...and thanks for all the fish!

I sat down to write this entry a couple of days ago but my preparations for leaving my job caused uncharacteristically busy days.

 I handed back keys and laptop and phone and LOTS of responsibility... and the security of a slightly laughable but vital wage check... 

 The adults with learning disabilities who are looked after by the organisation I've just left wanted to say good bye to me. I told them in complete honesty that they always cheered me up and were the best thing about my job: they greet me whenever they see me even if that's a dozen times in a day.

 Of course I've been reflecting on my current situation.

 The mistake was that my job was conceived without assessing whether it would be allowed within the organisation's "Charitable Objects". It turned out that even though my job was to create a separate, linked organisation that would do things that were outside the 'main' charity's "objects", the Charity Commission ruled that even that was breaking the rules. I'm sure this exact mistake is being made by charities many more times than the Charities Commission picks it up, but I am reminded of the arrogance of the "Consultant" who'd been responsible for planning and raising the funds for the job. She was 'nicely' paid by the accounts I've heard... If anyone was looking for blame...

 My gripe with my employers is that once I brought the problem to their attention, they made decisions that they neglected to share with me. I had to get good and blunt to find out what was going on. Rather than offering me redundancy at that time, they tried to make me stay on as their 'Keyholder/Building Manager".
I have a month more salary as I'm not having to work my notice and I intend to devote as much time as possible to getting the cash into CHN that it needs. I got one surprising and strong lead last week and found out that we've been rejected by another funder because the project is out of their patch. The results of 5 more applications are due in October and I'll be discussing a proposal for a major charitable appeal when my Co Director returns from holiday next week. I was first introduced to the project we're planning a year ago and started working on it in January. This week I've arranged for grants raised for the job I'm leaving to be repaid. If I had known the energies I gave to my "day job" were going to be ultimately futile, I'd have worked for CHN and we'd be running the project by now.

 The elation I expected from being 'free' to spend at least a month blitzing planning and fundraising for the project has been smothered by  not knowing if there is any way of reversing recent problems. I will carry on as positively as I can in the knowledge that there may be alternative locations. :-(

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