Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
166.2 Scholarship, research and innovation:
engaging in academic study projects,
research projects or innovative and
creative thinking, thus ensuring that
all posts have protected space within
them for creative thinking and for
nurturing new thoughts and insights
166.3 Working in partnership across
the Church: nurturing links with
volunteers, office-holders within
Circuits and Districts, District Policy
Committees and District Chairs;
engaging with the development of
connexional policies and strategies in
relevant areas of expertise
166.4 Working in partnership beyond the
Methodist Church: nurturing links
with ecumenical partners and other
partner organisations
166.5 Quality assurance and enhancement:
working to enhance the quality
and effectiveness of pathways,
opportunities, programmes and
resources through enhancing their
design and their delivery.
167 We recommend that, within each
regional team, one postholder
should be identified as the regional
team’s coordinator, assuming
responsibilities (a) for enabling a
collaborative and supportive way of
working within the regional team, (b)
for the performance, efficiency and
effectiveness of the regional team,
(c) for the regional team’s overall
contribution towards the goals of the
Network, and (d) for being a primary
point of contact with the Network’s
coordinating team (see paragraph
178.3 below). This coordinating role
draws on good practice currently seen
in the Learning and Development
Network of the Methodist Church
in Scotland and the Wales Training
Network, where benefits have been
identified to having a manager or
director who coordinates the work of
the other members of staff who work
across the nations.
168 We recommend that the regional
teams work across regions which
are bigger than Districts but smaller
than the existing Regional Training
Networks in England (see paragraph
68 above). A recommendation about
the number of regional teams, and
consequently about the size of the
regions which the team should serve,
is necessarily strongly dependent
upon the financial resources which
can be dedicated to supporting
regional posts. It has long been
evident to the Committee that it
would not be possible to support 31
teams, one serving each District.
However, it has also been evident
to the Committee that some of the
Regional Training Networks in England
have struggled, for reasons both of
geography and workload, to support
posts at the regional level which are
capable of providing a service across
the region. Efficient and realistic
teams could therefore be envisaged
working across regions which are
bigger than Districts but smaller
than the existing Regional Training
Networks in England.
Conference Agenda 2012 711