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.