Up at Christ Church for a 1.00pm Sure Start management committee meeting.

There were 14 members covering local provision for children. Christ Church buildings are used for some kids work in the local area. They have nearly finished the building of new centre at the far end of the estate that will mean less usage of Christ church, although Sure Start recognize that as the differing locations of the new centre and Christ Church are so distant, there will be current users who only use the venue that is local to them ie. Christ Church, and they will be unwilling to travel any significant distance.

Having gone through the minutes of the last meeting, there was some disagreement over use of baby signing, its merits and problems due to a new group wishing to use Sure Start facilities.

Due to problem with budget and the missing off of £8k costing of wireless networking, and next years expcted budget cuts of £14Ok, one post will be frozen to save the money.

There followed a discussion on the terms of reference. The main problem seemed to be that the meeting was unsure what power if any, they actually had, and what the purpose of their meeting was.

Whilst it was much improved on my experience of Pcc, I still suffered from concentration issues, but they seemed to achieve what they set out to do - which was get through the agenda without making any desicions which they weren't sure they had the remit to make.

I had a short meeting with Ian afterwards to discuss what I'm going to preach on on Sunday. He also suggested I join the NSM Curate on a funeral visit on Thursday, and the funeral itself on Friday next week.

Today's mileage: 64 miles