Amp team diary June 2019

Each month, the WEAll Amplification team (Amp team) shares what they’ve been working on, and their priorities for the coming month.

Find out more about our team members here 

Ana Gómez

What’s kept you busy in June?

• Our team meeting together for the first time since last December
• The confirmation of my attendance to Encuentro+B, the connections already made with Sistema B and the excitement of a bigger connection with Latin America
• The interest and acceptance in New Zealand to establish a WEAll NZ Hub

June highlight:

• Being in Scotland!

July priorities:

• First call with key actors in NZ to start WEAll NZ Hub, along with the one in Canada and Costa Rica
• Trying to get in touch with different movements and networks around the world to give WEAll more diversity and opportunities of collaboration about members
• …and that I’ll be turning 46 on July 7th!

Lisa Hough-Stewart 

What’s kept you busy in June?

• Continuing to develop WEAll Citizens – early users gave fantastic feedback via our survey, and we’re making changes based on this. Valuable connections are being made on the platform every day, which is exciting to see
• Lots of great events in Scotland that I helped coordinate or was part of, including: WEAll Scotland’s first community engagement event in Mayfield, Midlothian in partnership with Oxfam; an event on feminist economics and new technologies in Easterhouse; a roundtable dinner with Deloitte and business leaders on wellbeing economies; a conference on narratives and framing with JRF
• It feels like here in the UK, more and more interest in wellbeing economics is emerging. I was truly impressed by Ed Miliband’s podcast on the topic, and there have been APPG meetings about the wellbeing economy at Westminster as well as favourable motions passed at Edinburgh and Glasgow city councils. Change is in the air!

June highlight:

• We’re all saying the same thing, but it was so important to have three days together as a team in Scotland. We managed to finish conversations about every single element of our strategy and work, and we really needed it!

July priorities:

• Continuing to develop WEAll Citizens with a focus on strategic partnerships
• A review and big update of both the WEAll website and our vision brochure, working with Frankie at the Equality Trust
• I’ve taken over the coordination of the Narratives cluster from Katherine, and there’s lots of work to do in this space including pursuing funding opportunities
• …outside of work, I’m helping organise – and performing in – the Encontro Street Band Festival in Glasgow (26-28 July), always the highlight of my summer!

Katherine Trebeck

What’s kept you busy in June?

• Loads of activities promoting the WE agenda to external audiences – several talks in too many different cities, including opening the GIZ climate gathering in Berlin with a call to prioritise an economy that delivers collective wellbeing and speaking at Westminster to an All Party Parliamentary Group
• Meeting several members or future in London – NESTA, the Rapid Transition Alliance, the Strategy and Communications Group
• Hanging out with two important families – the Amp team and my Mum and Dad (but not at the same time)

June highlight:

• Speaking with an amazing group of passionate community activists in the north west of England who are building a wellbeing economy agenda from the bottom up. Loads to be inspired by here, loads WEAll can do to help

July priorities:

• Back in Scotland for loads of meetings with some Research Fellows and WEAll Scotland (including new Trustees!) and its allies.
• Back in Berlin to work with Dirk Philipsen on some knowledge products, the resources hub project and meet some possible WEAll members
• Protecting some time for finally diving deep into some writing and research

Stewart Wallis

What’s kept you busy in June?

• Follow up calls and actions from April/May Fundraising trip to California
• Wonderful Amp meeting in Strachur
• Writing chapter on New Economic System for the Anthropocene for Lancaster University

June highlight:

• Amp team Face to face meeting. It was highly productive and very supportive especially as I was not in Malaga – and also making contact with potential major philanthropic funding source

July priorities:

•  Funder Follow up and submissions continued
• Global Council planning and outreach
• Contacting potential new members with Ana
• Work on California and other US Hubs
• Finalising chapter for Ecological Economics book

Michael Weatherhead

What’s kept you busy in June

• Running a story telling session and workshop on the creation of alliances for the German government’s development agency
• First meeting of Amp team in six months
• Agreeing a plan for the development of the Alternative to Business as Usual Guide

June highlight:

• Back to back meetings in London and Edinburgh on a strategy to engage businesses, society and politicians around the issue of short-termism

July priorities:

• Start the ‘Alternative to Business as Usual Guide’
• Prepare plans for Global Council to consider as regards WEAll’s future legal structure
• Fundraising