Tuesday, 7 November 2006

Introduction

This is my first attempt at blogging. It's an experiment in accountability (keeping a rough note of my day-to-day activities), the promotion of Watford CVS (so our members can see what we get up to on their behalf). I've also a vague expectation that it might help me keep some perspective on things.

Of course I've no idea how things will actually work out.

At one point I thought the Worst Case Scenario was that no-one will ever become aware of this blog, and I'd simply have wasted a few hours. But I now realise that an Even Worse Case Scenario is that the blog might expose the humdrum mundanity and pointlessness of it all.

But these are the risks we run. And I like to think I have a positive and cheery disposition, so here we go ...

This morning's traffic

Traffic wasn't too bad this morning and I arrived a bit before 8:00 AM. Stop me if this is too much detail.

After deleting the usual 30-odd e-mail offering me Viagra and sure-fire investments, I spent the early part of the morning preparing papers to table at my trustees meeting tomorrow night, and preparing for a meeting on Friday to look at the IT needs of voluntary organisations in Watford and Hertfordshire as a whole.

I also found on my desk an electricity bill for £15,722.07. Fortunately, this invoice isn't made out to Watford CVS. But it is addressed another voluntary organisation that we used to share offices with until very recently, and with which we share an electricity supply. I make several telephone calls to find out what is going on, but the most I can discover is that there seems to have been some confusion. Watch this space.

One Watford

In the afternoon, I attended a meeting of the One Watford group - the group chaired by our Mayor that oversees Watford's Local Strategic Plan. We heard about plans for "No Smoking Watford", and about the new Watford Children's Trust. We also looked at plans for future meetings including in February 2007 a focus on voluntarism.

Within Hertfordshire, Local Strategic Plans from each of the ten boroughs and districts are meant to co-ordinate with the county-wide Local Area Agreement. The Big Problem at present seems to be the absence of a clear steer from Herts County Council. There are lots of County-wide targets, including "stretch" targets for which central government promises financial rewards. But what do these targets mean for individual districts and boroughs within the County?

An example will help ...

County-wide, there is a target that by 2009, 17% of adults will do voluntary work for two or more hours a week. At present the County-wide figure is just 14%. Simple? But the baseline figure of 14% was established by a public survey which produced a baseline figure for Watford of just 6%. But the survey was designed to produce a reliable figure for Hertfordshire as a whole. What statistical reliance can be placed on a sample survey of just 100 people in Watford?
On other measures, Watford fared rather better. 85% of Watfordians think Watford is a place where "people from different backgrounds get on well together". The County-wide baseline is just 74%, and the target for 2009 is just 76%. So on this, Watford is already well ahead of the game.

Clearly someone, somewhere needs to be co-ordinating things. But who?

A stiff letter coming on

Back in the office, I revisited my e-mail in-box to discover that the latest edition of the Third Sector magazine carries an article headed ""Hertfordshire reveals itself to be the least Compact-friendly county in the country". Those unfamiliar with voluntary sector jargon need to understand that this does not mean that Hertfordshire people have some innate aversion to anything squashy or dense. In this context, "compacts" are the agreements between voluntary sector organisations and statutory authorities. As joint chair of the Hertfordshire Compact Group, I was naturally unsettled by the article. The Funding and Partnership Manager at Herts County Council said he was "aghast", as well he might be after hte work he has done to strengthen the Hertfordshire Compact.

On reading the article, it transpires that 360 local authorities have published Compacts, 22 local authorities have plans to publish their Compacts, and only 6 local authorities have no plans at present. The article names the six offenders as Brentwood in Essex, Allerdale in Cumbria, the City of London, the Scilly Isles, and Three Rivers and Welwyn Hatfield, both in Hertfordshire.

Yet we know that work is progressing in these districts, and that in the County as a whole the Compact is well supported. I feel a stiff letter coming on.

Trustees

I took one last look through the papers for my trustees meeting tomorrow night. So much is going on that several papers have to be tabled. This isn't ideal of course, but in this instance it really can't be avoided.

And so to bed

It is now nearly half past six, and I am off home to another wonderful evening of domestic bliss. Seriously. I just hope that our aged cat Ken has now learnt to use the new cat-flap.