Friday, 17 August 2007
My final day in the office for two weeks and I spent the entire day tying up loose ends. By Sunday morning I will be in Llantilio Pertholey and then ....
Thursday, 16 August 2007
My neice Abi called this morning with news that she had got the A-level results she needed and would soon be off to the University of Wales.
Today was meant to have been a completely clear day devoted to IT and the selection of a new MIS for Watford CVS (with CRM installation problems apparently overcome). Instead I spent the entire day working to get papers out for our AGM. At least this helped underline why we so desperately need a new MIS for mailings! But in truth I already knew.
In the evening I visited my Mum, for what would have been Dad's 85th birthday. Our first without him. Very melancholy, But with a few laughs too. We ended up going through Dad's records of the old Jones family in Llantilio Pertholey - very appropriate given my impending visit to the Wales.
Today was meant to have been a completely clear day devoted to IT and the selection of a new MIS for Watford CVS (with CRM installation problems apparently overcome). Instead I spent the entire day working to get papers out for our AGM. At least this helped underline why we so desperately need a new MIS for mailings! But in truth I already knew.
In the evening I visited my Mum, for what would have been Dad's 85th birthday. Our first without him. Very melancholy, But with a few laughs too. We ended up going through Dad's records of the old Jones family in Llantilio Pertholey - very appropriate given my impending visit to the Wales.
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Today was my last busy day of meetings before I disappear on leave next week.
Most interestingly, I met with a group from Inspiral Arts who are interested in renovating Watford Palace Theatre’s old Scenery Store for use as a community arts venue. This is a great idea and fits in well with WBC’s plans to develop an “Artistic Quarter” around the theatre. But the plans will cost perhaps £750,000 and of course they need resourcing. We talked at length about funding options and project management options.
There is a briefing session for the Community Assets Fund early in September, and I had hoped it would be possible to send a combined team from WCVS, Inspiral Arts and WBC. Later I discovered that places were restricted to two per local authority, so I will be attending with Sarah Pinnock of WBC. I’ve already had a preliminary talk about the fund with Anne Boyd, our Funding Advisor: if we decide a Watford bid is practicable, we will have to move very fast.
At lunchtime, we had one of our occasional staff meetings. Ideally, we would meet as a group a bit more often, but we are all such busy people. Today only Vanessa was absent. The rest of us had a good talk through some domestic issues such as future accommodation needs, IT, the reception area, meetings, and training.
Later still, I met with She-Lee who tells me that a draft of the Community Directory will be available within the next week or two, and we were joined by Maria to talk through the exact mailing protocols for our September AGM.
Then I was visited by Alison Plant of the new Watford Community Housing Trust. These are major new players in the local voluntary sector, and we will doubtless be doing a lot of work together in the future.
In the evening, Jackie and I stayed in and listened to the pouring rain outside. We do not have an arctic-ready storm-proof tent: its label describes it as "weather proof" which could mean anything. Or more probably nothing. The weather forecast would better be described as bleak than encouraging. We did some contingency planning. Then we did a Daily Telegraph crossword.
Most interestingly, I met with a group from Inspiral Arts who are interested in renovating Watford Palace Theatre’s old Scenery Store for use as a community arts venue. This is a great idea and fits in well with WBC’s plans to develop an “Artistic Quarter” around the theatre. But the plans will cost perhaps £750,000 and of course they need resourcing. We talked at length about funding options and project management options.
There is a briefing session for the Community Assets Fund early in September, and I had hoped it would be possible to send a combined team from WCVS, Inspiral Arts and WBC. Later I discovered that places were restricted to two per local authority, so I will be attending with Sarah Pinnock of WBC. I’ve already had a preliminary talk about the fund with Anne Boyd, our Funding Advisor: if we decide a Watford bid is practicable, we will have to move very fast.
At lunchtime, we had one of our occasional staff meetings. Ideally, we would meet as a group a bit more often, but we are all such busy people. Today only Vanessa was absent. The rest of us had a good talk through some domestic issues such as future accommodation needs, IT, the reception area, meetings, and training.
Later still, I met with She-Lee who tells me that a draft of the Community Directory will be available within the next week or two, and we were joined by Maria to talk through the exact mailing protocols for our September AGM.
Then I was visited by Alison Plant of the new Watford Community Housing Trust. These are major new players in the local voluntary sector, and we will doubtless be doing a lot of work together in the future.
