Wednesday, 8 November 2006

On reflection, it probably wasn’t a good idea to introduce an elderly cat to a new cat-flap over the weekend of 5 November. But Aged Ken does seem now to have mastered the thing, and no longer needs a doorman and chaperone when visiting the garden.

I arrived home last night to a lovely meal, tackled the Daily Telegraph crossword together with my partner and then we had an early night. Is there a more civilized way to spend an evening?

I spent this morning’s drive to work listening to Sarah Kennedy on Radio 2, and then put on a CD of the North’s own Noel Coward, Jake Thackray: The Castleford Ladies Magic Circle, Brother Gorilla, and my own favourite Caroline Diggeby-Pratte (“someone will love you hopelessly, but it wont be me”).

Today’s Big Question

I arrived for work bright and early, and pleased to see that our fundraising advisor, Anne B was also making an early start. This meant that by 8:00 I had already enjoyed my first cup of tea and spoken with Anne about our application to the Big Lottery’s BASIS fund.

This is the Big Lottery’s dedicated fund for charity infrastructure organisations (charities that provide services to other charities). Nearly every CVS in the country has put forward bids, and of course the fund has been massively oversubscribed and the Big Lottery have twice pushed back their decision data.

In brief, Watford CVS is bidding for a Training Officer to co-ordinate voluntary sector training, and for a part-time accounts advisor to help local groups with their bookkeeping. If we aren’t awarded a grant, it will be a set-back but not a disaster. Some CVSs not properly supported by their local councils are relying on BASIS funding for their survival.

From Hertfordshire, there are ten - twelve bids to BASIS, and each bid will take a week or more to draw up. The future of two to four of these organisations is heavily dependent on securing BASIS funding. The likely outcome is that only one or two bids from the county will receive funding.

And there’s the rub: should BASIS focus support on the CVSs whose survival is threatened, and effectively reward those local authorities who fail to support local voluntarism? Or should they focus support on other CVSs, thereby (perhaps) speeding the closure of infrastructure organisations most in need of support?

This seems to me the Big Question to be examined. But I suspect that the Big Lottery are barely aware of the issue, and are certainly not in a position to spend time exploring it.

Meanwhile, we are refining our outcomes by making them SMART (“Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Related”) and keeping our fingers crossed for ourselves and others.

That Pesky Bill

From our Grants Manager at WBC, the wonderful Kim, I receive advice that we can safely ignore yesterday’s energy bill for £15,722. This covers several years’ power supply for the whole building and is being paid by WBC. Phew!

Other work

I also spent some time this morning reviewing the Watford CVS website. It was probably pretty much state-of-the-art when it was produced, but is now looking a little old fashioned, some key functionality is missing and updating is a bit of a chore. I must have a word with the developers to see what options we have for development.

Then had a long chat with our network support chap about our future IT needs.

Poppies and Wogan

I’m wearing a poppy today ahead of Remembrance Sunday. Remembrance Sunday was once the only day of the year that was nationally recognised as belonging to a particular charity or good cause.

Now the calendar as liberally sprinkled with charity events: Jeans for Genes, Make a Difference Day, Red Nose Day, No Smoking Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Day, World AIDS Day, and so on.

On 17 November, Children in Need will have their special day of fundraising, led by “veteran broadcaster” Terry Wogan and Pudsey Bear. I’m particularly fond of Children in Need because it’s an event that not only raises money for a “good cause” but also gets children involved. It is important, I think, to introduce children to the idea that it is right and proper to devote some time to raising money for those “less fortunate”. Oh dear; I think I might be being pompous and patronising.

Trustees meeting

Tonight was only my second trustees meeting since joining WCVS. In the voluntary sector, people do not take on the role of Company Director for their own private pecuniary benefit; but because they believe in the work of the charity.

I must say I am blessed with a most intelligent, effective and dedicated group of trustees: they are aware of their responsibilities and have excellent knowledge of the local voluntary sector. Most importantly they seem effortlessly to strike a near perfect balance between supporting and challenging their Chief Executive.

The meeting was very went very smoothly: business-like without being fastidious and informal without being loose. Reports were received and decisions taken.

In the News

In America, the Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Vermont elected a candidate standing as an independent Socialist, and Minnesota elected the first Muslim Congressman.

I was also struck by news from the World Bank. They say that of the top twenty nations (in terms of GDP) Britain now has the second most complex tax regime after India. Since Gordon Brown became Chancellor tax regulations have increased to fill 8,300 pages, compared with only 1,300 in France and 1,700 in Germany. Did I hear someone say “de-regulation”?

I was disappointed that Watford lost last night to Newcastle. I was more pleased to see that Southend United beat Manchester United: it’s good to see the underdog win occasionally; although I wont be so pleased tonight if underdogs Port Vale beat Tottenham.