Monday, 23 April 2007

In the morning, the mini drought-cum-heat-wave finally broke and we saw rain for the first time since March, and it was distinctly cooler too.

I had set aside today to compile our membership mailing to the 400 or so groups we’ve identified in Watford. Previously, we have had about 150 members, and have been aware of another 100 or so groups. But our “value and volume” research has identified 400 groups and we want them all to hold membership of WCVS.

To achieve this, my trustees have agreed to offer FREE membership for 2007-08 provided that groups sign a bank mandate for future years’ membership fees.

So the upshot is that we have a database of 400 members that Sha-Lee has been checking and rechecking. The original database had nearly 1,000 groups, but most of these were defunct or outside Watford or duplicates or nothing to do with the voluntary sector (being public or private sector bodies).

But today turned into a bit of a stretch as Sha-Lee and I were beset by technical and printing problems. I eventually left the office at about 8:00 leaving Sha-Lee to cope with the last few small jobs. Or so I thought. I later learnt that Sha-Lee had to stay in the office until gone midnight sorting things out.

My one respite from this exercise was to spend an hour or two discussing how we can get support from the Local Strategic Partnership (One Watford) to expand volunteering in Watford. Naturally I met with Helen (our Volunteer Centre manager) and we were joined by Emma (from One Watford) and Victor (from HCC). Helen had prepared some good papers and calendars and we soon came up with a plan.

Also through the day, I had lots of sorting out to do re: tomorrow's meeting on Hate Crime. More anon.