An interesting fact:-
Messages of support arising from Blog entry about Steve's running injury 0
Messages of support arising from Blog entry about Louis the cats injury 15
Makes you think doesn't it?
Hit it Freddie... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nTheG--2NE0
Friday 23 November 2007
Monday 19 November 2007
communicate to the masses
The lyric reference is, of course REM's Radio Song and marks the fact that each week at HVA starts with a communications meeting when John, our Information Worker, and I brief each other on issues coming up, requests to communicate (or be communicated with) and how to manage this complex process. At the moment we are in membership-drive mode as the entire HVA membership are providing us with their annual returns. I then move on to the 543 e-mails waiting in my in-box most of which are attempting to sell me viagra which appear to be getting under our SPAM detection radar at the moment.
Saturday's meeting of the Church and Community seminar was a lively discussion and representatives from local churches discuss ways in which they could make a difference in their local community. I think it was useful for HVA to be there encouraging their effort but also identifying some potential pitfalls. There is talk of a large garden project with one of the community centres together with some other initiatives.
As for today, the e-mails take up a bit of time but I pick up an interesting case from one of our members threatened with legal action over business rate payments. This group recently won multiple awards at the Towns Achievments centre and is much support for their work within the Local Authority. Unfortunately they are having difficulty getting added to the Local Authorities list of discretionary rate relief charities. We intervene by writing to the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council urging flexibility and support to overcome what appears to be a minor technical issue. As I hand deliver a copy of my letter to the group I see the mayor arrive proving that they know how to gather political support for their cause.
Signing off now to the strains of Michael Stipe singing our lyric reference http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nNPv7jJmibs.
Saturday's meeting of the Church and Community seminar was a lively discussion and representatives from local churches discuss ways in which they could make a difference in their local community. I think it was useful for HVA to be there encouraging their effort but also identifying some potential pitfalls. There is talk of a large garden project with one of the community centres together with some other initiatives.
As for today, the e-mails take up a bit of time but I pick up an interesting case from one of our members threatened with legal action over business rate payments. This group recently won multiple awards at the Towns Achievments centre and is much support for their work within the Local Authority. Unfortunately they are having difficulty getting added to the Local Authorities list of discretionary rate relief charities. We intervene by writing to the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council urging flexibility and support to overcome what appears to be a minor technical issue. As I hand deliver a copy of my letter to the group I see the mayor arrive proving that they know how to gather political support for their cause.
Signing off now to the strains of Michael Stipe singing our lyric reference http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nNPv7jJmibs.
Friday 16 November 2007
Your Fruits in Season
A catch-up day today with back to back meetings with Peter, our funding adviser, Rose, our Volunteer Centre organiser and the Chair and Manager of the Community Fruit and Veg project which gives me the link to our Lyric reference today. This comes from an obscure Stone Roses 'b' side but here are the boys singing one of their more familier tunes http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=k4bHMVAKDao
We talk AGMs and accounts and the kind of stuff which organisatins need to have in place to be effective. They are ideal candidates fora PQASSO Quality Assurance framework as this will guide them through the basics and enable them to see the work they have ahead of them. I like this project which is a social enterprise delivering low cost fruit and veg and the uptake of the 5-a-day mentality in some of the most deprived communities in the UK. But whatever the ethos there also needs to be some firm business planning sense here as well as, quite apart from all the good intentions they are also flogging a commodity which goes off in 2-3 days. So their stock control, pricing and distribution has to be spot on. Anyway Neil the new cooprinator is offered support and has Louise as his Chair who ran the PULSE project and is one of the best project planners in the local area. HVA are also chipping in by employing the staff andn handling the money until they are robust enough to float off into a CIC (Community Interest Company).
Am working tomorrow at a Church and Community seminar tomorow some am taking the rest of the day off to compensate, get pummled into shape by Sean and then walk the dog. What with cats, community asset transfers, casework and all it has seemed a bit of a long week.
