SPEAK has a distinct approach which it is crucail to understand to carry out your role in the NST. This pages introduces the Network Support Team and the subsequent pages give you more of an ideas about what working for SPEAK means.

Instead of calling ourselves the SPEAK Core Team, or SPEAK HQ, we are the Network Support Team. This an important distinction because SPEAK is built on the network of relationships across the country and we are here to serve and support it.  

The Network Support Team (NST) grew into being out of necessity because, as SPEAK grew, there was too much logistical and administrative work for students to manage at the same time as studying. The NST was required in order to service the network and provide administrative capacity. Initially people on the NST were also on the core team, but now the two are separate entities - the NST and Flower Model - which handle administrative/organisational capacity and ideas and forward planning - respectively.

 The idea is that through the Flower Model everyone has an opportunity to participate in a decision making structure within SPEAK.

 The NST does need to run as an organisation in terms of staff and deadlines with accountability structures. Support needs to run through a bank account etc. NST does need to take on an organisational element.

Purpose

The NST exists to support and develop the Network and thus we take on a responsive as well as pro-active role. For example, we seek to empower and help existing groups through our resources and campaigns, training events and gatherings. However, we also seek to develop the SPEAK network by going to conferences and festivals to do stall and Networking with other groups in the Christian and secular world.

History

The NST began in 1999 with Louise leaving university and working full time on funding, networking and planning. Over that year and the next 1 more person came full time/permanent (Ellen Armstrong) and two did a few months of admin work  At the end of the summer 2001, a larger group of 6 more joined Ellen and Louise.

From 2002 there has been a regular stream of new interns/RSWs on a yearly basis whilst others who starts in 2001 stayed for a few years, as have others since then. We also set up a Manchester NST in 2002 which is where most RSWs work from, and at the moment where the campaigns team is based

In 2003 however, we began to realise that we needed a stronger support system for staff and better management so began to work  to put this in place. Doing this foundation work meant that for a time it was better to slim down the numbers and work to make the roles for effective before continuing to add more staff. So since 2006 we have been a smaller but more focussed team!

The Network Support Team is quite transitory in nature and at the stage when most people come to the NST they are learning and moving a great deal. While this is exciting and dynamic and brings a huge diversity and variety of gifts and style, it means that recording information and getting to grips with a role quickly are of key importance. Some roles like RSW people usually do for a year but about 1/3rd stay on for longer. Other roles like campaigns and admin people tend to be in for a few years.  It will often take year to get your head round a national role and in that way continuity in the NST is important.

Over this time, more defined roles have been developed although there is still along way to go. We have had many challenges mainly with capacity and finances but God has always been faithful and we are still here and still thriving! 

Main Activities

The Network Support team works on behalf of the SPEAK Network, supporting and undergirding the ideas and plans that come from Flower Model. This can be specific projects or more general ideas about Network development. There are also a number of existing projects we are still working to implement.

There are key functions of the NST that cover planning and mobilising for Soundcheck, the other gatherings, producing resources, networking at festivals and other events and supporting groups until regional support workers are in place.  

Day to day this translates into a variety of tasks covered by the NST.

Admin: database, post, logistics for events, liasing with printers, finances, any other admin tasks associated to the other functions

Campaigns: Planning in advance for campaign strategy, resources, delivery at events

Groups support: Supporting through communication, organising training, Volumize, planning for maximum benefit from gathering, mobilising for gatehrings 

Planning events: advance planning for Soundcheck, Vocal Training and Regional Forums

Fundraising: Networking and making funding applications to trusts

Networking: Maintaining existing partnerships through meetings and developing ways we can work together, going to do stalls at conferences and festivals throughout the year, forging new links with groups we can work with.

Pioneering new areas: developing new roles for areas of work (like faith sharing) that are becoming more established. Working to work these ideas in to the Network and get others on board

Also, as the team grows communication and team support need to grow alongside our functions. This includes

Management and personnel: fortnightly meetings with manager and extra time for any arising issues. Also, recording holidays and time off in lieu (TOIL) etc. (management also includes other functions such as thinking about recruitment) 

Team meetings: weekly team meetings to update on what is happening and any arising

Communication to other SPEAK body parts: Monthly communication to directors, issues to go to Core Team, proposals and organisation for Flower Power.

Although we are trying to move towards a more structured office, things are difficult with our limited resources and capacity. Thus, there are many shared areas of work that need to be covered but wouldn’t necessarily be done by the person doing them if we had a full team. However we are moving towards our “ideal office” although this will take a few years!

 The Network Support Team is undergirding and supporting the network to live out the ethos of Speak in a full and holistic way, making sure that what we plan and produce incorporates all of our values, such as faith sharing, discipleship and creativity.

Working for SPEAK and Community

The NST is much more than this. It is a place where we want to live and work in community with each other through supporting each other personally, rather than just simply working together. Our work in the office is not separate from the overall vision of SPEAK and we want to encorage one another in out own relationship with God and help each other to live out SPEAK’s values in our lives. We have the opportunity for this specifically within the London Network. Through this we are part of the Network, rather than just the administrational capacity. We can pioneer a local expression of SPEAK, helping us to get a better understanding of what the network is, and build friendships in it.

Pioneering

SPEAK is still very much in the pioneering stages of communicating vision and ethos and establishing local groups that reflect this. Part of our role is to constantly reiterate this and make sure it runs through everything we do. That faith sharing, discipleship, creativity and community are expressed in all our events and resources and that we let people in the network take par in discussion, encouraging them in moving the vision forward locally.

Working in Conjunction with Flower Power

In order to keep SPEAK participatory we are developing the Flower Model and all that that means for the NST.

It requires a fair amount of communication and starting to work in rhythms of the year in terms of new ideas being generated and plans being made to carry them through.

You will also be part of a team and be part of that generation of ideas. However the main function of the NST with regards to Flower Power, is not bring up all the ideas and stifle the vision from the network, it is to act as the organisational and logistical support for those ideas from the teams to happen. For example, if the arts team propose an initiative our job would be to ensure that the proposal is circulated to other teams, there is time for it to be discussed at Flower Power, that the directors and Core Team input any necessary info in time, that minutes are circulated afterwards, that action is followed up on and that we are working our hardest to implement the vision of the network.