February Full Council Meeting

February's Full Council Meeting is coming up next week - meeting starts at 10am on Thursday 6th February ...

... all the reports are now up on Committee Papers On-Line (CPOL) and you can access the main agenda directly here; and the individual reports via this link.

Important to stress, that this isn't the 2014/15 Budget-Setting Meeting - that takes place the following week, at a Special Council Meeting on Thursday (10am start), 13th February. And, as per last year, we'll publish our Capital Coalition Budget Motion on the Friday before (7th February) and ensure it's widely disseminated.

Anyhow - more on all of that to follow for sure ...

... for this coming Thursday, there are a few issues to highlight:

1. there's a further update on Meadowbank - report here
2. an update report on Portobello High School - see here
3. an interesting report on Edinburgh's Social Enterprise Strategy - here

And much more besides!

Of course - if you're so minded, you can watch all the proceedings live here ... or the meeting will be archived a few hours after it finishes for viewing at your leisure ;-)

Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee next Tuesday

January's Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee is next Tuesday 21st  ...

... all the papers are now in the public domain: main Agenda can be found here; and the individual reports are all up on Committee Papers on-Line (CPOL) linked from here.

Only a few reports, but one or two that may well generate some debate I sense?

These Executive Committees aren't yet being webcast, but will be so in a few months time ... bet you can't wait ;-)

Jerry’s Map :-)

Visited an exhibition at Summerhall this afternoon - entitled Jerry's Map; you can read more about it here and I'll add the main text immediately below ...

... by total coincidence, the artist (whom we don't know at all - but you can hear directly from him via this link) is a neighbour of some friends we know in America! You can find that video clip via either Summerhall TV and/or Art in Scotland TV ... both sites are most certainly worth a visit :-)

It was great to be able to go to the exhibition, and instantly e-mail some photos (one of them, as above) of us exploring their neighbour's amazing map :-)

It's well worth a visit - appears to be at Summerhall through until Friday 24th January.

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Jerry Gretzinger

“The map began as just a doodle. I just made little rectangles and crosshatched them. Carefully. And I just kept adding rectangles and I put a river in….and some railroad stations. But there was this moment when I came to the edge of that sheet of paper…got out another sheet of paper and put the two together…and I think I taped them together. That’s when I realized that it kind of had a life of its own.”

An internet sensation, 50 years in the making, Jerry’s Map (as it is known – it has no official title) is an awe-inspiring artwork on a colossal scale. Jerry Gretzinger has been slowly drawing and painting his “map” one 8 x10 inch panel at a time. Working in makeshift studio spaces during spare moments plucked out between career and family. Jerry began with a singular doodle of a fictitious city centre, evolving it into a sublime world of more than 2,500 individual drawings.

Jerry utilises paint brushes, X-Acto knives, adhesive paper, Sharpie markers, acrylic and watercolour paints as well as informational tools such as numbered archival stacks and Excel spreadsheets. However, the most important and unique amongst the tools is chance. He has created systems governing the growth and decay of the map through what he has defined as the “future predictor” – a stack of modified playing cards which he draws from many times a day during his creative process. They are designed to introduce serendipity and chance into all facets of his “world.”

Jerry’s Map has never been seen outside of the United States and Jerry will continue to make modifications to his work at certain periods during the exhibition.

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Extremely good news, for the the start of 2014, with Edinburgh's figures for School-leavers achieving a positive-destination looking markedly improved compared to a few years ago ...

... I'll simply re-produce the relevant News Release below, which can also be found via this link:

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Future looking bright for Edinburgh's school leavers

Published Tuesday 7 January 2014

More school leavers are moving into work, education, or training. This is thanks to the strong partnership that has developed between the public and private sectors through the Edinburgh Guarantee. 

Figures published by the Scottish Government show that the success rate of school leavers in Edinburgh achieving and sustaining a positive destination is continuing to rise and is now at the highest rate ever in Edinburgh. The figure is up 3.1% on this time last year and is now at 91.4%.

A positive destination is defined as a place in Higher Education, Further Education, a job, paid apprenticeship, or work-focused training. 

Cllr Paul Godzik, Convener of the Children and Families Committee, said: “Whether it’s employment, apprenticeships or training, young people need to move out of school and into a positive destination quickly. It is really encouraging that there has been such an improvement in the figures once again.  Moving on to make a new start in life is the boost young people need at this critical point in their lives, and I am delighted that the Edinburgh Guarantee is having such a positive effect.”

Cllr Frank Ross, Convener of the Economy Committee, said: “Ensuring that Edinburgh’s young people have opportunities is vital for the economic success of our city. The year on year improvements that have been achieved since the inception of the Edinburgh Guarantee show that focused collaboration can make a real difference to many young lives. I am confident that with sustained investment and the support of our public, private and third sector partners these improvements will continue in future.”

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all ...

... have had a relatively restful couple of weeks: down in an extremely wet Dorset for the Christmas-week, with a myriad of in-laws; and back in the Capital for Hogmanay, with visitors up here from Stoke-on-Trent.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow ... but before then, we did manage to quickly check out the Allotment this weekend: all looking in reasonable order, and thought the pond had survived all the rain in relatively good fettle ;-)