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Monday, January 15, 2007

Starting the new year. 2007

It's been an interesting week. Started off trying to organise a committee meeting by finding a date that all or most of the committee can make. Settled on 18th Jan. Still needed a venue, now getting a bit urgent. Called at a local pub to see if it had space for us and decided it was worth a try.

Then on Friday visited the Trusts offices at Wellington for what could be called a team building event. Simon Nash CEO for the Trust gave a 10 minute power point presentation in which he reviewed achievements in 2006 and then looked at priorities for action for 2007. Quite a list which I hope to be able to summarise in another post soon. Those present in a standing room only meeting room included many if not all of the Trusts staff including representatives of the newly joined Carymoor team. The volunteers included several Area Group Chairmen, Reserve Managers and representatives of various special groups.

Motivated by meeting so many people all working to protect the future of wildlife in Somerset my next step into 2007 required me to leave home at 8am on Sunday morning to join a one day course in "Immediate Temporary Care for the ill and injured." This is what used to be called a first aid course a long time ago. The web site for the course provider (linked below) showed he had experience way beyond our local expectations but he certainly ran a stimulating days course.

http://www.cory-jones.com/index.php

http://www.cory-jones.com/first_aid_Health_and_safety_advice.php

In our modern world Health and Safety legislation requires us to demonstrate a duty of care for people, for example, that we are leading on walks in reserves. It was an 8 hour course from 9am till 5pm on what turned out to be a very fine Sunday. A significant level of commitment by all concerned which resulted in us all becoming "Appointed Persons". I'll leave the stories of terrible accidents and what went wrong with the First Aid for another occasion but such accounts do drive home the importance of the training.

As if that wasn't enough for one week I must follow up a few admin matters and be ready for our committee meeting in two days time!