Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Today we had a trustees meeting and (more excitingly) we held our AGM.

The trustees meeting went well. They carefully considered options for the 2 October launch of the Trustees Network and decided to proceed and each undertook to bring along at least 3 trustees from their own group.

Although I say so myself, our AGM was superb: all the arrangements went swimmingly; my usual concerns about an empty room proved unfounded and we had a good turnout; the excellent Pam Handley and Althea MacLean OBE were returned unopposed as Chair and Vice Chair; Andrea Allez (NAVCA’s Performance Improvement director) talked on quality assurance - wonderfully well-prepared with lots of local references; we elected two great representatives to the new Watford Community Fund panel: Althea MacLean OBE and Rukhsana Butt; Pam chaired with the good humour and elan she brings to everything; our Mayor Dorothy Thornhill spoke warmly in her engaging and distinctive style; and the food was very good.

But there was a fly in the ointment. There were seven candidates for five vacant seats on the Board of Trustees and there had to be two losers. We lost as trustees Lincoln Beckford (an exceptional youth worker) and Phil Willerton (who is amongst the most knowledgeable and best connected voluntary sector people in Hertfordshire).