Steal this idea: The Lighthouse Project

The universe steals a lot of my ideas and gives them to people who are more likely to do something with them. I'm okay with that, but sometimes I feel it needs a nudge with the redistribution. The idea is worth having, but I'm not the person who can execute it. So I invite anyone who can to steal the ideas I offer and make them happen.

This one is for the creation of a charity (or NPC): 

The Lighthouse Project.

The gift of space

The institution I work for is one of several places that have a multi-faith chaplaincy. There is a chaplaincy team that provides spiritual support for anyone who needs it, regardless of which religion they belong to (even if they don't belong to one at all). This in itself is quite nice, but the MFC does something else which is (in my opinion) more tangibly useful: they provide a space.

The Chaplaincy building provides a space for groups to meet that they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. Small faith groups, that don't really have the numbers to be able to qualify as a "congregation" or an "organisation", but still need a place to meet and share their faith together. I'm talking about things like a Tibetan Buddhist group that sometimes has as many as eight people, but normally only has three. Or a Christian denomination from a refugee community that barely rustles up ten people on a good day.

These groups wouldn't be able to hire a space, but thanks to the MFC, they're able to book a room and get together to practise their faith and do a spot of community building.  The MFC building also has rooms for meditation and a Muslim prayer room.

It's a fantastic service. Unfortunately it has no money and the building is in serious need of some work. I've been there a couple of times myself to use the meditation room, and I felt not so much "restored" as "bummed out" by my time in that space. I keep thinking fondly of a couple of other chapels I've visited in the past few years, which had a light bright feeling to them and a pleasant outlook from the windows. A pleasant space can make a world of difference when you are seeking spiritual balm.

The curse of space

Now, at the same time, I've been part of several conversations in a few different churches over the years talking about the problem of buildings. Once upon a time, everyone went to church on a Sunday. There may have been a few people who didn't, but most people did - so it made perfect financial sense to have church buildings in every community.

These days the attendance numbers are so low that you can have a church building capable of holding over 200 people that only sees about 30 on a Sunday morning. You might also have an evening service (but, increasingly, most churches don't), and you might have a midweek prayer group or bible study in the church itself - but really most non-Sunday-morning activities for the majority of churches happen in the hall (and that's a whole 'nother building!).

It's worse in the country towns, where there weren't that many people to start off with, the population keeps dropping, and now most people don't attend church on a Sunday morning.

So now you get situations where a small country town has (at a conservative estimate) at least three church buildings (Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian - maybe also Baptist and a couple of others) which are all largely empty for most of the week. Since some of these churches are being run by dioceses that can only afford to send a priest along once a month, they're largely empty for most of the month. 

In the meantime, the congregations and churches who own the buildings are still paying rates and insurance and trying to keep up with maintenance on buildings that they can't really afford any more.

The gift of space

So, here's my idea for a charity:  The Lighthouse Project.

The Lighthouse Project will be in the "business" of providing a space for all religious/faith groups that need one. They will provide and maintain a building with at least one auditorium and a number of smaller meeting rooms (and a few meditation/prayer rooms). They will be responsible for keeping the building nice and maintaining a garden space to give it good vibes.

Instead of driving themselves bankrupt trying to maintain all of their separate "God Boxes" (as a priest I was talking to once referred to them), the mainstream churches (Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc) can hire the Lighthouse in the town. You could probably fit at least six services in the building on the weekend for different denominations, and the meeting rooms would be available to take all of those activities that would happen in the church halls. Other community groups would be able to hire out the space during the week, for running conferences and what have you.

With many hands making light work, the cost of running services in the Lighthouse should be much easier to bear than the cost of maintaining a church, a hall and a vicarage/presbytery/manse/whatever.

The money charged to the "big" faith groups would enable the building to be provided to the small groups (the ones that can't afford to rent a space) free of charge.

The Lighthouse can also provide a secretariat service which is (once again) paid for by the larger groups in order to offer a charitable service to the smaller ones. No longer do small faith groups who have approximately five members - all over the age of 60 and largely computer illiterate - have to work out how to maintain their own website. They can just have a page on the Lighthouse's website, run and maintained by the Lighthouse's staff, so all they need to do is provide up-to-date information.*

A multi-faith space

Essentially, the Lighthouse Project is a multi-faith chaplaincy on steroids. I see a future with a Lighthouse in every town - a beautiful building that provides a pleasant space for people of every faith.

*Yes, I know they will almost never do this.

Things that should exist: Horn Mufflers and Practice Closets.

So, here are a couple of things I want to exist, but I don't have the wherewithal to make them myself, so I'm giving the ideas to the world for free:  Music "Mufflers" and Practice Closets.

One of the main reasons why I don't practise any brass instruments on a regular basis is that I'm usually home at night, my walls are thin, and my neighbours don't need a reason to hate me.

When I mentioned to my mother that I was thinking of getting either a horn or a euphonium she practically threw something at me, before saying the immortal words:

"Must you?  You're terrible."

Now, I can't take offence at that, because I *am* terrible.  It's a known side effect of a) inexperience, and b) lack of practice.

To sound less terrible I would have to play more often.  I don't play very often because I sound terrible.

I don't, in theory, mind sounding terrible while I work on getting better.  It's what you're supposed to do.  Everyone sounds like crap playing every instrument, at first.  It takes time to get good at these things.

The trouble with brass, though, is that it's REALLY LOUD.

I mean, REALLY LOUD.

