austraLasia #2982
Tackling Strenna 2012 in our Region
Rome: 4 January 2012 -- If you have taken a look at the text for the Strenna 2012 (it is available online here, if you do not have a paper copy as yet, or in video - cf the photo above), you will have noted that it begins a new 'series', inasmuch as it is the first of three which will lead up to the Bicentenary.
Thanks to ANS and sdb.org at Congregational level, the Salesian inspiration for the year (the year which begins 1st January and finishes 31st December!), which is the Strenna, is rapidly made available, and then subsequently active digital natives, amongst others, add to this in many ways. One thinks back to the 'Yellow Umbrella' which became a Youtube favourite! This year too, one notes that an active digital native from our Region has already placed the Strenna on his Youtube account, and that has helped overcome a temporary glitch in the 'official' version's streaming.
Could not help but notice that our Region gains one particular mention towards the end of the Strenna, or at least a member of our Region does: Fr Lawrie Moate (Australia-Pacific) is credited as the source for the RM's second anecdote (the first being the dream at nine years of age, of course). What struck me there was the particular context for this source at the time - the way we tell the story of ourselves and our confreres on Jubilee occasions. These are wonderful occasions because, while it is also good to speak well of the dead, it is better still to speak well of the living!
Which led to another thought over these days, reading through the Strenna, and it is to do directly with austraLasia. You will note that this particular medium of communication is nearing its 3000th edition, and that it has covered the entire duration of our Region as EAO. In fact it began some years before, at the time of the Australasia Region from which, in fact, it derived its name. We decided to retain the name for the e-letter, calling it austra-L-asia, the 'L', standing for 'link'. But that means 15 years of telling the story of our region, however it might have been called since 1998. Think of this, now, in the light of one comment of the RM's in his latest Strenna:
Salesian literature, Salesian publications, Salesian preaching, the circulars of those in positions of responsibility at various levels, communication within the Salesian Family all need to be on top of the situation. The traditional popular nature of Salesian literature, its widespread dissemination, ought not to mean superficiality in its contents, disinformation, the repetition of an untrustworthy past. Whoever has the gift or the opportunity to write, to form, to educate others needs to ensure that he is constantly updated regarding the subject he talks or writes about. Popular media products need to be of a high quality and of the greatest possible reliability.
That paragraph is both cause for pride and penitence, for austraLasia! But we do our best, and our best has to rely on everyone in the Region. We are different to other communications media in the Congregation in that, from the outset, the philosophy has always been 'every confrere is a correspondent'. One person takes ultimate responsibility for what is published, as it must be, but you, the members of the Salesian Family, are our correspondents! I have taken the liberty of highlighting a couple of elements of the above citation. They apply to us all.
austraLasia began with 10 members at a meeting at Batulao 15 years ago - they agreed to share their email addresses (at a time when email was only just in its early stages of development). That has grown to a thousand. It goes much wider than the region, since Salesians who speak some English anywhere in the world have often asked for it to be sent to them so you'll find it in the UK, Africa, the Americas, Russia! Everywhere in fact. And people respond from everywhere. Yesterday, James Trewby, who heads up the GBR BOVA (Volunteer Association) wrote saying the item reminded him of his year in Pasil (Cebu), and maybe other readers would be interested in a link where other volunteers speak of Christmas in Cebu.
How can austraLasia help with Strenna 2012? Partly by continuing what it does, and doing that better. It has only one aim - to build up the Region and build up the Congregation. But it has many extensions, some less visible than others. It will have been forgotten now, but the large and rather efficient machine now known as BIS (Bosco Information Services) in India began as an offshoot of austraLasia. There are still 100 or so confreres in India, however, who like to continue receiving austraLasia. Salesian Africa is now looking at how it can develop a similar service, and see austraLasia as a possible simple model (except that it would need to run in three languages!). Just as an aside, Salesian Africa has come to th e escue of French translation! Given the desperate situation - we were quite unable to find people to help out with translation of so much material available on sdb.org - a dozen French-speaking confreres from Africa, only two of them with a French mother tongue experience, put their names forward to help and are now busy beavering away at documentary and other material. Question, in the light of this - do austraLasia items get translated into our regional languages?
And nobody would be aware, except the individuals who write on a regular basis asking to be put in touch with so-and-so, or to be sent such-and-such, how the medium functions to connect individuals around the world. SDL (Salesian Digital Library) grew out of austraLasia, initially as a response to these requests. It now contains some 300,000 items in 40 collections and 23 languages, and might well be the largest collection of material readily available, by any Congregation today. And I suppose you could say that Salesian Termbase also grew out of it, given the need that so many people have evidenced, to have a ready reference for terms and a kind of brief compendium of 'Salesian stuff'.
As it all comes back to the 1500 individuals in the Region, plus other members of the Salesian Family spread around the globe who like to make use of these items to build up the Congregation, perhaps I can leave you with a few questions:
Do I make use of these 'aids' in building up our Region and our Congregation, our Salesian Family?
Have I ever considered how I might contribute to them?
