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So to the meetings...
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Chairman's Blog
Location: Cambridgeshire
You know the thing that’s been really hard about this blog? Trying to get it started. How can you start something like this in a friendly, human way? I could have gone for the Welcome from Houghton Mill LHI group but that’s a bit too Coffee Morning really. So how about starting by saying “in a mill far, far way….”? Well, no that doesn't work if you live in Cambridgeshire or don’t particularly like Starwars. Oh well back to the drawing board again. I could start by saying what I say at every meeting, “Shall we officially open the meeting?” but some how it doesn't quite work either. A bit too formal I think. Anyway I think I will start it like this:
Sitting and drinking a cup of tea with my partner one winter’s afternoon, Sally suddenly said she had to find a LHI committee for the Mill as the volunteers wanted to get a grant for £25,000 and she had to find it soon. I quickly decided to get involved and began getting into contact with other volunteers who had already got themselves involved. It wasn't until three days later and one chairwoman down that I thought “This isn't going to be easy”. Now when I started helping out with this I had just finished my first full season as a volunteer but didn't really see myself as Chairman Material. First, I’m fairly bad at saying the right thing at the right time. Family and Friends will be quick to defend my reputation of having all the tact and diplomacy of a Trident Missile. Secondly, I’m a bit on the young side for this kind of thing. Now being, what I would consider a fairly youthfully minded 26 year old I thought I wouldn’t have leadership qualities that an older volunteer has would be far more useful. If you doubt this, I wanted a bit of Lego for my Valentine’s Day present (there, told you so). Thirdly, oh this could run on for pages but you get the impression.
Luckily another volunteer got involved and I thought I was saved but unfortunately, they were less inclined to be the Chairman than I was which left me and a very small amount of time to get a bank account sorted. We quickly made an appointment to see Barclays before Christmas and Sally very bravely went to see the dreaded Bank Manager…. Who turned out to be very nice and helpful, ordering Sally a pack that would explain everything. Well we got the pack just before Christmas and began to work on it, going back to Barclays several times to sort out small problems and points that weren’t entirely clear. Finally we were ready to get our first meeting underway some time in January.
Now we had the Bank account, the money was being sorted out and we even had a date for the meeting. The one thing that we didn’t have was anybody to have a meeting with. Sally and I spent a hurried afternoon ringing and emailing volunteers to see if they would like to be involved. To our immense relief, Sandy Curr and Sandra Blakes arrived right on time. Sandy quickly volunteered and was voted in as Secretary, Sally was voted in as the Treasurer and I became the Chairman.
And that is how you find us at the moment. Davina Scrivener and Jean Hunt have both joined our ranks and the projects are beginning to take shape but more about that later.
Michael
Chairman
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