Cycles up and down

I attended the first half of team space at which we talked about the annual report.
I then attended the second day of the Master Class in Sustainable Development at which we continued to look at ways of developing models and indicators for sustainability - this time looking at how those indicators change over time.
Paul and I had to leave early, because we were also taking part in the Recession Day - which had been delayed from 5th Feb. We visited the CAB - where the big issue is the number of volunteers - the council - where we spoke to their economic advisor - and the Economic and Learning Partnership - where we learnt about the MK response - so far... It was a useful event and we probably learnt a great deal. We'll be meeting up again soon to discuss our follow up...
In the evening I was with Liz Baker for her first wedding rehersal.

Note about Recession Research (Taken from www.MKDeanery.org.uk)
On Tuesday 24th February we had a very interesting afternoon which we used to gather information about the likely effect of the recession on Milton Keynes. There were five of us in the end: Myself, Tim Clapton (our Development Chaplain), Stephen Norrish (who runs the Christian Foundation), Paul Desborough (from New Life West) and David Gregory from Loughton Baptist Church. This was a small ecumenical group but it was just the right size and make-up for the task.
Because the original day had been cancelled due to the snow we were only able to meet three key people, but we were able to interview:
Lynda Evans - Advice Services Manager of the CAB
Ephraidge Rinomhota - Senior Economic Researcher at Milton Keynes Council and
Liz Gifford - Associate Director of Milton Keynes Economy and Learning Partnership
These were all useful meetings and we gathered an enormous amount of information about the effect of the recession on Milton Keynes and the responses being planned by voluntary and civic organisations. We reflected on the cycle of debt which tends to move from employment to housing and finally to relationships. We all agreed that it would be good to keep in touch and work together on this issue over the coming months and years.
Our small group is meeting again in March to discuss our report and any action that we would recommend or attempt to coordinate. We have a number of ideas that we may build on and we are hopeful that something extremely valuable will emerge from this discussion.