It has been 24 days since the New Year and some great progress has been made at Team SpringBoard HQ!
The bank account application has gone off to Unity Trust Bank; one of their wonderful accounts people, Ben, called me and gave me a real grilling about my business plan. That was the first time that I was grateful for the millions of (painful) hours I had spent pouring over the numbers .. and I could answer all of Ben's questions OK. I think... I'm still waiting for the new cheque books to drop through the post box!
Last Friday we had to split up to attend two really important events. Charley and I went down to Maidenhead to visit Laura Davies of Ways Into Work. Ways into Work supports individuals who have a disability and the local business community to match the skills and talents of people to the vacancies available. This service is currently delivered by the local council (The Royal Borough no less!! we had to be on our best behaviour) but from March Laura and her team will be breaking away from the council and will be running the service as a C.I.C. It was great to meet Laura, she has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience of working with young people and has an amazing track record of gaining funding and I left with my head full of ideas!
Whilst Charley and I were down south Michelle attended a Social Enterprise Forum hosted by Coventry City Council Cllr Faye Abbott and Melanie Mills, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise West Midlands. Networking is not one of my strengths (although I am getting much better of late!) but Michelle is great at it and as a result of some really good conversations we are meeting with a rep from Whitefriars Housing Association next week since they may have some space that we could use as a base. Premises (or lack of any to be precise) are still my major headache... I feel it is really important for the Team to have a work base; not only so that we can build the discipline of ensuring that everyone is at the right place, at the right time with the right gear etc but also so that we can have a space to brief, debrief, share success and keep our sandwiches.
We continue to have excellent meetings with the Coventry Citizen's Advice - they are a continual source of support, inspiration and motivation! I really hope that we can work jointly on some initiatives in the coming months.
When I haven't been driving around the City looking for abandoned buildings that we might one day call home, I have been slowly starting to build a presence on Social Media - we are now the proud owners of both a Facebook and Twitter account! Jon Harrison Graphic Design based around the corner in Earlsdon, Coventry are working up some ideas for a fresh and exciting logo for us - we should have this ready for the beginning of March when the recruitment will start properly.
I remain part terrified, part excited fit to burst. Still loads to do.
The bank account application has gone off to Unity Trust Bank; one of their wonderful accounts people, Ben, called me and gave me a real grilling about my business plan. That was the first time that I was grateful for the millions of (painful) hours I had spent pouring over the numbers .. and I could answer all of Ben's questions OK. I think... I'm still waiting for the new cheque books to drop through the post box!
Last Friday we had to split up to attend two really important events. Charley and I went down to Maidenhead to visit Laura Davies of Ways Into Work. Ways into Work supports individuals who have a disability and the local business community to match the skills and talents of people to the vacancies available. This service is currently delivered by the local council (The Royal Borough no less!! we had to be on our best behaviour) but from March Laura and her team will be breaking away from the council and will be running the service as a C.I.C. It was great to meet Laura, she has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience of working with young people and has an amazing track record of gaining funding and I left with my head full of ideas!
Whilst Charley and I were down south Michelle attended a Social Enterprise Forum hosted by Coventry City Council Cllr Faye Abbott and Melanie Mills, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise West Midlands. Networking is not one of my strengths (although I am getting much better of late!) but Michelle is great at it and as a result of some really good conversations we are meeting with a rep from Whitefriars Housing Association next week since they may have some space that we could use as a base. Premises (or lack of any to be precise) are still my major headache... I feel it is really important for the Team to have a work base; not only so that we can build the discipline of ensuring that everyone is at the right place, at the right time with the right gear etc but also so that we can have a space to brief, debrief, share success and keep our sandwiches.
We continue to have excellent meetings with the Coventry Citizen's Advice - they are a continual source of support, inspiration and motivation! I really hope that we can work jointly on some initiatives in the coming months.
When I haven't been driving around the City looking for abandoned buildings that we might one day call home, I have been slowly starting to build a presence on Social Media - we are now the proud owners of both a Facebook and Twitter account! Jon Harrison Graphic Design based around the corner in Earlsdon, Coventry are working up some ideas for a fresh and exciting logo for us - we should have this ready for the beginning of March when the recruitment will start properly.
I remain part terrified, part excited fit to burst. Still loads to do.
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