If, like me, you're nervous about ticking off the neighbours too much, then you feel reluctant to practise properly or often, because the sound carries sooooo darn far, and it sounds quite awful.

You can use a mute, sure, but they don't really lessen the sound as much as you may think.  And they make it hard to play.  You don't sound quite right.  You're not breathing the way you would without the mute.

The best thing to do would find yourself one of those sound-proof rehearsal rooms they have in music schools.  But what if you don't have a handy music school?

This is where the Practice Closet comes in.  Imagine a cupboard, just big enough to fit a person with a chair and a music stand in it (tall enough to stand in, wide enough to move your elbows - maybe different sizes depending on the instrument), that's got sound-proof padding on the walls.  Also air-holes, at least one window and a light, so you don't suffocate or freak out from the sensory deprivation.

This would take up about as much space in your house as a regular closet (a bit shorter in one dimension, and a bit bigger in another), and would give you a space to play as loudly as you need to without too much noise getting out to affect the rest of your household/neighbourhood.

I expect the people in your house would still cop a bit of noise, but hopefully it wouldn't be too obnoxious.

This is something that could work for all musicians.  You'd need a pretty big closet for the pianists and drummers, though.

The Muffler idea is more specifically for brass, and it's an evolution of the mute.  It doesn't wedge into the instrument, but rather boxes around the bell.  There's the same sound-proofing in the box, and some material to wrap around the rest of the horn to dampen the sound coming through the tubing.

It would allow the air to move more freely, so you'd still be playing it more or less like you would au naturel, but the sound would be caught to an extent by the box, rather than squeaking through a mute.

If you decide to make either of these things, please offer me a prototype to test.

Released into the wild - Home Away From Home Schooling

So, here's something I've been thinking of trying ever since I realised just how much I hate classroom teaching:

Home schooling other people's children.

I think there must be people out there who would like their kids homeschooled, but can't do it themselves. Surely it would be possible for an enterprising person to establish their home as a "private school", which is really more of a daycare centre for school-aged children? The "house parent" can then act as the tutor, guiding the kids through their distance-education programme, just like an actual parent would in a normal home schooling environment.

It would be perfect for a retired teacher or someone with an education background who isn't interested in working in a school environment any more, and I think a small class of ten or fifteen kids from various ages would make for an interesting "family" environment - one that might help some students more than being in a cage with fellow rabid monkeys... er, sorry... a class with twenty-or-so of their peers.

Plus, if the "teacher" is actually a tutor - helping the students impress the markers, rather than marking the students, it would make the learning process more of a team effort.

And as long as everyone is on-track, curriculum wise, the school day can be augmented by all sorts of activities you can do with a small "family" group, but can't do with a "normal" class in a "normal" school - things like everyone getting together in the kitchen to make a meal for lunch, or everyone going down to the park for some afternoon exercise.

If you had a class of about 15, and all of those private school fees were going into paying the wage of one teacher (or a class of 20-25 supporting two teachers - one for primary and one for secondary, or one for humanities and one for sciences), then the vast bulk of the fees would be funnelled back into providing resources directly for those children. Your child's school fees aren't going towards the upkeep of the soccer pitch regardless of whether or not he or she plays soccer - they are going into whatever your kid is actually doing.

I don't rightly know what you'd call this, though. I'm leaning towards "Pod Schooling" - largely because I like playing with collective nouns, but also because it's not exactly "home schooling" if it's at someone else's home, but it's not exactly a school, either.

Someone out there go and try it, and then tell me how it works out.

Released into the wild - the Fastpacker's Swag

My cousin, Joel, has been talking about ideas on his blog.

Specifically, he's been talking about the way we jealously guard our ideas, even if we don't have the skills or means to do anything about them. Even though we can't do anything with the idea, we seem reluctant to release it into the wild to see if anyone else can make it happen.

This is, as Joel would confirm, odd, because it means we may never see our ideas brought into reality - and for some reason we are equally depressed by the idea of our ideas coming to nothing as we are by the idea of someone else realising them.

Anyway, I have seen the wisdom of his comments, so I have an idea that I would like to release into the wild. Anyone who can make this is welcome to. I won't be asking for any acknowledgement or royalties - I only ask that you don't try to keep the idea for yourself (no patenting, in other words - share and share alike).

My idea is:

The Fastpacker's Swag

Fastpackers (that's an American term, but I don't know what we call it in this hemisphere) like to go hiking at a rather fast pace. That is, they run. They run for several days through the wilderness, and like to travel light (what with all the running).

Because of this, they tend to avoid taking most of the stuff that a normal hiker would take - like a complete tent or a full-sized sleeping mat.

A swag (that's an Australian term, but I don't know what it is called in the northern hemisphere) is like a combination between a sleeping bag, tent and sleeping mat. They can involve a bit of a vestibule, for you to keep your back out of the rain, and may involve a single tent pole or a guy rope.

It is usually made of canvas and involves a full mat, but if you could make one out of a lighter (water proof) material, with a mummy style torso mat (with cut-outs to reduce the weight) and make the mat section inflatable so that you get the extra cushioning of the air, you could probably reduce the size and weight of the swag considerably.

So much so, that it might serve as a complete replacement for tent/mat/sleeping bag for a fastpacker (take a bag liner instead of a bag). And, of course, you could design it to work with a walking stick instead of a tent pole...

It wouldn't be as comfortable as a proper swag, but fastpacker's gear isn't high on the comfort level anyway.

And, anyway, I want one - so if you make it and it becomes commercially available (or you are aware of such a thing already existing) let me know.