A final day in the office before Christmas and the last pre-Christmas postal delivery brings confirmation of our Basis grant. O Joy.
But perhaps the best news of the day is that Jacquie and Steph at North Herts CVS dispatched our HIC Development Plan etc. This is the culmination of several months work - for myself and others as well as Jacquie and Steph. But they have both been magnificent. Wonderful work.
Apart from helping out on some final drafting, I spent the day packing up files and work that I need to have at home. My plan is to draft some documents at home over Christmas. We'll see.
Hapy Christmas everyone.
Thursday, 20 December 2007
I’ve had a very bitty day tidying up loose ends before Christmas – IT orders, IT funding, photocopier contracts, job adverts, parking permits, community transport funding, funding applications, community development strategies, etc etc.
Jackie and I spent a peaceful evening together - me reading and her sewing. Lovely.
Jackie and I spent a peaceful evening together - me reading and her sewing. Lovely.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
The office was very quiet this morning – so many people on leave for Eid or Xmas.
After sorting out a few IT difficulties, I spent the morning contributing to a draft letter to East of England Minister Barbara Follet (complaining about the region’s consistent underfunding by Government agencies) and drafting a letter of my own to Capacitybuilders on a similar theme. After this, I walked down to the YMCA to meet with Phil Willerton on Job Evaluation schemes and on quite a few other matters too. All wonderfully helpful.
Back at the office I spent the afternoon (and early evening) on recruitment documentation for our new BME Advocacy post, and on the HIC Development Plans. Jacquie and Steph of North Herts CVS have really borne the brunt of this and I am hugely impressed by their work.
After sorting out a few IT difficulties, I spent the morning contributing to a draft letter to East of England Minister Barbara Follet (complaining about the region’s consistent underfunding by Government agencies) and drafting a letter of my own to Capacitybuilders on a similar theme. After this, I walked down to the YMCA to meet with Phil Willerton on Job Evaluation schemes and on quite a few other matters too. All wonderfully helpful.
Back at the office I spent the afternoon (and early evening) on recruitment documentation for our new BME Advocacy post, and on the HIC Development Plans. Jacquie and Steph of North Herts CVS have really borne the brunt of this and I am hugely impressed by their work.
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Last night, I made a list of jobs that needed doing – a few letters (proddings and thank-yous), a few orders to be placed, a few system changes finalised, a few meetings planned. Armed with my little list of jobs, I arrived at work about 6:30 am. Apart from a few minor distractions, I worked through until 12:30 pm, and managed to tick off every job on the list. How very satisfying.
Meanwhile, everyone else here had been preparing for the annual Thank You lunch for our trustees and volunteers. There was a good turn-out and everyone enjoyed a very good spread, a few words of thanks from our Chair Pam Handley – and a few words of thanks from me to the irreplaceable Pam Handley. I also introduced my Big Surprise – a Christmas Cake made and nurtured with my own fair hands (warily supervised by Jackie) as a Thank You to all the wonderful trustees, volunteers and staff at Watford CVS. Everyone was very kind about it – perhaps more out of shock than anything.
After a few more hours of work - some tidying up, others like me bashing away at keyboards – we staff met up for our Christmas dinner at Jongleurs Comedy Club on Watford High Street. Our table was right up by the stage so we spent most of the evening on the edge of becoming part of the entertainment.
The Compere for the evening was a pretty amiable chap. Comic #1 was clearly inexperienced and made some unbelievably crass “jokes” about Islamic terrorists. Comic #2 was a bit more confident – but made jokes about fantasy “gypsies” abusing their dogs. Have we somehow rewound to the horrors of the 1970s? Has Bernard Manning risen again? Is it now acceptable to create and mock evil racial caricatures? Comic #3 was far better and genuinely talented and funny - even if he did pick on my lovely colleague Sha-Lee. But I'm sure he at least was sufficiently wise and kind-hearted to know that there are two types of comedy: the funny and the bad.
Jongleurs run a well-oiled comedy club machine: the food was surprisingly edible, and very efficiently distributed to the 400 diners. But occasional good natured hecklers were targeted with venom rather than tolerated with humour. And there were regular pre-recorded announcements reminding people not to talk when the comedians were performing. And there were posters on the walls: We all like to hear a good gag but not from you – if you insist on talking, we’ll insist you leave. I found these rather chilling.
I returned to the office about midnight to learn that Spurs had contrived to win again this evening - that's now three wins on the trot after a record breaking run of 493 consecutive defeats. I must get home now and sleep.
Meanwhile, everyone else here had been preparing for the annual Thank You lunch for our trustees and volunteers. There was a good turn-out and everyone enjoyed a very good spread, a few words of thanks from our Chair Pam Handley – and a few words of thanks from me to the irreplaceable Pam Handley. I also introduced my Big Surprise – a Christmas Cake made and nurtured with my own fair hands (warily supervised by Jackie) as a Thank You to all the wonderful trustees, volunteers and staff at Watford CVS. Everyone was very kind about it – perhaps more out of shock than anything.
After a few more hours of work - some tidying up, others like me bashing away at keyboards – we staff met up for our Christmas dinner at Jongleurs Comedy Club on Watford High Street. Our table was right up by the stage so we spent most of the evening on the edge of becoming part of the entertainment.
The Compere for the evening was a pretty amiable chap. Comic #1 was clearly inexperienced and made some unbelievably crass “jokes” about Islamic terrorists. Comic #2 was a bit more confident – but made jokes about fantasy “gypsies” abusing their dogs. Have we somehow rewound to the horrors of the 1970s? Has Bernard Manning risen again? Is it now acceptable to create and mock evil racial caricatures? Comic #3 was far better and genuinely talented and funny - even if he did pick on my lovely colleague Sha-Lee. But I'm sure he at least was sufficiently wise and kind-hearted to know that there are two types of comedy: the funny and the bad.
Jongleurs run a well-oiled comedy club machine: the food was surprisingly edible, and very efficiently distributed to the 400 diners. But occasional good natured hecklers were targeted with venom rather than tolerated with humour. And there were regular pre-recorded announcements reminding people not to talk when the comedians were performing. And there were posters on the walls: We all like to hear a good gag but not from you – if you insist on talking, we’ll insist you leave. I found these rather chilling.
I returned to the office about midnight to learn that Spurs had contrived to win again this evening - that's now three wins on the trot after a record breaking run of 493 consecutive defeats. I must get home now and sleep.
Monday, 17 December 2007
I experienced one of those curiously muted pre-Christmas work days. I drafted job descriptions and prepared job adverts, checked minutes, talked to member organisations, made appointments and discussed funding bids. But whatever I did, I couldn't shake the feeling that really I was just preparing to put up the shutters for Christmas. It has been a long year.
Sunday, 16 December 2007
Jackie and I walked in Sharrardspark Wood in search of holly for a Christmas decoration: where are the holly berries this year?
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Jackie and I visited Watford to finish our Christmas shopping.
In the evening, Bobby and I cooked a full lamb roast dinner for ourselves, Jackie and Bryan. Neither of us would claim that the meal was a triumph but it was quite tasty and we did avoid disaster - perhaps apart from the roast parsnips. Then we all had a family night together eating and talking and drinking. Very enjoyable.
In the evening, Bobby and I cooked a full lamb roast dinner for ourselves, Jackie and Bryan. Neither of us would claim that the meal was a triumph but it was quite tasty and we did avoid disaster - perhaps apart from the roast parsnips. Then we all had a family night together eating and talking and drinking. Very enjoyable.
Friday, 14 December 2007
A full day at Watford for once. I set up annual review meetings with each of the WCVS staff, met with the Connexions PAs, had some discussions about volunteering and IT and training, and focused a bit better on HIC’s Development Planning.
Jackie was at the Hitchin Priory for her Office Xmas Dinner. She had rejected the Xmas dinner in favour of Dry Salted Cod on a bed of something or other with a white wine sauce. But she was served a Christmas dinner complete with roast potatoes and brussel sprouts; the only difference was that the Turkey had been removed and a portion of cod substituted. Yuck.
I’d have expected better from the Hitchin Priory which dates from the fourteenth century and was held by the Radcliffe family from the dissolution until the twentieth century.
I know this because I spent the evening finishing An Open Elite? England 1540 – 1880 by Lawrence and Jeanne Stone. This is based on some very good research and explores the proposition that England's relatively peaceful transition to modernity was possible because England had a relatively open ruling class. The authors make some interesting points and the research is extremely impressive, being based on detailed analyses of country estates in Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Northumberland. But they seem to miss a trick in assuming that the "ruling elite" comprises only the owners of large landed estates.
Jackie was at the Hitchin Priory for her Office Xmas Dinner. She had rejected the Xmas dinner in favour of Dry Salted Cod on a bed of something or other with a white wine sauce. But she was served a Christmas dinner complete with roast potatoes and brussel sprouts; the only difference was that the Turkey had been removed and a portion of cod substituted. Yuck.
I’d have expected better from the Hitchin Priory which dates from the fourteenth century and was held by the Radcliffe family from the dissolution until the twentieth century.
I know this because I spent the evening finishing An Open Elite? England 1540 – 1880 by Lawrence and Jeanne Stone. This is based on some very good research and explores the proposition that England's relatively peaceful transition to modernity was possible because England had a relatively open ruling class. The authors make some interesting points and the research is extremely impressive, being based on detailed analyses of country estates in Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Northumberland. But they seem to miss a trick in assuming that the "ruling elite" comprises only the owners of large landed estates.
Thursday, 13 December 2007
This morning, I enjoyed a beautiful drive to work through early morning mist and frost. I was back in the office for the first time in a week so inevitably my morning was wholly devoted to reading through scores of e-mails.
In the afternoon, I drove off to Hatfield for a meeting of the Hertfordshire Compact Working Group. Everyone wanted to congratulate Andrew Burt of HCC who has won a national award as Compact Champion, but Andrew was elsewhere having some teeth extracted. He has my congratulations and my sympathy.
Pre-Christmas attendance was low, but of excellent quality: Frances Coupe and Susan Street from HCC, Martin Sipsma of LSC, Peter Wright from the PCTs, Mary Green from Three Rivers CVS, Jacquie Hime from North Herts CVS, Kate Belinis from CDA for Herts and Phil Willerton from Watford YMCA. At the end, there was unanimous agreement on a clear way forward for taking the Compact into its second decade. In short, this involves a clear focus on Principles, Partnership and Promotion.
From Hatfield, I returned to Watford to attend pre-Christmas drinks at the Town Hall at the invitation of the Mayor. A very pleasant interlude. Then back to the office for a few hours more work. At 8:00 in the evening we were quite a hive of activity: Helen was working on volunteering initiatives, Maria was hosting a meeting of Watford’s emerging Polish Association, and the Credit Union were meeting in the main boardroom.
In the afternoon, I drove off to Hatfield for a meeting of the Hertfordshire Compact Working Group. Everyone wanted to congratulate Andrew Burt of HCC who has won a national award as Compact Champion, but Andrew was elsewhere having some teeth extracted. He has my congratulations and my sympathy.
Pre-Christmas attendance was low, but of excellent quality: Frances Coupe and Susan Street from HCC, Martin Sipsma of LSC, Peter Wright from the PCTs, Mary Green from Three Rivers CVS, Jacquie Hime from North Herts CVS, Kate Belinis from CDA for Herts and Phil Willerton from Watford YMCA. At the end, there was unanimous agreement on a clear way forward for taking the Compact into its second decade. In short, this involves a clear focus on Principles, Partnership and Promotion.
From Hatfield, I returned to Watford to attend pre-Christmas drinks at the Town Hall at the invitation of the Mayor. A very pleasant interlude. Then back to the office for a few hours more work. At 8:00 in the evening we were quite a hive of activity: Helen was working on volunteering initiatives, Maria was hosting a meeting of Watford’s emerging Polish Association, and the Credit Union were meeting in the main boardroom.
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Youth volunteering
The youth volunteering scheme Millennium Volunteers has been operating in Herts since 2000 and has been managed by Watford YMCA. Although there have been parts of the county where MV has struggled, it has generally been regarded as a Hertfordshire success.
MV is now winding up and when bidders were invited for the successor V programme, it was widely expected that the Herts MV would simply transform itself into V. So it came as something of a surprise when Watford YMCA’s bid to V was turned down. A new bidding round is opening for delivering a youth volunteering scheme with six members of staff and £250,000 pa. The deadline for initial "expressions of interest" is this Friday.
I had intended to spend today at home working on the HIC development plan. I did make some progress on this. But I also spent a long long time on the telephone talking to lots of different people about the future of youth volunteering in Herts.
In retrospect it was inevitable that I would get involved: Watford YMCA are members of Watford CVS, I am chair of the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium, Watford CVS operates a Volunteer Centre, and our Volunteer Centre co-ordinator (Helen Price) is Youth Volunteering lead for the Volunteering Herts consortium. Perhaps I should have involved myself much earlier.
Watford YMCA will of course put in another expression of interest and seek to revise their bid. Today it became clear that the Volunteering Herts consortium of Volunteer Centres would put in an expression of interest against Watford YMCA.
For a time, I felt that Watford CVS should also put in an expression of interest. My logic was simple: Watford YMCA and the Volunteer Centres will have to work together to deliver the V programme; if neither is willing to accept the other as lead, then a third party is needed to bring them together. I thought that Watford CVS might play this role of “honest broker”.
Another potential “honest broker” in this process is North Herts CVS. They have the experience of being fund holder and Responsible Body for the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium, and they can also more easily act on behalf of the Consortium. Accordingly, at some point in the day, Watford CVS withdrew its interest.
Putting in three expressions of interest is no great problem as it keeps options open. But if in January Hertfordshire puts in three competing bids, we will give every appearance of being a county in crisis. After the success of the MV programme this would be very unfortunate. It is still very clear to me that Hertfordshire needs to get behind a single strong bid for the V programme. Perhaps this will be possible in the New Year.
Throughout the day, Helen was overseeing a Christmas event at Watford’s premier shopping centre The Harlequin. This event involved organising teams of volunteers to do Christmas gift wrapping to promote volunteering and solicit donations for local charities. Helen was also the Volunteering Herts lead on Youth Volunteering. And she also had a 5:15 call booked with Andrew Simmonds, the head of Hertfordshire Connexions and chair of the Hertfordshire Youth Volunteeirng Consortium. Helen had a pretty torrid day and I was very impressed by how she coped with all the pressures and all the different hats.
The youth volunteering scheme Millennium Volunteers has been operating in Herts since 2000 and has been managed by Watford YMCA. Although there have been parts of the county where MV has struggled, it has generally been regarded as a Hertfordshire success.
MV is now winding up and when bidders were invited for the successor V programme, it was widely expected that the Herts MV would simply transform itself into V. So it came as something of a surprise when Watford YMCA’s bid to V was turned down. A new bidding round is opening for delivering a youth volunteering scheme with six members of staff and £250,000 pa. The deadline for initial "expressions of interest" is this Friday.
I had intended to spend today at home working on the HIC development plan. I did make some progress on this. But I also spent a long long time on the telephone talking to lots of different people about the future of youth volunteering in Herts.
In retrospect it was inevitable that I would get involved: Watford YMCA are members of Watford CVS, I am chair of the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium, Watford CVS operates a Volunteer Centre, and our Volunteer Centre co-ordinator (Helen Price) is Youth Volunteering lead for the Volunteering Herts consortium. Perhaps I should have involved myself much earlier.
Watford YMCA will of course put in another expression of interest and seek to revise their bid. Today it became clear that the Volunteering Herts consortium of Volunteer Centres would put in an expression of interest against Watford YMCA.
For a time, I felt that Watford CVS should also put in an expression of interest. My logic was simple: Watford YMCA and the Volunteer Centres will have to work together to deliver the V programme; if neither is willing to accept the other as lead, then a third party is needed to bring them together. I thought that Watford CVS might play this role of “honest broker”.
Another potential “honest broker” in this process is North Herts CVS. They have the experience of being fund holder and Responsible Body for the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium, and they can also more easily act on behalf of the Consortium. Accordingly, at some point in the day, Watford CVS withdrew its interest.
Putting in three expressions of interest is no great problem as it keeps options open. But if in January Hertfordshire puts in three competing bids, we will give every appearance of being a county in crisis. After the success of the MV programme this would be very unfortunate. It is still very clear to me that Hertfordshire needs to get behind a single strong bid for the V programme. Perhaps this will be possible in the New Year.
Throughout the day, Helen was overseeing a Christmas event at Watford’s premier shopping centre The Harlequin. This event involved organising teams of volunteers to do Christmas gift wrapping to promote volunteering and solicit donations for local charities. Helen was also the Volunteering Herts lead on Youth Volunteering. And she also had a 5:15 call booked with Andrew Simmonds, the head of Hertfordshire Connexions and chair of the Hertfordshire Youth Volunteeirng Consortium. Helen had a pretty torrid day and I was very impressed by how she coped with all the pressures and all the different hats.
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
A full HIC meeting but with a strangely low attendance - perhaps everyone was Christmas shopping? Or more likely busy with their day jobs. I confess my own mind wandered once or twice making my job as chair rather difficult. But things are still very good natured and we got through the agenda.
After, I stayed on for some new equalities training on FRED: Fairness, Respect, Equality and Diversity. I think I have previously noted that throughout the EU it is now illegal to develop or propogate any management or training system without incorporating a contrived acronym (the more letters the better). I suppose "Fred" is at least subverting the format a little.
The session was led by Marcella Wright (of the University of Hertfordshire) and it was really jolly good. Despite the CANAPE (Contrived Acronym Not Actually Producing …. Bugger, this is harder than it looks).
