The next Elsie Panel meeting takes place at Forster Community College in Bradford on 17th February. Our host Al Griffin has arranged for us to have lunch before with a 20% discount at the colleges new bistro, and to give a further voucher for a 20% discount to all who attend to use at a future date.
Please book your place here: http://elsie2012.eventbrite.co.uk/
I’d really like us to think about this a little.
What can we do so that Elsie becomes a really powerful source of help, both to the people who choose to use us and to you and your fellow panel members? How can we build our power to help?
This problem has 2 facets:
How can we make it easy for clients to stay in touch and ask for further support – perhaps via face book for example?
So, come on elsieites, your best thinking please on how we can become even more helpful…
Elsie is growing up, and perhaps it is time for her to leave home and make her way in the world. To this end we are looking to set up a working group of Elsieites to plan her sustainable future.
We’ve now got a date for the first meeting of this group: Tuesday 24 January, 9.30-11.30am at Logistik in Armley. Agenda to be decided but will be based on the three main themes of:
We’d like to assemble a group of around 10 ‘Elsie activists’ with an interest in developing the network further. If you’d like to be part of this, please email Andy Bagley or just sign up for the first working party session here.
First of all massive thanks to Elsie member Richard Eaton who supplied the purple logo that we have used to date. But today I am pleased to show a new slightly more considered logo that tries to say a bit more about who we are, what we do, how we do it and why! It has been developed by a friend of Elsie who has asked to not be named.
Elsie is about PEOPLE and communication.
Many logos for community-based initiatives insist on using graphics of hands, or little stick people stood in a circle. This kind of approach has lost its meaning and looks terribly ‘corporate’.
So here we’ve put a human voice to Elsie, by using a hand-written signature. It suggests that Elsie is informal and friendly, and that anyone is welcome. We’ve also put a dotted line in there – partly to anchor the name to the strapline, but also to imply a certain level of commitment and seriousness – ‘Sign on the dotted line’.
If you’re serious about enterprise, then come and talk to Elsie.
The Leeds Community Enterprise Accelerator – Elsie – is a new tool for coaches, mentors and advisers working with enterprising people in and around the city. Elsie is, in essence, a giant brain, with a huge heart and lots of soul that can be used to source ideas, introductions and other resources.
Elsie is a group of more than 90 people, and growing, from all walks of life who have come together to help enterprising people and projects in and around Leeds. Once a month they meet to hear 4 advocates (what we call the coaches, advisers or mentors) each take about 5-7 minutes to tell them about an enterprising client that they are working with and their project, and the nature of the help that they are looking for. We then spend the next 25 minutes or so creatively generating ideas, resources, introductions that may help, and carefully record them. At the end of the session the advocate takes this note and talks it through with their client the next time they meet to agree what, if anything, might be worth pursuing.
As well as providing you with a list of resources that may help in working with your clients the panel also gives both you and them tremendous exposure across the city as panel members spread the word through their networks of the projects and people that they meet through Elsie. But don’t worry, we have discussed the importance of confidentiality and while panel members will raise the profile as required they will not disclose any confidential information that you may share with us.
By working with Elsie to widen the search for new resources we think you will add a lot of value to your work and develop your networks across the city.
If you are interested in working with Elsie, either as an advocate or as a panel member, then contact Elsie organiser Mike Chitty
Next full panel meeting will be hosted by the Leeds Marriott Hotel on Friday 29th October from 9am till 12 noon, with the actual panel session running from 9.30 to 11.30am.
Book your place here http://elsiepanel2.eventbrite.com/
Really brilliant to meet with you on Tuesday and have a good natter about Upholstery! Thank you for giving me that time! I have put together a little paragraph on how you have helped me out over the past year and how the Elsie group has been a great help too!
My first coffee meeting with Mike Chitty clarified that I needed to get on a plane and do some exploring (which I have been pursuing, Biking around France, a trip to the Middle East and an excursion to India in the pipeline later this year) which has has re instilled some inspiration into my business, So thanks Mike! That was the start!
Recently Mike asked if he could put me up on in front of his Elsie group to see whether they could help with some ideas for business development and expansion. We arranged for one of my miniature sofas and a couple of cushions to be available for the Panel to look at, and recently I met Mike for a coffee, to see what ideas they had produced.
Mike presented me with an A4 sheet of paper scribbled with so many ideas from the group that was really helpful!
Great creative marketing ideas and some excellent ideas on how I can push my work forward. I like the fact that I wasn’t there which allowed the group tobe totally honest and get straight to the point.
Some of these ideas on the A4 sheet will be helpful, some invaluble and inspiring and most of all have given me a tremendous boost to try some new ideas suggested by people who have never met me!
So MASSSIVE thanks!!!
Emily
