Thursday, 23 November 2006

Six monthly monitoring

I arrived at work around 7:30 after driving through some very stormy weather. Anne was already settling into her new office and provided me with some very welcome cups of tea. I cleared out my e-mail and then Anne and I met again to review our Reaching Communities bid.

Our server crashed. It has happened twice before but has been ok on re-booting. This morning, it crashed, was re-booted, then crashed again an hour later, before finally stablilising.

At 10:00, WCVS had its half yearly monitoring visit from Kim at Watford Borough Council. She was satisfied with our reports and data, and seemed pelased with the many changes being made here.

Disability Law Service

After replying to sundry e-mails, I left the office around 1:30 to visit the Disability Law Service in Whitechapel. The group provides specialist legal advice to disabled people and their carers, and I have been involved, mostly as a trustee, for six or seven years. Their Director Linda is currently trying to steer the organisation through the Lord Chancellor’s new proposals for funding advice agencies and it seems clear to me that he is making a complete hash of the re-organisation.

After a talk with Linda, I spent an hour or so with their finance officer, Natalia, talking through the trustees’ need for clearer financial reports. She is a good and intelligent accountant and understands the issues.

Doctor's Tonic

I arrived back in Welwyn Garden City at around 7:30, and after eating, Jackie and I popped into town to visit the Doctor’s Tonic. This is WGC’s old cottage hospital, now a town centre pub and WGC’s premier music venue. The licence has now been taken over by our friends Bill and Angie, and this is their opening night. The place is very busy and Jackie and I meet lots of old friends. Jackie’s daughter Rhiannon is helping out behind the bar. We have time for a quick chat with our hosts and wish them well. Alan, a porter at the local hospital, is forming a band and wants to know if I will play drums. How would I find the time? But I like Alan a lot and of course I am flattered, so I tell him to give me a call.