Wednesday, 17 September 2008

I left home this morning rather before the crack of dawn to drive to the East Midland Conference Centre where NAVCA were holding their AGM. One purpose for my journey was to collect Watford CVS’s NAVCA quality award, but of course I also hoped to see a bit of the conference. Unsurprisingly, the business of actually receiving the award was a little underwhelming - despite the very best efforts of NAVCA’s CEO (Kevin Curley) and Chair (Mike Martin).

After this, I heard Andrew Robinson of CCLA talk on the subject Does my bum look big in this? He spoke with some eloquence on the need for support agencies continuously to demonstrate their value, quoting several views from front-line organisations to the effect that support agencies (CVSs) contributed nothing and were simply an unwanted competitor that sucked up scarce resources. This was very sobering stuff.

Before leaving, I joined a workshop on working with faith organisations. Watford has many fine examples of voluntary groups that have emerged from the faith sector and there will be more to come. Faith can be a powerful impetus for social and community action. But many people also have secular or rationalist motives. I cannot see that faith groups per se deserve (or would want) support from a CVS.

I arrived back in Watford in the mid afternoon and caught up with a few things. At 7:00 pm I gave a short talk on WCVS to the Community Gateway committee of the Watford Community Housing Trust and then at 8:00 attended a meeting of the Centre Point Community Centre to discuss options for their incorporation.

I arrived home about 10:00 pm, very pleased to get some sleep.