Sunday, February 04, 2007

When resolutions and reality collide

You may remember that one of my resolutions was that I would try to be 'generally better' in 2007, and, in fairness, I have made some small changes that will help me to achieve that. However, I have two big weaknesses that prevent me from being as effective as I could be.

I'm not very good at saying 'no' to people. In part, I suppose that this is a reaction to my divorce, in that we all want to be loved to some extent, and making others happy is more likely to achieve such an end. I'm also incredibly bad at delegating, on the grounds that I can probably do it better myself, assuming of course, that I actually get around to completing the task. I can probably get away with one of these traits, but to sustain both is not only foolish but well nigh impossible.

My narrow re-election as Regional Secretary has a sense of augury about it, and combined with an impending house move, hopefully in the late Spring, I feel obliged to withdraw from some areas of activity and scale back other projects. I'm starting with my role as Returning Officer for one of the London Assembly seats, as it hasn't really got underway yet, and there are plenty of other people who could do it as well, if not better, than I could. I look at it as being an indirect delegation of responsibility.

So, what is left to do?
  1. Deliver Prospective Parliamentary Candidates for four seats in the Home Counties (I would have dropped them as well but I owe a debt of gratitude to the Regional Candidates Chair for South Central Region and am rather fond of his opposite number in South East Region).
  2. Set up the systems required to administer membership servicing in Dulwich & West Norwood.
  3. Catch up with the backlog of Secretary tasks for the Regional Party, and review the Regional Constitution for changes (I promised Jeremy Ambache that I would do this, and a promise is a promise).
  4. Carry out the pre-preparation for the European Selection for South East England.

If there's anything else outstanding, it probably isn't that important and won't get done. Otherwise, I have every confidence in the other Regional Officers to deal with it... it is meant to be a team, after all

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