During the last weekend of June, our staff team and board directors met for the first time in over 2 years for a weekend of strategising, planning and team building.
We met up in a central location outside Dingwall called Fairburn Activity Centre, a fantastic outdoor centre in a rural area that provided us with delicious home-cooked food. We were delighted in that our "host" for the weekend was once a local councillor, and so the conversations about rural and island Scotland didn't stop at dinner time!
We covered a range of topics, reflecting on what we have delivered in the last two years and what we are looking ahead towards: notably, how to best recognise and strengthen the rural movement across Scotland. How can we ensure diverse voices are represented and heard, and how can we help connect rural and island stakeholders with each other and with policymakers?
Whilst there are a range of challenges facing rural and island Scotland, SRA collectively felt that so many solutions already exist in these areas and, as our chair championed, "rural will have its day, yet!"
Now we turn our attention towards the next Scottish Rural Parliament, planned for November 2023, as well building upon current and future campaigns and policy development.