More tea, and more, and more! I was on cup #5 by about 11am yesterday (but that’s not surprising when I started work promptly – I love working from home. Today I was up and out of the house by 7.40am but I didn’t get here til nearly 8.30am, standing all the way on the bus. Pah).
This week’s quandary is a meditation on partnership working, a.k.a. delegating to those you’ve no power to delegate to. Restrictions on budget / resources, plus the desire to make members feel that they are part of a network, and to use their connections and expertise, means that I need to get them involved in activities – which they are (mostly, subject to their own restrictions) happy to do. Converting that into activity is a challenge of its own.
And in having neither the right to delegate, nor the right to manage that delegation, I’m in a difficult position when, for whatever reason, members don’t deliver what I need. I can only rely on the group’s desire for progress, which is difficult to corral outside meeting times.
In addition, it would be all too easy to become dependent on those who are able to input – and as ever, I need to demonstrate a balance of requests and returns for members.
I am making progress – but I feel more than ever that a mentor, someone who understands the conceptual situations I encounter (rather than needing to know personalities and so forth) would be of great value. How to find that person, approach them and then be assured that I’ve got the right mentor, is another challenge entirely.
But – time to remind myself of my positive steps!
Website – content (mostly) updated. Understanding of the CMS radically improved. Method found for hosting secure pages, documents and a research database to which members can upload / edit / delete records.
Presenting statistics – a joint event with this region’s observatory. One speaker tapped up recently. One to chase.
An open event of interest to users – principle agreed, venue sorted, date to be agreed. Contact is happy with all I am able to contribute at present.
Lobbying – two key points of contact agreed in principle and have given availability. Input forthcoming from other members.
Workplan – revised edition dispatched.
Business plan – version 2 underway.
