Thursday, 31 January 2008

Vanessa and I met up at the NCVO in London for our second PQASSO course with the Charities Evaluation Services. Vanessa and I need to start supporting CVS members to put in place appropriate frameworks for QA and we expect that PQASSO will be appropriate to many groups. But PQASSO is undergoing some major changes: version three is about to be launched, and soon groups will have an opportunity to externally accredit their PQASSO standards.

I find there is something otherworldly about training courses: entering a strange environment, meeting strange people, undertaking strange tasks, and time slows right down almost to ... a ... full ... stop. The first morning is always the worst as my body adjusts to the new parallel universe. I don’t suppose my late night at the office yesterday helped much, either.

Most interesting and enjoyable was meeting other people and learning from their knowledge and experience.

PQASSO’s authors (Charities Evaluation Services) have much to answer for. They deserve huge plaudits for raising the profile of QA within the voluntary sector. But never forget that they also played a key part in establishing the rule that all management systems etc must be accompanied by a post-modernist acronym.

On the homeward commute, I completed Michael Bywater’s Lost Worlds: What have we lost and where did it go? I never settled to my own satisfaction whether this is a book of rare insight and genius about the nature of loss, or a vulgar middle-class attempt to cash in on the current mania for nostalgia and lists.

With some sadness I note the death of Jeremy Beadle. Throughout his career he worked hard raising funds for charity. At one time he became a hate figure for the "cool" media set - it was plain and simple bullying. Very unattractive to witness. Now James Blunt attracts the same sort of attention. And it's still bullying.