Tuesday, 21 November 2006

Commuting again

At around 7:30 am, I was sitting in my car with the engine turned off, stuck on the A414 south of St Albans. I swore. I particularly swore that in future I will do all I can to avoid driving the 25 miles to Watford during the rush hour. In clear traffic, the journey takes around 45 minutes. In the rush hour, a minimum of an hour. Sometimes two. This morning it took me two and a quarter hours.

I arrived at nearly ten o-clock. Farzana, WCVS’s new Connexions worker, had arrived for our 9:30 introductory meeting and Sue had already been given her a tour of the building and introduced her to new colleagues. Refreshed with a welcome cup of tea from Sue, Farzana and I began our meeting straight away.

Although she had been through a recruitment process with the Watford Racial Equality Council, this had been early in the summer. This morning was my first meeting with Farzana and she knew little about the work that lay before her. Accordingly, we spoke together for about two hours, covering the demise of WREC, the structure of WCVS, her induction programme, working methods, contract details, key performance measures and targets, key contacts, monitoring and supervision, communications, technology, and so on. Farzana asked intelligent questions and seemed to take everything in. I left her at 12:00 to introduce herself to the Connexions team opposite us on the High Street.

I met again with Anne to talk through her detailed reworking of our partnership bid to Reaching Communities. We agreed on some further changes.

A postponed meeting

After some further brief talks to other colleagues, I met with Sue to talk about the Voluntary Sector Alliance meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. She reported that we had received more than a dozen apologies already, and only three confirmed attenders. The intention of the meeting was to talk through key points from WCVS’s new strategic plan, and identify a new more focused role for the VSA meetings. It seemed unlikely that I would secure the necessary concensus with only three people present. After a brief chat with Sue, I decided the only option was to postpone the meeting until after Christmas. I invited Sue to select a new date from my diary and advise people asap.

New Hope Trust

At 2:00, I left the office for a meeting at the New Hope Trust. It was started by a handful of Christian worshippers who noticed small groups of homeless people camping out in St Mary’s churchyard. Determined not to “pass by on the other side”, these Christians befriended the homeless and asked what they could do to help. Less than ten years after this, the New Hope Trust is one of the voluntary sector’s great success stories in Watford and now offers a range of short- and long-term accommodation, as well as activities, training and social support.

Although an unashamed atheist, I have no general prejudice against religion and take people as I find them. At the New Hope Trust, I find people utterly dedicated to helping others, and extremely efficient at organising programmes of practical support. There is some Christian symbolism and decoration, and the staff and volunteers are quite clear that their faith provides their inspiration and motivation. But this is after all a free country, and Watford is a community enriched by diverse cultures and beliefs.

The purpose of my visit this afternoon was to talk about developing databases to streamline some of their administrative systems. After a brief talk through data structures and business goals, I leave promising to provide a database template before Christmas.

From the New Hope Trust I drive straight to Welwyn Garden City, cunningly avoiding the rush hour, and arriving in time to collect my new glasses from the optician.