Day 46 – 11 March 2014
Twelve days without paper now if you don’t count the odd bits that people shove in your hands from time to time. Last night I had my first Area Action Partnership meeting in Stanley without the white stuff. The cold sweats and night terrors are diminishing but I still get pangs of guilt when I think that others in the meeting don’t believe I’m concentrating as I tap away. I’ve been asking a few more questions just to show I’m on the ball.
Sometimes I feel like I am sitting on a beach, a long golden bay gently curving away to either side of me. It’s obviously a metaphor as the beach is strewn with shells of opportunity and pebbles of possibility. The high tide line is marked with the flotsam and jetsam of past failures. Sometimes the waves lap at my feet but every so often a large wave completely inundates me and as it sucks back to the see all the shells and pebbles are rearranged on the sand.
The latest wave was a Digital Durham one. It has been quite intense over the last few days and this morning saw our second (yes second!) cabinet go live. There are hundreds of them still to go but we’re rolling now. It’s the one outside Dyrburn hospital and so I stopped off on my way in to take a picture of the new DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer or the new green cabinet) which was on the other side of the road. It all felt a bit train spotter taking a photograph of some street furniture. Lots of tweets ensued.
My first meeting got postponed which gave me an hour to catch up, an opportunity which I singularly failed to grasp. That’s the trouble when you a have access to the world at your fingertips, there is always something better to distract you.
Donna was my next engagement and the latest Tier 4 manager. She is the County Durham Partnership Manager working with town and parish councils, the third sector, the armed forces and faith communities. It is her team that organises all of the consultation and participatory budgeting events and coordinates activities across the County to ensure that all of our partners share a consensus on our general direction. That last time we met was when she had had some problems with her ICT. Fortunately that was all resolved.
She also has responsibility for our community buildings and working with local people to make sure they continue to be available. I always think that everyone has someone that they trust and it’s not always who you might think. Rather than turning to the council people turn to friends, community groups or the church especially in times of crisis and so it is essential that we are able to offer all of our services in ways that people want.
After this I met with one of the councillors who had a great idea on how to engage members better in ICT training. I’ll not spoil it by letting the cat out of the bag as it will take some organising first. Among many things we talked about QR codes, getting women into ICT, the role of the Registered Social Landlords, foreign languages and employability. Really interesting.
My afternoon was taken up with a couple of suppliers and a 121 with my boss. He will be away for a couple of weeks and there were some things I needed to mention.
Learning points for today: Food banks are something we’re talking about a lot more; we have a Members’ faith group and; you never know what you are going to learn.
Today’s enjoyment rating 8/10 – I don’t think I finished off as much as I could have done.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 