What’s it like being the CALL Action Officer? Remember I’m writing for public consumption…… It’s great! I started the role in March 2024, following an interview with some of the Directors of CALL (which I quite enjoyed) and before that an application. I’ve been on both sides of the interview table plenty of times but I prepared as well as I could for this interview. More on that in another post perhaps.

I started working for CALL in March (2024) on a one day per week basis. Straight away there was plenty to do, including a meeting with LAWPRO, to discuss the next steps following a baseline ecological study that my colleagues in CALL had the foresight to commission (funded by LAWPRO) during 2023. There was hardly time to meet all the great CALL volunteers… I’m still catching up with that.

The deadline for the LAWPRO Catchment Support Fund applications was hot on the heels of my start date so it was great to have the early success of that funding (the Blue Dot Campaign), which runs from June to October 2024. Did you read about that already?https://callclimateaction.ie/2024/09/05/calls-blue-dot-to-the-sea-campaign/

We are looking forward to continuing our work in this area with further funding from LAWPRO in the next round……

There’s more to the CALL Action Officer role than working on rivers and waterways- yes really there is, even if I seem to be obsessed by the river work at the moment (I’ve been doing a lot on that recently). An important element of the Action Officer role, generously funded by a philanthropic donation, is to generate capacity for CALL to work on a range of projects connected to the key aspects of Climate Action that are the focus of CALL (look again at the CALL website, you’re on it if you’re reading this!). An important part of generating capacity is getting in funding, so that we can have more paid work for people committed to climate action in our area, bring in specialist help when we need it in order to develop projects, and afford any equipment necessary.

At the moment I am looking to generate funding for a Food Security Project, and an Engagement Officer role (doing all the social media is a job in itself!). That’s just two areas out of a few on the go. We’re also horizon scanning on what we might do with regard to Wind power which is an expensive business. Ok I spent 10 minutes looking for a free image of a windmill…. nothing yet, so you’ll have to imagine that.

Did I say about my novel? it’s really spooky. When i applied for the CALL Action Officer role, I had nearly completed a novel called Native Irish Apple. One of the main characters is basically doing the CALL Action Officer job… Do you want to know about my Eco novel? I’ll write about that another time…