In the evening, Jackie and I stayed in and listened to the pouring rain outside. We do not have an arctic-ready storm-proof tent: its label describes it as "weather proof" which could mean anything. Or more probably nothing. The weather forecast would better be described as bleak than encouraging. We did some contingency planning. Then we did a Daily Telegraph crossword.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
I spent the morning sorting out a new design for Watford CVS’s e-newsletter. And then I spent a long time trying to sort out our testing of Microsoft’s CRM software. According to a Microsoft engineer in Taiwan, it seems that our installation difficulties may arise because of a conflict within SQL 2005. To avoid the need to reinstall SQL on our server, our IT chap agreed to set up a test area on his server.
At 1:00 pm I went to Cassio Lodge for a meeting of the One Watford LSP. It was a very full agenda, and we finally seem to be addressing some of the big issues.
Returning to the office around 4:00 pm, I spent the remainder of the day preparing our AGM mailing: agenda, speakers, and nomination papers for the trustee board. It is now all ready for distribution apart from the actual audit, which should be ready any day now. I hope.
Today was Bobby’s birthday. I arrived home about 7:00 pm and Jackie had prepared a great meal for us all. Lovely.
Sadly, Tottenham spoiled the party by losing 1-3 to Everton. Have they no sense of occasion?
At 1:00 pm I went to Cassio Lodge for a meeting of the One Watford LSP. It was a very full agenda, and we finally seem to be addressing some of the big issues.
Returning to the office around 4:00 pm, I spent the remainder of the day preparing our AGM mailing: agenda, speakers, and nomination papers for the trustee board. It is now all ready for distribution apart from the actual audit, which should be ready any day now. I hope.
Today was Bobby’s birthday. I arrived home about 7:00 pm and Jackie had prepared a great meal for us all. Lovely.
Sadly, Tottenham spoiled the party by losing 1-3 to Everton. Have they no sense of occasion?
Monday, 13 August 2007
This morning I met with Dorothy Thornhill, Watford’s elected Mayor. WBC is still suffering from the major flood they suffered earlier this year. In the municipal grandness and vastness of Watford Town Hall, our elected Mayor is currently “making do” in a small spartan office slightly off the beaten track. Something about this is very endearing and very British.
Briefly, it amused me to suspect some elaborate charade to impress the voluntary sector and that nearby Dorothy had a second grander office with a marble desk, hardwood parquet block flooring, Persian rugs, Louis XV chairs and a crystal chandelier.
But more seriously, Dorothy and I had a precise hour to talk through several issues vaguely clustered under the heading of “accommodation” but covering in one broad sweep: Watford CVS’s own accommodation needs, the accommodation needs of Watford’s voluntary sector as a whole, the Community Development challenge, the Third Sector Strategy issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the concept of “Community Anchors”, the Office of the Third Sector review on The Future of the Third Sector in Social and Economic Regeneration, Community Foundation endowments, the Quirk Report, the Community Assets Fund, the use of section 106 agreements for community gain, Community engagement, the role of faith groups, Leavesden Green Community Centre, Watford Palace Theatre’s old furniture store, the Local Strategic Partnership, and future liaison between WBC and Watford CVS.
It was pretty intense.
The end results were that we needed to improve liaison, we should accelerate moves toward a more strategic approach to section 106 agreements, and we should take an early decision on a Watford bid to the Community Assets Fund for either the Furniture Store or possibly Leavesden Green Community Centre.
In the afternoon, I visited Leavesden Green Community Centre and was given a brief tour. The Centre accommodates some important local services but it is pretty bleak and is in dire need of a renovation programme. And large parts of the site are unused for large parts of the week. Food for thought.
Briefly, it amused me to suspect some elaborate charade to impress the voluntary sector and that nearby Dorothy had a second grander office with a marble desk, hardwood parquet block flooring, Persian rugs, Louis XV chairs and a crystal chandelier.
But more seriously, Dorothy and I had a precise hour to talk through several issues vaguely clustered under the heading of “accommodation” but covering in one broad sweep: Watford CVS’s own accommodation needs, the accommodation needs of Watford’s voluntary sector as a whole, the Community Development challenge, the Third Sector Strategy issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the concept of “Community Anchors”, the Office of the Third Sector review on The Future of the Third Sector in Social and Economic Regeneration, Community Foundation endowments, the Quirk Report, the Community Assets Fund, the use of section 106 agreements for community gain, Community engagement, the role of faith groups, Leavesden Green Community Centre, Watford Palace Theatre’s old furniture store, the Local Strategic Partnership, and future liaison between WBC and Watford CVS.
