Closing the books

While out shopping this morning, I went to Riverside Clinic for some supplies, and had a brief chat about the trouble I've been experiencing over the past few days with one of the nurses who knows me well. Thankfully, I've been in somewhat better form today, and needed to be, as I had an appointment with a HSBC bank business adviser in town after lunch.

This was to sort out the problem caused by the bank's unilateral closure of Cardiff Crime Limited account before CBS could produce the 2018 Annual Financial Statement to submit to Companies' House. This is the final reckoning for the not-for-profit body set up to manage funds for the work of Cardiff Business Crime Reduction Partnership which ceased to function after the resignation of the Business Crime Manager it employed at the end of 2017. It will be a relief to me as the sole account signatory to obtain formal closure of this ill-fated undertaking. Everything is accounted for. No money is owed to anyone or owing to this account. It was set up as a not-for-profit undertaking, and has fulfilled its purpose, albeit causing a lot of grief, due to administrative errors on the part of the bank from the outset. Never again, I say to myself. Never again!

I finished the second Pablo Poveda novel 'El Aprendiz', which morphs from political thriller into an odd kind of sci-fi extrapolation of a world in which lies spun by the powers that be through virtual reality and fake news have entirely taken over and control society. The romantic intellectual hero of the first novel becomes the figurehead of a militant resistance movement at war against Big Brother state. He's not a particularly appealing character, and the characterisation of people portrayed isn't well developed. The story seems to be what matters. It's complex and full of surprises. I could see it being made into a TV movie series. The books have used a wide range of Spanish vocabulary which I have had to look up to get the full flavour of the narrative, but It's been pleasing to find how much I have been able to grasp the narrative thread, at my present intermediate language level.

Now I must hunt for the third part of the trilogy. First, a visit to Waterstone's, and if unsuccessful, I'll have to buy on-line. I'm reluctant to do this unless I have to. Bookshops are important cultural places, and like libraries, we're losing them at a lamentable rate.

Registrar and Paymaster

I drove back to St German's this morning, to be sure of being there in good time for the wedding of Andy and Michelle. Sun shone through the clouds, and although it was chilly, it wasn't impossible for people to stand outside on the church forecourt before and after. The church was nicely full, and several people from the church day centre next door came over to take a look, as Andy is well known to the regulars as one of the local PCSOs, who makes a point of popping in for a chat regularly.

As expected, I was all nerves filling in the registers, and when the photographer arrived and asked for a briefing, I sent him away until I'd finished the job. I didn't want to squander any concentration I had. I had thought about what I wanted to preach, but didn't find time to write myself some notes, so I just improvised, and enjoyed weaving together threads of ideas I'd had about William Blake's 'Jerusalem', which we'd just sung, and the brief scripture reading from Mark nine, which concludes with 'Those whom God has joined together, let no one put asunder.' I think the congregation was listening. It was a happy relaxed occasion, and afterwards I felt tired, as if I'd just had a good work-out. Perhaps I didn't sleep as long as usual. It's been a busy week too. Not exhausting, but I'm hoping next week will be easier, and allow me some down-time.

Home for lunch, then to the office for a couple of hours. The task of arranging salary payment for Ian, our Business Crime Manager, falls to me by default at the moment, as the procedure for adding bank signatories, so complex, is still incomplete. I went to our HSBC branch on Churchill Way and spoke to their business manager. I came away, having applied for a new bank card. The first one to be issued arrived just after I'd gone to Spain on locum duty. It wasn't collected, so it was re-absorbed by the system. I also applied for internet banking for the BCRP account. This will enable me to make salary payments electronically in future, but Ian's first salary payment was literally the cheque I gave him at the end of the afternoon. We have an excellent system whereby CBS accountants run a payroll account, and notify us monthly ahead of time what needs to be paid as salary, tax and social charges. Yet another thing I've done in retirement, I never did in my working life. It puts a different slant on what lifelong learning can mean.
   

