From Eisteddfod to Eisteddfod

With the Eisteddfod on the horizon, Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli is now a longer name and the reach of our language activities has extended in numerous directions since the Urdd Eisteddfod in the Gwendraeth Valley in 1989. Since those early days, Menter Cwm Gwendraeth has changed and indeed evolved, as we provide language services across the valley, but we are now operating across a wider area which poses more challenges today than ever before.

Charles Handy, the guru who became world-famous for leading large companies through the most difficult periods of change in challenging circumstances, said;

“There has been no time in history when change has occurred so rapidly and the speed and direction of these changes produce wider patterns”

As spring comes forth to break the long winter, and as both the economic climate and the country’s economy thrash the rocks of our stability, change is inevitable if we are to survive to face fairer and more fruitful summers for the Welsh language.

Similarly, Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli is also feeling the effects of these seasons in the history of our nation’s companies, both large and small, and has had to respond to the duties we embrace as a Welsh language initiative to develop new and purposeful ways of fulfilling these responsibilities effectively and efficiently.

For us, the winter has been a period of questioning and discussing, researching and listening, compiling and analyzing, assessment and response. The spring brought forth its usual changes, but those changes were much more radical this time around. Reports produced by our language planners are signposts for the changes and directions ahead of us, and also a foundation on which we can build, and encourage us to cut across the usual boundaries and develop an ethos of multi-agency collaboration.

Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli has responded to the challenge and has prepared for these changes by restructuring and focusing on our language and culture plans and the standards of these elements, in line with the intentions of the Assembly and the Language Commissioner, and this is reflected in our staff, departments and businesses.

The first stage in the race to protect the interests of the Welsh language was in Deris’ hands. In time, she passed the baton to Cathryn Ings, temporarily, and her stage was a hive of activity as she prepared for a period and series of internal changes to respond to the challenge posed by the further erosion in the history of the Welsh language.

To this end, the Cwtsh and the café will unite in order to concentrate on more activities for youth and children and our current Chief Executive, Nerys Burton, wishes to develop exciting language plans that draw on modern technology while adhering to the numerous interpersonal and mass successes of the past. Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli’s activities for the Eisteddfod in the Llanelli area promise to be very successful and we congratulate the staff enormously on their success and preparations for this prestigious festival.

Translation is obviously an essential element for all public bodies, and once again Menter Cwm Gwendraeth Elli’s plans are bubbling under the surface and we will be announcing huge changes and a new direction during the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli this year.

In order to ensure that the changes and new direction are in order, and to adopt robust management systems for the company, the directors have also changed somewhat and this is a reflection of their varying backgrounds and fields of interest. We have taken leadership from our chairpersons over the years, and would like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank Gethin Thomas and wish him every success as chair of the National Eisteddfod 2014 in Llanelli. We would also like to thank Councillor Sian Thomas for her application and perseverance through our development, as we move from one period to the next, with all the changes relevant to this period of transition.

Change for survival? This could be our motto, one and all, as we strive to promote the Welsh language.