By the way yesterday's episode with the cat set us back £260 - I don't mind you kind of buy into such costs when you own pets - but if you see someone chasing a badger along the road wielding a baseball bat and swearing - it'll be me. (must remember to ban the badger protection society from the membership of HVA!!)
We talk AGMs and accounts and the kind of stuff which organisatins need to have in place to be effective. They are ideal candidates fora PQASSO Quality Assurance framework as this will guide them through the basics and enable them to see the work they have ahead of them. I like this project which is a social enterprise delivering low cost fruit and veg and the uptake of the 5-a-day mentality in some of the most deprived communities in the UK. But whatever the ethos there also needs to be some firm business planning sense here as well as, quite apart from all the good intentions they are also flogging a commodity which goes off in 2-3 days. So their stock control, pricing and distribution has to be spot on. Anyway Neil the new cooprinator is offered support and has Louise as his Chair who ran the PULSE project and is one of the best project planners in the local area. HVA are also chipping in by employing the staff andn handling the money until they are robust enough to float off into a CIC (Community Interest Company).
Am working tomorrow at a Church and Community seminar tomorow some am taking the rest of the day off to compensate, get pummled into shape by Sean and then walk the dog. What with cats, community asset transfers, casework and all it has seemed a bit of a long week.
By the way yesterday's episode with the cat set us back £260 - I don't mind you kind of buy into such costs when you own pets - but if you see someone chasing a badger along the road wielding a baseball bat and swearing - it'll be me. (must remember to ban the badger protection society from the membership of HVA!!)
Thursday 15 November 2007
We need each others business
Lyric reference is from the oft forgotton Ohio New Wave band from the 70's DEVO - ah whatever happened to them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxH39QlRuhg. Anyway, today we drum up cross sector cooperation and corporate social responsibility by attending the Borough's Let's Do Business Exhibition which is the collection of about 130 businesses packed into the Hastings Centre. It is hot and humid but I do good business both for the Sussex Community Foundation whose stand I staff with Janet their corporate liaison person and also drum up support for our volunteering project. Basically, if we can pursuade employers to look at a persons skills rather than just the paid work they have done in the past more people can move from volunteering into employment. And so it proves during the day as business leaders seem to grasp the common sense of what we are saying and start to sign up. So we have the beginnings of a diverse network of private sector businesses to join the happy band of public sector employers who are already on board.
I also catch up with a range of people I have not seen in ages including some of the young people from Saxon Mount School who I ran the marathon for last year.
What else. Of course, big drama last night with a late night mercy dash to the vet where our cat Louis has an emergency operation. Attacked by a psychopathic badger last night he is destined to lose part of his foot. Why are badgers portrayed in childrens books as soft and cuddly gentle creatures when in fact they are horrible flea ridden psychotics like Norman Bates ready to pounce on a defenceless little cat, barely out of kittenhood, - poor thing.
Today Louis looks very sorry for himself but is back home with us after his stay in animal hospital. He is snoozing on Holly's bed with a bandage bigger than his entire body and one of those strange collers to stop him licking the affected area compromising both his movement - and I suspect - his dignity.
My own injury - which pales into insignificance compared to the cats has a name. I am suffering from Piriformis Syndrome which is a pain in the arse - both metaphorically and literally. Tomorrow I am being pummled and manipulated by Sean the ex pro rugby playing irishman who does stirling work as my sports physiotherapist/oesteopath and no doubt will test how much pain I can tolerate for my £25 quid.
I also catch up with a range of people I have not seen in ages including some of the young people from Saxon Mount School who I ran the marathon for last year.
What else. Of course, big drama last night with a late night mercy dash to the vet where our cat Louis has an emergency operation. Attacked by a psychopathic badger last night he is destined to lose part of his foot. Why are badgers portrayed in childrens books as soft and cuddly gentle creatures when in fact they are horrible flea ridden psychotics like Norman Bates ready to pounce on a defenceless little cat, barely out of kittenhood, - poor thing.