It was pretty intense.
The end results were that we needed to improve liaison, we should accelerate moves toward a more strategic approach to section 106 agreements, and we should take an early decision on a Watford bid to the Community Assets Fund for either the Furniture Store or possibly Leavesden Green Community Centre.
In the afternoon, I visited Leavesden Green Community Centre and was given a brief tour. The Centre accommodates some important local services but it is pretty bleak and is in dire need of a renovation programme. And large parts of the site are unused for large parts of the week. Food for thought.
Sunday, 12 August 2007
A wonderful day in the garden. In the evening we stayed up to see the Perseids. It was cold and my neck ached, but we were rewarded with one spectacular Perseid that zapped half-way across the sky, north to south.
After the deep pleasure of reading Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, I attempted E=MC2 - a biography by David Bodanis. Not quite so exhilirating, and I think 100 pages of footnotes was a bit excessive. Today I finished Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear. I could just about accept the female 1930 private eye, rescued from a life in service and set up in some sort of social enterprise by philanthropic aristocrats. With gritted teeth I could even put up with the comic cockney cripple. I think the final straw came when the comic cockney cripple was sent off for pilates exercises to cure his war wound. It would have been easier to digest as a comic novel. I am sure Jacqueline Winspear has a devoted readership, but I wont be joining them. Now I am reading Early English Land Tenure by Eric John. Perhaps it will throw some light on the Community Assets Fund. Ho ho.
After the deep pleasure of reading Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, I attempted E=MC2 - a biography by David Bodanis. Not quite so exhilirating, and I think 100 pages of footnotes was a bit excessive. Today I finished Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear. I could just about accept the female 1930 private eye, rescued from a life in service and set up in some sort of social enterprise by philanthropic aristocrats. With gritted teeth I could even put up with the comic cockney cripple. I think the final straw came when the comic cockney cripple was sent off for pilates exercises to cure his war wound. It would have been easier to digest as a comic novel. I am sure Jacqueline Winspear has a devoted readership, but I wont be joining them. Now I am reading Early English Land Tenure by Eric John. Perhaps it will throw some light on the Community Assets Fund. Ho ho.
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Jackie and I spent the day surrounded by maps and tent pegs and camping stoves etc preparing for our walking holiday in Wales. We may need porters.
Here we go again
Spurs began the new football season in grand style, losing to a last minute goal.
Here we go again
Spurs began the new football season in grand style, losing to a last minute goal.
Friday, 10 August 2007
Another day of catching up and preparation. I beavered away at my e-mails. At the start of the day I had 80 bearing little red “to do” flags. At one point I had whittled this down to 40. But by the end of the day the little red flags had risen again to 55. Still, the overall direction of travel is good.
Thursday, 9 August 2007
My son Bobby returned from America, stayed the night and was gone again: international man of mystery.
My focus at the moment is on leaving things as stable as possible when I go on leave from 17 August. This means ensuring that staff feel comfortable with their work, understand the nature of various deadlines, understand the range of outcomes that are possible – and how welcome they are, and have the confidence to deal with these things.
Several other staff will also be absent while I am away, so an awful lot will rest on the shoulders of those who remain. Particularly on the tender shoulders of Maria Waszkis, our Office Co-ordinator. I spent a large part of the day with Maria talking through what she needs to do in relation to our 5 September One World forum meeting, our 7 September AGM, our 10 September Networking Lunch and our 14 September trip to the theatre. This is an important cycle of meetings and it is important that we get a good turn out for each event. By the time I return to work on 3 September, it will be too late for me to influence things. So Maria has to chase up attendance etc. I also spent time showing Maria our accounts system. I am very impressed with how quickly she understands things.
In the afternoon, I called Mary Green of Three Rivers CVS who has been absent from work for a while. She is coping ok and I was as supportive as I could be.
On leaving work I took cheques to be signed by Pam Handley. She kindly showed me the chickens she keeps in her back garden. It is a nice coincidence that only last week Jackie and I discussed the possibility of keeping chickens in our back garden.