Have I actively promoted them, encouraged non-receivers or users to join in?
How can I improve them?
Answers to these questions will form part of our response to Strenna 2012.
Tackling Strenna 2012 in our Region
Thanks to ANS and sdb.org at Congregational level, the Salesian inspiration for the year (the year which begins 1st January and finishes 31st December!), which is the Strenna, is rapidly made available, and then subsequently active digital natives, amongst others, add to this in many ways. One thinks back to the 'Yellow Umbrella' which became a Youtube favourite! This year too, one notes that an active digital native from our Region has already placed the Strenna on his Youtube account, and that has helped overcome a temporary glitch in the 'official' version's streaming.
Could not help but notice that our Region gains one particular mention towards the end of the Strenna, or at least a member of our Region does: Fr Lawrie Moate (Australia-Pacific) is credited as the source for the RM's second anecdote (the first being the dream at nine years of age, of course). What struck me there was the particular context for this source at the time - the way we tell the story of ourselves and our confreres on Jubilee occasions. These are wonderful occasions because, while it is also good to speak well of the dead, it is better still to speak well of the living!
Which led to another thought over these days, reading through the Strenna, and it is to do directly with austraLasia. You will note that this particular medium of communication is nearing its 3000th edition, and that it has covered the entire duration of our Region as EAO. In fact it began some years before, at the time of the Australasia Region from which, in fact, it derived its name. We decided to retain the name for the e-letter, calling it austra-L-asia, the 'L', standing for 'link'. But that means 15 years of telling the story of our region, however it might have been called since 1998. Think of this, now, in the light of one comment of the RM's in his latest Strenna:
Salesian literature, Salesian publications, Salesian preaching, the circulars of those in positions of responsibility at various levels, communication within the Salesian Family all need to be on top of the situation. The traditional popular nature of Salesian literature, its widespread dissemination, ought not to mean superficiality in its contents, disinformation, the repetition of an untrustworthy past. Whoever has the gift or the opportunity to write, to form, to educate others needs to ensure that he is constantly updated regarding the subject he talks or writes about. Popular media products need to be of a high quality and of the greatest possible reliability.
That paragraph is both cause for pride and penitence, for austraLasia! But we do our best, and our best has to rely on everyone in the Region. We are different to other communications media in the Congregation in that, from the outset, the philosophy has always been 'every confrere is a correspondent'. One person takes ultimate responsibility for what is published, as it must be, but you, the members of the Salesian Family, are our correspondents! I have taken the liberty of highlighting a couple of elements of the above citation. They apply to us all.
austraLasia began with 10 members at a meeting at Batulao 15 years ago - they agreed to share their email addresses (at a time when email was only just in its early stages of development). That has grown to a thousand. It goes much wider than the region, since Salesians who speak some English anywhere in the world have often asked for it to be sent to them so you'll find it in the UK, Africa, the Americas, Russia! Everywhere in fact. And people respond from everywhere. Yesterday, James Trewby, who heads up the GBR BOVA (Volunteer Association) wrote saying the item reminded him of his year in Pasil (Cebu), and maybe other readers would be interested in a link where other volunteers speak of Christmas in Cebu.
How can austraLasia help with Strenna 2012? Partly by continuing what it does, and doing that better. It has only one aim - to build up the Region and build up the Congregation. But it has many extensions, some less visible than others. It will have been forgotten now, but the large and rather efficient machine now known as BIS (Bosco Information Services) in India began as an offshoot of austraLasia. There are still 100 or so confreres in India, however, who like to continue receiving austraLasia. Salesian Africa is now looking at how it can develop a similar service, and see austraLasia as a possible simple model (except that it would need to run in three languages!). Just as an aside, Salesian Africa has come to th e escue of French translation! Given the desperate situation - we were quite unable to find people to help out with translation of so much material available on sdb.org - a dozen French-speaking confreres from Africa, only two of them with a French mother tongue experience, put their names forward to help and are now busy beavering away at documentary and other material. Question, in the light of this - do austraLasia items get translated into our regional languages?
And nobody would be aware, except the individuals who write on a regular basis asking to be put in touch with so-and-so, or to be sent such-and-such, how the medium functions to connect individuals around the world. SDL (Salesian Digital Library) grew out of austraLasia, initially as a response to these requests. It now contains some 300,000 items in 40 collections and 23 languages, and might well be the largest collection of material readily available, by any Congregation today. And I suppose you could say that Salesian Termbase also grew out of it, given the need that so many people have evidenced, to have a ready reference for terms and a kind of brief compendium of 'Salesian stuff'.
As it all comes back to the 1500 individuals in the Region, plus other members of the Salesian Family spread around the globe who like to make use of these items to build up the Congregation, perhaps I can leave you with a few questions:
Do I make use of these 'aids' in building up our Region and our Congregation, our Salesian Family?
Have I ever considered how I might contribute to them?
Have I actively promoted them, encouraged non-receivers or users to join in?
How can I improve them?
Answers to these questions will form part of our response to Strenna 2012.