Board milestone

A late afternoon start at the CBS office, preparing for the early evening Business Crime Reduction Partnership board meeting. For the first time, Ian, our new business crime reduction manager and representatives of South Wales Police and Cardiff Council attended. Once more I took the minutes, and for once changed my habit of scribbling down a few notes to refer to later, and prepared a framework for the minutes document on the early MS Surface that's been hanging around the office for some time. As it's not so big, I thought I'd try and use it to take notes unobtrusively during the meeting. I found I was able to record enough to make it easy to flesh out when I got home, and had a first draft ready for vetting before bed.

During the meeting, I was asked to email the agreed Police information sharing agreement with a few slight corrections, for one final scrutiny before formal signing, and the Surface was also able to do this before leaving the table after the meeting. I was pleased at the neatness and economy of this. The early Surface keyboard has been widely pronounced a disaster, but once I'd suppressed the 'tactile' sound feedback I found it was usable slowly, but it would be horrible for lengthy use. It took an age to complete three dozen updates later in the evening, and as long as you can manage with the software provided, it's a decent standby machine to keep in the office, and use when all others are in use. 

Car decision

I took the car in for repair this morning, and walked back most of the way, having shopped at Lidl's on Tyndall Street en passant. I took the bus from Westgate Street to Canton Cross, to bank a cheque in my local branch, then popped in to Constaninou's next door for a haircut before heading home for lunch, well shorn and exercised.

I went to the CBS office in the afternoon, and met with Ashley to enquire of BT about SIM unlocking. It's not necessary on phones we issue, he was told. They come unlocked, presumably so that any of the network SIM card providors BT has take over in recent years are not a cause of un-necessary problem to users. Everything now comes under the umbrella of EE, which should include Orange, O2, T-mobile and Vodaphone. So, Clare's SIM card was inserted into the Galaxy III and worked first time, showing her caller i/d, once Ashley had, found the configuration menu to reveal rather than withhold details.

Earlier in the day I saw a notification on my Blackberry which told me that Ian has co-incidentally set up an Instagram account for the Business Crime Reduction Partnership. It'll be interesting to see how he will develop this in action. Slowly CBS and the BCRP moves towards having a decent web presence, it's long overdue as it's something I've not had opportunity to work on properly.

Then, I had a phone call from Phil at N G Motors to discuss work needing to be done on the car. The coolant leak is the least of the worries. There are brake discs, a shock absorber and a wheel bearing to be replaced, all cost more than the car is worth. But then the new tyres and exhaust last autumn also cost more than the car is worth. Despite wear and tear, it still runs well and has little structural rust, so will survive another MOT. It's reliable and it's still nice to drive. With these repairs I can put off the buying a new car for a lot longer, perhaps another year. Our car has long stopped depreciating in value. Why pour money into something newer that will start to depreciate as soon as it's been purchased?

     

Landmark occasion at CBS

Today, the new Business Crime Reduction manager, Ian Tumelty started with with Cardiff Business Safe. I met him in the office at ten as arranged. Hopes were dashed of arriving earlier to make sure things were in order, as I narrowly missed two buses at different stops. I briefed him on the CBS story so far, and gave him the required password access to the office systems to get him started.

Then Ashley arrived and shortly after chairman Gerry. The conversation was a good way to round off his first morning. In the afternoon I prepared and sent out the invitations and documents for the next BCRP meeting, at which Ian will be introduced to the Board and to Police and Council invited representatives. It's taken six years to get this far and get it right. A hard slog, but worth it in the end.

I left for home at four thirty and called in John Lewis' store, where I caught sight of Clare browsing the cushion department, when we'd both completed our errands, we had tea and a scone together. I'd forgotten about lunch. We visited a few shops together in the Grand Arcade. Clare bought a small blue plastic bucket to occupy the space under the kitchen sink, which I carried home. It reminded me of the one kids have on the beach, although it was twice their size. The bus driver also thought so, as he commented on it as we were getting our tickets "All you need now is the spade to go off to the beach." he said.

Nothing worth watching on telly to I spent an hour trying to clear space in Ashley's BT Office 365 email account, which keeps announcing that it's full. Between us we've spent hours deleting old messages to no good effect. The titles vanish, but the space is not reclaimed. Ten email addresses are assigned for a 250mb account. Only two are active, one of which is empty. No emails have been received since 31st December last, and we know some copies to his account were sent. A test email sent from another account was not received. It's possible to log in but few webmail administrative functions work. It's a complete disaster, and not for the first time has complaining to BT about this yielded any results. And to think we're paying for this non-service!