Back home, I had some telephone calls to make to understand what is happening with Hertfordshire’s application to V, the youth volunteering initiative. The simple facts are that the Hertfordshire consortium’s bid was rejected and new bids have been invited. National organisations from outside the County are rumoured to be preparing bids. Within the County, the different vested interests need to establish a full working partnership that will press all the necessary buttons and so win the contract. More discussions are scheduled for tomorrow. We'll see.
Ah ha: CANADA - Contrived Acronym Not Actually Denoting Anything. Surely sufficient to win me an MBA from any reputable Business School.
After, I stayed on for some new equalities training on FRED: Fairness, Respect, Equality and Diversity. I think I have previously noted that throughout the EU it is now illegal to develop or propogate any management or training system without incorporating a contrived acronym (the more letters the better). I suppose "Fred" is at least subverting the format a little.
The session was led by Marcella Wright (of the University of Hertfordshire) and it was really jolly good. Despite the CANAPE (Contrived Acronym Not Actually Producing …. Bugger, this is harder than it looks).
Back home, I had some telephone calls to make to understand what is happening with Hertfordshire’s application to V, the youth volunteering initiative. The simple facts are that the Hertfordshire consortium’s bid was rejected and new bids have been invited. National organisations from outside the County are rumoured to be preparing bids. Within the County, the different vested interests need to establish a full working partnership that will press all the necessary buttons and so win the contract. More discussions are scheduled for tomorrow. We'll see.
Ah ha: CANADA - Contrived Acronym Not Actually Denoting Anything. Surely sufficient to win me an MBA from any reputable Business School.
Monday, 10 December 2007
I drove to the HCC’s Development Centre at Wheathampstead to meet with John Hyland and Shahla Taheri-White to discuss a contract for WCVS to delivery a BME Advocacy service. The service will support the families of children who have a complaint against a school where the complaint has a racial or faith dimension. As ever, it is a little more complicated than that, but not much. This morning’s discussions were very positive and constructive and contracts should be signed very soon. HCC are keen for the service to be up and running no later than April 2008; the only major potential difficulty I see is recruiting for the post.
From Wheathampstead, I drove to Letchworth to spend time with Jacquie and Steph preparing for tomorrow’s HIC meeting. And of course we spent more hours on the HIC Consortium Development Plan. I’m bored with this now.
Also, I met briefly with Paul Ruskin who seems to pop up everywhere at the moment. There was talk of a bid for IT under the Capacitybuilders Improving Reach programme.
From Wheathampstead, I drove to Letchworth to spend time with Jacquie and Steph preparing for tomorrow’s HIC meeting. And of course we spent more hours on the HIC Consortium Development Plan. I’m bored with this now.
Also, I met briefly with Paul Ruskin who seems to pop up everywhere at the moment. There was talk of a bid for IT under the Capacitybuilders Improving Reach programme.
Friday, 7 December 2007
I left Jackie at 8:00, collected Jacquie at 8:30 and we arrived at the COVER offices shortly after 9:00.
Immediately on arriving, I had an intense ten minute discussion on ICT with Paul Ruskin. He is the region’s ICT Champion: technically skilled, good strategic overview, an intense ball of energy who makes things happen. But he plays golf apparently without shame; I worry about him sometimes.
Then we parted to attend different meetings. Along with representatives of all the other regional infrastructure consortia, Jacquie and I went into a briefing with Richard Weller of Capacitybuilders. Hertfordshire’s Infrastructure Consortium is generally regarded as a success. In large part this is because we have had sufficient funding to pay for a full-time Development Worker and 10 hours a week of management time bought in from Jacquie at North Herts CVS. Our core funding has now been cut to £32,000 pa. I know Consortia have to move toward sustainability etc, but why are other (frankly less inclusive and less successful) consortia receiving significantly higher funding?
The answer is that the formula is worked out depending entirely on the local government structure and each consortia receives: £25k for each County Council, £22k for each Unitary Authority, and (in two-tier local government areas) £1k for each District Council apart from the first three.
They might just as well have based allocations on the number of vowels in the consortium name, or the number of professional footballers produced in the inter-war period, or the mean annual rainfall across each consortium. Do they really have such little idea?
Then at 11:00 we met with the delightful Jonathan Moore (of SAVO) and Jenny Althorpe (South Beds CVS) to discuss support for trustees. This was useful as we agreed on three needs: to focus on empowerment rather than regulation; to offer more support for trustees in smaller charities; to offer more support for trustee boards rather than for trustees individually. These may seem like small points, but they prompted a very productive discussion, pleasing me greatly. There was talk of a COVER project bid under the Capacitybuilders Improving Reach programme.
After a brief cup of tea with Jacquie I was home before 5:00 pm and I was home at a sensible time. But by the time I had finished three telephone conversations (on IT, training, and volunteering) it was well past 6:00.
And Bryan was off to start a new job - a great end to a good day.
Immediately on arriving, I had an intense ten minute discussion on ICT with Paul Ruskin. He is the region’s ICT Champion: technically skilled, good strategic overview, an intense ball of energy who makes things happen. But he plays golf apparently without shame; I worry about him sometimes.
Then we parted to attend different meetings. Along with representatives of all the other regional infrastructure consortia, Jacquie and I went into a briefing with Richard Weller of Capacitybuilders. Hertfordshire’s Infrastructure Consortium is generally regarded as a success. In large part this is because we have had sufficient funding to pay for a full-time Development Worker and 10 hours a week of management time bought in from Jacquie at North Herts CVS. Our core funding has now been cut to £32,000 pa. I know Consortia have to move toward sustainability etc, but why are other (frankly less inclusive and less successful) consortia receiving significantly higher funding?
The answer is that the formula is worked out depending entirely on the local government structure and each consortia receives: £25k for each County Council, £22k for each Unitary Authority, and (in two-tier local government areas) £1k for each District Council apart from the first three.
They might just as well have based allocations on the number of vowels in the consortium name, or the number of professional footballers produced in the inter-war period, or the mean annual rainfall across each consortium. Do they really have such little idea?
Then at 11:00 we met with the delightful Jonathan Moore (of SAVO) and Jenny Althorpe (South Beds CVS) to discuss support for trustees. This was useful as we agreed on three needs: to focus on empowerment rather than regulation; to offer more support for trustees in smaller charities; to offer more support for trustee boards rather than for trustees individually. These may seem like small points, but they prompted a very productive discussion, pleasing me greatly. There was talk of a COVER project bid under the Capacitybuilders Improving Reach programme.
After a brief cup of tea with Jacquie I was home before 5:00 pm and I was home at a sensible time. But by the time I had finished three telephone conversations (on IT, training, and volunteering) it was well past 6:00.
And Bryan was off to start a new job - a great end to a good day.
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Joined up government
After an early start and a few hours in the office, I headed off to the YMCA for a meeting of the Watford Learning Partnership (WLP).
The Hertfordshire Adult Learning Partnership (HALP) and the Hertfordshire Adult and Family Learning Service (HAFLS) have jointly prepared a plan for the future of adult learning. This plan focuses heavily on local learning partnerships like WPL. I can’t see any connection between this plan and that of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The LSC is funding the VCS to set up county-wide training consortia that LSC supposes will then oversee all VCS workforce development training and all training delivered by VCS organisations to the public. The LSC think this Consortium will become constituted and will then be a major training provider. I don’t know why anyone would want to create such a monolith and nor can I imagine how such an organisation would be financially viable. And meanwhile it might destablise existing training providers like CVSs.
This looks like a government agency coming up with a “good idea” and then treating the VCS like some sort of experimental laboratory. But maybe it will work: I have been wrong before and doubtless I will again.
But meanwhile, the least I expect is that government agencies co-ordinate their policies.
Also present at the WLP meeting were Lyn Telford and David Brown of HALP, Phil Willerton of YMCA, Alison Stainsby of Watford Borough Council, and Marion of the Watford Community Housing Trust. Other regular attenders (LSC, West Herts College, Herts Trade Union Centre) sent their apologies.
After WLP I had a brief Staff Meeting at WCVS to discuss how best we can support volunteering and how we can improve some of our core services. There seems to be unanimity on all the key issues which makes things easier.
And then I attended a meeting of the WCVS’s Staffing and Remuneration Sub-Committee. This sub-group of trustees was meeting to review salary scales, expense payments, employment practices, one or two specific issues etc. These are difficult areas for charities. Of course everyone wants to be nice to their employees (like me) but the realities are that funding is short and life is tough. No-one works in the voluntary sector to get rich: there are other reasons for working here.
And on the technical / procedural issues I simply anticipated a few sympathetic looks. But I had underestimated my wonderful trustees. Phil Willerton in particular came prepared with possible solutions to several of the thornier technical and procedural problems including the possibility of a workable job evaluation scheme. What a star. Althea and John and Vivienne were also helpful and the meeting was completed within an hour and with far more progress than I had dared hope for.
After that, it was just one long slog through HIC business planning and making sure that I had done all I need to before leaving the office as I have a series of “out of the office” days.
I arrived home about 10:00 and Jackie and I enjoyed a sherry and a good read together before bed - what a lovely scene of domestic bliss.
After an early start and a few hours in the office, I headed off to the YMCA for a meeting of the Watford Learning Partnership (WLP).
The Hertfordshire Adult Learning Partnership (HALP) and the Hertfordshire Adult and Family Learning Service (HAFLS) have jointly prepared a plan for the future of adult learning. This plan focuses heavily on local learning partnerships like WPL. I can’t see any connection between this plan and that of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The LSC is funding the VCS to set up county-wide training consortia that LSC supposes will then oversee all VCS workforce development training and all training delivered by VCS organisations to the public. The LSC think this Consortium will become constituted and will then be a major training provider. I don’t know why anyone would want to create such a monolith and nor can I imagine how such an organisation would be financially viable. And meanwhile it might destablise existing training providers like CVSs.
This looks like a government agency coming up with a “good idea” and then treating the VCS like some sort of experimental laboratory. But maybe it will work: I have been wrong before and doubtless I will again.
But meanwhile, the least I expect is that government agencies co-ordinate their policies.
Also present at the WLP meeting were Lyn Telford and David Brown of HALP, Phil Willerton of YMCA, Alison Stainsby of Watford Borough Council, and Marion of the Watford Community Housing Trust. Other regular attenders (LSC, West Herts College, Herts Trade Union Centre) sent their apologies.
After WLP I had a brief Staff Meeting at WCVS to discuss how best we can support volunteering and how we can improve some of our core services. There seems to be unanimity on all the key issues which makes things easier.
And then I attended a meeting of the WCVS’s Staffing and Remuneration Sub-Committee. This sub-group of trustees was meeting to review salary scales, expense payments, employment practices, one or two specific issues etc. These are difficult areas for charities. Of course everyone wants to be nice to their employees (like me) but the realities are that funding is short and life is tough. No-one works in the voluntary sector to get rich: there are other reasons for working here.
And on the technical / procedural issues I simply anticipated a few sympathetic looks. But I had underestimated my wonderful trustees. Phil Willerton in particular came prepared with possible solutions to several of the thornier technical and procedural problems including the possibility of a workable job evaluation scheme. What a star. Althea and John and Vivienne were also helpful and the meeting was completed within an hour and with far more progress than I had dared hope for.
After that, it was just one long slog through HIC business planning and making sure that I had done all I need to before leaving the office as I have a series of “out of the office” days.
I arrived home about 10:00 and Jackie and I enjoyed a sherry and a good read together before bed - what a lovely scene of domestic bliss.
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
I had a busy morning on paperwork and on a very useful meeting with Lyn Telford of the Watford Learning Partnership.
At lunchtime I travelled to Borehamwood to “facilitate” a joint meeting of Hertsmere CVS and Hertsmere Community Partnership, who are considering a merger. On my understanding of the briefing I’d received, I tried to facilitate the meeting through an exercise to consider a shared vision and mission. But this is rather an abstract exercise and people were too focused on tangibles and practicalities. Once I'd grasped this, the meeting was much more productive.
At lunchtime I travelled to Borehamwood to “facilitate” a joint meeting of Hertsmere CVS and Hertsmere Community Partnership, who are considering a merger. On my understanding of the briefing I’d received, I tried to facilitate the meeting through an exercise to consider a shared vision and mission. But this is rather an abstract exercise and people were too focused on tangibles and practicalities. Once I'd grasped this, the meeting was much more productive.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
This morning, I read through several new policy pronouncements, and through paperwork about the possible merger of Hertsmere CVS with Hertsmere Community Partnership. In the afternoon, I drafted one-page summaries of each of the projects prepared for the Herts Infrastructure Consortium. Somewhere in the middle of this, I spent two hours talking on the telephone to different colleagues: how can some people use telephones recreationally?
Monday, 3 December 2007
Community Networking
We had a very successful networking lunch at the North Watford Mosque - or at least a very successful networking event. I will explain.
The event began at 10:45 with a tour of the Mosque hosted by the Mosque Committee. At 11:30 we began the meeting proper, and an audience of about 70 heard Qari Mohamed Salim (Watford Central Mosque), Khalil Mogul (Muslim Community Project), Riaz Hussain (Muslim Awareness Forum) and Zamir Shah (Anjuman-e-Ja’fariyya); all were excellent and received a warm reception. The speeches ended at 12:15 and we had allowed 15 minutes for questions. There were lots of questions on extremism, the role of women, youth work, mental health, education, racist attacks, further dialogue and so on. There were so many questions that I allowed another fifteen minutes. And then another fifteen minutes.
By this time it was apparent that things had gone wrong: our caterers had let us down badly. Those Muslims belonging to North Watford Mosque were leaving to attend lunchtime prayers. The event did not conclude with a relaxed sit-down meal for 75 people. I did my best to jolly things along, but there was no hiding the fact that people were hungry and disappointed and the meeting ended on a note of disappointment and confusion.
Some stayed behind for tea or coffee, and finally (45 minutes late) the food arrived with profuse apologies from our caterers. But my appetite had disappeared along with two-thirds of the participants.
Nevertheless, I think that the event was a remarkable success and will hopefully set down some markers and relationships for the future.
Lessons? This is the second networking lunch where we have got the catering wrong. We have been trying to do things cheaply using inexperienced caterers. From now on we will need to step up a gear and move the whole thing on to a more professional footing. Fortunately, our next lunch is at the YMCA who thankfully have their own on-site caterers. It’s on 21 January with the theme: “Improving Watford’s Mental Health”.
Later in the afternoon, I was stumped by the terrible news of Jim Lillington's death. He was a lovely man and a tireless activist: a real star for the voluntary sector, for Shopmobility and for the Disability Forum. Thanks Jim.
We had a very successful networking lunch at the North Watford Mosque - or at least a very successful networking event. I will explain.
The event began at 10:45 with a tour of the Mosque hosted by the Mosque Committee. At 11:30 we began the meeting proper, and an audience of about 70 heard Qari Mohamed Salim (Watford Central Mosque), Khalil Mogul (Muslim Community Project), Riaz Hussain (Muslim Awareness Forum) and Zamir Shah (Anjuman-e-Ja’fariyya); all were excellent and received a warm reception. The speeches ended at 12:15 and we had allowed 15 minutes for questions. There were lots of questions on extremism, the role of women, youth work, mental health, education, racist attacks, further dialogue and so on. There were so many questions that I allowed another fifteen minutes. And then another fifteen minutes.
By this time it was apparent that things had gone wrong: our caterers had let us down badly. Those Muslims belonging to North Watford Mosque were leaving to attend lunchtime prayers. The event did not conclude with a relaxed sit-down meal for 75 people. I did my best to jolly things along, but there was no hiding the fact that people were hungry and disappointed and the meeting ended on a note of disappointment and confusion.
Some stayed behind for tea or coffee, and finally (45 minutes late) the food arrived with profuse apologies from our caterers. But my appetite had disappeared along with two-thirds of the participants.
Nevertheless, I think that the event was a remarkable success and will hopefully set down some markers and relationships for the future.
Lessons? This is the second networking lunch where we have got the catering wrong. We have been trying to do things cheaply using inexperienced caterers. From now on we will need to step up a gear and move the whole thing on to a more professional footing. Fortunately, our next lunch is at the YMCA who thankfully have their own on-site caterers. It’s on 21 January with the theme: “Improving Watford’s Mental Health”.
Later in the afternoon, I was stumped by the terrible news of Jim Lillington's death. He was a lovely man and a tireless activist: a real star for the voluntary sector, for Shopmobility and for the Disability Forum. Thanks Jim.
Sunday, 2 December 2007
I spent a lovely day with Jackie and our grand-daughter Bethany.
Tottenham's dismal season continued with a 2-3 defeat by Birmingham City; I think I am right in saying that Spurs have now lost 493 consecutive matches.
Tottenham's dismal season continued with a 2-3 defeat by Birmingham City; I think I am right in saying that Spurs have now lost 493 consecutive matches.
Saturday, 1 December 2007
Jackie and I further contemplated the possible keeping of chickens: we still prevaricate. A quiet day at home was followed by a rather raucous evening with friends.
Friday, 30 November 2007
An incident of some sort meant that the Police had to close part of Beechen Grove this morning so it took me half an hour to travel the last mile into work. Then my day proper started with a half-day workshop for members of the Local Strategic Partnership One Watford.
This workshop was the Aspire 2 Perform model encouraging LSPs to be: Accountable, Strategic, Performance-managed, Inclusive, Responsive and Effective. The model actually looked at Engagement, Governance, Expectations, Planning, Meetings, and Communications. But obviously EGEPMC isn't as memorable as ASPIRE. One day people will again learn to develop management models without the use of contrived acronyms.
