In this short presentation I will be recounting a little of the history of the creation of the Community Operational Research Unit at the Northern College. I will locate the Unit in the tradition of "Participatory Research" and say something of its setting in the Northern College of Residential Adult Education. I will give some examples of the areas of work that the Unit will tackle and I will draw from these some procedural, methodological and technical issues that it will be necessary for the Unit to take on board. I will, of course, be suggesting that Community Operational Research will develop as a major area of Systems Research and Systems Practice over the next ten years.