w h a t's
m e l y n?
Answers to a few questions
people have asked about Melyn:
What's Melyn Community
Action?
Melyn promotes innovative projects that involve people in
improving their communities' quality of life.
At the moment its three main projects are in radio and TV
(see Media), in a
new kind of Internet mail order (Trade) and an innovative
grass roots brainstorming session (Powwow)
It's a not for profit organisation, based in Wales, UK.
Nothing on this site will cost you any money; we're not
selling anything.
Feed your heart; fuel your mind!
What's
Melyn
Media?
Melyn Media encourages the shift of media content towards
that which can improve audiences' quality of life.
It's for the radio and TV station that wants a bigger audience, more money and new kudos.
It's for the charity,
community group and NGO (non-governmental
organisation) that wants to use the media to achieve its
aims in the most effective way possible.
It's for the company that wants better returns for its
marketing investment than a simple ad- only
campaign can deliver.
It's an audience-led broadcast social action project.
What's
Melyn Trade?
(The Melyn Trade element of Melyn Community Action is
still being developed; it won't be online until Spring
1998.)
Melyn Trade shows the potential of the Internet as a way
for producers in developing countries to sell small
parcels of their goods for a higher than local price by
mail order to richer countries. This cuts out the
middleman, thereby aiming more of the profit at the
producer.
It's a way for producers to make money by selling their
goods to people living in countries where those goods
cost more than the combined selling price and postage.
It's an Internet mail order social action project.
What's
Melyn
Powwow?
Melyn Powwow is a meeting between members of a community
- a town, college, organisation - any community. The
Powwow harnesses the group dynamics to encourage
individuals' idea-generating skills and turn those ideas
into action for the good of the community.
It's a face to face, community inspired and
community-led, social action project that explores
problems and finds and delivers solutions to them.
A successful Powwow is one that generates innovative,
helpful ideas and encourages participants to use these
ideas. Melyn Powwow is new; it's only in the 'Beta'
stage.
What you'll find on the Powwow pages is an early draft of
a set of instructions to guide you if you decide to
facilitate your own Powwow.
"It's about people caring about issues that are
close to their hearts and coming together to talk about
creating a nicer community" - Gwenan Williams
How
can I help Melyn?
Everybody ...
... can help by trying
out Powwow and letting us know how you get
on. Powwow is in the pilot stage, so we need your ideas
and suggestions before 'going public' with this one.
We'll print your stories on the Melyn Powwow pages.
... can help by offering to find out the price of
selected products in the shops locally, where they live
... can contact their favourite radio and TV stations to
suggest topics that they should be covering
Radio and TV workers...
... can help by starting or proposing audience-led social
action programs for their network
Charities...
... can work in partnership with sponsors and the media
to get their message across
... can let us know about their 'Fair trade ' initiatives
and give us feedback about the possibilities of the Melyn
Trade model of posting small parcels for profit
Business...
... can consider allocating part of their marketing
budget for partnerships with charities to pay for media
social action programs
How to contact Melyn
The author and maintainer of the Melyn Community Action
web site is Gareth Morlais. He's a freelance producer
specialising in program development. He's worked in radio
and TV since 1980 and has set up and managed successful
broadcast social action projects at Marcher Coast FM in Wales
and at TNL Radio
in Sri Lanka. Gareth's currently with BBC Wales,
(although of course the views in this document are
Melyn's not the BBC's.)
melyn@bigfoot.com
home;
Media;
Trade;
Powwow;
what's Melyn?;
small print;
feedback;
melyn@bigfoot.com
|