Today Louis looks very sorry for himself but is back home with us after his stay in animal hospital. He is snoozing on Holly's bed with a bandage bigger than his entire body and one of those strange collers to stop him licking the affected area compromising both his movement - and I suspect - his dignity.
My own injury - which pales into insignificance compared to the cats has a name. I am suffering from Piriformis Syndrome which is a pain in the arse - both metaphorically and literally. Tomorrow I am being pummled and manipulated by Sean the ex pro rugby playing irishman who does stirling work as my sports physiotherapist/oesteopath and no doubt will test how much pain I can tolerate for my £25 quid.
Monday 12 November 2007
your body will be injured
The lyric reference is the Black Eyed Peas and describes my present physical state. The running seems to have taken its toll and I am suffering from a nagging injury which seems to have had no apparent cause. This, combined with the cold weather has kept me off the road, as it were, for the past couple of days. To compensate I go to the gym and do a 30 minute session on the rowing maching yesterday which basically means I ache in both my arms and my legs!
What else? stage 2 of the decorating is now complete and the living room is almost finished. I always believe that every long and boring job should be accompanied by something to listen to so I have downloaded the entire Presidential Commission Report on 9/11 - all 20 hours of it which I have been listening to botgh at home and via the ipod. Fascinating stuff it is too. At work I am full steam ahead on the Community Assets Transfer stuff and spend some time drafting a partnership agreement to define the respective roles of HVA, the Council and Seaspace in bringing this to fruition. If all goes to plan a freehold building could be transferred to HVA with up to £1m to fully redesign and refurbish it. If all doesn't go to plan? well no one could say we didn't try!!
Walking the dog feels a bit easier on the injured back so maybe things are returning back to normal - must see Sean my sports therapist and oesteopath to see what he thinks. Here is our lyric band playing one of the greatest hits - enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0EoyTdtFac
What else? stage 2 of the decorating is now complete and the living room is almost finished. I always believe that every long and boring job should be accompanied by something to listen to so I have downloaded the entire Presidential Commission Report on 9/11 - all 20 hours of it which I have been listening to botgh at home and via the ipod. Fascinating stuff it is too. At work I am full steam ahead on the Community Assets Transfer stuff and spend some time drafting a partnership agreement to define the respective roles of HVA, the Council and Seaspace in bringing this to fruition. If all goes to plan a freehold building could be transferred to HVA with up to £1m to fully redesign and refurbish it. If all doesn't go to plan? well no one could say we didn't try!!
Walking the dog feels a bit easier on the injured back so maybe things are returning back to normal - must see Sean my sports therapist and oesteopath to see what he thinks. Here is our lyric band playing one of the greatest hits - enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0EoyTdtFac
Wednesday 7 November 2007
We can kick like a mule it's a real mean team
Rose, our volunteer organiser, will apreciate our lyric reference today which is from the thin white duke (Mr Bowie). Rose is a real fan and not without justification. Here he is playing a live version of a song more associated with Mott the Hoople and also, as it happens, the first single I ever bought when I was 11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7uwbjYSaYY.
Anyway, the team in question is the HVA team and we had an awayday which looked at performance and measuring impact. Jill and Fran have done a good job to facilitate the day which starts with a warm up quiz about HVA and its staff. My score is both worrying for me (and perhaps even more so for the team!). At this rate I may lose my place on the HVA inter-agency quiz squad. According to performance on the quiz Jan should be director of HVA and I should be making the tea!!
The day is a bit weird in that, as ever, I was chasing my tail and had to go, dash away, and then dash back for the end. It was also the day I presented my alternative view of the community engagement world to the meeting of the public service chiefs execs at which I argue for concerted partner activity to save the best of what we have in Hastings. The comprehensive spending review is occupying a lot of thought but I achieve a primary objective which is to stimulate partners into thinking about this issue and ask the right questions which they start to do. It is then back to the Awayday and a pleasant lunch with James and Fran where we talk running, giving up smoking and I feed back on my meeting. On the way back into Town I brief the vice chair of the LSP about moving this onto the agenda. Then it is a quick trip back home to walk the dog before dashing again back to the office.