My focus at the moment is on leaving things as stable as possible when I go on leave from 17 August. This means ensuring that staff feel comfortable with their work, understand the nature of various deadlines, understand the range of outcomes that are possible – and how welcome they are, and have the confidence to deal with these things.
Several other staff will also be absent while I am away, so an awful lot will rest on the shoulders of those who remain. Particularly on the tender shoulders of Maria Waszkis, our Office Co-ordinator. I spent a large part of the day with Maria talking through what she needs to do in relation to our 5 September One World forum meeting, our 7 September AGM, our 10 September Networking Lunch and our 14 September trip to the theatre. This is an important cycle of meetings and it is important that we get a good turn out for each event. By the time I return to work on 3 September, it will be too late for me to influence things. So Maria has to chase up attendance etc. I also spent time showing Maria our accounts system. I am very impressed with how quickly she understands things.
In the afternoon, I called Mary Green of Three Rivers CVS who has been absent from work for a while. She is coping ok and I was as supportive as I could be.
On leaving work I took cheques to be signed by Pam Handley. She kindly showed me the chickens she keeps in her back garden. It is a nice coincidence that only last week Jackie and I discussed the possibility of keeping chickens in our back garden.
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
I started the morning having a long discussion with Helen (our Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator) about our team of volunteers.
I spent much of the day drafting papers for our September AGM. At 4:30 we had a small workshop for anyone interested in becoming a Watford CVS trustee, and I was able to use the papers as a handout for this meeting.
The meeting went very well: five potential new trustees attended, three of our current trustees were present to offer support and advice, Vanessa gave a virtuoso performance outlining the role to people, and Pam chaired the meeting with her usual effortless grace.
But before this happy end to the day, we had a series of nightmares on the network, with machines hanging and sessions being lost. Our staff and volunteers were far more patient than I’d have been. Eventually, Angelo tracked the problem down and we think we’ve resolved it. For now.
In the evening, Jackie and I enjoyed another good walk before settling down to sort out some details of our forthcoming holiday. I do hope that the weather holds.
I spent much of the day drafting papers for our September AGM. At 4:30 we had a small workshop for anyone interested in becoming a Watford CVS trustee, and I was able to use the papers as a handout for this meeting.
The meeting went very well: five potential new trustees attended, three of our current trustees were present to offer support and advice, Vanessa gave a virtuoso performance outlining the role to people, and Pam chaired the meeting with her usual effortless grace.
But before this happy end to the day, we had a series of nightmares on the network, with machines hanging and sessions being lost. Our staff and volunteers were far more patient than I’d have been. Eventually, Angelo tracked the problem down and we think we’ve resolved it. For now.
In the evening, Jackie and I enjoyed another good walk before settling down to sort out some details of our forthcoming holiday. I do hope that the weather holds.
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
Annual accounts
I began the day meeting with our auditor Gary Howard. We had a good talk through Watford CVS’s accounts. There are two tricky issues.
First, charities with income below a certain limit have only to produce independently examined accruals accounts rather than a full audit. To readers of the accounts, there is very little difference between the two. The difference is in the amount of work and the cost involved.
For 2006-07, Watford CVS’s income has exceeded £250,000. This means that under the rules in place at the time, we have to have a full audit. The threshold has now been raised to £500,000, but this only applies to financial years beginning after February 2007.
I suggested that we just used our commonsense and stuck with independently examined accruals accounts, as we did last year, and as we will do next year. Gary looked at me with a slight hint of pity. But surely there should be some transitional arrangements that allow people to apply a bit of commonsense?
Secondly, Watford CVS is part of a Pensions Trust scheme. We have received an annual statement from the Trust saying that the WCVS scheme is under funded to the tune of £150,000. Although very real, this liability only materialises if WCVS winds up the scheme. The problem is that the note to the accounts explaining all this will run to nearly two pages.
I also installed our accounts software (QuickBooks) on to the PC of Maria Waszkis (our talented and versatile Office Co-ordinator) and showed her how to enter some data. She picked it up so quickly. Excellent.
Most of the remainder of the day I devoted to tidying up the last few audit queries and completing a draft of the Trustees Report.
Other things
I had another long look at our IT problems as things are getting quite difficult. Our IT guru Angelo and I have nursed the network along for another year, but we now need to start planning an upgrade.
