Ok I think I’ve missed the boat with wishing you all a happy u.year but things I wanted to share with you have only just aligned.  And in the spirit of working out loud, other things are still at the idea stage.  All of the below is open for you to get involved in though.

A group of us came together for a sensing day (join us at the next one here) to reflect on u.lab 2017 and sense into what’s wanting to emerge this year.  We have been playing with the idea of the whole year following a U, with us currently in the retreat and reflect/crystalising phase:

• What can we all do to raise awareness of u.lab 2018 in the next few months?  It may be hosting taster sessions in your area or organisation, or something completely different.  We’d love to here your ideas and plans.  Also, sharing ideas and messages through the online community is an important part of communicating what is happening.  Do you feel called to help out with some more of this?
• Hub host support – hub hosts are a really important part of the support infrastructure and it can feel a little daunting to take on this role.  So we are hosting another hub host programme on 12-14 April in Edinburgh and the Scottish Government is supporting participants based in Scotland. It’s at the end of the Easter holidays which won’t suit everyone but we’re also hoping to host some online sessions and encouraging some local hub host meetings before summer
• Prototyping Labs around specific themes – this would involve inviting people to participate around an issue, including those new to theory u.  This is still very much in the development phase but we will keep you posted or get in touch if you’d be interested to get involved.

• a catch up for those who went on the SPT programme in November with anyone with an interest also welcome to join
• how we might work more with the “ulabscot alumni”

Anne Winther has also been working hard gathering stories from around the ulabscot community so we can share learning and inspiration.  We hope to have something ready to share soon.

And finally, would you like to take your hosting or facilitation skills a step further to support public service partnership teams across Scotland work more effectively together to solve complex problems?  If so, you may be interested in applying for a facilitator programme hosted by Workforce Scotland in March.

As ever, if you’re interested in finding out more about anything above, or you’d like to share what you’ve been doing or would like to do, get in touch with me (Keira.Oliver@gov.scot)

Here’s to an open and exciting 2018!