Job satisfaction

Clare went off to Kirton by train Monday morning, to spend a week with Ann, leaving me to fend for myself. It's a break from routine which means having the house to myself, shopping for and cooking food that's more to my taste than hers, though not today. After a routine GP visit, I drove to London to see my sister June, and sort out a problem she was having with her new computer. It was a simple matter that couldn't be dealt with over the phone. I needed to see the machine and work out what was going wrong. 

The machine was in fine fettle. The problem was that she'd mis-identified the power button, as it wasn't where she expected it to be, and it was almost hidden, being black on a black background. My fault, not going over there matters with her thoroughly enough. Anyway, she cooked me lunch, and I drove home in the evening. Fortunately traffic wasn't heavy and driving conditions were good, so I made good time, and learned another lesson about instructing people in computer usage.

Today, I had to be in the CBS office early as I was looking after the interview process for the BCRP Board's Business Crime Reduction Manager job, simply a matter of providing refreshments, meeting the candidates and escorting them to the right place. By lunchtime the decision had been taken, and the task of informing the successful and unsuccessful candidates was felt to me. Best news of all is that the new person can start right at the beginning of January. For us in CBS, this is a landmark moment in a long drawn out journey to deliver what was first promised seven years ago, before our present business was properly set up. 

At the end of the afternoon, I was glad to get away in good time to go to a re-invigorating Chi Gung class, and then finish the day cooking one of my favourite chorizo cazuela dishes.

Landmark moment

My only Sunday duty was St German's Mass at eleven. Just as well, since I went to bed rather late, and breakfasted only when Clare returned from the eight o'clock at St Catherine's with fresh pain au raisins and croissants for breakfast. By the time I got back from church, Owain was up after an even later night out, supporting a Bristol DJ in his regular club setting. He was still in a sombre mood reflecting on the Paris attacks. I'm just  wondering about city centre security and what else CBS could be doing to make sure Cardiff doesn't get taken by a surprise attack of any kind. The weather was against us doing much the the rest of the day, apart from following news updates. It's times like this when I most miss being in Spain.

I went into the CBS office in the wind and rain this afternoon to prepare documents for the Partnership's evening board meeting. It was an occasion to approve shortlisting for the Business Crime Reduction Manager's post, which we've been working so hard to raise funds and set up for ever since I joined Cardiff Business Safe after retirement. The we ran the recruitment advertising process, but selection is a matter for the Board. I've not looked at any of the applications, but those on the selection panel have been suitably impressed, judging by what was said in a very reserved way. 

One by one we are passing the landmark moments that are essential to the development of both our crime reduction organisation and the RadioNet enterprise. It's pleasing enough, but there's still the business to be run, and with a full time employee in post, taking on many of the Partnership's core tasks, Ashley and I can pay more attention to the rolling out of RadioNet service further afield.

Tragic Friday 13th

I spent Friday afternoon in the CBS office completing preparations for the BCRP board to short-list candidates for interview for the Business Crime Reduction Manager post due to happen in the coming week. I'm glad that all I have to do is make sure everyone has the necessary documents, and gets on with the task in hand. CBS funds the post, but as directors we play no part in the appointment. I am told there's an interesting array of applicants, but I have resisted temptation to look through them all, and discuss them. We're happy to let others on the Board take full responsibility for delivering a new team member to work with us.

Clare suggested we go to a concert in St John's Canton in the evening. North Walian bi-lingual singer-songwriter Huw M was performing with his folk band to launch 'Utica' his latest CD album of his own songs, on a Welsh record label called i Ker Ching. Another younger bi-lingual singer songwriter performed his songs solo, to start the evening, his guitar technique and musical confidence was impressive, and paved the way nicely for the main act of the concert. Huw band consists of a young woman with a clear singing voice who played accordeon, a woman 'cellist who also sang, and the Marshall sisters, whom I believe are the daughters of  the Pastor of one of Cardiff's Afro-Caribbean churches.