Today is also a deadline day for a funding bid I am making to secure some funding to support BME activity and the better coordination of hate crime reporting and to secure money to support a key role on the team. Despite promises and assurances, the application is not in the shape I want it to be so there are a series of phone calls to get further information from our County colleagues before I am happy to sign off by 5pm.
Onwards to a Community Assets Transfer meeting. As I arrive, I am greeted by a member of the Council's staff who also is involved with a local arts group. She was really grateful for a small thing I did to help expedite some funding which seemed blocked at one stage. To be honest, I had forgotten the work I did on this - which only amounted to an e-mail putting words in the right ear - but it was really nice to get some feedback that this was appreciated.
At the Community Assets transfer meeting a genuine breakthrough is made. After what seems like years of talk the Council seems fully signed up to the principle of transferring a building into the ownership of HVA together with mounting a bid to refurbish it. Lots of hoops to jump through, of course, but there is some real purpose to our discussion and we begin to shape up what will become the business plan. Of course, there is a down side insofar as the Local Authority have taken so long to get this far that we are only days away from a substantial deadline. A fully costed business plan and project profile is required but there is partner support for this to happen. I have a feeling that despite the odds we could just pull this one off which is a good thing as a wrecking ball comes through the wall of my office in 2009!
I also meet briefly with Alan from SEASPACE who is coordinating the legal work being done to create an educational trust within a very tight deadline (see previous postings). This is critical to secure £100,000 funding and we have been supporting the group who have more grey hairs now than when the process began. Fingers are still very much crossed but it looks like we are on track to have the trust in place by 19th November and secure the prize!!
It is now 7.00pm and I am taking a short break from reviewing a dissertation outline for my student Jaan who is seeking to apply "labelling theory" to an analysis of Anti Social Behaviour and the criminal justice system. Strange and perverse as this may seem this I am actually enjoying my role as his supervisor which I am taking on for the first time this year at the University. It forces me to re-read and rethink some academic material and keep up to date which is no bad thing.
Anyway that was Wednesday and on it goes.
Anyway, the team in question is the HVA team and we had an awayday which looked at performance and measuring impact. Jill and Fran have done a good job to facilitate the day which starts with a warm up quiz about HVA and its staff. My score is both worrying for me (and perhaps even more so for the team!). At this rate I may lose my place on the HVA inter-agency quiz squad. According to performance on the quiz Jan should be director of HVA and I should be making the tea!!
The day is a bit weird in that, as ever, I was chasing my tail and had to go, dash away, and then dash back for the end. It was also the day I presented my alternative view of the community engagement world to the meeting of the public service chiefs execs at which I argue for concerted partner activity to save the best of what we have in Hastings. The comprehensive spending review is occupying a lot of thought but I achieve a primary objective which is to stimulate partners into thinking about this issue and ask the right questions which they start to do. It is then back to the Awayday and a pleasant lunch with James and Fran where we talk running, giving up smoking and I feed back on my meeting. On the way back into Town I brief the vice chair of the LSP about moving this onto the agenda. Then it is a quick trip back home to walk the dog before dashing again back to the office.
Today is also a deadline day for a funding bid I am making to secure some funding to support BME activity and the better coordination of hate crime reporting and to secure money to support a key role on the team. Despite promises and assurances, the application is not in the shape I want it to be so there are a series of phone calls to get further information from our County colleagues before I am happy to sign off by 5pm.
Onwards to a Community Assets Transfer meeting. As I arrive, I am greeted by a member of the Council's staff who also is involved with a local arts group. She was really grateful for a small thing I did to help expedite some funding which seemed blocked at one stage. To be honest, I had forgotten the work I did on this - which only amounted to an e-mail putting words in the right ear - but it was really nice to get some feedback that this was appreciated.
