On November 5th 1994 George Foreman became the boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion aged 45, defeating 26 year old Michael Moorer by knockout. Last year, 81 year old Mavis Paterson became the oldest woman to cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats, completing the 960 mile journey in just 24 days. The oldest person to scale Everest? 80 year old Yuichiro Miura, who reached the summit at the grand old age of 80. He plans to repeat the achievement aged 90.
All of this seems remarkable, until you hear the following: tomorrow, aged 38, I am going to a nightclub with my colleague Nils, who’s aged about 50 or something. Nils has a dodgy back and my left knee has pretty much stopped working so we’re going to make quite the pair on the dancefloor. Lucky we’ll both be sporting our Global Hypercolour t-shirts to show just how down with the kids we are.
Wish us luck…
Back up crew
If several hours of big fish little fish cardboard box does push Nils’ back to the point of no return we may well need someone to come in and cover his workload. Fortunately, we’re currently recruiting up to seven freelance learning facilitators to come and help us design, plan and facilitate programmes and workshops at SSE London. The contracts range from 12 to 45 days work with a daily fee of £200 – £350. It’s a very cool way to get involved with everything we do at SSE. Apply by 9th December.
We’re also looking for a finance officer (£32k) on a 12 month contract – if you’ve got some experience working within a small finance team in a charitable organisation and are looking for something new, apply by 27th November.
Featuring a contemporary music reference from 1979
I’m not sure that The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ will get a sounding tomorrow but it’s a message that we play close attention to here at SSE. It’s with that in mind that we’ve put together an exciting film full of top tips on applying to our Community Business Trade Up programme which you can watch here.
There is still time to apply (the deadline is 27th November) so if you’ve got a community business and want to grow your income from trading, make more impact and become more sustainable you should check it out here.
Chill out area
After a big night out at my age I’ll probably need a about a month off to recover. So I’ll be taking a good look at Fairbnb (see what they did there), a brand new marketplace for “authentic, fair and conscious tourism” that promises to donate 50% of its commission to social projects selected by local residents. At the moment, you can book accommodation in Valencia, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Bologna and Venice.
Ready to mingle
I’m married so fortunately won’t be needing to bust out any zinging chat up lines tomorrow. If I was single, however, I’d be almost certain to roll out an old classic: “Have you accessed finance from a Responsible Finance provider (also known as a community development finance association) in the last five years?”. Boom. To keep conversation flowing, I’d then point out that the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards 2019/20 are now open for applications, and that four social and micro enterprises nominated by their responsible finance provider will pick up a prize of £7500.
Entries need to be in by 6th December
Words of advice
If Eminem was my mentor he may well quote lyrics from his song ‘Without Me’ as a warning ahead of tomorrow: ‘you’re too old, let it go, it’s over, nobody listens to techno”. He isn’t though so it’s a situation which is unlikely to occur in the next 24 hours. My lesson to you? Don’t be an Eminem. We’re currently on the look out for volunteer mentors to support social entrepreneurs on our learning programmes. If you have an in-depth understanding of the process and challenges of starting and running a business / social enterprise / charity and can commit to one hour a month to support one of our fantastic students we’d love to hear from you.
Find out more here and apply by 9th December.
The Fresh Prince
If nightclubs aren’t your thing, Nesta’s Geoff Mulgan is going to be delivering a banging conversation on ‘Social Innovation: How societies find the power to change’ at Nesta’s HQ in London on Tuesday 26th November. The event takes place from 5.30pm – 8.00pm and it’s free to go along. Among other things, Jazzy Geoff (no-one calls him that) will be sharing how the field of social innovation can provide the answers to today’s global social, economic and sustainability issues.
Reflection section
Sunday will be full of questions – why did I think that was a good idea, how did I manage to spend that much, why is it that when you try and be quiet walking up the stairs you invariably make more noise than if you just walked up in a normal manner? None of the answers to these questions are of relevance to the good people of Pioneers Post, however. What they are interested in though is what you think of them. They want to hear from the social entrepreneurs they aim to serve – what they want from a specialist/independent media and how Pioneers Post can provide it to them in the most useful format.
There’s a quick survey to take part in – you could win an interview or feature by Pioneers Post, a gift card from Divine Chocolate or Soap Co or a ticket to the ‘Good Leaders event’.
Some cool jobs being advertised this week:
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship are looking for a marketing and communications manager (£32k -£44k) on a maternity cover basis. It looks a really interesting job spec and it’s based in Oxford, which everyone knows is the world’s greatest city. Apply by 25th Nov.
SSE Fellow Charlotte Whitakker is looking for a programme officer (£22 – £24k) to help design and deliver InCommon’s unique intergenerational programme working to bring children and older people together. It’s a part time role based in Hackney. Apply by 24th November.
And for the very speedy among you, fellow Tooley Street residents The Psychosynthesis Trust are looking for a communications and marketing manager (£31k – £34k. If you are an experienced communications and marketing professional with creative flair who thrives in being accountable for a broad and diverse remit, they want to hear from you. Only catch is the deadline is 5pm today.
Take a stand
All marketeers know of ‘the ‘4 P’s of marketing’ (product, price, placement, promotion – 90% confident I’ve remembered that right). But do you know the 4 Ps of brands taking a stand? Tim McClimon discusses them here.
Why’s this of any interest? Well, we’re running our How to Create an Authentic Mission Led Brand workshop in London next Thursday and I thought it might make some interesting pre-course reading. We’ve still got a few places available,
A hackneyed headline
Did you know that the Hackney Social Enterprise Conference is taking place at Hackney Town Hall next Thursday between 1pm and 5pm? Did you know it’s free to go along and features a whole range of speakers discussing all things social enterprise?
Ain’t no party like an SSE party
Finally, SSE Fellows are invited to join SSE Northwest in Liverpool on Thursday evening for a night of campaigning, communicating and collaborating. Hosted by SSE Fellow Grace Dyke, there’ll be drinks and delicious food and speakers including Margaret Aspinall, Chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group and SSE’s very own head of communications Sophie Hobson.