I could tell within the first fifteen seconds that this was going to be quite a song fest. The playing and harmony were crisp and tight. Songs in English or Welsh were beautiful and engagingly simple. The relaxed warmth exuded by the group's leader gave an intimacy to the performance. It was sheer pleasure, and Clare bought one of the CDs to take home and play.

The Wales - Holland football match was being played at the stadium nearby, and foreworks were let off during the performance. The streets were busy as we left. It was only after we woke up late this morning that we learned of the massacres in Paris at the time we were at the concert. People doing the same things we'd been doing, concert going, attending a football mach, eating out, gunned down.

Much of the rest of the day was spent checking the news, wondering how three teams of men, eight people in all could organise themselves without detection by the security forces, and wreak deadly havoc. Owain arrived in time for supper, much disturbed and distressed by events. He'd already learned that a music acquaintance had been with his wife at the Bataclan concert massacre, and escaped being murdered by laying down and pretending to be dead. These are dark days for Europe. For anyone involved in the business of security and public safety, this is a sobering wake up call.

Back into routine

Feeling quite tired yesterday after a busy weekend, so had a lazy morning, catching up on uploading photos to Picasaweb. Already last week's active leisure time enjoyment recedes into the distance. I went into the office in the afternoon to complete preparations for the evening's BCRP Board meeting. Chairman Gerry arrived early and briefed us on recent meetings with various interested parties, giving me a head start on things he wanted to say to the Board. Very helpful, as I am the default scribe for the meeting. It was a lively meeting securing our plans for a Business Crime Manager appointment and an annual meeting with a timetable. More work for me in pushing forward the publicity element of who we are and what we do, to my mind rather neglected until now. Having an active and interested management board makes all the difference.

After another tired and lazy morning, I turned to my scribbled notes from yesterday's meeting and set to work on producing a coherent set of minutes. Three hours later, despite enduring a fifteen minute migraine aura which came and went without further consequences, the job was complete. I was quite surprised at how much detail I did recall, once I joined notes to emerging thoughts. Sometimes it seems that I forget minor details very quickly, but the reality is that things are slower to register, but can be recalled, given time. Just like an old hard drive with little empty space left. For the moment however, I can still turn out a decent job, providing I work hard enough.

This evening I rejoined the Chi Gung class in St Mary's Church Hall. It's a year since I last attended, and it did me a power of good. There were were a good mix of familiar and new faces, and Christie was on excellent inspiring form, gentling us all back into action. A perfect antidote to excess mental effort. It was dusk when I walked back home. How the nights are drawing in. The chill of autumn promotes brisk walking rather than a leisurely stroll.

  

Partnership progress

After a brief catch up session with our chairman, the Cardiff Business Crime Reduction Partnership Board met again yesterday afternoon, with me resuming the secretarial role. We had a full turn out of members and got a pleasing amount of business done. This in turn generates follow up work for me, but I don't mind. Getting the Board up and running has been a long term project of mine, fraught with difficulties due to the legacy of the initial efforts before my time to set up an effective organisation. It was a long process of learning by trial and error, due to differences in expectation and officer changes by participating partners, but that turns into worthwhile experience once things are working properly.

This morning,  before going to her study group, Clare took me to Splott to celebrate the Eucharist for a dozen worshippers at St Saviours. I arrived early and found the church hall open and cheerfully busy with preparations for a food bank distribution after the service . It was a quietly impressive and encouraging sight. I was fortunate to get a bus from the stop opposite the church, soon after taking my leave, which took me conveniently all the way back to Canton and then home to write up the record of yesterday's meeting.

 

It's a couple of years since I last took minutes. I was relieved to find that my short term recall isn't yet deteriorating with age. By the end of the afternoon, I'd sent the draft to the Chairman, and received in return a framework job description to adapt. Hopefully a speedy agreement on this will enable the recruitment of a Business Crime Reduction Manager by the end of summer. This will mark a huge leap forward in the Partnership development process.

