Wednesday, 22 October 2008

There was a meeting this morning to put the finishing touches to planning for the 29 October conference on NI7: creating the environment for a thriving third sector in Hertfordshire. I had spent some months (off and on, obviously) attending meetings to help organise this, and we had lined up speakers and contributors from the Compact Commission, the Office of the Third Sector, Compact Voice, Compact Advocacy and NAVCA’s excellent Public Law Project. I felt I had contributed about as much as I could to the event and I sent a note to the meeting about the outstanding work while I attended a meeting of the Watford Community Sports Network. A short while after returning from the Sports Network I learned that this morning’s meeting took the decision to pull the plug on the county-wide 29 October conference.

I am not absolutely sure why. It is true that bookings are not quite as high as we would have wished, but there is a good spread of people attending (including from the PCTs who are just beginning to re-engage with Compact) and there is still a week to go and much can be achieved in a week. We are still a speaker short but I cannot imagine many people complaining if the conference ended 30 minutes early. I suspect the real reason behind the decision is a general non-specific feeling that more needs to be done to pave the way for a conference where success is assured. Maybe.

In any event, I had the curious job of writing out to speakers and attendees advising them of the cancellation, without myself properly understanding the reason for the cancellation. It’s surprising how quickly work can be “undone”. It has taken months of quite difficult and painstaking work to put the conference together (such as it was) but it took only about 90 minutes to send out all the e-mails advising everyone of the cancellation.

This done, the day’s shocks were still not over. I met with Sarah Pinnock, WBC’s senior grants officer, to learn that she is considering a move to new pastures. Of course things must change, but it is sad that Watford will lose someone with so much knowledgeable and experience. If she goes, I will miss her hugely.