The event itself was very worthwhile and productive: it highlighted some important issues and gave LSP members an opportunity to talk together outside the usual arena of LSP meetings.
After this, I spent some time briefing myself for some forthcoming meetings: Compact, networking lunches, HIC, IT development, and so on. At Vanessa’s behest, I also wrote to staff suggesting we moved on from last year’s Secret Santa and instead each contribute some money though Oxfam to buy a donkey or some goats (not for Watford but for one of the communities where Oxfam work).
Back home, Jackie and I resisted the temptation to attend a 1970s Night and instead spent an evening at home over a curry and a bottle of wine watching music on television: I particularly liked Kate Nash and The Who (although it seems that guitar legend Pete Townshend has been sacked and replaced by Phil Willerton of Watford YMCA).
This workshop was the Aspire 2 Perform model encouraging LSPs to be: Accountable, Strategic, Performance-managed, Inclusive, Responsive and Effective. The model actually looked at Engagement, Governance, Expectations, Planning, Meetings, and Communications. But obviously EGEPMC isn't as memorable as ASPIRE. One day people will again learn to develop management models without the use of contrived acronyms.
The event itself was very worthwhile and productive: it highlighted some important issues and gave LSP members an opportunity to talk together outside the usual arena of LSP meetings.
After this, I spent some time briefing myself for some forthcoming meetings: Compact, networking lunches, HIC, IT development, and so on. At Vanessa’s behest, I also wrote to staff suggesting we moved on from last year’s Secret Santa and instead each contribute some money though Oxfam to buy a donkey or some goats (not for Watford but for one of the communities where Oxfam work).
Back home, Jackie and I resisted the temptation to attend a 1970s Night and instead spent an evening at home over a curry and a bottle of wine watching music on television: I particularly liked Kate Nash and The Who (although it seems that guitar legend Pete Townshend has been sacked and replaced by Phil Willerton of Watford YMCA).
Thursday, 29 November 2007
I was eager to make the most of my first chance this week to do some work in the office and so arrived at 7:00 am.
I spent some time with the organisers of Hertsmere’s Com.Unity Choir who want to explore setting up a similar open community-based choir in Watford. Such a choir could be a catalyst for some great community development work across Watford so I spent plenty of time with them offering as much encouragement and advice as I could.
Other than this pleasant interlude, I had a fairly strenuous day regaining control of my workload. It was a bit of a battle but by the end of the day (8:30 pm), I had read 150 previously unread e-mails, dealt with 100 read-but-not-yet-actioned e-mails and sent 70 of my own e-mails. I am far from being a technophobe but I abhor the tyranny of e-mail. Looking back on the day and reflecting, I can barely remember what a single e-mail was about.
Having just checked I can see that there was actually some genuine purpose and value in my day’s correspondence. I arranged to work with Watford Borough Council on their new Directory of Council and Community Services, advised four local groups on legal and employment and development matters, advised two potential donors on groups they might like to support, made some arrangements for our January networking lunch on Mental Health, and so on and so on. In fact, I flatter myself that I had rather an effective day.
I suppose my point is that it doesn’t feel like real work and it doesn’t feel like real communication.
During the day, I also wrote 700 words for the next issues of Herts CVS News. My theme was the benefits of good communication and networking. The irony of this was lost on me at the time.
I spent some time with the organisers of Hertsmere’s Com.Unity Choir who want to explore setting up a similar open community-based choir in Watford. Such a choir could be a catalyst for some great community development work across Watford so I spent plenty of time with them offering as much encouragement and advice as I could.
Other than this pleasant interlude, I had a fairly strenuous day regaining control of my workload. It was a bit of a battle but by the end of the day (8:30 pm), I had read 150 previously unread e-mails, dealt with 100 read-but-not-yet-actioned e-mails and sent 70 of my own e-mails. I am far from being a technophobe but I abhor the tyranny of e-mail. Looking back on the day and reflecting, I can barely remember what a single e-mail was about.
Having just checked I can see that there was actually some genuine purpose and value in my day’s correspondence. I arranged to work with Watford Borough Council on their new Directory of Council and Community Services, advised four local groups on legal and employment and development matters, advised two potential donors on groups they might like to support, made some arrangements for our January networking lunch on Mental Health, and so on and so on. In fact, I flatter myself that I had rather an effective day.
I suppose my point is that it doesn’t feel like real work and it doesn’t feel like real communication.
During the day, I also wrote 700 words for the next issues of Herts CVS News. My theme was the benefits of good communication and networking. The irony of this was lost on me at the time.
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
I went to NCVO via St Pancras this morning to see the new(-ish) statue The Meeting Place which is stunning.
At NCVO our PQASSO group met again and we went through the materials. There were some useful discussions and it is always useful to talk with other practitioners about how they approach things. The others on the course came from a wide range of groups and all were charming and erudite. I was (almost) sorry to say good-bye at the end of the day.
In the evening, I reviewed my Watford CVS workload. Tomorrow is my first day in the office this week. I can anticipate a backlog of about 200 unread e-mails. When I left on Friday I already had 133 e-mails bearing little red “to do” flags. I also have a list of 21 tasks that I simply must complete asap (most of which I have been postponing for several weeks). Added to this, I have four meetings scheduled for tomorrow (including one in the evening) and I need to speak with several members of WCVS staff. What are my chances of making progress on all this tomorrow? Are all my meetings really necessary?
In the evening, I completed Robert Harris's book Selling Hitler on the remarkable events of the early 1980s when Stern magazine and The Sunday Times paid vast sums to publish diaries supposedly written by Adolf Hitler. Why was anyone so interested? People have a worryingly large capacity for stupidity and gullibility. The failures of corporate management sparked a series of events that ultimately produced the Code of Governance.
At NCVO our PQASSO group met again and we went through the materials. There were some useful discussions and it is always useful to talk with other practitioners about how they approach things. The others on the course came from a wide range of groups and all were charming and erudite. I was (almost) sorry to say good-bye at the end of the day.
In the evening, I reviewed my Watford CVS workload. Tomorrow is my first day in the office this week. I can anticipate a backlog of about 200 unread e-mails. When I left on Friday I already had 133 e-mails bearing little red “to do” flags. I also have a list of 21 tasks that I simply must complete asap (most of which I have been postponing for several weeks). Added to this, I have four meetings scheduled for tomorrow (including one in the evening) and I need to speak with several members of WCVS staff. What are my chances of making progress on all this tomorrow? Are all my meetings really necessary?
In the evening, I completed Robert Harris's book Selling Hitler on the remarkable events of the early 1980s when Stern magazine and The Sunday Times paid vast sums to publish diaries supposedly written by Adolf Hitler. Why was anyone so interested? People have a worryingly large capacity for stupidity and gullibility. The failures of corporate management sparked a series of events that ultimately produced the Code of Governance.
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
PQASSO
Today (and tomorrow) I am with Vanessa (our Training and Development Officer) attending a PQASSO training course at the NCVO in London.
On arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to bump into Laura Cronshaw (of St Albans CVS) attending the same course, our trainer was fine and PQASSO is a good QA system.
But truly neither myself or Vanessa wanted to be there as we both know PQASSO pretty well and have been working with it for a number of years. However, PQASSO is the property of the Charities Evaluation Service and neither Vanessa or I can be licenced by CES to support groups through the PQASSO process unless we have attended CES’s three day PQASSO Mentor programme. At a cost, or course. And guess what? We can’t attend the three day PQASSO Mentor programme unless we have already completed CES’s two day programme Implementing PQASSO. At a cost, of course.
I think this is what is known as a sustainable income stream.
Today (and tomorrow) I am with Vanessa (our Training and Development Officer) attending a PQASSO training course at the NCVO in London.
On arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to bump into Laura Cronshaw (of St Albans CVS) attending the same course, our trainer was fine and PQASSO is a good QA system.
But truly neither myself or Vanessa wanted to be there as we both know PQASSO pretty well and have been working with it for a number of years. However, PQASSO is the property of the Charities Evaluation Service and neither Vanessa or I can be licenced by CES to support groups through the PQASSO process unless we have attended CES’s three day PQASSO Mentor programme. At a cost, or course. And guess what? We can’t attend the three day PQASSO Mentor programme unless we have already completed CES’s two day programme Implementing PQASSO. At a cost, of course.
I think this is what is known as a sustainable income stream.
Monday, 26 November 2007
I spent a morning at home working on an accommodation strategy for Watford’s voluntary sector. I am having trouble separating this from the Community Development Strategy on which I have also started work: are they one strategy or two?
In the afternoon, I travelled to Hertford to meet with Andrew Burt of HCC and Jacquie Hime of N Herts CVS to discuss the future of the Herts Compact Group. Jacquie and I are joint chairs of the Working Group which has a meeting scheduled for mid-December. I have been worried for some time that nationally the whole Compact agenda is drifting aimless towards the rocks. Jacquie, Andrew and I met to try and agree a way forward in Hertfordshire.
Andrew argued that Compact should be re-aligned to the LSPs and to the new LAA2 agenda - and particularly to the new targets for local authorities: a thriving Third Sector, more volunteering, community engagement and so on. Jacquie took to the idea almost immediately. My brain works a little more slowly and had to clunk through several “what if” scenarios before I finally accepted that Andrew’s proposal was indeed the best way forward.
Having convinced us both of the wisdom of his vision for Compact, Andrew then told us that he might not be at the December Compact meeting as he is scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed that day. Lovely.
In the afternoon, I travelled to Hertford to meet with Andrew Burt of HCC and Jacquie Hime of N Herts CVS to discuss the future of the Herts Compact Group. Jacquie and I are joint chairs of the Working Group which has a meeting scheduled for mid-December. I have been worried for some time that nationally the whole Compact agenda is drifting aimless towards the rocks. Jacquie, Andrew and I met to try and agree a way forward in Hertfordshire.
Andrew argued that Compact should be re-aligned to the LSPs and to the new LAA2 agenda - and particularly to the new targets for local authorities: a thriving Third Sector, more volunteering, community engagement and so on. Jacquie took to the idea almost immediately. My brain works a little more slowly and had to clunk through several “what if” scenarios before I finally accepted that Andrew’s proposal was indeed the best way forward.
Having convinced us both of the wisdom of his vision for Compact, Andrew then told us that he might not be at the December Compact meeting as he is scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed that day. Lovely.
Sunday, 25 November 2007
A relaxing day at home. In the afternoon, Jackie and I went for a walk together. I lasted less than a mile and then shuffled off home. Jackie powered off around WGC and must have covered at least three miles. I suspect she is in secret training for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, I completed The Shadow of Elisa Lynch by Sian Rees, the story of an Irishwoman’s relationship with a Paraguayan dictator and tyrant. Interesting stuff, but like so many modern books it would have benefited from a more assertive sub-editor.
Meanwhile, I completed The Shadow of Elisa Lynch by Sian Rees, the story of an Irishwoman’s relationship with a Paraguayan dictator and tyrant. Interesting stuff, but like so many modern books it would have benefited from a more assertive sub-editor.
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Jackie and I collected our grand-daughter after breakfast and drove up to Ampthill to attend the opening of the new wing of the Agate House Cheshire Home. My sister is one of the first residents moving into the rooms now complying with the latest standards. Bethany of course wowed everyone.
On the homeward journey, we returned Bethany to one of her other grand-dads in Baldock. Grand-dad Tarlok was his usual self. His Mum barely seems to have aged since I first met her in the 1970s. And Amerjit was so grown up - he was in his mid-teens last time I saw him and now suddenly he’s forty.
On the homeward journey, we returned Bethany to one of her other grand-dads in Baldock. Grand-dad Tarlok was his usual self. His Mum barely seems to have aged since I first met her in the 1970s. And Amerjit was so grown up - he was in his mid-teens last time I saw him and now suddenly he’s forty.
Friday, 23 November 2007
Another day of catching up and correspondence. I completed another funding bid, started preparing thoughts for our next Trustees’ meeting, and met with Helen on volunteering, Maria on networking lunches, Vanessa on Training, Anne on Fundraising, and our Connexions Team.
IT and Communications
I also reviewed the IT and Communications paper I’d drafted for the HIC. Several recent studies have shown that the voluntary sector is lagging behind other sectors in the use of IT. Our findings certainly confirm this. We also found little enthusiasm for a voluntary sector agency delivering IT services, and that the sector's communication systems are simply not “fit for purpose”.
The question then is how can this state of affairs be changed? How can the value of effective ICT be demonstrated? How can HIC demonstrate its leadership? How can the ICT environment be transformed?
What I proposed was creating a communication and information centre for Hertfordshire’s voluntary sector. This centre could include contact details of all groups, offer opportunities for groups to create e-mail addresses and websites, provide access to support services, house discussion groups, and offer individuals the chance to subscribe to a range of information streams.
Revisiting the proposals today, I was pretty confident that they are the best opportunity we have of securing a "step change" in ICT.
IT and Communications
I also reviewed the IT and Communications paper I’d drafted for the HIC. Several recent studies have shown that the voluntary sector is lagging behind other sectors in the use of IT. Our findings certainly confirm this. We also found little enthusiasm for a voluntary sector agency delivering IT services, and that the sector's communication systems are simply not “fit for purpose”.
The question then is how can this state of affairs be changed? How can the value of effective ICT be demonstrated? How can HIC demonstrate its leadership? How can the ICT environment be transformed?
What I proposed was creating a communication and information centre for Hertfordshire’s voluntary sector. This centre could include contact details of all groups, offer opportunities for groups to create e-mail addresses and websites, provide access to support services, house discussion groups, and offer individuals the chance to subscribe to a range of information streams.
Revisiting the proposals today, I was pretty confident that they are the best opportunity we have of securing a "step change" in ICT.
Thursday, 22 November 2007
I spent the morning catching up with people at the office and dealing with the correspondence that has accumulated since last week.
At lunchtime, I was joined by David Fitzpatrick of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation. He has been involved in some of the discussions about possible futures for Watford’s five Community Centres and he wanted to see some of the Centres for himself. We paid flying visits to the Holywell and Meriden Centres and then had a talk through options for the various sites.
By the time I left the office, I had cleared the backlog of 200+ unread e-mails. But I had 133 e-mails bearing little red flags to remind me that the mails needed a reply or some other action.
At lunchtime, I was joined by David Fitzpatrick of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation. He has been involved in some of the discussions about possible futures for Watford’s five Community Centres and he wanted to see some of the Centres for himself. We paid flying visits to the Holywell and Meriden Centres and then had a talk through options for the various sites.
By the time I left the office, I had cleared the backlog of 200+ unread e-mails. But I had 133 e-mails bearing little red flags to remind me that the mails needed a reply or some other action.
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
One last day away from the office
Today I spent in Letchworth reviewing all ten plans that have been prepared to support the Development Plan for voluntary sector support in Hertfordshire. These were:
Today I spent in Letchworth reviewing all ten plans that have been prepared to support the Development Plan for voluntary sector support in Hertfordshire. These were:
- my own two on Training and on IT and Communications;
- Funding Advice from the Funding Advisors’ network;
- Sustainable Funding and Raising the Profile from David Fitzpatrick of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation;
- Supporting Small Groups from Ian Richardson of East Herts and Broxbourne CVS;
- Sustainability from Kate Belinis at Herts CDA;
- Equalities from Moreen Pascal late of MENTER;
- Volunteering from Julie Street of Volunteering Herts;
- and Quality Assurance and Developing the Consortium from Steph.
I was very impressed that we had all managed to complete something. I think we were all impressed. All need some work. Some of them need quite a bit of work. But all lay out a clear direction.
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
I spent another day out of the office, this time at the CDX conference in Newport Pagnell - a surprisingly pleasant little town. I went to get a good solid framework for a Community Development strategy for Watford and I came away with plenty of good ideas and some very useful models and tools.
Monday, 19 November 2007
I spent a useful day at the Stakeholder Engagement conference put on in Hatfield by the Hertfordshire Community Foundation. There was a pretty good turnout of about 70, including many of the usual suspects but also some new faces - and I was pleased to see Sharifa Chaudrey of Watford’s Multi Cultural Community Centre. I enjoyed talking to quite a few people about Watford and Hertfordshire matters, including Steph (of HIC - to whom I gave the IT project proposal), David of Barnet CVS, Bina of MENTER and Kate Belinis of the Herts Community Development Association.
Sunday, 18 November, 2007
Somehow I had set the clock back two hours and the alarm went off at 6:00 am. By the time Jackie and I realised, we had already run a bath, had a cup of tea and made breakfast. How popular was I? Fortunately she loves me enough to forgive.
I spent the entire day working on the IT project proposal for HIC. I already had lots of notes and a brief outline, and much supporting information from Paul Ruskin (regional IT champion) and Angelo Gibertoni (our IT consultant). So in theory I simply had to put everything together. I didn’t even notice that it was snowing until Jackie returned from her evening walk looking like an Antarctic explorer.
It was a long day, but I finished in time for a nice cup of tea and a Telegraph crossword before bed.
Amazingly, my tooth-ache of the past six weeks seems to have very nearly disappeared. Perhaps my last (painful) visit to the Dentist served some purpose after all.
Recent reading (I know you're interested)
I read Boris Starling’s murder mystery Visibility. Not very challenging but perfectly well written and interestingly set in 1950’s smog-bound London. Then I read Stuart Maconie’s Cider with Roadies which was everything you’d expect from the title and the author.