 

Parliament Square's new arrival

Good news on the Today programme this morning. A statue of Mahatma Ghandi for Parliament Square in London. He's been one of my spiritual heroes since I was young and idealistic about changing the world. His way of non-violent action spoke so clearly of the alternative way of life that many of us were seeking albeit never quite finding. Just six weeks ago I was photographing all the statues in Parliament Square of political men that shaped the 19th and 20th centuries, effectively by force, whether this was a means they desired to use or not. Nelson Mandela was the newest addition to the Square, on the corner nearest Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall. 

Where will they put Ghandiji? I started wondering. The BBC news page gave a picture of the statue being moved into place. Then I looked at my photos and identified the statue in the background as that of Benjamin Disraeli, clad in his finery as first Earl of Beaconsfield. Somewhat in contrast to the scantily clad Mahatma, portrayed as he was when staying among London's poor in 1931. Then I remembered seeing workmen re-fashioning a section of pavement in front of Disraeli. Not repairs, but rather creating a plinth for the nine foot bronze soon to be unveiled.

It's ironic that among many honoured statesmen and warriors there's now place for a non violent political activist. As he's dead and out of the way, it's not such a challenge to the status quo to include him. It can be regarded as a sign of our post-colonial liberalism as a nation. Most Brits are reconciled to loss of Empire, and no longer want the troubles that went with it. But as racism, xenophobia, poverty gap and other signs of social dysfunction still persist, it seems little was learned from Ghandi's life by the very establishment that has found a place for him in the bronze pantheon of Parliament square. Thankfully, many ordinary folk have learned the power of his methods of persuasion and this will continue to be an influence on politics in times to come.

On the way into work, I visited various photographic shops with the mounting device from the top of an old tripod in hand, to see if I could buy a replacement for the missing block that screws to the bottom of the camera. Two shops had none, Cameraland had a variety of the part for different tripod makes that I was hunting for, but none of them fitted. The tripod us useless without one, and this tripod is unusually lightweight. It also bears no brand name to help with a web search for the component. Disappointing.

I spent the afternoon preparing copies of documents for Monday's BCRP Board meeting, kick-starting a process that stalled last July in a meeting I didn't attend as I was out of the country. Top public service management types over the years have made much fuss about the absence of a working Board, but have done nothing to help make it happen. We survived and did the right thing without the support of a Board so far, but as everything now runs successfully, the effort must be made. CBS takes the lead, as I believe it's obliged to under the bizarre circumstances in which it was set up with a serious lack of interest or support from its key stakeholders. Problem is, everyone wants something for nothing, for little or no effort at all. Heaven help anyone who moans or criticises now!

I sneaked a look at our new website addresses and found they are not yet redirecting to our pages, so I must have done something wrong - but what? That's the problem. It's really too complex and jargon laden for me these days.
   

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant

We had a quiet Saturday, with a brief shopping excursion together into town, ending with tea in John Lewis'. I bought a couple of re-chargeable battery chargers in Currys, for Ashley to use on the move, since he uses his phone that much when he's away from the office, a backup charging solution is needed. It will be interesting to see how useful this is in practice. The France-Wales international was on TV in many shops and in all the pubs, which were rammed. The second half had just started when we got home, so I watched, something I rarely do. Glad Wales won, with St David's Day tomorrow

Before cooking the usual weekend paella for supper, I went through the process of ordering new .cymru and .wales domain names for CBS and the Business Crime Reduction Partnership to use, linked to websites old and new that I've built. Now there's patriotic for you now ... We've had just one domain name for the original CBS website, linked to our British Telecom Account. It worked until about nine months ago, when the weblink was interrupted for no apparent reason. BT wouldn't give us access to control the .org.uk domain name which we owned, and getting it fixed by whoever is responsible in the right department is so complex and elusive we had better things to do than wait for ages on hold in phone queues to find them. Now we have a fresh start and with a new domain name providor, more control. Providing it all works as it's meant to. The new domains go live tomorrow.

This morning, I walked to Llandaff for the Cathedral Sung Eucharist at eleven, with a Schubert Mass in G and a favourite Purcell Anthem, 'Thou knowest Lord the secrets of our hearts'. I went to switch off my phones as I arrived and notice an email from our Swiss friend Claudine working in Myanmar, announcing with astonishment that she's been roped in to sing some hymns in Welsh with an expat choir in Yangon for a celebration of St David's Day. I couldn't stop smiling about this during the service, plus the fact that I was sitting at the front of a nave bathed in sunlight. There must have been a hundred and fifty in church. This congregation has doubled in the past six months. 

