Thursday, 19 July 2007

All day and all of the night

My first appointment was at 12:00 to talk at Stevenage CVS’s AGM, so I stayed home in the morning putting some finishing touches to my short speech and then I looked again at Basis. At present, this work is all-consuming. It drains my time, monopolises my attention and eclipses all other priorities. Ann and Vanessa have set aside Friday (tomorrow) to look through a draft of the final bid so my final sections needed to be finished today or else the timetable will soon unravel. And I need to set Basis aside as soon as possible: for my sanity, my marriage and for the greater good of Watford CVS. I swore a quiet oath that I would not sleep again until I had completed a first draft of the Business Plan. This bold resolution helped calm me quite a lot.

Stevenage CVS’s AGM was thoroughly enjoyable. Chair Bernard Eddleston was very welcoming, Ann Jansz was as charming as ever, and there was a very good atmosphere all round. I did my best to stir up a bit of controversy but their good humour was more than a match for me. After the meeting, over sandwiches, I spoke to many people about different aspects of CVS work: the Stevenage Caribbean African Association, SOVA, Personnel Matters, and I was very pleased to meet Ethel the bright new LAA / voluntary sector Liaison Officer for Hertfordshire.

On leaving the AGM, I dropped off at home to pick up my son Bobby who was determined to do some work in Watford, despite my dire warnings that I might be at the office very late. During the journey Bobby introduced me to an album by Queens of the Stone Age, which I quite enjoyed. I reciprocated with the Bonzos, but after two songs I realised Bobby was listening to something entirely different on his iPod.

We arrived at the office around 3:00 pm and I met with Maria who updated me on several things (she is so good to work with). Our Investors in People assessor called and we agreed to reschedule WCVS's assessment for next Wednesday. I checked the papers for this evening’s trustees’ meeting and then worked for an hour or so on Basis.

Helen (Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator) tonight attended a HCC consultation meeting on sustainable futures. Also attending was one of our trustees, Phil Willerton. But other than this absence, we enjoyed a full house for our trustees’ meeting. This is a good sign.

Pam chaired the meeting to perfection as ever. There was one discussion where some concern was expressed about a Watford Borough Council initiative to pass control of five Community Centres to voluntary groups. But it was an extremely purposeful and good natured meeting. And it finished in less than two hours. Perhaps they all knew that I still had plenty of work to do.

After following up a few things from the trustees’ meeting (and sharing a Subways sandwich with Bobby) I resumed work on the Basis Business Plan about 9:00 pm. Initially it was a bit slow, but things soon fell into place. At almost exactly 2:00 in the morning, I printed off a first draft of the finished document which I left on Vanessa’s desk for her and Anne to read through tomorrow.

Bobby and I arrived home at 3:00 in the morning.