Tryptich

I may be breaking Blipfoto's rules here. This is a scan, rather than a photo, but it is from today! In any case, my photographs would be done via a lens onto a charge-coupled device within my phone. This was was done using the same components, but built into a scanner.

Anyway, one of my voluntary activities is being a member of a participatory budgeting* instance's steering group. I help with digital comms, vote-analysis, creation of documentation for voters and project creators, and other things. I've even been known to buy the coffee.

So I was rather chuffed to receive this today from the local authority staff-member who works closely with this PB instances. It may not be something good I did today, so I'm breaking my own rules for this journal, but I can't say I'm sorry about that either.

*Participatory budgeting is where local people directly decide how some or all of government money is to be spent, rather than government staff doing so. There are many variations on this across the world, as recorded here: http://www.participatorybudgetingworks.org/news/view/60/the-latest-edition-of-the-pb-world-atlas-is-now-available. However, in my country, the usual model is that the local authority allocates a relatively small amount of 'common good' funds to a locality. Then the PB volunteers will decide what theme is relevant (e.g. combatting hunger, mental health), then invite organisations to propose projects meeting the theme. Then local citizens are invited to vote for their personal favourite(s). The most popular projects are then funded.

In my area, which has over 20,000 residents, the total amount of money available is usually around €40,000, and each project can apply for €5,000 maximum. So each year, around 10 projects are funded. In some ways that's a sticking plaster over an amputation, but it's direct democracy that ensures some people who would have starved or suffered terrible loneliness actually didn't. Both aspects are important, I think.