The Cross-sectoral Advisory Forum on the Economy met in NICVA this week.  You can read a report of the meeting here.  It was an important meeting for us for several reasons.  We had heard a rumour that some OFMdFM officials wouldn’t be too disappointed if the Forum disappeared. So we were determined this meeting would go well.  (In the end it turned out that the First and deputy First Minster didn't feel the same way as their officials and the Forum will continue to meet.)

We also knew that it would be the first time at least two of the Ministers had been in NICVA.  We were certain that many of the business community had never been in our building and had no idea what we really do. 

Showing them the best of NICVA was important to me because it challenges their perceptions about our whole sector and how we all operate. There is no doubt that the NICVA building is an amazing resource for us and our members and to be honest I wanted to show it off.  Over the course of our Smart Solutions campaign I’ve been imploring voluntary and community organisations to put their best foot forward and leave no doubt about the importance and quality of their work – so it was time to put my money where my mouth is.  

Waitress memory muscle kicked in and it wasn’t long before I was driving our lovely caretaker Michael mad by insisting on placing shining glasses in a poker-straight line and ensuring documents were no more than one inch from the end of the table.  Did someone say OCD? 

Despite my control-freakery the best part of the whole morning happened by complete fluke. As I was chatting with the Finance Minister and several advisors after the meeting a group of older people were leaving an A2B training session in one of our other conference rooms. They started joking with the Minister and asking if he had ‘given all that money out yet’. One person told him ‘to tell that Cameron to catch a grip of himself'. Minister Wilson loved every minute of it. When I explained what the group was doing he was really impressed.  

In the other rooms NICVA’s social economy business Sector Matters was handling the interviews for the CEO of a major charity and I filled Minister Wilson and the advisors in on that too.  I wanted the morning to show the best of the sector and we had examples of grass roots social inclusion, a social enterprise and a large service delivery charity within a five minute conversation.  All I was missing was a cigar and the rest of the A Team.

 ps

You know how I have admitted to doing fist pumps at good policy? Well I did a fist pump and a quiet Yes! at this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-12357450