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Many years ago, I was sent on a sales training course by my employer. I admit to being a bit cynical prior to the course, and I admit to thinking that so many of the things and ideas raised during the 2 days were obvious - yet they were only obvious to me once pointed out. I came away - to my admitted surprise - having found the course really useful, and 40 years later I'll tell you that it made a mark that's still visible to this day and, I believe, very much for the better in me.
I'm an accidental campaigner. I got involved in the summer of 2005 when I came across a situation which I felt was wrong - a town about to lose the majority of its train service without alternatives being properly considered and without a consultation process that had reached the users or potential users. It was close to my heart, because it was my home town, and it affected my friends, my family, my business. I didn't start with any campaign training - though I did start with wise words, good wishes, and remarkable support.
Today - fourteen years later - I'm still a campaigner. Much has been achieved, much has been learned, and much of what I do now comes naturally or automatically. Only when I meet up with others taking similar steps do I realise that these things that are natural to me are only that way because of so much practise and analysis of what's been done. I feel I have made at least some contribution to the campaigning with which I got involved in 2005 achieving its objectives. I have been delighted to be recognised as "National Transport Campaigner of the Year" in 2017, though there is far more reward in seeing people using trains when before there were no people and no trains.
And so, at what's something of a crossroads with a campaign having achieved the initial intent, I'm going to put time aside in 2019 to look at what I've done. Part of it is intended for self analysis. But another part is to provide - for anyone who might be interested - some thoughts and ideas which may help them in their positive campaigning. Taking advantage of technologies that were not available when I went on my sales training, it's my intent to explore one idea / thought per day, through the year. Available as a feed for anyone who wants to follow, available as the database of resource grows for searching and selection, each day's item being bite size, structured, hopefully interesting and sometimes random. Come 2020, an ongoing resource too. If I can help just one person the way I was helped on the 1970s sales training course, that will be great - I'm doing it for me; you, dear reader, are icing on the cake.
I'm an accidental campaigner. I got involved in the summer of 2005 when I came across a situation which I felt was wrong - a town about to lose the majority of its train service without alternatives being properly considered and without a consultation process that had reached the users or potential users. It was close to my heart, because it was my home town, and it affected my friends, my family, my business. I didn't start with any campaign training - though I did start with wise words, good wishes, and remarkable support.
Today - fourteen years later - I'm still a campaigner. Much has been achieved, much has been learned, and much of what I do now comes naturally or automatically. Only when I meet up with others taking similar steps do I realise that these things that are natural to me are only that way because of so much practise and analysis of what's been done. I feel I have made at least some contribution to the campaigning with which I got involved in 2005 achieving its objectives. I have been delighted to be recognised as "National Transport Campaigner of the Year" in 2017, though there is far more reward in seeing people using trains when before there were no people and no trains.
And so, at what's something of a crossroads with a campaign having achieved the initial intent, I'm going to put time aside in 2019 to look at what I've done. Part of it is intended for self analysis. But another part is to provide - for anyone who might be interested - some thoughts and ideas which may help them in their positive campaigning. Taking advantage of technologies that were not available when I went on my sales training, it's my intent to explore one idea / thought per day, through the year. Available as a feed for anyone who wants to follow, available as the database of resource grows for searching and selection, each day's item being bite size, structured, hopefully interesting and sometimes random. Come 2020, an ongoing resource too. If I can help just one person the way I was helped on the 1970s sales training course, that will be great - I'm doing it for me; you, dear reader, are icing on the cake.
