Thursday, 15 February 2007

The journey in this morning was lovely; forty minutes only. The traffic has been good all week. I remarked on this to a Sue, who told me it was because of the schools' half-term; I had no idea so many children could drive.

Trust me, I’m a trustee

I enjoyed reading an article that our wonderful volunteer Maria had managed to have carried in The Watford Free. I’d seen the article on plain A4 paper, but everything looks so much better in newsprint. We managed to get a full page article featuring our trustee Ian Stageman promoting the need for more trustees in Watford. Wonderful stuff.

Everyone for themself

After just a day away from my desk and I had seventy e-mails to deal with - even after deleting thirty or so spam mails.

Quite a few mails were related to complaints that other CVSs in Hertfordshire have registered with the Big Lottery about their decisions on the Basis programme. I understand the frustration these decisions have engendered. The whole process has been fraught with difficulties and stress: it certainly seems that some wrong messages were given by the Big Lottery at some of their briefings. And there are some serious questions to ask of the Lottery, and of ourselves, about strategy and approach.

It seems that every CVS has written off to seek clarification of its own position, to fight its own corner and to complain about the rejection of its own bid. I understand this. People are fighting for their communities, and in some cases their jobs. The Big Lottery has not managed the process well and this has exacerbated tensions.

Would Watford CVS have acted differently? Yes. We would have wanted Herts CVSs to act together, exchange views and experiences, and reach a common agreed position. We would have wanted this position to be communicated to the Lottery Board in an agreed letter. We would have wanted to consider if Herts CVSs had any lessons to learn and if Herts CVSs should approach future funding rounds in a different way.

Disjointed action can send out the worst possible messages to our funders and criticising successful bids helps no-one. I fear the impression being given is of headless chickens who are easily cowed, easily divided and easily dominated.

Odds and ends

I had some helpful telephone conversations following up Tuesday’s One Watford meeting. I talked to Sue about getting our bank accounts moved to CAFbank. I talked to our accountants to try and get some Opening Balance queries resolved. I talked to Angelo about using an on-line database to meet some of our IT data collection needs. I talked to Laura about insurance arrangements for drivers on our volunteer transport scheme.

Community cohesion

At 4:30 pm I met with representative of the Indian Association, the African Caribbean Association, the Multi-Cultural Community Centre and the West Watford Community Centre. We had a very useful talk through some common problems and issues and reached some solid agreements on how to move forward together. I have great hopes for the future.