I spent the entire day working on the IT project proposal for HIC. I already had lots of notes and a brief outline, and much supporting information from Paul Ruskin (regional IT champion) and Angelo Gibertoni (our IT consultant). So in theory I simply had to put everything together. I didn’t even notice that it was snowing until Jackie returned from her evening walk looking like an Antarctic explorer.
It was a long day, but I finished in time for a nice cup of tea and a Telegraph crossword before bed.
Amazingly, my tooth-ache of the past six weeks seems to have very nearly disappeared. Perhaps my last (painful) visit to the Dentist served some purpose after all.
Recent reading (I know you're interested)
I read Boris Starling’s murder mystery Visibility. Not very challenging but perfectly well written and interestingly set in 1950’s smog-bound London. Then I read Stuart Maconie’s Cider with Roadies which was everything you’d expect from the title and the author.
Friday, 16 November 2007
I travelled to Watford and my working day began with news that we had been successful in our tender to HCC to provide an advocacy service. Strategically, it is good for CVS’s to be leading the way on voluntary sector delivery of public services. And the advocacy scheme will fit well alongside our existing Connexions services. But this morning I had other things on my mind.
Foremost in my mind was the is the afternoon deadline for submission of two strategies to HIC: one on meeting voluntary sector training needs in Hertfordshire, and the other on delivering a step change in the sector’s engagement with IT.
I had already completed a first draft of the training proposal. It wasn’t perfect and there were a few omissions (of SKILd, TPAS and the possible new Skills Development Agency for the voluntary sector) but I was pretty pleased with it. Shortly after 3:00 I had knocked this into a final version and forwarded it to Steph - HIC’s development worker who is having to co-ordinate all this.
Steph and I then agreed that I could deliver up the IT proposal on Monday.
Back home, Jackie had been to the hospital to be fitted with a heart monitor to record her palpitations. Poor thing. We tried to sustain an interest in BBC's annual Children In Need evening.
Foremost in my mind was the is the afternoon deadline for submission of two strategies to HIC: one on meeting voluntary sector training needs in Hertfordshire, and the other on delivering a step change in the sector’s engagement with IT.
I had already completed a first draft of the training proposal. It wasn’t perfect and there were a few omissions (of SKILd, TPAS and the possible new Skills Development Agency for the voluntary sector) but I was pretty pleased with it. Shortly after 3:00 I had knocked this into a final version and forwarded it to Steph - HIC’s development worker who is having to co-ordinate all this.
Steph and I then agreed that I could deliver up the IT proposal on Monday.
Back home, Jackie had been to the hospital to be fitted with a heart monitor to record her palpitations. Poor thing. We tried to sustain an interest in BBC's annual Children In Need evening.
Saturday, 17 November 2007
To distract Jackie from her beastly heart monitor, we went on a trip and thereby we spent the better part of the day in traffic jams.
We were on a mission as Ken (our decrepit cat) has been looking worse and worse. A few weeks ago he lost his last tooth and could no longer manage his cat biscuits: he stopped eating the biscuits so we stopped giving them to him. His health deteriorated fast: his coat became dishevelled, he mews constantly, he uses the catflap like a tortoise with bad sunburn, and he has done other things it is best not to write about in a blog that might (who knows?) be read by younger people.
I thought we should take him to the vet. Jackie wanted to spoil him a little. So we bought him some new special biscuits, and some special cat milk, and some special fresh catnip. I suspect we both thought of this as mere palliative care.
But after a bowl of his special cat milk, a plate of his special 11+ cat biscuits, and a good snort of fresh catnip, Ken perked up instantly: his coat became sleek and glossy, his nose glistened and he seemed playful and happy. It’s a miracle.
I have a terrible horrible ghastly feeling that we have been slowly starving him these last few weeks.
At 3:00 pm, Jackie was finally able to remove her heart monitor. She had worn it for 24-hours without experiencing any palpitations - despite a stressful day stuck in traffic jams and despite my two separate attempts to frighten her. Immediately we returned the monitor to the hospital and sat down for a cup of (caffeine free) tea, she had three successive “waves” of palpitations only a few minutes apart.
We were on a mission as Ken (our decrepit cat) has been looking worse and worse. A few weeks ago he lost his last tooth and could no longer manage his cat biscuits: he stopped eating the biscuits so we stopped giving them to him. His health deteriorated fast: his coat became dishevelled, he mews constantly, he uses the catflap like a tortoise with bad sunburn, and he has done other things it is best not to write about in a blog that might (who knows?) be read by younger people.
I thought we should take him to the vet. Jackie wanted to spoil him a little. So we bought him some new special biscuits, and some special cat milk, and some special fresh catnip. I suspect we both thought of this as mere palliative care.
But after a bowl of his special cat milk, a plate of his special 11+ cat biscuits, and a good snort of fresh catnip, Ken perked up instantly: his coat became sleek and glossy, his nose glistened and he seemed playful and happy. It’s a miracle.
I have a terrible horrible ghastly feeling that we have been slowly starving him these last few weeks.
At 3:00 pm, Jackie was finally able to remove her heart monitor. She had worn it for 24-hours without experiencing any palpitations - despite a stressful day stuck in traffic jams and despite my two separate attempts to frighten her. Immediately we returned the monitor to the hospital and sat down for a cup of (caffeine free) tea, she had three successive “waves” of palpitations only a few minutes apart.
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Presenting apologies
Today, I was meant to be at a meeting of the Herts CVS group in Stevenage. But last night I called Ian Richardson (saintly Chair of Herts CVS group) to present my apologies. We had a good talk through the Herts CVS agenda, and about the respective roles of CVS and HIC, and I told him about my discussions with Laura of St Albans and he wished me luck with the project plans. It’s good to talk.
Tomorrow, I am meant to be at a meeting of the Disability Law Service in London. I had forewarned the Linda (the DLS CEO) that I might not be able to attend. Today I called Linda again to confirm this.
I spent a long long day at home working on the ICT strategy for the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium - broken only for an hour in the afternoon to watch a bit of the Titchfield Thunderbolt and an hour in the evening to watch the final episode of the gorgeous Autumnwatch with my sublime wife Jackie.
Today, I was meant to be at a meeting of the Herts CVS group in Stevenage. But last night I called Ian Richardson (saintly Chair of Herts CVS group) to present my apologies. We had a good talk through the Herts CVS agenda, and about the respective roles of CVS and HIC, and I told him about my discussions with Laura of St Albans and he wished me luck with the project plans. It’s good to talk.
Tomorrow, I am meant to be at a meeting of the Disability Law Service in London. I had forewarned the Linda (the DLS CEO) that I might not be able to attend. Today I called Linda again to confirm this.
I spent a long long day at home working on the ICT strategy for the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium - broken only for an hour in the afternoon to watch a bit of the Titchfield Thunderbolt and an hour in the evening to watch the final episode of the gorgeous Autumnwatch with my sublime wife Jackie.
Wednesday, 14 November 2007
Between toothache and the HIC Training Strategy, I had rather a disturbed night last night.
This morning I was back in the office attending a series of meetings. First I met with Marv Renshaw to discuss Inspiral Arts and the Scenery Store. Then I met with Mike Smith (new CEO at the New Hope Trust) who seems a thoroughly decent sort of chap. Among other things, we discussed the possibility of setting up an informal CEO network in Watford.
Later still I met with Kim Bloomfield of WBC for our half-yearly monitoring meeting, and then again with Marv Renshaw.
Within and around all this I continued to work on the HIC training strategy. Finally at about 7:00 I was able to mail a draft to a few select colleagues for comments. A bit unfair of me as it only allows 36 hours for people to respond, but then we are working to tight deadlines.
This morning I was back in the office attending a series of meetings. First I met with Marv Renshaw to discuss Inspiral Arts and the Scenery Store. Then I met with Mike Smith (new CEO at the New Hope Trust) who seems a thoroughly decent sort of chap. Among other things, we discussed the possibility of setting up an informal CEO network in Watford.
Later still I met with Kim Bloomfield of WBC for our half-yearly monitoring meeting, and then again with Marv Renshaw.
Within and around all this I continued to work on the HIC training strategy. Finally at about 7:00 I was able to mail a draft to a few select colleagues for comments. A bit unfair of me as it only allows 36 hours for people to respond, but then we are working to tight deadlines.
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
A strange and occasionally distressing day
Everything began pleasantly enough: I arrived at the office, cleared my correspondence and then had a very very helpful meeting with Laura Cronshaw. Laura is my counterpart from St Albans CVS adn she had some very good points to make about Training, ICT and the HIC / CVS relationship. Perhaps the most useful aspect of the current strategic planning exercise for HIC is that it is forcing us to think very clearly about boundaries and parameters etc. Not before time.
At lunchtime, I sped from the office for my dental appointment. After a brief discussion with my Dentist, we agreed on extraction. I am quite vain about still having all my teeth, but this one doesn’t appear to have any function as there is no corresponding tooth above it. After several weeks of nagging pain, I was finally to get my tooth sorted out. Hurrah!
After four attempts to administer pain-killing injections (surely enough to numb an elephant) and after three painful attempts to extract the tooth, my kindly dentist retreated in some distress. But not as much distress as me. I cannot describe the pain or relive the experience. Not even for you, dear reader. I understand I need to be referred elsewhere for an extraction under general anaesthetic but I am not sure whether this is because my dentist can’t give injections, because I have an immunity to local anaesthetic, or because I am a big baby.
By mid-afternoon I was back home, diverting myself by working on the HIC Training Strategy.
Everything began pleasantly enough: I arrived at the office, cleared my correspondence and then had a very very helpful meeting with Laura Cronshaw. Laura is my counterpart from St Albans CVS adn she had some very good points to make about Training, ICT and the HIC / CVS relationship. Perhaps the most useful aspect of the current strategic planning exercise for HIC is that it is forcing us to think very clearly about boundaries and parameters etc. Not before time.
At lunchtime, I sped from the office for my dental appointment. After a brief discussion with my Dentist, we agreed on extraction. I am quite vain about still having all my teeth, but this one doesn’t appear to have any function as there is no corresponding tooth above it. After several weeks of nagging pain, I was finally to get my tooth sorted out. Hurrah!
After four attempts to administer pain-killing injections (surely enough to numb an elephant) and after three painful attempts to extract the tooth, my kindly dentist retreated in some distress. But not as much distress as me. I cannot describe the pain or relive the experience. Not even for you, dear reader. I understand I need to be referred elsewhere for an extraction under general anaesthetic but I am not sure whether this is because my dentist can’t give injections, because I have an immunity to local anaesthetic, or because I am a big baby.
By mid-afternoon I was back home, diverting myself by working on the HIC Training Strategy.
Monday, 12 November 2007
I spent a long busy day at home working on HIC’s strategic planning process: it will be a frantic few days heading toward Friday’s deadline!
Sunday, 11 November 2007
A very sombre Remembrance Sunday. Last night, Jackie and I watched on television Ian Hislop’s history of war memorials and tonight we enjoyed Jeremy Paxman’s biography of Wilfred Owen. All very moving.
Saturday, 10 November 2007
All over Watford this morning, voluntary groups opened their post and thought: "Complementary? Is he a fool?" Ho hum.
After some work on HIC projects, Jackie and I took a break to go to our local community museum (the delightful Mill Green Museum in Hatfield) and then into Hatfield to do some shopping and visit the library.
Trying to be helpful
After our shopping, we found a very distressed man sitting on a low wall. He wouldn’t speak or raise his head, but I could tell he was about our age and he was coughing up blood which I know is not a good sign. After Jackie and I failed to rouse him, I called the emergency services and within about four minutes a Paramedic had arrived. She parked right next to the chap and started checking his vital signs and trying to establish communication with him.
Almost immediately an assertive (possibly aggressive) lady driver asked the Paramedic to move her emergency car as she was blocking the traffic: “I’m not being insensitive but I’ve got to get somewhere”. The Paramedic said she was on an emergency call and would move her car in a few minutes. She then decided the chap needed hospital treatment and called for an Ambulance. But she still couldn’t establish communication and I suggested that perhaps her patient didn’t speak English. She was armed with a phrasebook and soon worked out that her patient was Russian.
Jackie then returned from the library to say that the library staff had told her that they knew him and that he “regularly did drink and drugs”. The Ambulance had now arrived and one of their team decided to pop into the library to ask if they knew the chap's name as this could help speed up treatment etc.
Things then happened very fast. The next thing I remember, the lady in the library was arguing with the Ambulance man saying she couldn’t tell him anything about the man because of "the Data Protection Act" - this same lady had just happily told Jackie that the man “regularly did drink and drugs”.
Meanwhile, the assertive (possibly aggressive) lady driver was becoming more strident and was asking the Paramedic why she couldn’t move her car and did she want her to move the car for her?
And the patient was now face down on the pavement refusing to be moved. Another member of the Ambulance crew (having already established that the patient understood no English) stood over the man saying: “This might be ok in your own country, but not here, alright? Do you want me to call the Police to arrest you?”
Jackie and I decided it was time to leave. I am usually at my most dangerous when trying to be helpful.
Once home, I worked like fury on the IT and Training strategies. Of course we are still consulting with other HIC members and with front-line organisations, but I have enough background now at least to get the bare bones of the strategies sketched out.
After some work on HIC projects, Jackie and I took a break to go to our local community museum (the delightful Mill Green Museum in Hatfield) and then into Hatfield to do some shopping and visit the library.
Trying to be helpful
After our shopping, we found a very distressed man sitting on a low wall. He wouldn’t speak or raise his head, but I could tell he was about our age and he was coughing up blood which I know is not a good sign. After Jackie and I failed to rouse him, I called the emergency services and within about four minutes a Paramedic had arrived. She parked right next to the chap and started checking his vital signs and trying to establish communication with him.
Almost immediately an assertive (possibly aggressive) lady driver asked the Paramedic to move her emergency car as she was blocking the traffic: “I’m not being insensitive but I’ve got to get somewhere”. The Paramedic said she was on an emergency call and would move her car in a few minutes. She then decided the chap needed hospital treatment and called for an Ambulance. But she still couldn’t establish communication and I suggested that perhaps her patient didn’t speak English. She was armed with a phrasebook and soon worked out that her patient was Russian.
Jackie then returned from the library to say that the library staff had told her that they knew him and that he “regularly did drink and drugs”. The Ambulance had now arrived and one of their team decided to pop into the library to ask if they knew the chap's name as this could help speed up treatment etc.
Things then happened very fast. The next thing I remember, the lady in the library was arguing with the Ambulance man saying she couldn’t tell him anything about the man because of "the Data Protection Act" - this same lady had just happily told Jackie that the man “regularly did drink and drugs”.
Meanwhile, the assertive (possibly aggressive) lady driver was becoming more strident and was asking the Paramedic why she couldn’t move her car and did she want her to move the car for her?
And the patient was now face down on the pavement refusing to be moved. Another member of the Ambulance crew (having already established that the patient understood no English) stood over the man saying: “This might be ok in your own country, but not here, alright? Do you want me to call the Police to arrest you?”
Jackie and I decided it was time to leave. I am usually at my most dangerous when trying to be helpful.
Once home, I worked like fury on the IT and Training strategies. Of course we are still consulting with other HIC members and with front-line organisations, but I have enough background now at least to get the bare bones of the strategies sketched out.
Friday, 9 November 2009
I worked for an hour or two this morning on some correspondence and then headed off to a meeting on the new Integrated Youth Support Service for Hertfordshire. Pleasingly, this meeting was held at Breaks Youth Club in Hatfield, a place I last visited to play 5-a-side football when I was about 14.
The meeting was attended by about 100 youth works from across the County. The plans seem reasonably well thought out: within each of the county’s Districts and Boroughs, staff from all the disparate youth agencies will join together to create a single integrated local youth service. What could be more obviously sensible?
Apart from logistical issues, my only concerns were that young people don’t recognise local government boundaries (why should they?) and that creating a monolithic youth structure will tend to the further weakening of ties with voluntary sector projects, and the stiffling of local voluntary initiatives.
When I arrived back in Watford, Maria was just taking the 400 letters to the Post Office for onward dispatch. I had a meeting with our Connexions staff.
After the meeting, Maria reminded me that I still needed to write the letter to accompany the Community Directory’s distribution to local councillors and council officers. To do this, I naturally opened last night’s letter as a template and I was startled and shocked to read the first line of the letter: “Please find enclosed your complementary copy of Watford’s 2008 Community Directory.” Complementary? I thought. Complementary??!! Oh dear. And 400 copies of this latter have just been handed over to the Post Office? I felt so ashamed.
When I arrived home, Jackie had already completed her nightly walk. I have stopped accompanying her adn consequently I have remained large and slothful while Jackie is looking absolutely gorgeous. Later in the night, Jackie and I drove to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage where she had her heart palpitations explored. Needless to say, her heart behaved impeccably throughout the monitoring.
Later still, I finished reading Christian England Volume 1. This was an extremely interesting book, intertwining England’s military, political and theological history. It was hard work but very worthwhile. I wish I could retain all this lovely historical knowledge, but it almost immediately gets crowded out by new acronyms, government policy announcements and so on.
The meeting was attended by about 100 youth works from across the County. The plans seem reasonably well thought out: within each of the county’s Districts and Boroughs, staff from all the disparate youth agencies will join together to create a single integrated local youth service. What could be more obviously sensible?
Apart from logistical issues, my only concerns were that young people don’t recognise local government boundaries (why should they?) and that creating a monolithic youth structure will tend to the further weakening of ties with voluntary sector projects, and the stiffling of local voluntary initiatives.
