After discussion with the other officers, I am resigning as TES Secretary with immediate effect.  This does not mean I do not support what the organization is trying to achieve; it simply means that, coming in as I have into an organization whose ways of working have already settled into shape, I haven't found a way of fulfilling the role that will help it achieve its goals.  I wish the best of luck to all TES members, staff, and volunteers.

Jean

 

An internet search into the history of solar power generation lead me to some interesting anecdotes from history that tell us a lot about economic short-termism, the political nature of technological advances and Anglo-French relations..

As some of you may already be aware TES has a page on Facebook.  There was some discussion about whether to do this or not but in order to reach as broad an audience as possible we thought that it was a good idea.  We'll use the page to provide updates on events TES is running, interesting articles, links to other organisations, and general info.  In order to make it succesful in reaching a broad audience we need people to 'like' our page and then tell their friends to 'like' it.  

It's half way through December now and I'm starting to think about Christmas cards and presents. I don't normally like the run-up to Christmas and I recoil when I hear Jinglebells being played in November. (why!?!) 

Thanks to all those who came down on a very cold evening to the pedal powered TES / Occupy Edinburgh Film night. It was really encouraging to see so many people up for some open air cinema in December! Despite some technical glitches we got there in the end and the mulled wine and biscuits were much appreciated by all. Thanks to all who pedalled and to Powerpod. Below are some photos of the evening, apologises that they are on the dark side, but we didn't want to ruin the theatre atmosphere with flashes. See you at the next TES film night: Mon 12th Dec. 7.30pm

I don't think it's any great secret that TES hasn't been very good at involving members in decision-making recently - or great surprise, either, given the amount of volunteer work that it takes to manage and deliver on the kind of CCF grant TES currently has.  In my new role as secretary, members and potential members are beginning to tell me about decisions that have been made that they didn't like, or ones that they would like but don't know how to get made.  I'm glad of this because it's the only way we can move forward,  even though it's going to take some time to change.

On Monday, we held an open meeting about the future of TES that touched on both the shape of the organization and on the kinds of things we'd like to be doing together.  For a while now, TES hasn't been good at finding ways for members to talk and work together apart from as volunteers on the funded projects.  My reading of this is that the will is there, but in a way, it takes protecting that aspect of the organization from the funded projects - it's too easy to prioritize deadlines on funded pr