Three days in the life of a Regional Development Officer

 

 

DAY ONE

9am - 12pm – Working from the office at home. Have arranged a meeting with the Dean at Exeter Cathedral to look at educational facilities that our church of St Martin's Church (Exeter) might be able to provide to assist the overcrowding of school groups in the Chapter House. Have caught up on emails since my last day at work. The more important ones were:

• Enquiry about opening arrangements at North Huish church, and about organising a choir event there.
• Next monthly ‘Attractor’s Forum’ gathering at Destination Devon that I will go to
• Plymouth University are looking for a suitable location in Devon for a theatrical production – will arrange meeting, possibly in Torbryan. Revelstoke would be closer if they want a part outdoor location by the sea.
• Enquiry from possible new volunteer at Langport – will see if our Area Volunteer Coordinator can meet her there

I have also been working on an article for the regional newsletter about our youth volunteering successes in the past 6 months (including Cathedral Camps and archaeological digs).

1pm - 5.30pm – Travelled by car to Thurlbear School (near Taunton) to meet the Headmaster and history staff and discuss their involvement with our church next door. They already use the church as part of their history syllabus but are looking for a more expansive use of the building for productions and story telling.

Main issues are the lack of heating and the health and safety risk assessment which are required. We will probably have to provide fire extinguishers and ensure that teachers are trained in their use. If the school provides space heaters will this be acceptable or will it affect the fabric of the building?

I will need to check with the Regional Manager and Conservation Manager. The school are really positive but the question of who will pay for the facilities remains unanswered. Will bring up at the next regional meeting.

DAY TWO

8.30am – Travelled into Exeter to meet with Regional Manager and the CCT Volunteering Development Officer. The meeting was to review our current strategy to attract young volunteers and to formulate new ideas for next year’s plan.

We then need to work out budgetary requirements. We looked at the potential of linking with specific departments at universities in the region which have heritage link requirements and might provide students on secondment as part of their course. We also reviewed those churches with a school in walking distance, and whether we could offer facilities that they might not have in the school building.

I also met a prospective new volunteer in Exeter who is looking to assist in design artwork for some of our regional literature. I am hoping that he will provide a pamphlet to link St Giles with the City and Cathedral as part of a walk-round guide.

Afternoon – I returned home to start work on possible partnership arrangements with the universities and schools we had identified, collecting telephone numbers and email address for contacts and working out an efficient strategy for visiting them. I will need to design a generic PowerPoint presentation, and will have to borrow the regional projection equipment if I need to present to groups of students or teachers.

DAY THREE

9am – Took the train to Bristol for a bi-monthly meeting of regional staff in the new regional office at St Thomas. Met the part-time Development Officers for Hampshire and Bristol, the Conservation Manager, the Regional Manager and the Operations Assistant.

Huge range of topics discussed including the input for the next year’s plan, and for the rolling three year plan. I updated the meeting on current educational and volunteer projects across the region as well as the outline proposals on how we could meet and exceed more demanding targets next year. We looked at the conservation and adaptation plan for next year, and I have agreed to provide the primary link and guide to the Langport volunteers as they look to raise funds and seek grants for the adaptation of the church.

We also discussed methods to improve the distribution of CCT leaflets and county guides once they ahve been produced in the spring, and how to collect the data on visitor numbers and donations as quickly as possible every 6 months.

At present I coordinatie the Area Volunteer Coordinators (AVC) in Somerset and Dorset, but am collecting the data from Devon and Cornwall myself. Once I am familiar with all the churches in my area I will be looking for at least one further AVC to help.

I also agreed to work on a new advertisement for ‘Enjoy South West’ in the hope of enticing even greater numbers of visitors to our more rural churches. Following the meeting I had a discussion with the RM on my own objectives for the next year now that I have a clearer idea of what might be possible and where the strengths and weaknesses of personalities lie.

3pm – I returned to my home office to catch up on emails and continue the schools and university partnership plan. I have had emails requesting information on weddings at our churches.

Following the meeting this morning, the Hampshire Development Officer has emailed all the information and contacts used for the Cathedral Camp events last summer. I then completed my expenses form for the month.

Overall, a busy, productive and enjoyable few days.