When I arrived back in Watford, Maria was just taking the 400 letters to the Post Office for onward dispatch. I had a meeting with our Connexions staff.
After the meeting, Maria reminded me that I still needed to write the letter to accompany the Community Directory’s distribution to local councillors and council officers. To do this, I naturally opened last night’s letter as a template and I was startled and shocked to read the first line of the letter: “Please find enclosed your complementary copy of Watford’s 2008 Community Directory.” Complementary? I thought. Complementary??!! Oh dear. And 400 copies of this latter have just been handed over to the Post Office? I felt so ashamed.
When I arrived home, Jackie had already completed her nightly walk. I have stopped accompanying her adn consequently I have remained large and slothful while Jackie is looking absolutely gorgeous. Later in the night, Jackie and I drove to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage where she had her heart palpitations explored. Needless to say, her heart behaved impeccably throughout the monitoring.
Later still, I finished reading Christian England Volume 1. This was an extremely interesting book, intertwining England’s military, political and theological history. It was hard work but very worthwhile. I wish I could retain all this lovely historical knowledge, but it almost immediately gets crowded out by new acronyms, government policy announcements and so on.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
I had some interesting discussions this morning. First, I confirmed with Mir Ejaz and Marv Renshaw that they would attend our next trustees meeting. Then I took a call from a small local charity that needed help with a delicate legal matter involving mental health, the DDA, homelessness and tenancy. All very complex. Needless to say, the charity involved aren’t CVS members.
In the afternoon I met with Sarah Elliott, the new development worker for the new Hertfordshire VCS Training Consortium. Also present were Mary Green (my serene counterpart from Three Rivers CVS) and Vanessa Levy (our own Development and Training Officer). We had a very helpful talk about possible future scenarios for the training consortium. At present, the consortium is a compromise between the LSC’s willingness to fund the creation of a county-wide third sector consortium to deliver training to the public, and the voluntary sector’s aspiration to find funding to meet its own training needs.
After this, I worked on the IT and Training strategies for the HIC development plan. Later, as I was leaving the office, Maria reminded me that I needed to draft out a letter to accompany Watford's 2008 Community Directory being mailed tomorrow to 400 voluntary organisations. Between gritted teeth I turned my computer back on and pounded out a letter, leaving Maria to supervise the printing.
In the afternoon I met with Sarah Elliott, the new development worker for the new Hertfordshire VCS Training Consortium. Also present were Mary Green (my serene counterpart from Three Rivers CVS) and Vanessa Levy (our own Development and Training Officer). We had a very helpful talk about possible future scenarios for the training consortium. At present, the consortium is a compromise between the LSC’s willingness to fund the creation of a county-wide third sector consortium to deliver training to the public, and the voluntary sector’s aspiration to find funding to meet its own training needs.
After this, I worked on the IT and Training strategies for the HIC development plan. Later, as I was leaving the office, Maria reminded me that I needed to draft out a letter to accompany Watford's 2008 Community Directory being mailed tomorrow to 400 voluntary organisations. Between gritted teeth I turned my computer back on and pounded out a letter, leaving Maria to supervise the printing.
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Happy Birthday Dear Blog
Appropriately for my Blog’s first birthday, this evening our Executive Committee met and we were able to welcome two new trustees: the very experienced John Casstles and the very smart Lesley Billy. Both are excellent additions to the trustee team at WCVS.
As he is to take over as treasurer, I spent part of the afternoon with John discussing WCVS finances and systems. The evening meeting went well. Our chairwoman Pam maintained her record of supplying me with the perfect word that hovers just beyond my grasp. The trustees confirmed Helen as the full-time Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator. It was agreed to invite two potential new trustees to the next meeting with a view to possible co-option (Mir Ejaz of the Muslim Community Project and Marv Renshaw of Inspiral Arts). John Casstles was confirmed as Treasurer. The financial report was received. Dates were set for future meetings. And my draft Complaints Procedure was referred back for further work.
In the night, I was woken yet again by my nagging tooth ache. I fear another trip to the dentist is necessary. In the middle of the night, I sat up reading. Aged Ken was there, our decrepit white cat. He really does now look and seem pretty feeble; each morning I half expect to find him as stiff as a board with his four paws in the air. He probably fears the same about me.
Appropriately for my Blog’s first birthday, this evening our Executive Committee met and we were able to welcome two new trustees: the very experienced John Casstles and the very smart Lesley Billy. Both are excellent additions to the trustee team at WCVS.
As he is to take over as treasurer, I spent part of the afternoon with John discussing WCVS finances and systems. The evening meeting went well. Our chairwoman Pam maintained her record of supplying me with the perfect word that hovers just beyond my grasp. The trustees confirmed Helen as the full-time Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator. It was agreed to invite two potential new trustees to the next meeting with a view to possible co-option (Mir Ejaz of the Muslim Community Project and Marv Renshaw of Inspiral Arts). John Casstles was confirmed as Treasurer. The financial report was received. Dates were set for future meetings. And my draft Complaints Procedure was referred back for further work.
In the night, I was woken yet again by my nagging tooth ache. I fear another trip to the dentist is necessary. In the middle of the night, I sat up reading. Aged Ken was there, our decrepit white cat. He really does now look and seem pretty feeble; each morning I half expect to find him as stiff as a board with his four paws in the air. He probably fears the same about me.
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
After yesterday’s excellent WOW meeting, this morning started with a meeting of Watford CVS’s accommodation working group. The last few meetings have promised great things and this morning we took another important step forward.
After the meeting I had expected to attend a meeting of the Watford LSP but instead I drove to Wheathamstead. There, I attended a selection panel for a tender we had submitted to Herts County Council to provide a county-wide advocacy and support service to children who have experienced racist discrimination or racist bullying.
The process was very thorough and there were elements of the process I enjoyed. But toward the end, it seemed that more and more expectations were being placed on the contract without any additional resourcing.
Could we undertake to provide cover if the recruited worker is absent through illness? We’ll do our best. Could we guarantee it? No, we couldn’t I admitted.
Could we undertake to provide interpreters for the service? No, we couldn’t. Why couldn’t we?
Could we ensure that every parent in Hertfordshire is aware of the service – including those with no children currently at school? No, we couldn’t. Why couldn’t we?
Could we also address the problem of children who simply aren’t attending school? Isn’t this another whole big area?
These people are expected to deliver the best possible deal for HCC and its ratepayers, so I forgive them.
But it was a bit disconcerting. At one point, I thought the mood needed lightening and I made a joke about poor people being more racist than the educated middle classes. In the circumstances, this was foolish; far from lightening the mood I noticed several faces becoming distinctly thunderous.
It was a valuable learning exercise and I wait with interest to learn the outcome of the tender process. The advocacy service is of course very important and very serious. But the contract will have an almost entirely neutral impact on WCVS: it would be nice to extend our range of expertise and our funding base, but the contract is not highly profitable and it certainly has the potential to create new demands on our resources. I hope it doesn't sound flippant to say that I won't be losing any sleep over the outcome.
After the meeting I had expected to attend a meeting of the Watford LSP but instead I drove to Wheathamstead. There, I attended a selection panel for a tender we had submitted to Herts County Council to provide a county-wide advocacy and support service to children who have experienced racist discrimination or racist bullying.
The process was very thorough and there were elements of the process I enjoyed. But toward the end, it seemed that more and more expectations were being placed on the contract without any additional resourcing.
Could we undertake to provide cover if the recruited worker is absent through illness? We’ll do our best. Could we guarantee it? No, we couldn’t I admitted.
Could we undertake to provide interpreters for the service? No, we couldn’t. Why couldn’t we?
Could we ensure that every parent in Hertfordshire is aware of the service – including those with no children currently at school? No, we couldn’t. Why couldn’t we?
Could we also address the problem of children who simply aren’t attending school? Isn’t this another whole big area?
These people are expected to deliver the best possible deal for HCC and its ratepayers, so I forgive them.
But it was a bit disconcerting. At one point, I thought the mood needed lightening and I made a joke about poor people being more racist than the educated middle classes. In the circumstances, this was foolish; far from lightening the mood I noticed several faces becoming distinctly thunderous.
It was a valuable learning exercise and I wait with interest to learn the outcome of the tender process. The advocacy service is of course very important and very serious. But the contract will have an almost entirely neutral impact on WCVS: it would be nice to extend our range of expertise and our funding base, but the contract is not highly profitable and it certainly has the potential to create new demands on our resources. I hope it doesn't sound flippant to say that I won't be losing any sleep over the outcome.
Monday, 5 November 2007
This morning we finalised the publicity materials for the 9 February Hertfordshire Trustee Conference. The brochure looks pretty good (thanks to Sha-Lee) and there is an impressive list of workshops and speakers (thanks to Vanessa). I hope the speakers are all as good as they look on paper. My big anxiety is that the conference will get swamped with professional advisors (like me) rather than actual real-life trustees (like me, too). It’s a complex form of anxiety.
And I heard from the Charity Evaluation Service that I had finally been accepted onto their forthcoming PQASSO training. I also did more work on some HIC project specifications, and prepared myself for tomorrow’s selection panel for the HCC Advocacy tender we submitted. If anyone can make sense of the jargon in this paragraph, they have my deepest sympathy.
WOW!
At 3:00, we had a planning meeting of the Watford One World forum. Seventeen people attended and Vanessa brilliantly led us through the session.
We reached some key agreements. Our agreed vision is - Watford: a successful community that values togetherness and celebrates diversity. What a lovely thought.
Our mission is to influence social change and promote community cohesion with one voice, to make a positive difference for the wider community. A little awkward admittedly, but I’ve seen far worse.
The best outcome from the meeting was the goodwill and solidarity that flowed from everyone present.
After the meeting, there was a meal at a local tapas restaurant. Even the good feeling wasn’t enough to overcome my nagging toothache and I returned early to the office to clear some more paperwork, eventually leaving about 8:00.
And I heard from the Charity Evaluation Service that I had finally been accepted onto their forthcoming PQASSO training. I also did more work on some HIC project specifications, and prepared myself for tomorrow’s selection panel for the HCC Advocacy tender we submitted. If anyone can make sense of the jargon in this paragraph, they have my deepest sympathy.
WOW!
At 3:00, we had a planning meeting of the Watford One World forum. Seventeen people attended and Vanessa brilliantly led us through the session.
We reached some key agreements. Our agreed vision is - Watford: a successful community that values togetherness and celebrates diversity. What a lovely thought.
Our mission is to influence social change and promote community cohesion with one voice, to make a positive difference for the wider community. A little awkward admittedly, but I’ve seen far worse.
The best outcome from the meeting was the goodwill and solidarity that flowed from everyone present.
After the meeting, there was a meal at a local tapas restaurant. Even the good feeling wasn’t enough to overcome my nagging toothache and I returned early to the office to clear some more paperwork, eventually leaving about 8:00.
Sunday, 4 November 2007
What Jackie and I needed yesterday at B&Q was a broom and a rake. This morning we went back there and bought a new broom, but none of their rakes were to our liking so we will keep the one we have (even though a third of it is missing). We spent a productive day in the garden planting spring bulbs, raking and weeding the lawn, and turning over the compost heap. Simple pleasures.
Saturday, 3 November 2007
Yesterday’s visit to the dentist proved inconclusive and I endured another disturbed night.
Jackie and I spent the day shopping – groceries for the household, scarves for Jackie, dental supplies for me. At one point we arrived at B&Q but neither of us could remember why we were there – we walked aimlessly up and down the aisles a few times and then left feeling rather embarrassed.
In the evening, we drove to the Watford Palace Theatre for the one and only performance of 200 Years. This is a piece written by Watford’s African Caribbean Writers’ group to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. The writing was, I think, quite brilliantly pieced together by Director Gbolahan Obisesan and performed with energy and passion by a troupe of five actors. Much credit to all concerned.
Jackie and I spent the day shopping – groceries for the household, scarves for Jackie, dental supplies for me. At one point we arrived at B&Q but neither of us could remember why we were there – we walked aimlessly up and down the aisles a few times and then left feeling rather embarrassed.
In the evening, we drove to the Watford Palace Theatre for the one and only performance of 200 Years. This is a piece written by Watford’s African Caribbean Writers’ group to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. The writing was, I think, quite brilliantly pieced together by Director Gbolahan Obisesan and performed with energy and passion by a troupe of five actors. Much credit to all concerned.
Friday, 2 November 2007
One doesn’t like to complain, but for the past ten days I have been suffering with toothache. It hasn’t been very painful but it has been incessant and it has certainly been sufficiently painful to keep me awake at night. This morning, I finally got to visit the dentist.
My dental practice is staffed by a pleasingly international mixture of Danes and Sri Lankans. This morning I saw the Dane. He replaced a filling but warned me it is “on the nerve” and that if the pain persists I will need root canal treatment. He also gave me a humiliating lecture on how to brush my teeth. I use a large toothbrush with hard bristles and I brush with vigorous manly strokes. Apparently this is all wrong. I need to use a small toothbrush with soft bristles and to brush using little girly curlicues. Or all my teeth will drop out. At least he refrained from specifying that I need to use a pink toothbrush.
Back at the office, I finally circulated the final Value and Volume report into Hertfordshire's voluntary and community sector. What a weight that is off my shoulders!
In the evening, Jackie and I visited my Mum, who has recently returned from a trip to Lake Garda.
My dental practice is staffed by a pleasingly international mixture of Danes and Sri Lankans. This morning I saw the Dane. He replaced a filling but warned me it is “on the nerve” and that if the pain persists I will need root canal treatment. He also gave me a humiliating lecture on how to brush my teeth. I use a large toothbrush with hard bristles and I brush with vigorous manly strokes. Apparently this is all wrong. I need to use a small toothbrush with soft bristles and to brush using little girly curlicues. Or all my teeth will drop out. At least he refrained from specifying that I need to use a pink toothbrush.
Back at the office, I finally circulated the final Value and Volume report into Hertfordshire's voluntary and community sector. What a weight that is off my shoulders!
In the evening, Jackie and I visited my Mum, who has recently returned from a trip to Lake Garda.
Thursday, 1 November 2007
After last night’s exertions, I arrived at work about 10:00 am. I discovered that I had omitted to spellcheck at least one of the papers I finished and mailed late last night and it’s riddled with typing errors. I can’t bring myself to check the other papers.
I returned a call from Althea MacLean OBE who is one of my trustees, ex-Chair of WCVS, and one of the Jewels in the Crown of local voluntarism. She was concerned about developments at the Holywell Community Centre, where the African Caribbean Association is expecting to relocate shortly. Watford Borough Council is hoping that local community groups will take over the management of the Centre. This is a laudable aim of course but the transition is painful. The Indian Association are also involved in the Holywell Centre and also have concerns. Althea and I took a trip down to the Centre and she talked me through proposals for the allocation of rooms. Clearly there are difficulties.
While there, the African Caribbean Association’s luncheon club is meeting and Althea and I joined them for a very tasty lunch.
Later, I checked through the minutes of several recent meetings, met with WCVS staff to review our fundraising targets for the year, and with Louise Jones of Connexions to discuss progress on our Connexions contract.
I returned a call from Althea MacLean OBE who is one of my trustees, ex-Chair of WCVS, and one of the Jewels in the Crown of local voluntarism. She was concerned about developments at the Holywell Community Centre, where the African Caribbean Association is expecting to relocate shortly. Watford Borough Council is hoping that local community groups will take over the management of the Centre. This is a laudable aim of course but the transition is painful. The Indian Association are also involved in the Holywell Centre and also have concerns. Althea and I took a trip down to the Centre and she talked me through proposals for the allocation of rooms. Clearly there are difficulties.
While there, the African Caribbean Association’s luncheon club is meeting and Althea and I joined them for a very tasty lunch.
Later, I checked through the minutes of several recent meetings, met with WCVS staff to review our fundraising targets for the year, and with Louise Jones of Connexions to discuss progress on our Connexions contract.
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Another long day. I arrived at the office just as the 9:00 pips were sounding which gave me a rather childish pleasure. And there was a little flurry of e-mails following up discussions begun at yesterday’s HIC meeting.
Community networking
At lunchtime, Maria and I travelled to the North Watford Mosque to discuss arrangements for the 3 December community networking lunch. This was my first visit to the Mosque and I found it extremely interesting.
This is the largest purpose-built mosque in Hertfordshire and bears some resemblance to a defensive fort or at least to a stockade. The mosque is surrounded by a tall security fence and a significant proportion of the windows have been shattered - I gave up counting when I reached thirty.
According to the National Audit Office, Watford has a good level of social cohesion, with a high percentage of people believing that people of different backgrounds get on well: the broken windows at the North Watford Mosque tell a different story. What does it say about us as a community, that one of our major faith groups has to meet and worship behind a security fence under a state of siege?
Maria and I were there to promote networking as a way of breaking down barriers and improving communications. Having been the victims of so much violence and vandalism, the Muslim community well understand the need for improved networking and communication. Far from being cowed, or apologetic, or aggressive, the Muslim community leaders we met with were eager to share and communicate with the wider community. I was reminded of Martin Luther’s supposed summary to the Diet of Worms: “Here I stand, I can do no other”.
Maria and I returned to the office by mid-afternoon, having made good progress on arrangements for 3 December. Now we must start promoting the event!
Some jobs jobbed
But meanwhile, I had some major jobs to get out of the way. Maria had prepared a final draft of our October newsletter, and I had to proof this, and then distribute it to our 550-strong mailing list.
I took a short time out to try and implement the e-bulletin format prepared for us by the inestimable Steph at HIC. The format is fine, but it is designed for shorter more regular newsletters, and at present we do not have the systems in place to support this. So meanwhile we will circulate our newsletter as a pdf document.
