Nigel Cameron: A Life Intertwined | The Totem Skateboarding Collective (Ep 275).

We call them a community activation, and so we have our set process about what we might wanna run the day like.

So it'd be get a workshop for the young kids, and then to engage more families, and then a mentoring session for the older kids that can skate a bit better, and then maybe a, um, a jam at the end of the day.

So I kinda design all the programs around what the council or the client want, and so that can take some time sometimes.

Uh, they kinda give us ideas about what they wanna do in their community.

So there's initial communication back and forth-

Yeah

... which can sometimes take how long? Weeks?

Um, weeks, yeah.

Okay.

So weeks, and then finally kinda come to a conclusion about what they, who they wanna engage with, how I make it, like, engageable for the right demographic.

So if it's...

They might have some key outcomes that w- they want it, um, for that community in particular, like bullying or, like, you know, maybe some graffiti or something that we might wanna work into our programs.

And then so yeah, after a bit of negotiation, we settle on a, on a, a structure, and then the other thing is this is just one way, [chuckles] that's just one event r- regarding the program design.

Um, when we do a program, if it's in, I don't know, Bourke, which is really far away from here, if we were to do one, it would be too expensive to get us out there.

So, you know, two days drive there, two days drive back, like, it just blows the budget.

So obviously, [lip smack] um, when we organize one job, if it's in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of, I shouldn't say that, but in the middle of New South Wales, we kinda can't just do that one job.

We have to kind of also invite other communities to be a part of a, a tour.

So that's where the tours come into it.

We kind of group that work together to make it more cost-effective.

So one job kinda can't exist in some areas without another job.

So [chuckles] that in itself takes a lot of negotiation and ano- a lot of, like, organizing.

Problem-solving?

Problem-solving, yeah, but also, yeah, so many different levels of, you know, putting a tour together.

But, um, yeah, so after you've designed what you need to deliver, and then there's also, uh, is it manageable to have that as a one-off job, or do we have to put work around it? And then that is also, then you're starting again with another client or another council.

So then it just, it's m- it's literally we, we'll take maybe three to four months, three to four months of planning Of like what type of event, what day works, what time are we gonna run this? You know, we'll start to put posters and pro- promotion together.