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SoL Tasmania
(SoL Tas)

Coordinator: Thomas Cosgrove

Community Purpose:

Our vision is yet to be fully formed and has been the subject of much discussion. However we are clear on a few things. We aim to further the understanding and practice of organisational learning within the public sector, educational institutions and businesses both and large and small in our island community. In particular our members have interests in

  • Island / Small State economies similar to our own particularly where rejuvenation or regeneration of social, cultural and economic capital is taking place
  • The practice of learning organisation principles and tools within small businesses
  • Leadership and Learning in organisations
  • Systems thinking and scenario planning within the Public sector

Membership Structure:

Some 40 people attended our initial meeting on 9th May 2003 to gauge interest in forming a community of practice. We have decided to wait until our membership base has time to expand before deciding on a membership structure. We are striving to achieve a balance of business members, researchers, consultants and representatives from the public sector. We are also striving to attract more members from an operational background to complement those from a Human Resources background. We are anxious to further our links with academic institutions within the state and in particular to partner with them in meaningful research projects. We are also extremely interested in attracting younger/ student members to give us a "three generational" approach to all of our endeavours.We are currently establishing a membership work group who will look at all of the above in the New year as we define our structure, purpose and membership categories. We are mindful of the great learning that exists within the global sol collectiveness around membership and will be grateful for any and all input!

Our main group (with a base of approx 20 people) meets on the fourth Friday of Every Month. Our Capacity Building Group at present meets every Tuesday

Steering Committee :

We currently have 2 Main Working Groups who overlap somewhat. They are responsible for Membership and Structure and for Capacity Building Events

Members include: Paul Leitch, Thomas Cosgrove, Janet Bush, Paula Sullivan, Maria Flynn, Malcolm Lovell, Lesley Haywood, Bronwyn Cross,

Projects and Initiatives:

Global Forum Digest and Café
We are continuing to assimilate the learning from Helsinki and have already had the first of several Capacity Building sessionsIt is our intention to run specific topic focused events around emergent themes from the forum in the new year and our Capacity Building Workgroup is working on this at present

Arts in Business
We are about to start a research project involving companies, their stories and links to our cultural community. It is envisaged that we will present the findings as a cultural/ artistic event as part of “10 Days on the Island” Tasmania’s biennial Global Arts festival

Affiliations:

SoL Australia
Thomas Cosgrove our co-ordinator was part of the founding group for SoL Australia and was Vice President. Elyssabeth Leigh is currently a director of SoL Australia and a member of the Global SoL Design Team. She has agreed to act as our link to SolA

Tasmania Together
We are currently discussing the benchmarks contained within the State's 20 year Vision and will consider which are appropriate for SoL to take carriage of in the coming months.

The Training Consortium
Attached to the Premiers office TTC is responsible for the provision of all learning within our public sector and some of our larger corporations and educational institutions. They have been a founding member.Business institutionsWe are currently working to establish closer links with other business groups.

Upcoming Events:

IXB a Global Learning Laboratory December 11-12th
This is our first public event and is a two day simulation which lets participants build and experience their own learning organisation.

SolDay
This is a half day event in January which will aim to share current exciting practice amongst both sol members and the wider community. It is designed to be a fun learning event whose primary purpose is to explore and share knowledge and practice.

Lunch and Learns
We are aiming to build our capacity as a community following the global forum with a series of lunchtime forums on emerging themes