I ended the day by offering some views on a draft questionnaire for some research into the Mental Health needs of local Asian women.
I began the day meeting with our auditor Gary Howard. We had a good talk through Watford CVS’s accounts. There are two tricky issues.
First, charities with income below a certain limit have only to produce independently examined accruals accounts rather than a full audit. To readers of the accounts, there is very little difference between the two. The difference is in the amount of work and the cost involved.
For 2006-07, Watford CVS’s income has exceeded £250,000. This means that under the rules in place at the time, we have to have a full audit. The threshold has now been raised to £500,000, but this only applies to financial years beginning after February 2007.
I suggested that we just used our commonsense and stuck with independently examined accruals accounts, as we did last year, and as we will do next year. Gary looked at me with a slight hint of pity. But surely there should be some transitional arrangements that allow people to apply a bit of commonsense?
Secondly, Watford CVS is part of a Pensions Trust scheme. We have received an annual statement from the Trust saying that the WCVS scheme is under funded to the tune of £150,000. Although very real, this liability only materialises if WCVS winds up the scheme. The problem is that the note to the accounts explaining all this will run to nearly two pages.
I also installed our accounts software (QuickBooks) on to the PC of Maria Waszkis (our talented and versatile Office Co-ordinator) and showed her how to enter some data. She picked it up so quickly. Excellent.
Most of the remainder of the day I devoted to tidying up the last few audit queries and completing a draft of the Trustees Report.
Other things
I had another long look at our IT problems as things are getting quite difficult. Our IT guru Angelo and I have nursed the network along for another year, but we now need to start planning an upgrade.
I ended the day by offering some views on a draft questionnaire for some research into the Mental Health needs of local Asian women.
Monday, 6 August 2007
I started today meeting with Anne to follow up our "formal" January review meeting and to discuss implementation of the Basis project including the development of a fundraising strategy for Watford's voluntary and community sector as a whole. Anne has given this a lot of thought and had some good ideas.
After this, I spent most of the day dodging e-mails and trying to focus on drafting out our Trustees' report.
At the close of the day, I had to tackle a number of network problems. There are several biggish problems about our network - but mostly I just had to clear out lots of junk stored on hard drives.
After this, I spent most of the day dodging e-mails and trying to focus on drafting out our Trustees' report.
At the close of the day, I had to tackle a number of network problems. There are several biggish problems about our network - but mostly I just had to clear out lots of junk stored on hard drives.
Sunday, 5 August 2007
Another fine day. Summer seems to have arrived at last. It was too hot to venture out in the garden other than for short periods. In the evening we enjoyed a particularly long walk across the fields. Very pleasant.
Saturday, 4 August 2007
A relaxing day, topped off by a delightful evening in the garden. Shortly after dusk, two large white birds passed low over the gardens with a curious undulating flight; Jackie and I convinced ourselves they were a pair of owls.
I completed Voyage of the Beagle. This was occasionally tough going, but a fascinating insight into Charles Darwin. In this book, he displays as much interest in geology as he does in biology and zoology. And he makes many social and personal observations. After more than 500 pages, the climax of his book is not about natural science at all, but is a passionate condemnation of the slave trade - "it makes my blood boil".
I completed Voyage of the Beagle. This was occasionally tough going, but a fascinating insight into Charles Darwin. In this book, he displays as much interest in geology as he does in biology and zoology. And he makes many social and personal observations. After more than 500 pages, the climax of his book is not about natural science at all, but is a passionate condemnation of the slave trade - "it makes my blood boil".
Friday, 3 August 2007
After a morning on the telephone, I think I have now sorted out WCVS's next few networking lunches. On 10 September at the Holywell Centre we will focus on working with youth. On 3 December at the North Watford Mosque, we will focus on Watford’s diverse Muslim community. On 21 January (at a venue to be decided) we will focus on The community and mental health.
For the past few days, I have been in the process of sorting out our 2006-07 accounts. My office has looked like the refuge of a mad scientist with papers, files and books strewn across every available surface, including on occasion the floor. I have not tidied up at night because … well, because I feared that if I tidied everything away I would never get it out again.
And this afternoon I finally had a few hours clear to work on the accounts. And at the end of the day I got my figures and tables and analyses e-mailed off to our auditors. I feel so much better.
