This year has had its own page on Wikipedia since 2009 thanks to speculation about the Mayan Calendar, which gave rise to the 2012 phenomenon.  It’s also an Olympic year, a Leap year, the year of the Dragon, Alan Turing year, International year of cooperatives and of course, the year the Happy City Initiative runs rampant.

Before we do that however, we thought we ought to take a quick look at where we’ve been.  A good friend of ours is fond of saying ‘don’t forget to have winter’ because we tend to keep on going right through the year without slowing down.  Since we’re just as much a part of nature as the seasons, we do need to make space for reflection and recovery. So here’s a quick recap of our journey through 2011...

January
Completed first UWE internship; Mark Williamson (Director of Action for Happiness) inspired by visit to Bristol;   Happiness Roadshow day in Lawrence Weston

February
Participated in ‘A World In Waiting’ at Colston Hall; Became screening partner for ‘The Economics of Happiness’

March
22 events in the Knowle West HappyFest; Public Talk at Watershed with Nic Marks (New Economics Foundation); First year celebration

April
Moved HQ to Guild Heritage; Presented at National Launch of Action for Happiness, London; Eldan Goldenberg (Seattle Happiness Initiative) visited UK and formed Bristol/Seattle accord.

July
Mission Improbable recruited new ‘Agents of Happiness’; World’s first Twitterati Party, Queen’s Sq; Gratitude Currency launched; Happy City Stage at Harbourside Festival; Gained Charitable Status

August
Won Awards for All Big Lottery Grant for Community Voice

September
Half Marathon effort raised £1500; Presented to Regional board of National Trust; Presented to Rotary Club of Bristol; First Schools Staff workshop; Won Research contract with NHS Bristol Public Health Team on ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’

October
Moved HQ to Kuumba; Presented to Churches Social Responsibility Network; Happy City News Team Recruited; Bristol 247 Began publishing on Happiness;

November
Community Voice Workshops began; Happy City Film Club Launched; University of Michigan agreed to collaborate on measures of Happiness; Formally announced intent to showcase Bristol as global leader in happiness to Bristol City Council

December
Happiness Challenge Announced

We also spent a great deal of time doing ‘invisible’ work, developing project ideas, making potential partnership connections, writing funding bids, researching ways of evaluating happiness for policy makers, writing newsletters and blogs. As ever, none of what we’ve achieved would have been possible without the wonderful support of our inspiring volunteers.   Thank You, thank you, thank you!!

We plan to release our first Annual Report with detail about the developing projects and more about our plans for 2012 at the end of the month.

Here’s aSingle Spot for this week - International Homemade HobNob Day is once again here to bust the January blues, so watch out for a massive ‘HobNob Handout’ on 7th January coordinated by the fabulous Steph Wetherell and The Love of It group.