Three months ago when we last used this mailing list, we found that more than 80 of the 550 e-mail addresses were no longer in use. So I needed to refresh our list. And as we are still waiting for the go-ahead for new software, this had to be done manually. And I also had to add to the list around 40 changed or new e-mail addresses. It was quite late before I finally dispatched the newsletter.
Then I had to prepare and send out papers for next week’s trustees meeting. Although a lot was already prepared (agenda, financial figures, complaints policy), several other papers still had to be written. By the time I had done these, it was really quite late. My timing wasn’t helped by several software failures and crashes - oh for some new hardware! The papers were e-mailed out around midnight.
Then I had to get out papers for the Accommodation working group meeting. This took perhaps another hour.
After a fourteen hour day, I finally left the office at 1:00 in the morning. Aren’t there laws about this sort of thing? Anyway, I actually felt pretty good having ticked off so many tasks, and it was a wonderful cold and foggy Halloween night for the drive home.
Community networking
At lunchtime, Maria and I travelled to the North Watford Mosque to discuss arrangements for the 3 December community networking lunch. This was my first visit to the Mosque and I found it extremely interesting.
This is the largest purpose-built mosque in Hertfordshire and bears some resemblance to a defensive fort or at least to a stockade. The mosque is surrounded by a tall security fence and a significant proportion of the windows have been shattered - I gave up counting when I reached thirty.
According to the National Audit Office, Watford has a good level of social cohesion, with a high percentage of people believing that people of different backgrounds get on well: the broken windows at the North Watford Mosque tell a different story. What does it say about us as a community, that one of our major faith groups has to meet and worship behind a security fence under a state of siege?
Maria and I were there to promote networking as a way of breaking down barriers and improving communications. Having been the victims of so much violence and vandalism, the Muslim community well understand the need for improved networking and communication. Far from being cowed, or apologetic, or aggressive, the Muslim community leaders we met with were eager to share and communicate with the wider community. I was reminded of Martin Luther’s supposed summary to the Diet of Worms: “Here I stand, I can do no other”.
Maria and I returned to the office by mid-afternoon, having made good progress on arrangements for 3 December. Now we must start promoting the event!
Some jobs jobbed
But meanwhile, I had some major jobs to get out of the way. Maria had prepared a final draft of our October newsletter, and I had to proof this, and then distribute it to our 550-strong mailing list.
I took a short time out to try and implement the e-bulletin format prepared for us by the inestimable Steph at HIC. The format is fine, but it is designed for shorter more regular newsletters, and at present we do not have the systems in place to support this. So meanwhile we will circulate our newsletter as a pdf document.
Three months ago when we last used this mailing list, we found that more than 80 of the 550 e-mail addresses were no longer in use. So I needed to refresh our list. And as we are still waiting for the go-ahead for new software, this had to be done manually. And I also had to add to the list around 40 changed or new e-mail addresses. It was quite late before I finally dispatched the newsletter.
Then I had to prepare and send out papers for next week’s trustees meeting. Although a lot was already prepared (agenda, financial figures, complaints policy), several other papers still had to be written. By the time I had done these, it was really quite late. My timing wasn’t helped by several software failures and crashes - oh for some new hardware! The papers were e-mailed out around midnight.
Then I had to get out papers for the Accommodation working group meeting. This took perhaps another hour.
After a fourteen hour day, I finally left the office at 1:00 in the morning. Aren’t there laws about this sort of thing? Anyway, I actually felt pretty good having ticked off so many tasks, and it was a wonderful cold and foggy Halloween night for the drive home.
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
Another day out of the office. This morning I was in Stevenage to chair a meeting of the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium.
This was a key meeting as the Steering Group reported back on its work to date on the Consortium Development Plan. There was a very good attendance at the meeting, we had good discussions across a wide range of development issues, and there was clear consensus about key themes. In fact, I think it was perhaps the best HIC meeting yet: people obviously felt sufficiently comfortable to question and challenge, were well informed across a range of county-wide, regional and national agenda, and were ready and willing to share and exchange information and views. This was fortuitous as this morning we were joined by regional representatives of the Big Lottery and Capacitybuilders.
In the afternoon and evening, I stayed home preparing papers and policies for next week’s trustees meeting.
This was a key meeting as the Steering Group reported back on its work to date on the Consortium Development Plan. There was a very good attendance at the meeting, we had good discussions across a wide range of development issues, and there was clear consensus about key themes. In fact, I think it was perhaps the best HIC meeting yet: people obviously felt sufficiently comfortable to question and challenge, were well informed across a range of county-wide, regional and national agenda, and were ready and willing to share and exchange information and views. This was fortuitous as this morning we were joined by regional representatives of the Big Lottery and Capacitybuilders.
In the afternoon and evening, I stayed home preparing papers and policies for next week’s trustees meeting.
Monday. 29 October 2007
I attended a meeting at COVER in Great Chesterford for those people in the Eastern Region who are working to produce infrastructure development plans. After the last such meeting, I was confident that the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium was streets ahead of its neighbours. Now I am not so sure as others seem also to be making solid progress.
Richard Weller was present from Capacitybuilders and his key messages were that we have to meet the 31 December deadline, that we have to demonstrate stakeholder engagement in the creation of development plans, and we must move toward some objective measurement of our impact.
I shared with people my plan for the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium to be re-launched as Supporting Hertfordshire’s Independent Third Sector. That would keep me amused for hours.
On my way back, I dropped in to see Jacquie Hime and Steph Gallagher at North Herts CVS to discuss Richard Weller’s key messages and some good ideas reported from elsewhere in the East of England Region.
I arrived home late in the afternoon and spent a few hours writing strategies and project plans. By Christmas, I have to draft Watford strategies on accommodation and on community development, and I need to complete Hertfordshire-wide project specifications on ICT and VCS Training, and I need to work with Jacquie and Steph to complete an overall infrastructure development plan for Hertfordshire. My own carelessness I suppose.
Richard Weller was present from Capacitybuilders and his key messages were that we have to meet the 31 December deadline, that we have to demonstrate stakeholder engagement in the creation of development plans, and we must move toward some objective measurement of our impact.
I shared with people my plan for the Hertfordshire Infrastructure Consortium to be re-launched as Supporting Hertfordshire’s Independent Third Sector. That would keep me amused for hours.
On my way back, I dropped in to see Jacquie Hime and Steph Gallagher at North Herts CVS to discuss Richard Weller’s key messages and some good ideas reported from elsewhere in the East of England Region.
I arrived home late in the afternoon and spent a few hours writing strategies and project plans. By Christmas, I have to draft Watford strategies on accommodation and on community development, and I need to complete Hertfordshire-wide project specifications on ICT and VCS Training, and I need to work with Jacquie and Steph to complete an overall infrastructure development plan for Hertfordshire. My own carelessness I suppose.
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Rather late in the year, Jackie made our Christmas Cake. I helped by grating and peeling and stirring things, which was quite relaxing. And I helped stir the cake and so got to make a wish.
Saturday, 27 October 2007
Jackie and I went shopping. We hate shopping. On the way back, we stopped off at Lessiter’s chocolate shop at Woolmer Green. A very prim elderly lady told me, “You know, they made all the Queen Mother’s chocolates and you can never buy them in the shops, except maybe a stray bar in Waitrose.” I had a wonderful image of immaculately prepared chocolate bars being delivered straight to the country estates of the aristocracy; should a bar be lost or abandoned for any reason, it has been trained to avoid common shops and to head straight for the nearest branch of Waitrose.
Friday, 26 October 2007
I arrived early at the office and tidied up some final points on the newsletter, dealt with some correspondence, and then had a meeting with the senior management team of the newly formed Watford Community Housing Trust. Now I know that the WCHT is based 200 yards away at the Town Hall and I know that they are looking to relocate soon.
Had I trusted to my own knowledge, everything would have been fine. But a little doubt is a dangerous thing. Before leaving I thought I’d just double-check the meeting’s location. I could only get answerphones at WCHT so I popped the WCHT postcode into www.multimap.com which directed me over to Hagden Lane in West Watford, so off I went stupidly trusting to technology. When I eventually arrived at the WCHT offices at the Town Hall I was half an hour late. The senior management team were clearly bemused at how it could take me so long to travel 200 yards and I don’t think they found my explanation convincing. I barely believed it myself.
In the time left available to us we had an extremely helpful discussion and identified many areas of possible future collaboration. This is only the second community gateway trust in the country (after Preston) and it has a marvellous opportunity to help transform Watford for the better. The team seem very capable and very committed to doing just this.
Later, I focused on trying to complete some of the various projects I have on the go. I didn’t actually manage to tick anything off as completed, but I am getting close.
Had I trusted to my own knowledge, everything would have been fine. But a little doubt is a dangerous thing. Before leaving I thought I’d just double-check the meeting’s location. I could only get answerphones at WCHT so I popped the WCHT postcode into www.multimap.com which directed me over to Hagden Lane in West Watford, so off I went stupidly trusting to technology. When I eventually arrived at the WCHT offices at the Town Hall I was half an hour late. The senior management team were clearly bemused at how it could take me so long to travel 200 yards and I don’t think they found my explanation convincing. I barely believed it myself.
In the time left available to us we had an extremely helpful discussion and identified many areas of possible future collaboration. This is only the second community gateway trust in the country (after Preston) and it has a marvellous opportunity to help transform Watford for the better. The team seem very capable and very committed to doing just this.
Later, I focused on trying to complete some of the various projects I have on the go. I didn’t actually manage to tick anything off as completed, but I am getting close.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
I spent today in Cambridge attending a training event on social accounting. This is interesting stuff and of course it is important to demonstrate outcomes and impact. But I don't think funders will take too much interest until we can credibly put a sterling value on our impact and lots of work is still needed to develop properly credible models to measure social returns on investment.
Recent reading
In the evening, I finished reading Charles Nicholl’s fascinating book The Reckoning on the murder of Chrisopher Marlowe. Before this I had re-read H Rider Haggard’s book Allan Quatermain. Now I have started David Edwards’s history Christian England. My edition says it is part one: its story to the reformation but I am not sure that part two was ever published.
Recent reading
In the evening, I finished reading Charles Nicholl’s fascinating book The Reckoning on the murder of Chrisopher Marlowe. Before this I had re-read H Rider Haggard’s book Allan Quatermain. Now I have started David Edwards’s history Christian England. My edition says it is part one: its story to the reformation but I am not sure that part two was ever published.
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
I arrived early at the office to finish off the filing from yesterday and by 9:00 my new office looked pretty good. After dealing with some correspondence, I met with Anne Boyd (our Funding Advisor) to draft our half-yearly monitoring report to Watford Borough Council and with Maria to catch up on lots of projects and to prepare papers for the forthcoming trustees meeting.
In the nature of things, I work more closely with Maria than with anyone else in the office: she is young and clever and is a very quick learner. She also knows my weaknesses and foibles and endures them with a good grace that sometimes seems to border on affection. Or it might just be exasperation.
The Mother of all Parliaments
At 4:00 pm, I donned my suit (a rare occasion) for a trip down to Westminster to meet with Phil Hope, the Minister for the Third Sector. This meeting had been arranged by our MP Claire Ward at the suggestion of Mike Smith - the new CEO of the New Hope Trust.
Watford CVS only got involved ten days or so before, helping to make sure that as many Watford groups as possible took advantage of the opportunity.
Apart from myself and Mike Smith, Watford’s delegation comprised Pam Handley (of WCVS, 9 Lives Furniture and Watford Charity Centres Ltd), Anne Gallacher (of the Watford Palace Theatre), David Fitzpatrick (of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation), Lincoln Beckford and two colleagues (from Street Stars), Jane Pattinson and colleague from Watford Mencap, and a good team from the Peace Hospice led by their Chair Stuart Nagler.
Phil Hope talked through the Government’s strategy for the Third Sector and then fielded some well-informed questions on a wide-range of subjects including support for migrant workers, the future of the Compact, taxation for social enterprises, the Quirk report, Audit Commission assessments of local government, the promotion of volunteering, voluntary sector engagement in LSPs, the distribution of funds to regions using statistics from ward and super output levels, and the possibility of there being a standing committee on the Third Sector.
I think everyone was struck with how Phil Hope understood the voluntary sector. Although his CV makes his background clear, I think we all feared that this was just spin and that before becoming a MP he had really spent his life in an one of those Ivory Towers we keep hearing about. But he did understand and he did a good (politician's) job of responding to the points we raised.
After, Claire Ward spoke with us further and took us to the House of Commons chamber. Surely this is one of the most irksome duties for an MP, but Claire Ward conducted the tour with humour and patience.
After returning to Watford and dropping by the office to collect papers and check a few things, it was nearly midnight before I arrived home.
In the nature of things, I work more closely with Maria than with anyone else in the office: she is young and clever and is a very quick learner. She also knows my weaknesses and foibles and endures them with a good grace that sometimes seems to border on affection. Or it might just be exasperation.
The Mother of all Parliaments
At 4:00 pm, I donned my suit (a rare occasion) for a trip down to Westminster to meet with Phil Hope, the Minister for the Third Sector. This meeting had been arranged by our MP Claire Ward at the suggestion of Mike Smith - the new CEO of the New Hope Trust.
Watford CVS only got involved ten days or so before, helping to make sure that as many Watford groups as possible took advantage of the opportunity.
Apart from myself and Mike Smith, Watford’s delegation comprised Pam Handley (of WCVS, 9 Lives Furniture and Watford Charity Centres Ltd), Anne Gallacher (of the Watford Palace Theatre), David Fitzpatrick (of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation), Lincoln Beckford and two colleagues (from Street Stars), Jane Pattinson and colleague from Watford Mencap, and a good team from the Peace Hospice led by their Chair Stuart Nagler.
Phil Hope talked through the Government’s strategy for the Third Sector and then fielded some well-informed questions on a wide-range of subjects including support for migrant workers, the future of the Compact, taxation for social enterprises, the Quirk report, Audit Commission assessments of local government, the promotion of volunteering, voluntary sector engagement in LSPs, the distribution of funds to regions using statistics from ward and super output levels, and the possibility of there being a standing committee on the Third Sector.
I think everyone was struck with how Phil Hope understood the voluntary sector. Although his CV makes his background clear, I think we all feared that this was just spin and that before becoming a MP he had really spent his life in an one of those Ivory Towers we keep hearing about. But he did understand and he did a good (politician's) job of responding to the points we raised.
After, Claire Ward spoke with us further and took us to the House of Commons chamber. Surely this is one of the most irksome duties for an MP, but Claire Ward conducted the tour with humour and patience.
After returning to Watford and dropping by the office to collect papers and check a few things, it was nearly midnight before I arrived home.
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
The Big Move
Today we all moved offices, or at least eight of our ten members of staff swapped offices. It was a day of some chaos.
People have an impressive capacity to use physical labour to strengthen social bonds. I’ve noticed this often, but the rigour of this deep-seated impulse always impresses itself on me. Everyone worked really well to get the moves completed, but I particularly noticed the contributions of our three youngest members of staff: Farzana, Maria and Saud.
In the midst of all this, I was liaising with the office of our local MP Claire Ward to make arrangements for a visit tomorrow down to Westminster. I also spoke with Moreen Pascal about some work on equalities she is undertaking for the Herts Infrastructure Consortium. And I enjoyed a long telephone conversation with Paul Ruskin, Cambridgeshire’s IT guru, about IT in Hertfordshire. One of the projects I am working on is to sketch out the major lines of an IT strategy for the voluntary sector in Hertfordshire. And then Angelo (our technical IT chap) arrived to check the PCs and talk about IT strategies. Angelo and I abandoned the work at the office and went off for an early lunch to talk. As ever, Angelo had some excellent ideas and we talked through all sorts of possibilities.
Back at the office, I moved computers to their new locations while Angelo sorted out some trickier IT problems.
By the end of the day, everything looked pretty much back to normal apart from my office. Wonderful Maria had offered to stay and help me sort things out, but I felt I really needed to do it myself to make sure I know what files and papers I had.
Amid all the debris, I met in the evening with Matt Cadman. Matt is the driving force behind Watford's community radio station Fresh FM. He has big ambitions for the future but he needs support and particularly he needs to gather around him the right people with the right skills.
Today we all moved offices, or at least eight of our ten members of staff swapped offices. It was a day of some chaos.
People have an impressive capacity to use physical labour to strengthen social bonds. I’ve noticed this often, but the rigour of this deep-seated impulse always impresses itself on me. Everyone worked really well to get the moves completed, but I particularly noticed the contributions of our three youngest members of staff: Farzana, Maria and Saud.
In the midst of all this, I was liaising with the office of our local MP Claire Ward to make arrangements for a visit tomorrow down to Westminster. I also spoke with Moreen Pascal about some work on equalities she is undertaking for the Herts Infrastructure Consortium. And I enjoyed a long telephone conversation with Paul Ruskin, Cambridgeshire’s IT guru, about IT in Hertfordshire. One of the projects I am working on is to sketch out the major lines of an IT strategy for the voluntary sector in Hertfordshire. And then Angelo (our technical IT chap) arrived to check the PCs and talk about IT strategies. Angelo and I abandoned the work at the office and went off for an early lunch to talk. As ever, Angelo had some excellent ideas and we talked through all sorts of possibilities.
Back at the office, I moved computers to their new locations while Angelo sorted out some trickier IT problems.
By the end of the day, everything looked pretty much back to normal apart from my office. Wonderful Maria had offered to stay and help me sort things out, but I felt I really needed to do it myself to make sure I know what files and papers I had.
