Wednesday, 30 April 2008

NAVCA CORE meeting in Buxton

The first speaker today was Debra Allcock Tyler of the Directory of Social Change. I had developed a prejudice against Debra after reading in Third Sector magazine that she occasionally took her dog to work. She chose to build her 45 minute speech on leadership around Rudyard Kipling’s “If …” Debra was engaging, funny, insightful, and occasionally hard-hitting. It could have been a disaster, but it was a triumph and a great start to the conference.

Debra was a horrible act to follow. Catherine Johnstone, acting CEO at Capacitybuilders, bravely took to the podium next. CVSs should be the ChangeUp programme’s biggest natural allies. But the programme has been beset by problems: basic misjudgments in government have produced impossible timetables and targets, resulting failure, and many now question the ability of Capacitybuilder’s to manage the programme successfully.

Catherine explained that Capacitybuilders “is not a Third Sector Organisation but a Non-Departmental Government Body” and she detailed a few of the problems that Capacitybuilders has had to cope with. But wisely she did not try to defend past performance she described as “over-promising and under-achieving”. Instead, she pleaded for time and support to get the process right.

Clearly Catherine is One Of The Good Guys and deserves the sector’s support while Capacitybuilders works to live down its past, establish new Governance standards, and deliver on its potential.

Over the lunch break I spoke briefly with the guys on the Volbase desk: it wasn't encouraging.

The first workshop after lunch was on Performance led by Tim Wilson of the Charities Evaluation Service. I was disappointed as it didn’t cover any new ground. Then I attended a workshop on Income Generation led by Seb Elsworth of Acevo. This was billed as an “Organisational Development Workshop” but it felt less like a learning opportunity and more like an inquisition. It was really a consultation about how Acevo can best discharge its new responsibilities leading the National Support Service for income generation. I am pleased to take part in consultations but it’s nice to be warned in advance.

At 5:00 there was a further session on the new Local Involvement Networks for PCTs being rolled out. Across the country, the experience of local voluntary organisations has not been good. Hertfordshire appears to be one of the last counties to sort out its services. In the discussion there were clear lessons for Hertfordshire and I hope there is an early chance for discussions with other CVSs in the County.

At 6:15 I met up again with Jackie who had spent a pleasant day travelling by bus to Bakewell. For the conference, the highlight of the evening was the evening meal in the High Peaks ballroom. Jackie and I peeked in the ballroom but the lighting was poor (which I dislike intensely) and we knew from experience that the food was likely to be worse. We went out and ate out in Buxton.