When I write these diary entries I try to find a theme that sort of ties together whatever I'm gibbering about. The theme this week is that everything is by and large unrelated. I'll do better next week I promise.

I spent most of this week in Dhaka as I had a meeting with VSO. To explain what the meeting was about I need to take you back a month or so and explain a few things about how VSO in Bangladesh organises itself. In a nutshell, VSO volunteers work for their employers and NOT VSO. As such, the relationship can seem a little odd at times as it is not always clear who should be responsible for what between the employer, the volunteer and VSO. Basically, VSO provides support to volunteers in the form of induction training, cheap accomodation in Dhaka, good medical cover as well as money for events that enhance professional skills and team building. In return, the volunteers are better equipped and happier to successfully complete their placements and so enable VSO to achieve its overall objectives of reducing disadvantage and poverty.

To facilitate communication between the volunteer community as a whole and the VSO programme office a small volunteer committee was formed roughly 2 years ago. Its role is to liase between the 2 groups and help VSO staff to understand volunteer issues and views while feeding back to volunteers on what VSO is up to or plans to do. The committee is voted in by the volunteers themselves at the annual conference without any involvement from VSO staff and stands for 1 year. Our last conference was in March and yours truly was voted on! In actual fact there wasn't a vote as there were only 6 nominees which is a good number for the team required. I had let it be known that I was interested in being nominated as I felt that VSO had lost the plot a little over the last few months and I wanted to get involved with changing things for the better. I also saw it as an opportunity to put into practice some of the democratic and transparency principles that I sometimes spout on about. So, when my name was added to the list of nominees and confirmed I was actually quite chuffed (and a quick thank you to Gill who I secretely believe put my name down though has never said so).

Anyway, our first meeting as the new committee (known as "Voice") was on Thursday and it went quite well I thought. We met up late morning to finalise the agenda and prepare our opinion for each item before the actual meeting with VSO in the afternoon. What I found particularly interesting were the various questions we had about how we were going to organise ourselves and communicate with those we represent. As I said, Voice is quite a recent creation so there isn't a great deal of precedent as far as rules and principles are concerned. For example, and to deliberately pick on my pet subject, it was customary to send out a newsletter after each meeting summarising what went on. As I became more interested in what was going on I learned that the newsletter didn't actually contain everything that went on in the meetings i.e. some things were left out. Personally I found that quite worrying.

My view was (and still is) that Voice is only a 6 person group as it's more practical to meet VSO in a small group than with all 30 of us. As such, those that do attend represent those that don't and so must tell them everything that goes on to enable them to understand the issues, make educated decisions and then inform the committee of their views. If the volunteers don't get the full picture then none of that can happen and so the legitimacy of the committee is undermined as it becomes separated from the support base that gives it its strength. Anyway, we're looking into how we can address these sorts of things while also making whatever we communicate interesting enough that people will read it and be aware of what's going on. In the end, and to get back to my week, the highlight of the meeting was when ice cream was brought in to celebrate India beating Pakistan in a test match for the first time in 50 years apparently.

Apart from that, and the random bus journey to Dhaka that I was forced to take with a different and unknown company that went past a coal mine and stopped to ask for directions on 4 separate occasions, I spent my time in town drinking beer, eating good food and shopping. I am now the proud owner of a new Siemens mobile phone that rumour has it allows me to send text messages anywhere in the world and receive calls from abroad. It may take a few days for the international options to be activated but give it a go, please! Personally I'm quite looking forward to receving the sort of pissed text messages I used to get from some of you at obscure hours of the morning. However, with the time difference in my favour I'll be able to enjoy them at a much more sociable hour of the morning. And yes that is the moon in the photo.