Monday brings a discussion with the chair of the Community Network and Fran - HVA's Network Development Officer about the community empowerment white paper and the feedback both HVA and the CEN would like to give the Govt. There is lots of good stuff in the White Paper which uses the right rhetoric but details of how this will be arranged and, crucially, how it will be resourced are sketchy. Our experience was that the old community empowerment fund - coming directly to the VCS with lots of flaxibility was probably the closest the Govt have ever got to an empowering funding regime which put resources precisely where they could best be used.
From there I see Sandra, the coordinator of our volunteering passport project which accredits volunteering activity and enables participants to secure a qualification. We have a success story on our hands as the first cohort of students have graduated and the verifying body see us as national "best practice". Indeed they have decided to use us as a case study example of how to do it. We plan a small ceremony to award certificates during National Volunteering Week.
From there it is a quick dash to the station to catch the train to the Board meeting of the Sussex Community Foundation. I buy - for the first time in maybe 20 years - a copy of the NME. Now I was used to the old style version where the print came off on your hands. Now in 2008 it has been revamped and has all gone glossy/upmarket and the writing isn't as good. Free copy of the new Coldplay single though - although as this is on vinyl I will have to give it away as I do not own a record player. Also on the music front I pick up for 50p a copy of the first - and I think possibly only - album by Cornershop. You may remember this band as they were more widely noticed after the success of a Fatboy Slim remix of their song "Brimful of Asha", a song writtten as a tribute to the prolific Indian playback singerAsha Bhosle and the entire Indian music industry in general. Norman Cook mixed the track without charging a fee because he liked it so much.
Anyway I digress the Board meeting discusses Endowment funding grassroots grants and progress towards levering money from the wealthy in the County. Apart from meetings it is a day trying to catch up with e-mails cheque signing and letters.
The evening is spent over a drink where I am briefed about the Youth Service Review as I have to prepare for a special meeting of all the area boards at which this will be discussed. This is partly my responsibility as I raised some quesations about how the funding formulae works and whether this unwittingly loads money away from the most deprived parts of the County. The meeting will review how these services are being delivered and funded.
In the spirit of opening choice and the empowerment white paper. Here on the HVA Directors blog you can feel empowered to make choices of your own by picking from either:-
the original Cornershop version of the song here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QBbKMoKiIg
or
the Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) remix here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XniTypXFje4
The Choice is yours - feel empowered!!
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