about how our government works. It was super interesting and I’m so grateful I had the opportunity.
I ran another Design Community monthly call and also an open forum to talk about the issues we are facing. Both went really well. I also attended a Community Manager call (organized by James Arthur Cattell) with people from UK and US — it was really helpful and energizing.
Also I only *just* discovered the unsplash button that automatically puts images into your blog posts. Before I was doing this manually. Gamechanger.

I struggled a bit with the timezones for FWD50, as some of the talks I really wanted to attend happened during the school run so I had to miss them. Last year’s recordings were available right away, but this year I have to wait which is frustrating.
Sick kiddos and an outbreak of Hand Foot and Mouth at my littlest one’s daycare made things tricky in our house this week. The excitement, late bedtime and extra work of Halloween didn’t help either.
Ugh I am so sad about what’s happening at twitter. Discovering the government design community on there was massively helpful in my career and I feel anxious for that community as I watch people scatter away to different platforms. I haven’t joined a different platform yet, I’m waiting to see what happens. But perhaps I should.

Millenia(l): A poem for the impatient — a lovely piece of writing from my colleague Heather-Lynn Remacle
This incredibly relevant and helpful post from Sam Villis on Defining the Role of a Community Manager
I’ve been keeping up with the many great #NaBloPoMo posts from Amanda, Coco Chan, Amy, Steve, Terence, Caroline, Heather-Lynn Remacle and others I’ve missed listing (sorry!) Check them out

I just finished How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. The book’s concept is very ambitious and interesting, I really liked it and found I wanted more to the story once it was over. But it didn’t stick with me as much as The Midnight Library.
I’m still working my way through The Crown in anticipation of the new season.
I’ve been enjoying the Revisionist History series on the Minnesota Starvation Experiment.