Good liturgy in a simple, relaxed, solemn style with decent preaching and renewed choral leadership are commending the value of a traditional worship format in modern language. Sure, the majority of the congregation are older people, but there's an increasing number of older people in society as well as among church attenders. Many are thoughtful, and too discriminating to put up with dumbed down services. It's been hard enough for most of their lives to keep the faith in wayward times. They have many strengths and gift to bring to the church's mission. They need nourishment and inspiration to make sure they don't feel like strangers in their own place.

In town there was the usual St David's day parade, and the Welsh Guards were on parade in the Millennium Plaza, looking smart and sober in their winter greatcoats and busbies, according to the news photos. But both events co-incided with worship. As far as I'm concerned, if worship doesn't get priority, the rest of the celebration is sentiment and vanity.

   

Picture hunting

We had a visit from our trusty gas fitter this morning, to perform the annual service and safety check on our water and central heating boiler. God to know that it's safe to have around, especially as it sits in the corner of the room which I use for a study. 

I've rearranged the study furniture yet again this week and feel even more pleased with the result, as I can now open the window fully, and have enough space to sit on a chair that's not at my desk and survey the garden. Great for bird-watching, if ever any of the small garden birds return. There's been a real dearth of them since several trees in neighbouring gardens got taken down or pruned last year. Theses days, what we see mostly are crows, pigeons and gulls. Robins and sparrows visit more rarely than they used to.

I spent a productive afternoon in the CBS office, working on a new website for the Business Crime Reduction Partnership. It must be nearly five years since I last built a website using the Google Sites facility, and it took me a little while to refresh my memory and find my way around the web app.

In the process of getting started I took a photo from the office window with my phone of the Central Market and St John's. The quality wasn't good enough for permanent use, and there weren't many people out shopping to make it fit for purpose, but playing around with size and shape was a useful exercise to get me started. Then I hunted in my vast archive of city centre photos, and found one that was suitable, taken on a busy day on the Hayes.

When I looked closer, I realised there was a line of security fences in the background on the right hand side, some of which, though not all of which could be cropped out of the picture. It was over five years old. If I'd looked closer I might also have noticed that some of the shop fronts have changed since then. It was a simple reminder of how even a modern city centre with 'iconic' buildings doesn't stay looking the same for long, and that's entirely discounting the ephemeral events that can temporarily change the look and feel of the place from week to week. Catching views of the place in a period of limited but normal activity is what's needed for a web page, unless it's one to be updated week on week, and that's high maintenance for a modest set of information providing static pages.

I shall simply have to take a camera in with my and shoot some new ones, the next time there's a decent sunny day.

St John the Baptist celebration

This morning, the Steering Group of Cardiff's Business Crime Reduction Partnership reconvened, as a result of patient efforts of the part of its chair Rory Fleming to consider the re-written Constitution of the new BCRP Board of Management. This was the outcome of my calling to a halt the re-establishment of the Board at the end of October last year, due to deficiencies in the foundation documents that had been, in my view, disregarded under the pressure to achieve an outcome, on the part of busy public officials with an insufficient grounding in the legal history of Business Crime  Reduction Partnerships. It was difficult and embarrassing at the time, but since then, some progress in revision has been made but needs putting to the test.

I'd never imagined I'd turn into a bullish legalistic pedant in my old age, but that's what has happened in the face of a continuing need to preserve the integrity of Cardiff Business Safe's trading position in running the RadioNet system. We've had to face pressures from bureaucrats compelled to deliver something that will do them credit in relation to the political agenda of the day, wanting to take us over - people with no expertise thinking they can acquire it at will. Then there are a few entrepreneurs scheming to avoid paying up what they owe for services provided them over years. Not a very large number of them maybe but there's such reluctance and difficulty entailed in bringing them to account.

