Thursday, 7 February 2008

Now only two days left before Saturday's Hertfordshire Charity Trustees Conference. Vanessa and Maria are working flat out on this. I try to help but fear sometimes that I just get in the way.

My day was disrupted by the arrival of new shelving resulting in half a day of upheaval. But now it's over, it's a much better work environment. I am pleased to say that the shelves were bartered with another charity for some redundant filing cabinets: I wonder how much of an alternative economy could be developed in this way.

At the moment, I am working on about a dozen different projects. Each project needs to be nudged forward in an order that makes sense and which respects the various relationships between them. These projects are: next year's budget, achieving the NAVCA Quality Assurance standard, our BASIS funding, staff annual reviews, appointing our BME advocacy worker, finishing the PQASSO mentor course, drafting a Community Development strategy, drafting a VCS Accommodation strategy, implementing Microsoft Contact Relationship Manager, and delivering our IT project. No-one could ever say this job is boring.

Disestablishmentarianism

Rowan Williams has made a plea for Britain to offer different legal jurisdictions to different religious groups. He focused on the aspirations of some parts of the Muslim community but this is purely cynical: he is exploiting the Muslim community to pursue his own agenda. He wants to exercise secular power: a return to the days of church courts and the inquisition. Rowan Williams himself is dishonest, deluded and either profoundly stupid or thoroughly evil. Perhaps he has a psychological need to feel persecuted? I do hope no vulnerable groups take his ramblings too seriously. The CoE has clearly outlived its purpose and the sooner it is disestablished the better. I’ll go and lie down now.

On the home front, Aged Ken (our decrepit white cat of indeterminate age) has developed an obsessive fascination with Jackie's needlework (she does a lot of patchwork, sewing, knitting, crocheting). As soon as she starts, Ken gets as close as he can (usually about a foot away) and just stares at the needles entranced and mesmerised. What can he be thinking?