The perils of answering the telephone
At one point in the afternoon, perhaps eager for a break from reconciling figures, I answered the telephone. So careless of me. I spent the next hour (or what seemed like an hour) listening to a perfectly pleasant lady recount to me her story of several operations, two ungrateful children, a much loved grand-child and an unreliable postal service. Of course I could have interrupted her to end the call, or I could simply have hung up. But she just seemed so damn happy to have someone to talk to.
Back home
A lovely evening with Jackie: eating al fresco, a bottle of wine, a Midsomer Murder.
For the past few days, I have been in the process of sorting out our 2006-07 accounts. My office has looked like the refuge of a mad scientist with papers, files and books strewn across every available surface, including on occasion the floor. I have not tidied up at night because … well, because I feared that if I tidied everything away I would never get it out again.
And this afternoon I finally had a few hours clear to work on the accounts. And at the end of the day I got my figures and tables and analyses e-mailed off to our auditors. I feel so much better.
The perils of answering the telephone
At one point in the afternoon, perhaps eager for a break from reconciling figures, I answered the telephone. So careless of me. I spent the next hour (or what seemed like an hour) listening to a perfectly pleasant lady recount to me her story of several operations, two ungrateful children, a much loved grand-child and an unreliable postal service. Of course I could have interrupted her to end the call, or I could simply have hung up. But she just seemed so damn happy to have someone to talk to.
Back home
A lovely evening with Jackie: eating al fresco, a bottle of wine, a Midsomer Murder.
Thursday, 2 August 2007
By some distance, “meeting people” is the part of my job that I enjoy most. But after yesterday’s maelstrom of meetings, it would have been nice to have a clear day to focus on the accounts. Instead I had another busy day of meetings.
First, I met with Anne (Funding Advisor), Helen (Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator) and Vanessa (Development and Training Officer) to review our finances and our financial procedures. I explained to them the new systems being introduced, and we also discussed further changes that are necessary. Most importantly, we discussed what progress we are making toward our £40,000 fundraising target for the year. “Not enough” is the answer. We have spent too long on our Basis bid and too long trying to recruit a finance officer.
From this meeting, I went straight to the Multi-Cultural Community Centre to meet with a delegation visiting from Novgorod - Watford’s twin town in Russia.
After this, I hurried straight back to attend the Steering Group for the Guideposts Trust’s project exploring the mental health needs of Watford’s Asian communities. And after this I had further discussions with members of the steering group. Then I met with Helen to talk about some accounts queries, and then with Sha-Lee (Directory and Information Worker), Maria (Office Co-ordinator), and Saud Hafiz (Connexions PA).
Finally, at about 5:30 pm, I started work on the accounts themselves. I made good progress and was quite pleased. When I arrived home at 11:00 pm, Jackie reminded me that a key target from my annual review was to restore work-life balance. She didn’t actually say anything (she was upstairs fast asleep) but I knew what she meant.
First, I met with Anne (Funding Advisor), Helen (Volunteer Centre Co-ordinator) and Vanessa (Development and Training Officer) to review our finances and our financial procedures. I explained to them the new systems being introduced, and we also discussed further changes that are necessary. Most importantly, we discussed what progress we are making toward our £40,000 fundraising target for the year. “Not enough” is the answer. We have spent too long on our Basis bid and too long trying to recruit a finance officer.
From this meeting, I went straight to the Multi-Cultural Community Centre to meet with a delegation visiting from Novgorod - Watford’s twin town in Russia.
After this, I hurried straight back to attend the Steering Group for the Guideposts Trust’s project exploring the mental health needs of Watford’s Asian communities. And after this I had further discussions with members of the steering group. Then I met with Helen to talk about some accounts queries, and then with Sha-Lee (Directory and Information Worker), Maria (Office Co-ordinator), and Saud Hafiz (Connexions PA).
Finally, at about 5:30 pm, I started work on the accounts themselves. I made good progress and was quite pleased. When I arrived home at 11:00 pm, Jackie reminded me that a key target from my annual review was to restore work-life balance. She didn’t actually say anything (she was upstairs fast asleep) but I knew what she meant.
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Lammas Day
I believe Hertfordshire was the last county to enjoy “lammas land” – land that belonged to the manor until lammas day and then became common land for the winter. Don’t quote me: I may have got this horribly wrong.
