The Touchwood Project

I’ve been having several people ask me what Touchwood is up to these days, so thought I’d write a quick post on my latest research project: how to get volunteers involved with Touchwood and make sure they have a great time. Since I only have a little experience with managing volunteers from back in the days when I ran a door-to-door environmental campaign, I’ve been looking for advice from Getting It Done:… Read the rest of this article >>

If you’re a social enterprise — business with a social purpose whose profits go entirely towards that purpose — in the UK, then you might want to think about becoming a Community Interest Company. What is a CIC? Community interest companies (“CICs”) are a new form of limited company set up by the UK government which may be able to help you get more funding, advice and trust from your community and potential… Read the rest of this article >>

I’ve been learning to let go of my perfectionist, controlling tendencies and trying instead to be still, be present, be okay with not knowing what will happen. It all came about courtesy of several humbling blows. We didn’t get the loan from RBS, then Social Investment Scotland turned us down. Then we couldn’t find any grant funding that would actually pay us to keep working. It felt like we were just hitting… Read the rest of this article >>

This evening I’m working on the “Vision, Mission, Objectives” part of the business plan. I discovered I had actually taken out our vision in the most recent version of the plan, I think because I felt a bit bashful about wearing my heart so openly on my sleeve. What’s a vision and why should we have one? As Social Business Consulting explains in their post about Vision and Mission: Writing your vision is your… Read the rest of this article >>

Mostly this blog is a way for Malcolm and I to let our friends, family and some of the people who’ve been on Malcolm’s Five Senses tours and courses to see what we’re up to with this new venture, the Touchwood Project. Since we started Five Senses three years ago, not long after we moved from Perth to the Orkney Islands here in Scotland, we’ve dreamed big. We knew we wanted a centre where we could teach skills… Read the rest of this article >>