At the Community Assets transfer meeting a genuine breakthrough is made. After what seems like years of talk the Council seems fully signed up to the principle of transferring a building into the ownership of HVA together with mounting a bid to refurbish it. Lots of hoops to jump through, of course, but there is some real purpose to our discussion and we begin to shape up what will become the business plan. Of course, there is a down side insofar as the Local Authority have taken so long to get this far that we are only days away from a substantial deadline. A fully costed business plan and project profile is required but there is partner support for this to happen. I have a feeling that despite the odds we could just pull this one off which is a good thing as a wrecking ball comes through the wall of my office in 2009!
I also meet briefly with Alan from SEASPACE who is coordinating the legal work being done to create an educational trust within a very tight deadline (see previous postings). This is critical to secure £100,000 funding and we have been supporting the group who have more grey hairs now than when the process began. Fingers are still very much crossed but it looks like we are on track to have the trust in place by 19th November and secure the prize!!
It is now 7.00pm and I am taking a short break from reviewing a dissertation outline for my student Jaan who is seeking to apply "labelling theory" to an analysis of Anti Social Behaviour and the criminal justice system. Strange and perverse as this may seem this I am actually enjoying my role as his supervisor which I am taking on for the first time this year at the University. It forces me to re-read and rethink some academic material and keep up to date which is no bad thing.
Anyway that was Wednesday and on it goes.
Tuesday 6 November 2007
I'm too busy to see you You're too busy to wait
Today was busy by any standards with e-mails flying around at 7.30am and leaving work about 7.20pm it feels like that kind of period. Our health partners who yesterday were emphatically asking if we could advertise for some posts on their behalf - this week now reverse their decision. SO the adverts we rushed around placing are now pulled awaiting their clarification of the budget. Onwards to 3 casework meetings in quick succession. Today was also the drop in session for our volunteering project where it akways pleases me to see actual volunteers coming in from their projects and engaging with moderators to achieve a recognised qualification. The reputation of this project recently went international as our potential French partners have expressed an interest in this aspect of our work. We discuss next years Service Level Agreement and I write 3 contracts which have been hanging over my head for some time. It is amazing how 3 hours without the phone going off really do enable a great deal of work to be dojne. I then review a complex employment law issue with 2 folders of material to sift through.
Our busy lyric is, of course, Radiohead. I understand that a question in tomorrows quiz during our staff "away-day" will relate to the latest lyric on my blog so those who have an RSS feed or visit the sight tonight will get an advantage. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4lMdFYOtU
Our busy lyric is, of course, Radiohead. I understand that a question in tomorrows quiz during our staff "away-day" will relate to the latest lyric on my blog so those who have an RSS feed or visit the sight tonight will get an advantage. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ4lMdFYOtU
Monday 5 November 2007
Cake or Death...
Another busy day starting with some of the challanges of building a partnership, keeping a range of different partners, content up to date and facing in the same direction. This is a key aspect of our work but not without its challenges. It is then onto casework and catching up with issues financial as it is our financial administrators first day back from leave. An afternoon of administration sees my desk a little clearer than it was at the start of the day. The days highlight was finding for a mere £1 one of the most beautiful records ever made. In 1965, at age 20, Jaqueline du Pré recorded the Elgar concerto for EMI with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli, which brought her international recognition. This recording has since become the benchmark reference for the work, and one which has never been out of print since its release over forty years ago.
Our lyric today is actually a piece of stand up comedy 'set to Lego'...it will resonate with those members of HVA staff who shared part of my partnership day...enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVjKlBCvhg
Our lyric today is actually a piece of stand up comedy 'set to Lego'...it will resonate with those members of HVA staff who shared part of my partnership day...enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVjKlBCvhg
Friday 2 November 2007
I am folded, and unfolded
A funny old day today starting with a run and a listen to the brilliant Beth Orton whose album Central Reservation had completely passed me by when it was released in the mid 90's. This was the purchase of the week £1 from the Mind shop in Eastbourne on my way to a hate crime meeting.