Getting everyone with an interest in public security and safety to face facts and agree how to deal with such issues is difficult, and sticking to what you know is right and true can lead to discord and hostility. I don't like this, but in a way there could be no better day to be outside my usual peace and comfort zone.

Today is the Patronal Festival of the City Parish Church of St John the Baptist, my last church before retirement, which I now see from the office window, a hundred yards away, the chimes of its tower clock still punctuating my working days. I reckon I've preached on the ministry of John the Baptist at least a hundred times since I was ordained - not the same sermon, but a variety of them, which have evolved in the light of my life experience. It always comes down to following his forthright example, as the Collect for the day says : 'Constantly to speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the truth's sake'.  That's a tall order, and the toughest bit is working on oneself so that one doesn't betray the meaning of one's own words.

This evening at St John's Church held a celebration of the completion of the work done on glazing the tower porch, reported here earlier in the year. A pet project I started before retirement that took six years to come to fruit. Archbishop Barry came to preach about doors and the contemporary significance of transparent doors, and then to dedicate the new ones. There were about ninety present, lots of old friends, but equally delightful, the faces of some new congregation members who have found a home in St John's over the past four years. Numbers of people who have passed on to Glory are being replaced. 'Twas ever thus. A church at the heart of a now under-populated city is a place where certain people are inspired to make a spiritual home and build community. Irrespective of the efforts of the congregation and clergy, God provides!
  

About time too

First day back at work in the New Year, Ashley and I met with top Council, Police and Retail Partnership officials to review the documentation needed to get the Business Crime Reduction Partnership re-launched on the most robust foundation possible. We came to a conclusion that I was happy with, even though it meant scrapping the draft constitution I've been working at, on and off, over the past five years. Finally we're in a position where the Partners are willing to take ownership for setting up the organisation in their own right and not relying on Cardiff Business Safe to carry it forward on their behalf. About time too.

It means we in CBS can concentrate on developing the service we provide, freer from external pressures and interference, as the boundaries between the Company providing the service and the Partnership will be evident, as they should have been from the outset. Good intentions foundered early on, however, when the City Centre Management was taken over by the Council following the demise of Cardiff Initiative and the Chamber of Commerce from which it originated. It's amazing that RadioNet and Cardiff Business Safe didn't fail at the same time, but thanks to Ashley it didn't. I won't be involved in the re-drafting work, only in responding to the document when it appears, much to my relief.

In the afternoon, there was a break in the bad weather, long enough for Rachel, Jasmine and I to visit the beach at Barry Island. It was not unbearably cold, and we stayed long enough to dig a sand castle with an avenue to its own swimming pool, and to walk the beach and scramble on the rocks.

At the top right of this photo is the site of the old eastern beach shelter, which has been derelict for many years. In its present state it's hard to know if it's a demolition or a construction site. Curiosity, however, led me to discover a complete makeover of the shelter is now under way, to restore its original functions and add a few more. The Welsh Assembly government has invested in a £3m regeneration programme, see this page on the Vale of Glamorgan Council website.

Barry Island beach has been a popular resort for holiday makers and day trippers for a century, and for most of my lifetime it's always appeared a little unkempt and down at heel. The western end facilities have been much improved over the past decade. Restoration and enhancement of the eastern shelter will give the whole of the shoreline a much needed uplift. And about time too.

 

On not building with sandy foundations

For the past two years CBS has been working towards re-establishing a Board of Management for the Cardiff Business Crime Reduction Partnership. The process has been fraught with misunderstandings and difficulties rather than consensual thinking about what needs to be done and how it should be achieved. 

Often in the past while working on this goal, I looked at the scant documentation Ashley and I inherited when the present business organisation was set up in 2008 and saw only deficiencies in the formation of an agency intended to unite participants in common concern to act in response to business crime issues in the city. Each time there's been a change of office holder responsible in the Council or Police, there's been a change of approach and ideas about how to achieve what had looked like common goals. 

Why this should happen was all the time staring me in the face, but I couldn't see it over the months we were preparing to re-launch the Business Crime Reduction Partnership Board of Management in a meeting at the end of October. The penny finally dropped a few days before the meeting, and after strenuous discussion with Ashley I took responsibility for what was ultimately a unilateral decision by CBS to abort the meeting, then work out how to explain this to invited participants after the event. A huge foolish risk. But better be pronounced a fool if I'm wrong than to let something happen, which if I was right would ultimately perpetuate the cycle of wrangling and mis-interpretations.

