I think I just got paid with a hug.  Full of the joys of social media surgeoning  Lorna Prescott from Dosti put her arms around me and said thank you.  (sorry Lorna for being embarrasing and thank you!)

It is really one of the reasons I love social media surgeries – they make me happy and they seem to make others happy too.

This was the first Dudley Social Media Surgery, organised by the remorseless energy of Melissa Guest from Dudley CVS and Lorna.  We had been involved with some work helping them pland and organise the surgery and some social reporter training as part of the Black Country Take Part Pathfinder programme.

30 people turned up and the proportion of surgeons to patients was just right.  This rather dark video shows just how busy and absorbed people were:

I shared the evening with two wonderful people.  Michael Dennis  turned up thinking he was there to get some help for the St Thomas Community Network – but because he does web development  he got wordpress ganged into being a surgeon.  It turned out Michael also run a successful ning network for foster carers.

Michael worked with Jackie McGuirk from Dudley Lions.

He helped her understand why social media might help their work.  She said up a blog and wrote here first post (and this jackie is your first trackback).  The worst part for Michael seemed to me interviewing them both:

Great evening and a great start to surgeries in Dudley.