Euregia 2006
With no doubt, the so called 3rd Sector on the international labour market is an important factor, which is-from it's content-very different from ordinary companies or governmental institutions. And in fact, this market increases not rapidly but constantly as Eckhard Priller and Annette Zimmer described in their essay Dritter Sektor: Arbeit als Engagement in the 12 issue of Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 2006.
The Socio Cultural Centre KuHstall e. V. in Grosspoesna, fits exactly in the definition of an organisation, which acts upon the ground of thoughts like culture for everybody and by everybody. And in a braoder sense, it fits exactly in the definition of an employer from the 3rd sector too: Open to each inhabitant not only from Grosspoesna but from the region and Leipzig in general, our centre offers just to sum up courses in dance, painting for kids, and acts as a cultural event organiser.
Field trips in the south of Leipzig's former mining sites, lectures on specific topics from the history of the region, the regional historical developments and structural changes and political problems of our society, concerts, readings, and exhibitions are given beneath the project development such as SMART.
Under the umbrella of our centre, many different culture based projects are under development. Firstly the Mining-Technology-Parc, which is a so called Living Museum, is on its way to be realised and established. Secondly a small museum which shows the reality of medical support in the warfare of the 19. century with the background of the "Voelkerschlacht" 1813. Thirdly speaking of a professional sound studio called Picturesound, which is mainly developed as a fund raising instrument. On the other hand, there are some more organisational projects. Live on stage for instance is one of the major events for young talents in pop music, a competition accompanied by workshops which are held two times each year. Furthermore, the KuHstall delivers services for events, such as sound and vision, and catering too. This is - friendly speaking - just an excerpt of our activities.
Who realises all these matters? Besides a full time manager, two part time persons are working at the KuHstall: a professional bookkeeper and an event manager, who is responsible for the half years program. There is another full timer, but with a contract limited for a year (which is me), who's responsible for two projects, one of them is SMART. The rest of our employees are participants of the government's employment creation scheme, or the so called One Euro Job. Besides this, the KuHstall engages volunteers (each year one young person in a measurement called Voluntary cultural year which substitutes the unvoluntary military service. Furthermore there are some members of the staff which are paid by honorarium contracts, and in fact there are a few but very committed persons, offering the spare time in many different ways.
So far so good, one might sum up. What a flourishing institution! Isn't it? Yes, but ... and this but is quite a big one.
In theory, the 3rd sector maybe one of the best parts of a vivid, active, and democracy aware part of the whole labour market in our societies. We are working there, because we are convinced of the benefit of our work for all. We deliver the opportunity of socio-cultural integration, and socialisation too. But sometimes it seems to me, that each of us is drowning by the amount of work. But this isn't the only problem. Think of a project like SMART: Together with the National Museum in Cracow, we develop an internet platform to increase the touristical attractivity of the museum and to extend the service of our Picturesound studio with internet services. After finishing the developments and launching the site, I should be able to generate this new business field for Picturesound and to offer the service to potential customers from small enterprises, which are generally not that rich to afford for instance a content management system. But in fact, after these project experiences, I need a course in this specia
l software administration business, and for me, to stay in the business in the way to be paid regularly contract based or as an ordinary employee, I must acquire clients or which is more efficiently and easily be done acquire money by fund raising means, such as SMART, again. The same problem exists with all of our employees working on the basis of time limited contracts.
The result is in general a continuously hurrying after jobs and money with the fact of a a bunch of unfinished projects. Is that really sustainability? I'm not sure.
What is behind all this? We need to extent our activities to get awareness of the public as well as of our governmental instruments of support. But time limitations of these instruments and an ongoing shrinking of cultural funds are contra productive in regard to the needs of the region. Maybe this is a vicious circle, and maybe you have any ideas to solve this problem. This would be a gentle help for all of us estimated 3 million workers in the 3rd sector.
