Monday 23 November 2009

A Norwich Morning

Well it is not quite raining but it might do. I am after all an Englishman by my genes, thus to start a blog by talking about the weather, seems to be the correct thing to do.

Since returning to England a week ago, I have been struck by several self evident truths. The first is that Sydney is a hell of a long way away. It has taken me a whole week to shift time zones. Now I am going back again at the end of the week. A well it is all about choices I guess.

So much is going on here. We had what I thought was the best Crossroads Annual Conference yet. The speakers, including Angela Smith, the Minister for the The Third Sector all gave presentations that were to the point and moved the debate on. Why oh why however do they have to call it the Third Sector? Charitable Sector, Voluntary sector, are good names that people understand. What incidentally are the first, second and fourth sectors? This is seriously bad. It is a bit like the situation I found when I came to Norfolk, all the areas were known by numbers which ran from 1 to 14. How the hell any of the public was supposed to work out the code I have no idea. This was one of my limited range of real achievements to change the names to the place, so people would have a better chance of understanding what we were on about.

Any way Crossroads is going to be demanding next year as we are looking at how we can draw closer to the Princess Royal Trust for Carers including the possibility in the longer run of merging. This will enable us to keep the brand but share top level functions.

The network of Crossroads schemes too are under pressure but I am delighted with the fact that so many of the vulberable ones are now engaged in talks about merging. Anne Roberts and I are about in the new year to do a round of the schemes that we believe are worth trying to save. We will do that by visiiting the Boards and see what we can do to help them address the issues.

The Families House too is going from strength to strength but there is an immediate underlying financial problem so we need urgently to get in more income to bridge the emerging gap.

The other major issue is to get an appeal underway to try to reprovide the Priscilla Bacon Lodge. First meeting is tomorrow afternoon of the Appeal Committee.

This afternoon I have to Chair the Organ Donation Committee of the Hospital. This is hard work getting donation to be the norm rather than the exception. This is so sad as so many people are dying as a result of the lack of organs. It is simply a culture issue. The structure is there to deal. So big steps necessary to day to move the agenda forward. The whole matter will be presented to the Board of the Trust on Friday.

After that it will be quick trip home and then back to Sydney.

I am delighted that Hannah Nick Zoe and Esme seem to be really stuck into their new life in Sydney. They have been impressive in what they have achieved in the past couple of weeks. I will not now see them again till we meet up at the Surfers Paradise in a couple of weeks. In the meantime it seems as if there is a full programme of social and cultural activity starting with about three hours of me landing in Sydney.

So it is quite wonderful a life i have. Of course with the internet i can keep in touch with the vital issues here. So I am only a mouse click away.

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