When Nick asked me originally to write this I told him that I would wait a while and didn’t feel quite ready!  Now looking at less than a week and half left I suppose now it is time!  As some of you may know I am off on maternity leave on the 4^th Nov (baby due early Dec.)  I am planning to take the year (as long as the baby has not got expensive tastes!!)  So this is me signing off from fieryspirits as one of the facilitators (though I am sure I will keep peeking in.)

It’s been a really interesting experience seeing how this site has developed over the last three years – what things seem to have worked and what elements have not. After the initial recommendation from the Carnegie Commission to set up a ‘centre of excellence’ – I feel that this type of learning network is a much better fit to attempt to keep up with what is happening in rural UK, Ireland and beyond presently.

I have really enjoyed attending all the events and reading people’s blogs – my favourite section has to be the photo library and the videos so please keep sharing these with us.  Online discussions have been a bit trickier to develop – I think most online networks struggle with this.  I am hoping that some of you will find the upcoming online discussions about ‘Rural Services- the Transfer Process’ and ‘Young People and their involvement managing community assets’ (that’s a mouthful!) of interest and you will share some of your reflections with the membership.  There will be more of these to come in 2012 led by our new Carnegie Associates with associated opportunities for events and developing joint resources.

Here’s some of the things I will be sorry to miss next year

• The development of the Young, Gifted and Rural theme over 2012- watch this space!
• The launch of Jim Hunter’s book ‘From the low tide of the sea to the highest mountain tops: community ownership of land in the Scottish Highlands and Islands’ (I’ve had a sneek preview and it’s a great read and I am so glad that he has captured this moment in time.)
• Seeing how the Argyll and Bute Local Services Initiative develops and public service reform in general
• The next Community Land Scotland Conference in March
• The next Community Land Trusts Annual Conference in London in May
• The return of the Big Tent Festival in Falkland (well that’s a lie as I will be at this!)
• Nick’s grand ‘Exploring Community Resilience’ tour- there seems to be a growing interest in this area and it will be great to see how this develops over the year
• The second ‘Isle of Harris Mountain Festival’ in Autumn

So I am leaving fieryspirits.com in Nick’s very capable hands- he’ll be seeking your views in December so please keep feeding back to us so the site can keep developing and being of use. I realise that 2012 will be a year of uncertainty and change for a lot of people so I wish you all the best and just keep flying the rural flag!

Kirsty