Conference Proceedings Report - Final Draft - National Federation ...

The final speaker of the conference was Mr. Brendan Broderick, Chairperson of the
National Federation of Voluntary Bodies.
“Driving down here on Monday evening, the scene that kept looping around my
mind was a scene from the movie Shrek, the metaphysically-loaded declaration by the
Eddie Murphy character: “I’m a donkey on the edge!” Most of us involved in putting this
together felt that we were “donkeys on the edge”, never more so than in the course of the
briefing meeting with Session Directors on Monday evening.
We tried something different at this event. We were trying to lock in a particular kind of
focus and jump-start a certain kind of momentum.
I’m not sure it all came off – but enough of it did for it to be worthwhile; and the bits that
didn’t probably weren’t any worse than the usual conference fare. Maybe innovation is a
bit like that?
Before we part, I’d like to share one final reflection, one prompted by the work we have
just heard about from the people in Clare. Over the past two days, we have spent a lot of
time considering innovation, innovation in the context of the person-centred vision and
inclusion. We complain a lot about the inadequacy of resources; we are always
advocating for more resources. Over the last eight-nine years, we have generally been
generously resourced, so generously resourced that we can provide in many situations
wraparound paid staff support, a level of support that may act as a buffer between our
people and the neighbourhoods and communities in which we hope they will become
embedded. And yet, if we have no need for/no dependency on these neighbourhoods and
communities (other than an optional dependency – which is no dependency at all), what
space is there for neighbourhoods and communities to engage with us, to develop
relationship, to begin the weaving of reciprocal contact, contribution and support?
In designing service models don’t we need to intentionally design in gaps, spaces, holes
that give others scope to make a contribution, voluntary and personal contributions that
may carry within them the seed of relationship and commitment? There would be an
edginess, an uncertainty, an anxiety about this kind of exposure but if families,
neighbourhoods and communities don’t have any fundamental and essential function
within our world, should we be surprised when contact is incidental and glancing?
I would like to thank all our session directors, thought provocateurs, presenters and all
who participated in the parallel sessions. I would also like to acknowledge the
contribution of our plenary presenters – to Eamon Finn and Mary Kealy from Brothers of
Charity, Clare for sharing with us their exciting and heart-warming work-in-progress in
Clare, Peter Cassells for tuning us into the significance within the civic space of the
governance model we have helped shape, and for surfacing new angles on the
implications of the person-centred project. I would like to pay tribute in particular to our
international presenters: Ed Bernacki, for his painstaking tuning into our wavelength
before the event and for taking us to the threshold of surprise and wonder – and holding
us there so productively – throughout the event; to John O’Brien for sharing so
compellingly his easy-worn but fathoms-deep learning and wisdom, for his decades of
inspiration and guidance, and his manifest honouring of high ideal.
If I may be permitted some gender-bending indulgence, the mothers of this convention
were Edel Tierney – who can flip effortlessly into either innovator or adapter mode; Ed
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