Friday 3 May 2013

Of Grants & Awards


The week’s themes have been about money and the amazing achievements of young people.

On the money side, we met at County Hall to discuss our running of the Surrey CC Small Grants scheme which we are being commissioned to take over administratively. WE need to crank up the workflow so that it is as clear and efficient as possible, and are very aware that the process of awarding the small grants (typically in the range £500-£1,000,with £5,000 the max.) will be delayed this summer because of the Council Elections (yesterday) and the necessary processes of appointing new Committee Chairs, which will mean that in some case the Chairs won’t be in place until late July, and some voluntary organisations will be wanting to run projects in the summer. The delays will be unavoidable, and we will have to structure expectations accordingly.

Today is also the  closing date (at 3.00pm) for bids to SCC for the Local Prevention Framework, which has, frankly, not been a great process. I predict that nearly all bidders will get through the BRAVO process, there will then be the mini – competitions (dragons den style) which is the key process, and then I suspect it will prove impossible to decide between a good 100% bid against 4 good specialist bids, and so a horse-trade (“negotiation”)  will result…….SO it is NOT (of course) a rational/scientific process, but….a horse trade of what best fits.

Still on money..just heard that a  major bank are funding our COMMUNILAB project! More next week!

The Big Assist work is also progressing – being the consultant who is looking into ways of achieving cost savings/enhancing benefits/new network structures across the voluntary sector. Very exciting, if slightly challenging for those of us who initiate projects and find them reflected back..oops..loss of control..help!

Finally, the Surrey’s Young Superstars Awards ceremony at Glive celebrated the achievements of some outstanding (very ) young people, including the 17 year old who swam the Channel, ending up swimming 42 miles because of the bad currents, the 9 year old girl who sold her toys to start fund raising for Africa, the Young Carer looking after his two wheel- chair bound siblings and so on. The Awards were given by Haslemere Travel, and TWM Solicitors, and our own SATRO  to promote Surrey Air Ambulance. We are hoping to link more closely with this new Award scheme in future, possibly to our own Celebration of Youth ( on Sat19 October pm at Surrey Uni.)

And I got the last tickets at Glive for Bellowhead (big fan) in November! Hurrah!

Enjoy the lovely Bank Holiday week-end !

Mike

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