Summer Action Panel Session

That time of year had come around again, the time all action panel members await for with anticipation. Of course; the action panel meeting. The first day of our summer gathering kicked off with an intriguing and most useful session about blogging and online journalism with The Journal.ie’s Christine Bohan. Christine brought us up to date with the dos and don’ts, the hints and tips of blogging and other forms of online media, many of which most of the panel would not have believed to be compatible with online journalism.

For example; using images, videos, gifs and vox pops to add to the traditional article. We all found it very interesting and will put it to good use when adding content to the site. After a tasty lunch of soup and sandwiches the team got back to work planning upcoming campaigns, specifically an upcoming healthy living campaign. Everyone was full of fantastic ideas for promoting exercise in a fun and inexpensive way, cheap, easy and most importantly healthy meals and potential workshops and evens to promote our campaign.

We then moved on to discuss policy statements. With the panel’s rather large role in the overall running of SpunOut, both the staff and the panel were in agreement that the panel should come to a collective statement on where the we, SpunOut’s youth advisors stand, with issues regarding mental and sexual health, education, alcohol and drugs and employment. I think it brought us all closer together as a panel as we all brainstormed what these important issues mean to us individually and as a group. This was followed by a tasty dinner in the IFI and general banter (funzos for John).

Bantz had during team building. Congrats to treasure hunts winners @OwenIsAinmDom @sorchacusack @LisaMarieSheehy pic.twitter.com/8HGzJCUa1g

— SpunOut.ie (@SpunOut) July 6, 2014

We reunited early the next morning to continue our work discussing SpunOut’s present and future and recapping over the previous day’s discussions. This was followed by a most interesting team building exercise. We were split up into groups and sent out into the jungle that is Dublin city on an urban treasure hunt; collecting clues that would open a coded safe back in SpunOut HQ.

I firstly have to say thank you to anyone who gave us directions or took photos of us competing random and unexplainable challenges. You may or may not have seen us running around in the rain at various stages in the day or taking random selfies to tweet John (our facilitator and youth engagement officer), asking him when the pizza would arrive.

All in all, we all had a fantastic time and a most productive weekend. Many thanks to John and all other team members for a totes funzos weekend.
Robyn out.

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SpunOut.ie Action Panels advise SpunOut on the key topics that impact young people in their area. SpunOut.ie's core approach is “by young people, for young people” and the Action Panels are integral in providing direction on the information needs of young people from each region and in generating solutions for these needs. The Action Panels aim to engage and facilitate young people’s voices. 

To learn more about the Action Panel and how you can apply for the panel, visit our Action Panel application page.

If you're interested in volunteering with SpunOut.ie but the Action Panel is not your thing, check out our other volunteering options here.