Ed Dowding

The best way to survive the 21st century is together. The way we do things today does not need to be, nor can it be, the way we do things tomorrow.

Job vacancy: Are you passionate about rural communities?

Communities Assistant
Salary: £19,000 – £21,500
Location: Woodstock, Oxfordshire

The Plunkett Foundation has been changing lives in rural communities since 1919. We work as strategic partners with numerous government departments, funders and support organisations.

We are the only national organisation providing dedicated support and expertise to rural communities who wish to set-up and run a community-owned shop. Join us as a Communities Assistant, and you’ll work at the forefront of our extremely worthwhile organisation.

Using your demonstrable understanding of rural communities, you’ll expand on our existing community shop activity and will help us extend the same support to other forms of community owned rural services. You’ll be the first person people speak to when they contact us, and you’ll be the one who co-ordinates all rural service delivery.

You’ll also build relationships with external organisations that may be better placed to advise with certain queries, and will refer people to them. And you’ll monitor and report on all the latest activity, as well as providing administrative support.

To succeed in this role you’ll need to have a good understanding of the issues affecting rural communities, as well as the enthusiasm and organisational skills to help us deal with them. You’ll need to be educated to degree level or equivalent in a business related subject, and will have experience of community or voluntary groups. You’ll also have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and will be willing to travel as necessary.

The full job specification can be downloaded here. To find out more about this role and to apply please contact James Alcock, Community Retail Manager – james.alcock@plunkett.co.uk

Closing Date: Friday 11th March 2011.

What’s in a name?

What’s in a name? Hopefully quite a lot, because I just stumbled across this, and I like the sound of it.

DOWDING: The given name is a derivative of the Olde English verb “dugan”, to be of use, avail, and was developed from an earlier byname or nickname, such as “the useful or helpful one”.

This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is one of the patronymic forms of the surname which derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name “Dogod”, with the patronymic suffix “-ing”.

Give me half a chance and I’d be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle

In man’s evolution he has created the cities and
the motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
and I’d be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle.

Quite a fun little thing from the Darwin pages at the Open University which allows you to take a photo and see yourself as your great-great-great-etc-grandmother imagined.

They also have a rather good Tree of Life.

Dan & Dan’s Festive WikiLeaks Song

Dan and Dan » Blog Archive » Dan & Dan’s Festive WikiLeaks Song.

OneUpMe.com – Fun with Wordplay

OneUpMe.com is a daily wordplay game of analogies that fosters abstract and creative thought.

And funny as hell, to boot.