Amid all the debris, I met in the evening with Matt Cadman. Matt is the driving force behind Watford's community radio station Fresh FM. He has big ambitions for the future but he needs support and particularly he needs to gather around him the right people with the right skills.
Monday, 22 October 2007
Safer Watford
Promptly at 9:00 I arrived at the Town Hall for a meeting with the consultant retained by the borough to review the focus and aims of the Safer Watford Partnership. The consultant seemed very capable and it is good to see the Borough Council getting the right people in to do these important jobs.
Immediately after, I left with Maria for a meeting at the Muslim Community Project to talk through political and logistical arrangements for our 3 December networking lunch at the north Watford mosque. The Community Project had organised an impressive team and we were also joined by two representatives of the Muslim Awareness Forum for a thorough discussion about arrangements. I am confident that this is going to be a great event.
Just as Maria and I were rising to leave, our host Mohamed Khan announced that food was arriving. And so we stayed for a flavoursome lunch of chicken curry, dhal, rice and chapattis.
Back at WCVS, I met with Laura to talk though the next stage of development for the Community transport scheme, and with Vanessa on arrangements for next February’s county-wide trustees’ conference.
Before leaving the office I did some work on two of the HIC projects we are working on, and I sent the Value and Volumes report off to my CVS colleagues for a “peer review” of sorts.
Aged Ken
Back home in the evening, I was struck by how quickly Ken (our decrepit white cat) is now aging. He can still manage the cat flap but it is a real struggle; every exit and re-entry is a minor trauma for him and mostly he mews at the door until one of us opens it for him. He doesn’t like using the stairs and wont unless he is scared by fireworks or rowdy children. He has now lost all his teeth and can’t munch on cat biscuits - we no longer torture him with these after we realised he was just sucking them for a bit and then spitting them back into his bowl. He doesn’t seem to be in pain and still purrs contentedly when he can sit on a warm lap. Poor old Ken.
Promptly at 9:00 I arrived at the Town Hall for a meeting with the consultant retained by the borough to review the focus and aims of the Safer Watford Partnership. The consultant seemed very capable and it is good to see the Borough Council getting the right people in to do these important jobs.
Immediately after, I left with Maria for a meeting at the Muslim Community Project to talk through political and logistical arrangements for our 3 December networking lunch at the north Watford mosque. The Community Project had organised an impressive team and we were also joined by two representatives of the Muslim Awareness Forum for a thorough discussion about arrangements. I am confident that this is going to be a great event.
Just as Maria and I were rising to leave, our host Mohamed Khan announced that food was arriving. And so we stayed for a flavoursome lunch of chicken curry, dhal, rice and chapattis.
Back at WCVS, I met with Laura to talk though the next stage of development for the Community transport scheme, and with Vanessa on arrangements for next February’s county-wide trustees’ conference.
Before leaving the office I did some work on two of the HIC projects we are working on, and I sent the Value and Volumes report off to my CVS colleagues for a “peer review” of sorts.
Aged Ken
Back home in the evening, I was struck by how quickly Ken (our decrepit white cat) is now aging. He can still manage the cat flap but it is a real struggle; every exit and re-entry is a minor trauma for him and mostly he mews at the door until one of us opens it for him. He doesn’t like using the stairs and wont unless he is scared by fireworks or rowdy children. He has now lost all his teeth and can’t munch on cat biscuits - we no longer torture him with these after we realised he was just sucking them for a bit and then spitting them back into his bowl. He doesn’t seem to be in pain and still purrs contentedly when he can sit on a warm lap. Poor old Ken.
Sunday, 21 October 2007
I spent the day at home working more on the Value and Volumes report and preparing for the HIC studies into IT and Training.
BBC4 devoted the evening to archaeology, which Jackie and I enjoyed greatly.
BBC4 devoted the evening to archaeology, which Jackie and I enjoyed greatly.
Saturday, 20 October 2007
A quiet day at home and visiting family. And England lost a rugby game after giving away too many unnecessary penalties.
Friday, 19 October 2007
I woke up to Jackie gently singing “Happy Birthday” and presenting me with breakfast and tea and cards and gifts. What do you buy the man who has everything? The box set of Indiana Jones DVDs: I can’t wait.
After breakfast I drove over to Hertford to drop off our tender bid at County Hall. The bid looked rather pathetic shoved in a re-cycled envelope and done up with sellotape. It was before 8:00 am. I had been told: “just deliver it to the Rear Reception, they’ll be someone there and they’ll know what to do.” But when he finally turned up, the man at the Rear Reception had no idea what to do. Apparently each HCC department has its own procedures and systems.
Having finally been given a receipt for our tender (albeit from the wrong HCC department), I headed off to St Albans for a meeting of Herts CVS. We were meant to meet with nine CEOs and nine trustees to discuss the Herts CVS Strategic Plan. One difficulty was that this meeting arrived at the wrong time: too long after the plan was drafted but too early to introduce any elements from the Herts Infrastructure Consortium’s Strategic Plan. Another difficulty was that there was really no agreement on what we wanted from the meeting. Another difficulty was that nine-plus-nine was reduced to eight-plus-eight and then to seven-plus-seven.
As professional CEOs, this was not one of our finest moments: I fear our unpreparedness was obvious and I had not the feintest idea what contribution our facilitator was trying to make. There were one or two interesting disussions, but mostly we replicated discussions that had already taken place in Herts CVS or the Herts Infastructure Consortium. I felt slightly embarrassed that my Chair of trustees gave up a morning for the event.
In the evening, Jackie and I went out for a nice quiet romantic meal together. A truly blissful birthday evening.
After breakfast I drove over to Hertford to drop off our tender bid at County Hall. The bid looked rather pathetic shoved in a re-cycled envelope and done up with sellotape. It was before 8:00 am. I had been told: “just deliver it to the Rear Reception, they’ll be someone there and they’ll know what to do.” But when he finally turned up, the man at the Rear Reception had no idea what to do. Apparently each HCC department has its own procedures and systems.
Having finally been given a receipt for our tender (albeit from the wrong HCC department), I headed off to St Albans for a meeting of Herts CVS. We were meant to meet with nine CEOs and nine trustees to discuss the Herts CVS Strategic Plan. One difficulty was that this meeting arrived at the wrong time: too long after the plan was drafted but too early to introduce any elements from the Herts Infrastructure Consortium’s Strategic Plan. Another difficulty was that there was really no agreement on what we wanted from the meeting. Another difficulty was that nine-plus-nine was reduced to eight-plus-eight and then to seven-plus-seven.
As professional CEOs, this was not one of our finest moments: I fear our unpreparedness was obvious and I had not the feintest idea what contribution our facilitator was trying to make. There were one or two interesting disussions, but mostly we replicated discussions that had already taken place in Herts CVS or the Herts Infastructure Consortium. I felt slightly embarrassed that my Chair of trustees gave up a morning for the event.
In the evening, Jackie and I went out for a nice quiet romantic meal together. A truly blissful birthday evening.
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Today I had two major jobs. First I needed to respond to some queries raised by the Big Lottery. The queries were simple enough, but simply collating the information took until mid afternoon. During this time there was one major distraction when I had to tend to a visitor after one of our chairs collapsed underneath her. The poor lady was quite shaken and I was glad that Anne was there as our First Aider - she was very impressive and handled everything superbly.
After completing the response to the Big Lottery, I met with Des and Saud to talk through a tender to Herts County Council. I have already made a bit of a start on the tender while I was off work, but the deadline is tomorrow (Friday). Des had done a bit of work digging up some useful references, and he and Saud had some useful points to make.
I finished the tender about 9:30 pm, but then I had to find and copy supporting documentation etc and I eventually arrived home about 11:30.
Jackie had left out some sausages and mash: lovely sausages! We had searched for a proper old-fashioned butcher and finally found one on the road to Knebworth (there is no butcher at all in Welwyn Garden City) and it’s good to taste real meat again.
Jackie herself was sound asleep. Sometimes I must really try her patience.
After completing the response to the Big Lottery, I met with Des and Saud to talk through a tender to Herts County Council. I have already made a bit of a start on the tender while I was off work, but the deadline is tomorrow (Friday). Des had done a bit of work digging up some useful references, and he and Saud had some useful points to make.
I finished the tender about 9:30 pm, but then I had to find and copy supporting documentation etc and I eventually arrived home about 11:30.
Jackie had left out some sausages and mash: lovely sausages! We had searched for a proper old-fashioned butcher and finally found one on the road to Knebworth (there is no butcher at all in Welwyn Garden City) and it’s good to taste real meat again.
Jackie herself was sound asleep. Sometimes I must really try her patience.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Rather pleasingly on my first morning back in the office, I talked with three of our member groups on charity registration, staff appraisal and training. But otherwise it took all morning just to read through correspondence and return urgent telephone calls. And there was some very interesting correspondence too.
First, the emerging Hertfordshire Training Consortium has received from the Learning and Skills Council some funding for a worker to help establish itself. Originally, it was made very clear by LSC that they were providing funding to establish a voluntary organisation to deliver LSC-funded training to members of the public. Although this is A Good Thing it is not something in which Watford CVS has any direct interest. Our interest is on delivering training to meet the needs of voluntary organisations so we stepped back a little from the Training Consortium. It now appears that things might have changed a little: I will need to investigate.
Secondly, there are more queries from the Big Lottery Fund about our Business Plan. I think most of the queries are already addressed in our Plan, but I will check tomorrow.
Thirdly, back on 5 October I had been very encouraging meeting on the future of Watford’s Community Centres. It now seems my enthusiasm and optimism may have been misplaced: somewhere along the line games are being played and I don’t have the time or the energy for them. Or perhaps this is just my impatience again?
Finally, Helen (our Volunteer Centre co-ordinator) has received an invitation from our MP Claire Ward to join a delegation to meet Phil Hope, the new Minister for the Third Sector. This is a great opportunity for Watford’s groups.
At lunchtime, I attended a meeting of the Disability Forum to talk briefly on the PCT consultation process and the need for a county-wide solution to PCT transport problems. The meeting was very supportive and contributions confirmed my fears that the PCTs’ current practices are pretty chaotic.
I left the Disability Forum meeting early to head off to the Disability Law Service in London for their AGM and for a trustees meeting. This all went very smoothly. It’s a great organisation and the staff and other trustees are all very committed and very kind. While there I took the opportunity to talk to Joss, their head of legal services, about the transport issues that arose at Watford's Disability Forum. She was very good, giving clear advice and guidance that I will feed back to the Disability Forum as soon as the opportunity arises. I also spoke with Linda, DLS’s CEO, about Big Lottery funding. I was frustrated to hear that DLS's Business Plan had been fully approved within two days. Our plan has so far taken ten weeks, despite us receiving feedback that it was “excellent”.
After my first day back in the office I arrived home a little after 10:00 pm. It’s nice to be back in the swing of things.
First, the emerging Hertfordshire Training Consortium has received from the Learning and Skills Council some funding for a worker to help establish itself. Originally, it was made very clear by LSC that they were providing funding to establish a voluntary organisation to deliver LSC-funded training to members of the public. Although this is A Good Thing it is not something in which Watford CVS has any direct interest. Our interest is on delivering training to meet the needs of voluntary organisations so we stepped back a little from the Training Consortium. It now appears that things might have changed a little: I will need to investigate.
Secondly, there are more queries from the Big Lottery Fund about our Business Plan. I think most of the queries are already addressed in our Plan, but I will check tomorrow.
Thirdly, back on 5 October I had been very encouraging meeting on the future of Watford’s Community Centres. It now seems my enthusiasm and optimism may have been misplaced: somewhere along the line games are being played and I don’t have the time or the energy for them. Or perhaps this is just my impatience again?
Finally, Helen (our Volunteer Centre co-ordinator) has received an invitation from our MP Claire Ward to join a delegation to meet Phil Hope, the new Minister for the Third Sector. This is a great opportunity for Watford’s groups.
At lunchtime, I attended a meeting of the Disability Forum to talk briefly on the PCT consultation process and the need for a county-wide solution to PCT transport problems. The meeting was very supportive and contributions confirmed my fears that the PCTs’ current practices are pretty chaotic.
I left the Disability Forum meeting early to head off to the Disability Law Service in London for their AGM and for a trustees meeting. This all went very smoothly. It’s a great organisation and the staff and other trustees are all very committed and very kind. While there I took the opportunity to talk to Joss, their head of legal services, about the transport issues that arose at Watford's Disability Forum. She was very good, giving clear advice and guidance that I will feed back to the Disability Forum as soon as the opportunity arises. I also spoke with Linda, DLS’s CEO, about Big Lottery funding. I was frustrated to hear that DLS's Business Plan had been fully approved within two days. Our plan has so far taken ten weeks, despite us receiving feedback that it was “excellent”.
After my first day back in the office I arrived home a little after 10:00 pm. It’s nice to be back in the swing of things.
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Day Six
It's over. I enjoyed a good sleep overnight and arrived in Letchworth around 9:00 am feeling pretty good. The morning’s meeting of the HIC steering group went alright, but we haven’t made quite as much progress as we’d hoped and it is clear that everyone is beginning to feel a bit ragged. Or (I don't like to think it but ...) perhaps the tail end of my virus was making me impatient with people.
After the meeting I didn’t risk travelling to Watford. Instead I went home and worked on our tender to HCC for a county-wide “advocate for BME children”. Nor did I return to Letchworth for a family meal with my Mum and brothers and in-laws. Instead I had a good early night, just grateful to be well again - and I started calculating the "damage" caused by my few days' illness.
It's over. I enjoyed a good sleep overnight and arrived in Letchworth around 9:00 am feeling pretty good. The morning’s meeting of the HIC steering group went alright, but we haven’t made quite as much progress as we’d hoped and it is clear that everyone is beginning to feel a bit ragged. Or (I don't like to think it but ...) perhaps the tail end of my virus was making me impatient with people.
After the meeting I didn’t risk travelling to Watford. Instead I went home and worked on our tender to HCC for a county-wide “advocate for BME children”. Nor did I return to Letchworth for a family meal with my Mum and brothers and in-laws. Instead I had a good early night, just grateful to be well again - and I started calculating the "damage" caused by my few days' illness.
Monday, 15 October 2007
Day Five
All last night my temperature was on its own personal rollercoaster leaving me alternately shivering and burning. I had hoped I’d got over this - clearly this virus has a sting in its tail! I finally got to sleep at about 6:00 am. But when I awoke at lunchtime I felt much better.
I didn’t feel 100% by any stretch of the imagination, but my temperature feels reasonably stable and my body only aches in the usual places rather than in every joint and muscle. I spoke early on to Maria (where would I be without her?) who reassured me everything was under control and I should spend the day recovering properly.
So Maria cancelled my few commitments for the day, and I spent the afternoon gently working through some projects and trying to gather my strength for a return to work tomorrow.
Then just as I thought tomorrow all looked too much for me (morning meeting in Letchworth, afternoon meeting in Watford, evening meeting in Watford, later evening family gathering in Letchworth), Vanessa called to offer to attend the evening meeting in Watford. What a lovely lady. Even so, if I am going to survive re-entry to work the remainder of the day will need some serious reorganising - and I dread to think how much e-mail has built up since last Wednesday!
On the scale of global warming
I wont worry about it until I know whether or not I get a decent night’s sleep tonight. My chances of enjoying a good night's sleep weren't helped when I heard of our Health Minister's announcement that Obesity could be a health problem "on the scale of global warming". What on earth could this mean?
All last night my temperature was on its own personal rollercoaster leaving me alternately shivering and burning. I had hoped I’d got over this - clearly this virus has a sting in its tail! I finally got to sleep at about 6:00 am. But when I awoke at lunchtime I felt much better.
I didn’t feel 100% by any stretch of the imagination, but my temperature feels reasonably stable and my body only aches in the usual places rather than in every joint and muscle. I spoke early on to Maria (where would I be without her?) who reassured me everything was under control and I should spend the day recovering properly.
So Maria cancelled my few commitments for the day, and I spent the afternoon gently working through some projects and trying to gather my strength for a return to work tomorrow.
Then just as I thought tomorrow all looked too much for me (morning meeting in Letchworth, afternoon meeting in Watford, evening meeting in Watford, later evening family gathering in Letchworth), Vanessa called to offer to attend the evening meeting in Watford. What a lovely lady. Even so, if I am going to survive re-entry to work the remainder of the day will need some serious reorganising - and I dread to think how much e-mail has built up since last Wednesday!
On the scale of global warming
I wont worry about it until I know whether or not I get a decent night’s sleep tonight. My chances of enjoying a good night's sleep weren't helped when I heard of our Health Minister's announcement that Obesity could be a health problem "on the scale of global warming". What on earth could this mean?
Sunday, 14 October 2007
Day Four
After another torrid night, I think my fever finally broke this morning. I slept far better and in the afternoon I had sufficiently improved to spend two hours pottering in the garden. Later I even did an hour's writing (still on Value and Volumes).
Then I completed Lillian Smith’s extraordinary 1944 saga of the Deep South Strange Fruit - released in the slip-stream of Gone With the Wind and utterly refusing to pull its punches. Social realism at its best.
Maybe it's all over?
After another torrid night, I think my fever finally broke this morning. I slept far better and in the afternoon I had sufficiently improved to spend two hours pottering in the garden. Later I even did an hour's writing (still on Value and Volumes).
Then I completed Lillian Smith’s extraordinary 1944 saga of the Deep South Strange Fruit - released in the slip-stream of Gone With the Wind and utterly refusing to pull its punches. Social realism at its best.
