Day 55 – 25 March 2014
By my calculation I think I am a quarter of the way through the year. I’m assuming that there are 365 days less weekends, bank and normal holidays and this comes to 220 working days. It may be one or two either way. I’m not counting any time I spend working outside of these days. Time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana, as Groucho Marks once said.
I had three more presentations today, two in Tanfield and one back at County Hall. The space at Tanfield is next to the factory floor and isn’t the best acoustically yet the audience (is that too pretentious?) likes to stick to the walls rather than come into the body of the kirk. I hate standing still while presenting which ends up with me pacing the floor like a caged tiger while walking in front of the screen.
We got ourselves in a bit of a knot in session three with a simple approach to explaining our finances. A birthday card from Aunty Mary and capitalising Christmas left a few scratching their heads. By the fourth session we were back on track. The truth is we need to focus on all of our business and get the balance right between corporate and traded. It’s all interlinked. All business is equal but some is not more equal than others.
County Hall is always well attended. It’s a little more intimate and I enjoy those sessions most.
Next up was a meeting with Charlie who is organising the Dynamo conference on 1 May. I’m down to speak in one of the breakout sessions with someone from Orchard Systems and Gentoo. No slides are required and so it shouldn’t be too daunting. I just hope that the public sector people don’t just come to the public sector breakout and the private sector to the private. We all need to work together to put the North East ICT scene on the map.
If you have any interest in ICT in the area or its role in developing the economy then I suggest that you try and come along, even if it’s just to hear me make my pitch.
Andrew Gilmore was the next Tier 4 manager on my list. He is the Finance Manager – AWH even though Adults Wellbeing and Health has been subsumed into CAS now. We talked about the intricacies of finance in the adult care world and the many niche markets that exist such as residential care, dementia and elderly mentally infirm (EMI). His team deal with some very big budgets and his role is to make sure the finances are there to support some vulnerable people.
He’s also ACCA qualified and so is a proper accountant!
We then had a conversation about why I was so interested in this group of managers and we talked about getting to understand customers as people, identifying the resources that exist across the authority and the differing skill sets and drives that individuals bring. It has been, and will continue to be for some time to come, a fascinating experience.
Learning points for today: When time is short people always waste it by saying ‘I’m conscious of the time’; Captain Raggy Beard is a storyteller and available for educational workshops and children’s parties and; if you’re going to say something, say it with confidence.
Today’s enjoyment rating 9/10 – almost a 10 but a little tired. No trouser mishaps.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 