But I am sure that today is the official centenary of the Scouts. 40,000 Scouts are celebrating at Hylands Park in Essex, and I have learnt that eleven of the twelve people to have visited the moon were scouts. Happy birthday.
Today, I enjoyed a hectic day of meetings. At 10:00 I attended the first meeting of WCVS’s working group on the accommodation needs of the local voluntary sector. This was very productive. I have a few follow-up actions, but these will just have to wait until the audit is completed.
Immediately after, I had a short walk with Marv Renshaw of Inspiral Arts. We looked around the Palace Theatre’s old scenery store, which Inspiral Arts now have ambitious plans to turn into a community arts centre. Frankly, it is difficult to see anything else for which the building could be used. This brings to mind a comment made by Richard Ahrens (of Watford Recycling Arts Project) that the voluntary sector is the goo that seeps into all the areas that other sectors can’t reach. I am pretty sure that Richard put it rather more elegantly.
At 1:00 I met with Jay Gaglani, chair of the Watford One World Forum and then at 2:00 I met with Huywaydah Malik of the Muslim Awareness Forum to discuss the December networking lunch. Then at 4:00 I had a long telephone conversation with Tim Allard (of Space East) who is concerned to ensure that the broader supported housing sector receives adequate infrastructure support.
Between all these things, I managed to make only slow progress on the accounts. Maybe tomorrow.
In the evening, Jackie and I enjoyed another lovely walk.
I believe Hertfordshire was the last county to enjoy “lammas land” – land that belonged to the manor until lammas day and then became common land for the winter. Don’t quote me: I may have got this horribly wrong.
But I am sure that today is the official centenary of the Scouts. 40,000 Scouts are celebrating at Hylands Park in Essex, and I have learnt that eleven of the twelve people to have visited the moon were scouts. Happy birthday.
Today, I enjoyed a hectic day of meetings. At 10:00 I attended the first meeting of WCVS’s working group on the accommodation needs of the local voluntary sector. This was very productive. I have a few follow-up actions, but these will just have to wait until the audit is completed.
Immediately after, I had a short walk with Marv Renshaw of Inspiral Arts. We looked around the Palace Theatre’s old scenery store, which Inspiral Arts now have ambitious plans to turn into a community arts centre. Frankly, it is difficult to see anything else for which the building could be used. This brings to mind a comment made by Richard Ahrens (of Watford Recycling Arts Project) that the voluntary sector is the goo that seeps into all the areas that other sectors can’t reach. I am pretty sure that Richard put it rather more elegantly.
At 1:00 I met with Jay Gaglani, chair of the Watford One World Forum and then at 2:00 I met with Huywaydah Malik of the Muslim Awareness Forum to discuss the December networking lunch. Then at 4:00 I had a long telephone conversation with Tim Allard (of Space East) who is concerned to ensure that the broader supported housing sector receives adequate infrastructure support.
Between all these things, I managed to make only slow progress on the accounts. Maybe tomorrow.
In the evening, Jackie and I enjoyed another lovely walk.
Tuesday, 31 July 2007
I endured horrid traffic travelling to work this morning. But on arrival I was cheered to discover that our IT chap Angelo had managed to install a test version of Microsoft CRM on our server. Previous attempts had failed due to some conflict with Microsoft Outlook - you think they'd have sorted that one out! We are assessing CRM against Volbase and we need to take a decision soon as our need for contact management software is becoming quite urgent.
I played a little with CRM, just testing its interface and the underlying data structure it imposes: there are a few key things I need to learn about the software before really pushing it.
Most of the day I spent working on our accounts (which need to be bought up to date) and on our audit (which needs to be finalised soon).
But I also had a meeting with Louise Jones to review our Connexions contract: this took most of the afternoon but was extremely useful. And I met with Maria to discuss arrangements for our next Networking Lunch, to agree new arrangements for processing financial transactions, and discuss options for meeting our reception needs.
I played a little with CRM, just testing its interface and the underlying data structure it imposes: there are a few key things I need to learn about the software before really pushing it.
Most of the day I spent working on our accounts (which need to be bought up to date) and on our audit (which needs to be finalised soon).
But I also had a meeting with Louise Jones to review our Connexions contract: this took most of the afternoon but was extremely useful. And I met with Maria to discuss arrangements for our next Networking Lunch, to agree new arrangements for processing financial transactions, and discuss options for meeting our reception needs.
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