A Catchup

For a minute there I thought the HVA blog was going to become one of the dormant blogs you never see updated. Lots has been happening in the CVS world so let us see where to begin. Firstly we have our AGM which is well attended and provides useful intelligence to help us review the kind of services we want to provide in future. It is a good morning and finishes on time. I hope I was able to do justice to the work of the team who have done much this year in very uncertain times. As I speak the council are still in the process of restructuring and after threats of massive cuts which caused much concern they have now done a Duke of York and marched their troops down the hill again with more modest reductions. The are unaware that much trust and credibility has been sacrificed on the alter of political posturing but there you go. We take part in the Day Services Review which was pleasing in that members of the Health and Social Care Forum do themselves proud and maybe the Active Age Centre which Age Concern Hastings have been advocating for no longer seems such a pipe dream. On which note I spend most of Tuesday interviewing for its new Director. It is a full day but a good appointment is made. It needs a good person as Ian's boots are big to fill. As well as steering the organisatiohn back from the funding brink he has also chaired the multi agency service providers group for older people as well as being a community activist in his won right in the Ore Valley.

Today it was the East Sussex Strategic Partnership and the agreement of the Integrated Community Strategy, LAA targets and then onto Lewes for a meeting with the Chief Executive and Fund Development Manager for the Sussex Community Foundation. We discuss the grassroots grants bid and ways of getting endowment money. On the way back I run into Peter HVAs funding adviser and we travel back to Hastings talking about VAT and Charities, Small Grants, Running Marathons, Old Town Politics, Fishing Communities and Museums.

My journey to both Eastbourne and Lewes nets me 4 Albums by artists as diverse as The Strokes, Kanye West, Jools Holland and Simply Red. The Kanye West album (College Drop Out) is my companion on a 5 mile run along the seafront - the marathon is just over a week away and Sunday will be my last really serious run. All the books tell you to "taper" in the final week which basically means cutting back on the mileage and putting your feet up. Am ending the day listening to a classic Portishead album (Dummy) which has to be one of the best albums of the last 20 years in my humble opinion. This is as good as it gets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg1jyL3cr60&feature=related