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SpunOut.ie Blog
June, 2010
Call for content
Summertime and the livin is easy?
Summer is here and opening up long days of possibility. Time to sit outside in the sunshine (or inside peering out at the rain), meet up with friends as often as your heart desires, eat ice cream, chill out AND.... possibly put pen to paper or finger to keyboard. Or,for the digital media heads, eye to camera!
SpunOut is always delighted to blast out your thoughts, scribbling, rants, raves or ramblings, so send ‘em in! Write about anything you want, anything that you’re passionate about (or at least something that ruffles your feathers or inspires a cheesy grin)! Be it short and sweet or long and sour, it will be of interest. Yep, it REALLY, REALLY will.
A few ideas...
- Your views on this recession: Are things looking up? Do you give a s***?
- Choking on the status-quo/ shaking things up for change: What will work in Ireland? Protest? Petitions? Strikes? Musical inspiration? Revolution?!
- How to fight summer boredom OR How to embrace it!
- World Cup Delights/World Cup Woes – If you are a sports fanatic, share your passion! If football makes you wanna throw something at the TV (especially to drown out the vuvuzelas), share your thoughts too!
- Summer lovin’: Holiday romances; have you had one? Can they last? Should they last?
- Travel – Where are you off to this summer? Anywhere nice? Saving up to go (for a wee break or indefinitely)? How’s that going for ya? Care to let other SpunOutters know all about it?
- The Leaving Cert: Thoughts on your experiences. Or, the question of how, and should it be changed?
The little list above is just to get ideas going. So, think on and then act on it! Submissions via www.spunout.ie/getin/Media-factory or directly to emily@spunout.ie. Q’s or comments, Emily is also your gal.
SpunOut.ie Academy of Activism
Applications are now open folks!
Galway, August 6th- 8th 2010
Your Country Needs YOU!!!
Roll up, Roll up for SpunOut.ie’s first ever ever extravaganza of activism.
Are you sick of hearing whinges about what’s wrong in Ireland? Yep, we agree and that’s why SpunOut.ie is offering a lucky 12 of you a place on a free of charge, expenses paid* training course in how to change things. SpunOut.ie’s Academy of Activism will take place in Galway City and we hope you are as excited about this as we are!!!
What is it?
Don’t worry any of you who dread going into a ‘class room’ during the summer break this is not, I repeat IS NOT! School; think more of a Guerrilla training camp combined with one of those brilliant late night change- the- world conversations and then you’ll be closest!
With the support of our colleagues at NUIG's Huston School of Film& Digital Media, we have roped in some of our most impressive activist heroes and heroines, a few media mogul-y- types, a scattering of film-makers and even a couple of politicians (no groaning!) to share their ideas and know-how with you.
Over an intensive two and a half days in Galway, we will give all you participants a chance to pick the brains of these people and to share their own experiences. As well as the guests, we have gathered up the best campaign and changemaker examples we know of, from organisations and people all over the world.
So if you want to know things like:
- How to use the media, or even better how to make your own
- When to lobby politicians or when to picket their offices
- When will it work to use street theatre or what use is a petition
- How to get politicians working for you (we pay them you know!!) or when to forget about them and just make things happen yourself !!
Then this course is for YOU!
Applications CLOSE on 19 July 2010, so get going y’all! Fill in your application; tell us why you want to be on this course and what you want to do after you’ve done it.
Pleeeeeease read this bit of info below before you fill in the application form...
SMALL PRINT (but we’ve used big letters so you’ll definitely see it)
- There is no course fee for this course and all materials are free of charge.
- Participants will also be provided with lunch allowances for each day of the course.
- *All participants are responsible for organising and paying for their own accommodation in Galway.
- Applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 25 years old.
- SpunOut.ie will have no responsibility for the participants outside of the scheduled course hours.
*Any selected participants who feel that financial circumstances might prevent them from taking up a place offered on this course should contact sarah@spunout.ie to discuss this. There is a limited travel and accommodation budget available to assist those who might fall into this category.
This innovative all-action project is made possible by funding received from Atlantic Philantropies. More information on The Huston School of Film & Digital Media, who are supporting us with this project, is available by clicking here.
Application Health Warning!!! This application is not a school test - seriously! We aren’t asking these questions to see who has the best spelling or English; let’s leave that to your teachers, lecturers or parents. All we want is to make sure that the participants on our course are people with a passion for action. There are no correct answers so give it to us straight y’all - we are all ears!!!
Finally here’s the application form. Good luck guys and girls:
APPLICATION FORM (Apply yo'self!)
Phew - you got your application in! Well done - but what next?
Well, first of all, we will send you an e-mail within one week to confirm that we have safely got our paws on your application. Then, we will be going through all the applications one by one, to decide who we think could make the best use of this course just now. Successful applicants will be contacted by e- mail on or before 23rd July with further details and instructions (sounds like a spy film doesn’t it?)
Unfortunately this time, there are only going to be twelve places on our course, but we promise to hold on to the contact details for everyone who applies. So we can let you be the first to know when we are running the second ever SpunOut.ie Academy of Activism.
If you have questions about any of this, drop an e- mail to sarah@spunout.ie and she will sort you out good and proper.
Vid of SpunOut spreading the good vibes
SpunOut Blog: Soooo many smiles in Dublin!
Check out some of the SpunOut Crew along with a bunch of lovely volunteers from Google Ireland spreading the good vibes and lifting the spirits of unsuspecting passersby.
Take a peek here for more on SpunOut's Make My Day campaign!
When asked 'May I give you a compliment?' some said 'No thanks, I already have one', or 'Not today, thanks' thinking we were selling something. Eek!
Thankfully, most realised that the only thing we were 'selling' was free compliments and honest to goodness positive messages.
Check it out:
And a little ditty about us in the Irish Times: Goodwill Galore on Grafton Street!
You can keep the Make My Day campaign alive and kicking by passing on a compliment of your own to a friend, fam, neighbour, or even a stranger.
Trust us, the feel good factor goes both ways to giver and receiver of the good vibes!
Do away with misery
SpunOut Blog: SpunOut says make my day!
SpunOut.ie is teaming up with Google Ireland to look on the brighter side of things!
Look out for the SpunOut Crew along with 50 staff from Google this Thursday June 3rd on Grafton Street! We’re taking to the streets of Dublin to launch the 'Make My Day' campaign. The campaign aims to create awareness about SpunOut.ie and to spread a bit of cheer amidst the negativity and instability, which is taking its toll on the good people of Ireland. It will involve volunteers handing out custom made compliment cards, with messages (such as "Irish people can’t take compliments, so I’m not going to give you one, but in secret I’m thinking really nice things about you!") to unsuspecting passersby, giving them a boost for the day and encouraging them to pass on the good vibes in an effort to have a ripple effect throughout the nation.
Call around to the Grafton Street area between 11- 2pm, to say hi to the SpunOut Crew and get or give a spirit lifting compliment!
And if you can’t make it on the day, why not pass on a wee compliment of your own to friends, fam, neighbours or even a stranger (audience gasps!).
So one and all, let's take to the streets, offer some good vibes, and help put some smiles and love back into the nation's wellbeing. It's summer after all, and it's time to get out and about, have some fun, and raise awareness of a great organisation in the process.
Stay tuned to our website and social networks for vids and pics of the day!
- The SpunOut Crew
