Thursday, 20 September 2007

Herts CVS

Knowing that I had a 9:30 meeting of the CEOs from all the Herts CVSs, I arrived early this morning to get some correspondence out of the way. Then Paul Ruskin (our regional IT champion) called to say he was held up in traffic in Cambridgeshire and would be late for the Herts CVS meeting. We had a very pleasant and productive talk through some IT issues. I know the call took 47 minutes because Paul told me so just as we said goodbye. Thanks Paul.

The 9:30 meeting of Herts CVS was plagued by bad traffic in Hertfordshire too and we finally got underway about 10:00. Paul Ruskin arrived and gave an interesting presentation on database options and the development of a county-wide “share hub” to share (and publish) core information. Over the past couple of years Paul has achieved a great deal for the Cambridgeshire Circuit Riders project and as the regional IT champion, but I'm pleased to say that he still carries about him the dash and swagger of the private sector and the evangelical enthusiasm of the new convert.

Also around the table was our saintly and wise Chairperson Ian Richardson, always seeking consensus and always ready with a kind word. Almost single-handedly and with few resources, Ian has fashioned a viable CVS operation over Broxbourne and East Herts, a fantastic achievement.

Also present were the utterly divine Jacquie Hime, who has transformed the fortunes of the CVS in North Herts making it a major service provider; and the elegant and steadfast Mary Green who has drawn on bottomless reserves of patience and creativity to sustain a CVS presence in Three Rivers; and the intrepid but demure Ann Jansz of Stevenage who very ably represents the county’s voluntary sector on Hertfordshire Forward; and the vivacious and adroit Laura Cronshaw who delivers an excellent CVS service in St Albans; and of course the charming and perspicacious Robin Charnley of Hertsmere who, equipped only with a sow’s ear, makes sure that voluntarism has a strong voice throughout Hertsmere.

That’s enough flattery for now. But my point is that the Herts CVS group are all intelligent and good people working hard to secure the best possible conditions for voluntarism. In this I think the County is well-served. The question is always: how best to co-ordinate our efforts when we each operate in such different circumstances?

Connexions

In the afternoon I met with our three Connexions Personal Advisors (Des, Farzana and Saud) to go through the feedback from our contract manager Louise Jones. This was extremely useful and also interesting as it highlighted one or two practical difficulties. For example, at each meeting with a young “client”, the system requires the PA to write up a few key points and get the client to sign their name to the sheet. But often the clients are in some state of crisis and always they resist formality to a greater or lesser extent. And the mere act of requesting a signature transforms the meeting and the relationship, not necessarily for the better.

Other things

Later in the afternoon I had a call from a BBC producer who had just finished recording at a local supermarket and who had a “van full of dry goods" to donate to a local charity. We do receive calls like this fairly often and are always pleased to help divert goods to our member organisations. In this instance, I suggested that the BBC contact the excellent New Hope Trust.

Vanessa asked about recruiting for a food hygeine course. Funding had been provided by Watford Borough Council and spaces were very limited - I suggested that she promote the course only to our member organisations. It’s often difficult to define which groups can benefit from each service, but when spaces are limited we have to give priority to our members.