I attend a meeting of the group which supports the Local Strategic Partnership where we kick around the Local Area Agreement, the review of the Community Strategy. I spend some time with the LSP COorindator going through why I have convened a meeting of all the Chief Executives of the public service agencies and what I am trying to achieve by doing it. Back to the office to two bits of casework where I am trying to help a group set up an educational trust in record time so that they can receive a sizeable award. Time is running short and the money is at risk if the trust is not formed in time.
Unfortunately I miss folding friday which is a monthly HVA ritual where we fold and stuff the newsletter. This is a shame as the conversation with the team as we fold is usually entertaining (if not a little surreal at times). I make up for my being unable to help by sitting in the meeting room drinking a cup-a-soup talking away whilst watching other people fold the newsletter.
Our conversation covers a wide range of topics which ranged from a discussion of whether the low sex drive of pandas is contributing to their near extinction to Robert Falcon Scotts ill-fated 1912 Antartic expedition and (what really happened to Capt Oates!). For those HVA staff members who do not regularly attend folding friday you can only wonder of what conversational gems you are missing out on.
Our lyric today is from Colourblind by Counting Crows and see the original video by clocking on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6EbOgvH2nI
I attend a meeting of the group which supports the Local Strategic Partnership where we kick around the Local Area Agreement, the review of the Community Strategy. I spend some time with the LSP COorindator going through why I have convened a meeting of all the Chief Executives of the public service agencies and what I am trying to achieve by doing it. Back to the office to two bits of casework where I am trying to help a group set up an educational trust in record time so that they can receive a sizeable award. Time is running short and the money is at risk if the trust is not formed in time.
Unfortunately I miss folding friday which is a monthly HVA ritual where we fold and stuff the newsletter. This is a shame as the conversation with the team as we fold is usually entertaining (if not a little surreal at times). I make up for my being unable to help by sitting in the meeting room drinking a cup-a-soup talking away whilst watching other people fold the newsletter.
Our conversation covers a wide range of topics which ranged from a discussion of whether the low sex drive of pandas is contributing to their near extinction to Robert Falcon Scotts ill-fated 1912 Antartic expedition and (what really happened to Capt Oates!). For those HVA staff members who do not regularly attend folding friday you can only wonder of what conversational gems you are missing out on.
Our lyric today is from Colourblind by Counting Crows and see the original video by clocking on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6EbOgvH2nI
Thursday 1 November 2007
maybe we should do an article in that there magazine
Not sure if Samuel Pepys ever found this but sometimes you are too busy doing things to write about them. Hence my blogging has been a little intermittent of late. A little flurry of activity as I request a discussion of the Executive Delivery Group to consider the recent Comprehensive Spending Review announcement and what it means for Hastings. I sense that some of the good stuff around community engagement will be left to wither on the fine as there is a general wringing of hands and blaming the Govt. This is to be expected but serves no useful purpose in the long run. So I spend some time thinking how best to marshall the arguments into a coherent paper and am well advised by James - who sits on the Community Network and Fran who coorindates the representation function within the CVS. A useful meeting and I touch base with James afterwards on a couple of Countywide Developments. I sense that at the meeting I may be in a minority of one - which is not an unknown experience for me - but we shall see. I also pen an article for the Borough's magazine as the work we have done with accrediting volunteering activity is beginning to receive attention. We now have over 70 volunteers on all aspects of the programme and we look set to exceed our outputs. Now onto the employer engagement at a forthcoming Let's Do Business exhibition. I am confident that withjin the next few weeks we will have our first volunteer making the transition into paid employment as a result of this project - so fingers crossed. A couple of the participants have interviews lined up.
Anyway it is now about 8.30 and time to finish for the day. Our lyric today comes from Lou Reed and here he is doing it with John Cale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSxRN0pNciA
Anyway it is now about 8.30 and time to finish for the day. Our lyric today comes from Lou Reed and here he is doing it with John Cale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSxRN0pNciA
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