Tuesday, 17 April 2007

The Sunflower meeting on Domestic Violence took place this morning. We were represented by Vanessa (our experienced and adept Development Worker) who returned at lunchtime with details of the meeting. I was worried to learn that discussions already focus on negotiating a new composition for the Sunflower Centre’s management board. I think this misses the point entirely.

Or perhaps all the recent discussions (about partnership, service delivery, operational practices, and improved communications) are in fact the irrelevance, and the debates and problems have all been about status and power. O dear; have I been naive?

While Vanessa was in Dacorum, I spent a very productive two hours with Anne (our Funding Advisor). Anne is an extremely capable woman with a tenacious grasp of detail; I therefore rely on Anne a great deal and hold her in very high esteem.

On this occasion, we talked through many areas of her work, including some workshops she is planning to support Watford groups applying to the Local Network Fund or Awards for All. This usefully spilled over into options for revamping the Voluntary Sector Alliance and the Networking Lunches.

At lunchtime, I popped over to the Youth Offending Team to be interviewed as part of their inspection process. After, I went to Hatfield to meet with Moreen Pascal and discuss options for the constitution and structure of the new Watford World Forum.

In the evening, I finished reading One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. Jackie convinced me I would enjoy reading Kate Atkinson, and I did. But I got the distinct impression that Kate Atkinson would have written a far better book with less pressure from her publishers.

I then started reading Bernard Levin’s account of his journey across the Alps retracing Hannibal’s Footsteps. Hannibal’s soothsayer bore the name Bogus.