We study a model of interacting thermally-activated subsystems which can be thought of as a hybrid between the glass model of Bouchaud and the the Bak-Sneppen model of self-organised criticality. The model has two parameters, a temperatureTand an interaction frequencyz. By considering the model in its mean field form, it is shown that Bouchaud’s trap model and the Bak-Sneppen model are recovered in the limitsz=0andT→0+,respectively. The consequences of recent claims of aging in the critical state are also discussed. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.