Part of what we want to do with the Enfusion Network is to create a space for potential participation consultants to host an online portfolio of their work...

This post over on The Bamboo Project has some solid 'thinking aloud' that we'll need to take into account as we develop our ideas...

What would you want out of a pesonal portfolio on the Enfusion Network?

Dialogue by Design have just released an interesting online tool called 'Dialogue Designer' - which steps those interested in carrying out a consultation or dialogue process through a number of simple questions before it suggests possible engagement methods.

I've had a quick look at it - and it seems to be both a really good way of exploring new methods of engagement - and of assessing readiness. The tool has been set up so that it will happily suggest when the user isn't really looking for a dialogue process and may in fact be more interested in market research or a communications excercise.

Throughout the process of using the tool, a side-bar offers useful supporting information and advice on topics from 'recruitment' to 'inclusiveness' and 'representation'.

The dialogue designer website also includes a Handbook of Public and Stakeholder engagement - which at a hefty 111 pages I've not had chance to look at yet... but I'll aim to post a review of it onto the Enfusion resource directory soon...

This post over on the 'We've always done it that way' blog (a blog focussed on what the authors think needs to change in associations / organisations) addresses the topic of young people on organisations boards.

I'm not entirely sure how 'young' the authors are referring to (as it might seem in the context of many organisational boards that anyone under 50 can be called relatively young...) - but they suggest that:

Creating a token slot for a young person will get you just that: a person who will be discounted from the start because they are a token to diversity. Fundamentally changing your recruitment practices to identify leadership candidates throughout the membership will provide a more diverse array of candidates and most likely find some leaders you would never have known about.

To get better leaders you need to become a better recruiter.

This raises a number of questions for me:

• Should any plans we develop to engage young people to take part in board level structures be all about seeking out young leaders or is our focus on young stakeholders?

and following from that

• If young people would be participating on a board as stakeholders, but wider board members are there as leaders - what does that do to young peoples role within the board or to their voting rights etc?

Or

• If young people are there as leaders - will we always end up only enabling the already articulate 'leadership candidates'? Is there anything wrong with this in the board context where strong leadership is needed?

Interestingly, whilst I think the idea that creating one reserved space for a young person on the board of an organisation may be tokenstic, my intuitions suggest that creating 4 or 5 spaces reserved for young people would feel less like tokenism... perhaps because in this case the board would be handing real power to younger voices, instead of just bringing in one younger voice whose insight is far too easily ignored...

For the last four years I've not really had a meaninful job title of job description. And I'm begining to feel the impact.

When I'm asked what I do - I tend to respond with something of a burbled vague description of being an IT consultant also working on young people's participation, or a participation consultant who also runs an IT firm. I'm I'm lucky I manage to give a rambling description of some project which helps whoever I'm talking to understand what my the job description I've just given means in practise. However, more often than not I collase into mild-incomprehensibility and the questioner quickly moves onto the next person.

Of course, part of this tells me that I really need to improve my communication skills and ability to give concise summaries of complex things. But it also tells me that I've got myself caught between trying to fit into job descriptions when the way I really want to work I is driven by a skill set and set of interests - not the remit of description of a particular 'job'. Which brings a challenge...

I need to develop my job description... and ideally work out how to express that as a job title in five words or less.

I'm not going to rush the process... I'm setting myself till the start of May to work out what it is that I want to focus on over the coming years, and to work out the job description that will help me keep, and importantly, express to others that focus. But I'd really love to get input from the Network...

What do you call yourself in acting as a consulant or technical assistant for youth engagement (or what are you called by your employer)? What are the key points in your job description? If you could have any title - what would it be?