A little while back, as I was talking to one Camberwellian, I said something like, “there’s so much good will in Camberwell but do we need to be louder?” The Camberwellian replied, “it’s always the same people who get to do anything.’ ”
Those same people have done some good work, SE5 Forum, The Camberwell Society, Camberwell Renewal, to name but a few. But what about the large proportion of those who are not in any way involved in any of the mentioned groups? Part of the reason for the apparent apathy when it comes to being actively involved with your surroundings could be lack of information about ways to get involved, or (un)intentional obscurity of available information. One of the things we, the People’s Republic of Southwark, had found out on our monthly events is that, while the cyber communications are significant and precious, nothing beats the RL (real life) people interaction.
So we are now hoping to set up a very very public meeting to find out how those who for whatever reason feel excluded from decision making feel about the demise of Camberwell and how we go about making a difference.
Any help with any aspect of organising this would be greatly appreciated.
Some of the things which I think would need to be worked out at the beginning are:
- which areas would come under the ‘Camberwell’ umbrella?
- how would we engage people (not just TRA committees) living in those areas?
- which officials would need to be involved (councillors/TFL/GLA representatives)?
- what would be the best way of determining the agenda/running the meeting?
- what are the current initiatives/issues around Camberwell? Where are they at?
If any of you have experience of any of the above (organising large scale events; lobbying/negotiation with the local government; promotion, etc) please let us know if you would be able to help out in any capacity/for any length of time.
Thank you
peoplesrepublicofsouthwark.co.uk