Maybe it's all over?
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Day Three
Another restless night. In the afternoon I managed to make it dowstairs onto the sofa. I watched England play football and this helped me drift peacefully in and out of consciousness for a couple of hours. In the evening I watched England play rugby - two hours later I was a complete nervous wreck and grateful to get back to bed.
Another restless night. In the afternoon I managed to make it dowstairs onto the sofa. I watched England play football and this helped me drift peacefully in and out of consciousness for a couple of hours. In the evening I watched England play rugby - two hours later I was a complete nervous wreck and grateful to get back to bed.
Friday, 12 October 2007
Day Two
I had a soaring temperature and felt utterly miserable and wretched. I think at some point that I managed to call someone somewhere to explain that I was unwell. But I might have imagined it.
I had a soaring temperature and felt utterly miserable and wretched. I think at some point that I managed to call someone somewhere to explain that I was unwell. But I might have imagined it.
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Through sheer willpower, I managed to get in my car and drive to Letchworth to meet with Jacquie and Steph - we had set aside two days to work together on drafting the HIC development plan. But by the time I arrived at the North Herts CVS offices, I knew I’d seriously misjudged things.
I was physically very much present there in the office, with my laptop and files, my tissues, Beechams powders and Lockets. I remember one or two helpful discussions and some attempts at writing, but my brain was befuddled and I could contribute virtually nothing toward the day’s project. And worse, my presence only distracted Jacquie and Steph and put them at risk of catching this awful virus. Jacquie and Steph were each very kind, but after an hour or two I could tell that they both thought pretty much the same.
I left Letchworth late afternoon. I think I made some half-hearted face-saving promise to do some work overnight. I barely remember getting home. Jackie was very soothing and indulgent and put me to bed, but it was a feverish sleepless night.
I was physically very much present there in the office, with my laptop and files, my tissues, Beechams powders and Lockets. I remember one or two helpful discussions and some attempts at writing, but my brain was befuddled and I could contribute virtually nothing toward the day’s project. And worse, my presence only distracted Jacquie and Steph and put them at risk of catching this awful virus. Jacquie and Steph were each very kind, but after an hour or two I could tell that they both thought pretty much the same.
I left Letchworth late afternoon. I think I made some half-hearted face-saving promise to do some work overnight. I barely remember getting home. Jackie was very soothing and indulgent and put me to bed, but it was a feverish sleepless night.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Unsurprisingly after yesterday’s marathon writing session, I arrived at work late in the morning. I felt hugely relieved to have broken the back of the Value and Volumes project. I also felt "Not Quite Right" which naturally I put down to tiredness.
At the office, I spoke with Des Reid and Saud Hafiz about the possibility of a Watford CVS tender for the county-side Advocacy Project - put simply, HCC want a focal point for supporting parents and children who have experienced discrimination on the groupnds of race of religion. I have only recently picked up on the opportunity (thanks Mohamed) and the closing date is the end of next week. But between our Connexions Personal Advisors, we have a solid repository of experience and knowledge and it could bolster our existing work …
I also spoke with other colleagues paving the way for my planned absence from the office on Thursday and Friday when I will be working on the HIC development plan for Hertfordshire’s infrastructure.
But by the time I arrived home, I felt dreadful. It's certainly more than just tiredness. Jackie is off work this week after experiencing heart palpitations and I should have been nursing her - but instead I was the one collapsing on the sofa and striking a tragic pose.
At the office, I spoke with Des Reid and Saud Hafiz about the possibility of a Watford CVS tender for the county-side Advocacy Project - put simply, HCC want a focal point for supporting parents and children who have experienced discrimination on the groupnds of race of religion. I have only recently picked up on the opportunity (thanks Mohamed) and the closing date is the end of next week. But between our Connexions Personal Advisors, we have a solid repository of experience and knowledge and it could bolster our existing work …
I also spoke with other colleagues paving the way for my planned absence from the office on Thursday and Friday when I will be working on the HIC development plan for Hertfordshire’s infrastructure.
But by the time I arrived home, I felt dreadful. It's certainly more than just tiredness. Jackie is off work this week after experiencing heart palpitations and I should have been nursing her - but instead I was the one collapsing on the sofa and striking a tragic pose.
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
I had set the alarm back an hour and had hoped to have bath and breakfast before leaving for work. But I was worried about rousing Jackie so left straight away on tip toe and arrived at work about 6:30 am.
I shut myself in my office and worked on the V&V report all day determined to finish the report. I was probably a little short on those occasions when someone needed to interrupt me. I was a little exasperated by some of the figures not behaving in a gentleman-like way. I was fully focused on the report and worked like a thing possessed.
Around 10:00 pm I made a passing reference to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and I should have known then that it was time to stop. But I was so determined to finish the report that I ploughed on regardless. Later, I found myself making a reference to Dark Matter – I deleted the reference and excused myself as I’d only used it as a metaphor. Later still, I quoted some Chaos Theory; this was a big Red Light moment and I knew I had to give it up for the day.
Having successfully not woken Jackie in the morning, I managed also to not wake Jackie in the small hours. I deliberately didn’t set the alarm.
I shut myself in my office and worked on the V&V report all day determined to finish the report. I was probably a little short on those occasions when someone needed to interrupt me. I was a little exasperated by some of the figures not behaving in a gentleman-like way. I was fully focused on the report and worked like a thing possessed.
Around 10:00 pm I made a passing reference to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and I should have known then that it was time to stop. But I was so determined to finish the report that I ploughed on regardless. Later, I found myself making a reference to Dark Matter – I deleted the reference and excused myself as I’d only used it as a metaphor. Later still, I quoted some Chaos Theory; this was a big Red Light moment and I knew I had to give it up for the day.
Having successfully not woken Jackie in the morning, I managed also to not wake Jackie in the small hours. I deliberately didn’t set the alarm.
Monday, 8 October 2007
I arrived at work a little early to catch up on things. After last week’s various meetings, I had prepared a few e-mails over the weekend and soon dispatched these. Later I spoke with three different photocopier salesmen. With all due respect to photocopier salesmen everywhere, I always find this one of the most soul-destroying jobs imaginable; consequently I always treat these people with great gentleness and sympathy, as if they’d recently lost a close relative.
Vanessa (our Development and Training Officer) hosted a meeting to launch our 2007-08 training programme, and I met with Anne (our Funding Advisor), and Maria on our forthcoming networking lunches, wrote the introduction for our Community Directory and did some work on the HIC project specifications.
Watford CVS is leading on the design of two projects. One project is “to create a sustainable infrastructure to identify and meet the training needs of 3rd sector organisations in Hertfordshire” and the other is to work up a strategy for delivering IT infrastructure to voluntary groups in Herts. Also, I am contributing to the overall Infrastructure Development Strategy. And all three documents need to be completed by 16 November.
So I first need to complete the Value and Volumes study and the Community Directory. With the Community Directory nearly done, I decided at 6:00 pm that I would go home and do some work there on the V&V study.
As soon as I pulled up at my house, I realised that I had left my memory stick at the office with all my work on. Are they called memory sticks because they are so easily forgotten? Instead, Jackie and I had a quiet evening together, and I resolved to get to work early on Tuesday and to finally complete the V&V report.
Vanessa (our Development and Training Officer) hosted a meeting to launch our 2007-08 training programme, and I met with Anne (our Funding Advisor), and Maria on our forthcoming networking lunches, wrote the introduction for our Community Directory and did some work on the HIC project specifications.
Watford CVS is leading on the design of two projects. One project is “to create a sustainable infrastructure to identify and meet the training needs of 3rd sector organisations in Hertfordshire” and the other is to work up a strategy for delivering IT infrastructure to voluntary groups in Herts. Also, I am contributing to the overall Infrastructure Development Strategy. And all three documents need to be completed by 16 November.
So I first need to complete the Value and Volumes study and the Community Directory. With the Community Directory nearly done, I decided at 6:00 pm that I would go home and do some work there on the V&V study.
As soon as I pulled up at my house, I realised that I had left my memory stick at the office with all my work on. Are they called memory sticks because they are so easily forgotten? Instead, Jackie and I had a quiet evening together, and I resolved to get to work early on Tuesday and to finally complete the V&V report.
Saturday, 6 October 2007
I spent a strenuous day in the garden, completing last weekend’s fencing project and building a proper compost heap. In the evening we visited our neighbours the Johnsons. The Rugby World Cup has really come to life with surprise (but welcome) victories for England and France (sadly the Welsh are already back home).
Friday, 5 October 2007
I arrived at work about 7:00 in time to work through Steph Gallagher’s draft of the HIC project specifications from yesterday. Steph had naturally delivered as promised and I responded suggesting some small amendments. Sha-Lee has delivered a final draft of the Watford Community Directory and I also spent some time checking this.
At 11:00 I went to see Alison Stainsby (WBC Head of Community and Leisure Services), Andy Large (WBC Head of Property Services) and Ruth Ellis (YMCA) to discuss a bid to the Community Assets fund to help renovate the Orbital Community Centre. We mapped out the broad parameters of a bid, but we all recognised that the timetable is very tight (deadline for submissions is in about five weeks). As YMCA will have to do most of the work on any bid, she will prepare a rough draft to help her decide whether the timetable is feasible.
Back in the office, I found that our Development and Training Officer Vanessa has done a brilliant job on our 2007-08 Training Programme and on sorting out a planning meeting for the Watford One World forum. I wrote to staff about calendar year and leave year ending arrangements: office closure over Christmas, “thank-you” dinner for volunteers, TOIL etc.
I received a call from Jackie to say she had left work after having some quite worrying heart palpitations. Her GP has signed her off work for a week and she has to have lots of tests. She was resting at home and I said I’d join her as soon as I could.
I first returned to WBC for a further meeting with Alison Stainsby, and this time we were joined by Norman Powell of Community Matters and David Fitzpatrick of the Herts Community Foundation. I had not had time to brief David Fitzpatrick on the meeting, but he was thoroughly splendid. We had an extremely positive and productive talk through how best we can collaborate to ensure that Watford is served by thriving community centres. Discussions will continue.
Back home, Jackie was fine but a little worried. I tucked her up in bed adn while she slept like a baby, I spent a few hours preparing our Community Directory for the printers.
At 11:00 I went to see Alison Stainsby (WBC Head of Community and Leisure Services), Andy Large (WBC Head of Property Services) and Ruth Ellis (YMCA) to discuss a bid to the Community Assets fund to help renovate the Orbital Community Centre. We mapped out the broad parameters of a bid, but we all recognised that the timetable is very tight (deadline for submissions is in about five weeks). As YMCA will have to do most of the work on any bid, she will prepare a rough draft to help her decide whether the timetable is feasible.
Back in the office, I found that our Development and Training Officer Vanessa has done a brilliant job on our 2007-08 Training Programme and on sorting out a planning meeting for the Watford One World forum. I wrote to staff about calendar year and leave year ending arrangements: office closure over Christmas, “thank-you” dinner for volunteers, TOIL etc.
I received a call from Jackie to say she had left work after having some quite worrying heart palpitations. Her GP has signed her off work for a week and she has to have lots of tests. She was resting at home and I said I’d join her as soon as I could.
I first returned to WBC for a further meeting with Alison Stainsby, and this time we were joined by Norman Powell of Community Matters and David Fitzpatrick of the Herts Community Foundation. I had not had time to brief David Fitzpatrick on the meeting, but he was thoroughly splendid. We had an extremely positive and productive talk through how best we can collaborate to ensure that Watford is served by thriving community centres. Discussions will continue.
Back home, Jackie was fine but a little worried. I tucked her up in bed adn while she slept like a baby, I spent a few hours preparing our Community Directory for the printers.
Thursday, 4 October 2007
This morning I visited North Herts CVS (again) to spend a very productive few hours with Jacquie Hime and Steph Gallagher on the HIC development plan. At lunchtime, Jacquie Hime and I travelled to Great Chesterton for a regional meeting of “Consortium Leads”. In the Hertfordshire consortium, we started work on our plan back in July and we will struggle to conclude things by the end December deadline. Given this, I was alarmed to learn that at least three of the region’s consortiums have barely started work on their plans.
In the evening, Jackie and I took Rhiannon’s birthday presents around. Everyone else busied themselves and I got to play Hide and Seek with granddaughter Bethany. Great fun - and I think she enjoyed it as much as I did.
Back home, Jackie complained of her chest thumping. I offered as much sympathy and reassurance as I could.
In the evening, Jackie and I took Rhiannon’s birthday presents around. Everyone else busied themselves and I got to play Hide and Seek with granddaughter Bethany. Great fun - and I think she enjoyed it as much as I did.
Back home, Jackie complained of her chest thumping. I offered as much sympathy and reassurance as I could.
Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Making a drama out of a crisis
I spent this morning in Dacorum contributing to a “desk-top exercise” for HCC’s Emergency Planning team. The event was attended by many people from the emergency services and from the military, all looking very smart in uniforms adorned with epaulettes and occasional loops of gold braid. There were also many officers from local government and from the health services, and these could be distinguished by their smart business suits and by the plastic id cards dangling around their necks. And there was also a handful of us from the voluntary sector: we were mostly dressed for a day of gentle gardening, wearing a pleasing mixture of wool, denim and tweed. How my heart swelled.
The exercise consisted of an imaginary scenario (a train crash near Kings Langley), and discussions about risks, needs and the responses of the various emergency services etc. I was struck by four things.
First, in the event of an emergency, no-one is in overall charge and no-one takes overall responsibility. I don’t know why I should ever have assumed that there would be someone to take overall control. But there wont. Responding to emergencies is very much a partnership effort and so relies heavily on good relations and good communications.
Secondly, each agency has its own detailed procedures and “responding to an emergency” simply means “identifying the correct procedure and following it” – this is all well and good provided a procedure exists and is correctly applied.
Thirdly, no-one has looked critically at the engagement of voluntary sector agencies. Those involved in this exercise were the Red Cross, St John’s Ambulance, Women’s Royal Voluntary Reserve and Salvation Army. All of course are excellent organisations capable of deploying experienced and highly trained volunteers. But there don’t appear to be any written protocols or procedures about who might be involved and when they might be contacted. Should Volunteer Centres ask everyone if they are prepared to be called in the event of a civic emergency? What if the Scientologists arrive at a disaster scene offering counselling and advice?
Fourthly, no one at all is responsible for looking after people in general. If it is necessary to evacuate people, they will be gathered together at a “reception centre” most probably at a church hall or a community centre. But of course most people wont go to “reception centres” at all, they will find relatives and friends to stay with. Only the most isolated and vulnerable will turn up at a reception centre – perhaps a single parent family, an elderly couple, or a refugee family. No-one seems to understand that these people need to be treated with dignity, and to be afforded privacy and respect. This could be very distressing, transforming a tedious necessity into a traumatic episode.
Lunches
Back at Watford CVS I talked with two Watford groups about registering with the Charity Commission, and then enjoyed a long discussion with Maria to timetable our 2008 networking lunches and sort out some bookkeeping queries.
I spent the evening sorting through some HIC business, writing correspondence and making more progress on Watford CVS’s Community Directory. I arrived home very late.
I spent this morning in Dacorum contributing to a “desk-top exercise” for HCC’s Emergency Planning team. The event was attended by many people from the emergency services and from the military, all looking very smart in uniforms adorned with epaulettes and occasional loops of gold braid. There were also many officers from local government and from the health services, and these could be distinguished by their smart business suits and by the plastic id cards dangling around their necks. And there was also a handful of us from the voluntary sector: we were mostly dressed for a day of gentle gardening, wearing a pleasing mixture of wool, denim and tweed. How my heart swelled.
The exercise consisted of an imaginary scenario (a train crash near Kings Langley), and discussions about risks, needs and the responses of the various emergency services etc. I was struck by four things.
First, in the event of an emergency, no-one is in overall charge and no-one takes overall responsibility. I don’t know why I should ever have assumed that there would be someone to take overall control. But there wont. Responding to emergencies is very much a partnership effort and so relies heavily on good relations and good communications.
Secondly, each agency has its own detailed procedures and “responding to an emergency” simply means “identifying the correct procedure and following it” – this is all well and good provided a procedure exists and is correctly applied.
Thirdly, no-one has looked critically at the engagement of voluntary sector agencies. Those involved in this exercise were the Red Cross, St John’s Ambulance, Women’s Royal Voluntary Reserve and Salvation Army. All of course are excellent organisations capable of deploying experienced and highly trained volunteers. But there don’t appear to be any written protocols or procedures about who might be involved and when they might be contacted. Should Volunteer Centres ask everyone if they are prepared to be called in the event of a civic emergency? What if the Scientologists arrive at a disaster scene offering counselling and advice?
Fourthly, no one at all is responsible for looking after people in general. If it is necessary to evacuate people, they will be gathered together at a “reception centre” most probably at a church hall or a community centre. But of course most people wont go to “reception centres” at all, they will find relatives and friends to stay with. Only the most isolated and vulnerable will turn up at a reception centre – perhaps a single parent family, an elderly couple, or a refugee family. No-one seems to understand that these people need to be treated with dignity, and to be afforded privacy and respect. This could be very distressing, transforming a tedious necessity into a traumatic episode.
Lunches
Back at Watford CVS I talked with two Watford groups about registering with the Charity Commission, and then enjoyed a long discussion with Maria to timetable our 2008 networking lunches and sort out some bookkeeping queries.
I spent the evening sorting through some HIC business, writing correspondence and making more progress on Watford CVS’s Community Directory. I arrived home very late.
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