We say the devil is in the detail. In this case, the devil I finally glimpsed at work making clarity and consensus just about impossible to achieve, is in the lack of detail. There's no doubt about the good will and high intent of public officials and politicians who agreed and launched the Business Crime Reduction Partnership back there, eight years ago this month. 

The immediate outcome was the set up of a security radio network run for the city centre by contractors, plus a number of minor public initiatives issuing from that.  A constitution was drafted for the Business Crime Reduction Partnership by someone involved in its early activity, but this never seems to have been run past a lawyer, and was not fit for purpose, being unable to survive any change in its original membership. I realised this in my first spell of involvement with CBS when I was still at St John's, and first started work on a draft revision in 2008. I continued this after retirement and worked on it occasionally ever since. It was only in the days before re-launch I belatedly saw plainly what else was missing.

I took it on trust that some original documents relating to the formation of the Partnership were lost in the upheaval following the collapse of the Chamber of Commerce and Cardiff Initiative. We carried on, and I never stopped to question what might have been missing - like formal agreements signed between the various partners, a formal agreement commissioning Cardiff Business Safe to manage the service provision by whatever means approved by the governing body of the Partnership. What about instruments of governance for the Partnership were they any? 

Over thirty years I spent a lot of time serving on school boards of governors. I hated the formality, I hated the strictures and bureaucracy of governance, preferring to work with kids at classroom and playground level. But, due to the loyal and conscientious nature of local government education officers, lots of good things were achieved and often in difficult situations. So I learned respect and patience, and over a long period acquired an understanding of what was needed to make everything work well. If you have a proper organisational framework and the appropriate agreements in place, amazing things can happen.

At the eleventh hour, I realised we had none of this where the Business Crime Reduction Partnership was concerned. If it ever had been, somewhere along the path it got lost and forgotten. Frankly it doesn't matter how or why this is so. Blame and shame is stupid news media entertainment fodder, not the stuff that delivers worthwhile change. Big institutions running society achieve much on the basis of custom and precedent. That's their default position. They can also achieve near miracles with conscious planning and preparation, however. This I witnessed at first hand as Vicar in the city centre when re-development happened while the city continued to do business as usual. Any time something went wrong the only question of value was how to get from here to where we need to be?

Once I realised, all I could do was risk making a fool of myself and then explain what I perceived to be the problem and what remedy could put us back on track to where everyone was aiming to arrive at. How daft, how arrogant is that? If I'm wrong, then I'm exposed as well intended but ignorant. No fool like an old fool. At least it will prompt others to think harder about getting things back on track an initiative driven by CBS over the past five years. 

It wasn't actually part of what CBS was commissioned to undertake when set up to provide security radio network services. It happened by default as there was no custom and precedent to cater for the task. Maybe the only historic documents give the Partnership a framework for development are a handful of publicity leaflets and the launch press release. I'd be interested to be proved wrong, but so far, no evidence, so I press on with drafting terms of reference and service level agreements - the regles du jeu, that offer certainty and stop new people making it up as they go along.

This morning it was my turn to explain my actions at a top level meeting in County Hall of people committed to make the Partnership work. This was a meeting I prayed about more than I usually do, so that my habitual self doubt and anxiety didn't obscure communication. From a deliberate annoying confrontation I wanted to move towards dialogue, that recognised the need to ensure the Partnership started on a foundation stronger than presumed agreement and precedent. I was aware my action could be regarded as a breach of trust, but truth will come out if truth is recognised.

We came away from the meeting with an agreement to consider anew the question of foundation documents for the Partnership on the basis of the drafting work I've been doing since the day it dawned on me what the problem was. I have little trust in my expertise to provide what's needed. All I've done is devise a tentative answer to the problems caused by perceived deficiencies in the formation process. It's a first step, for proper consideration by real experts. Getting around to asking the right questions proved to be a lot harder than any answer could ever be. Who dares to say life is dull?