Tuesday, 13 May 2008

This morning, I put in 90 minutes at the office and then drove to Hemel Hempstead for a 9:30 meeting with Mohamed Fawzi and Saud Hafiz. Back at WCVS I met briefly with Jay Gaglani about next week’s One World forum meeting.

The rest of my day was devoted to correspondence: I read c 100 e-mails and sent about 25 including offering advice to several local groups, sharing information, arranging meetings etc. I suppose we tolerate e-mail because we know it is actually a pretty effective communication tool.

While on the subject of communication, I am increasingly depressed by the language used in the voluntary sector. When people write about sustainability they nearly always mean commercialisation - with the implication that charities could pay their way if we just stopped bleating on for handouts and jolly well pulled our socks up.

When people write about modernisation they usually mean centralisation - with the implication that there are too many voluntary groups and we should just stop playing silly buggers and organise proper hierarchies to fulfil some bureaucrat's crazed masterplan.

In the evening I read through a draft report from some research into mental health services in Watford for women from south Asia. I made copious notes to feedback to the authors - I do hope they appreciate them!