Friday, 28 November 2008

This morning I was due to have a 7:00 breakfast at Moor Park Manor. This is an historically important country house and was once the seat of Lord Anson who made his fortune capturing the Spanish treasure galleon. Lord Anson searched the Pacific Ocean for his lucrative prize; I couldn't even find his house off the A4145. Just as I was about to give up, I finally saw the postage-stamp sized road-sign. The breakfast meeting was organised by Myers Clark and those gathered enjoyed an extremely entertaining talk on the Budget. But the meeting was heavily geared toward the business sector and there was little of direct interest to charities.

I just made it back to the office for 10:00 to find that both our reserved parking spaces were taken. By the time I had parked, I was late for a training session on stress management taught by my Chair of Trustees Pam Handley (the fact that we could issue the offending vehicles with parking tickets was scant consolation).

After the training event, Pam and I met for my regular supervision meeting and this was as helpful as ever. As a CEO it is essential to work with a Chair of Trustees that you trust and respect – Pam just makes everything so easy. After this, I had a brief meeting with our Youth Connexions advisors, and then headed off to the Town Hall.

Committee Room 2 at the Town Hall was hosting a do to honour Sylvia Harvey who is leaving Watford Borough Council after 32 years of service to the local community - most notably for Watford Women's Centre. There was an excellent turn-out from CVS, the local voluntary sector and from Watford Borough Council including Mayor Dorothy Thornhill. Sylvia Harvey is not leaving Watford and will remain active in the voluntary sector, including as a CVS trustee. Events like this really form the character of Watford.