I had been brought up with the ethos that you should give back more than you take, but this was getting extreme. However, what followed were several happy years of steep learning curves, pain and joy as together we modernised the playgroup to register with Ofsted and qualify to take nursery vouchers; fundraised for a significant amount of money to refurbish a building in the village for sole use by the group; and project managed the refurbishment to create a setting that was open five days a week, enabling the kids to have a great social life and some parents to return to work. It also gave the rest of us child-free breathing space for walking, chatting and being individual adults in our own right for a few hours a week. By the end of the project four or so years later, everyone on the Committee had had another baby, so we achieved all this with the added frisson of sleep deprivation and volatile hormones. It was worth it though, as one girl aged 4 and 3 months said on her first morning in the new building ‘I think I am dead’ (grownups urgently exchanged looks of alarm). She explained ‘It’s like being in Heaven. It is all white and it is full of my favourite things’ (Grownups murmured in response to the deep wisdom of the four year old). Does feedback ever get better than that? Hurrah for project management friendly huge tins of white emulsion, sourced by someone’s Dad.

A friend of mine pointed out that I was ‘good at this and should set up my own business’. Having taken on the role of Chair part way through the project, I had really enjoyed leading and inspiring activities that enabled a community to create something together, engaging the wider village community as we went. I had learned a wide range of skills covering governance, HR, project planning, project delivery, fundraising, event management, leadership, and communications. Some of the lessons along the way were sharp. A gift; but very sharp. So in April 2001, after being put in touch with my first client by one of my playgroup parent friends, I did just that and rang HMRC to let them know that I was now self-employed. 

In the blink of an eye, it is 20 years later and I am still going. I’ve trained hard to secure formal qualifications, including my MSc in Development Management with the Open University, where I specialised in systems thinking and institutional development. I’ve worked hard in both paid and unpaid roles, learning and building practical skills, knowledge and experience. I have breadth and depth, having worked from local to international, and grass roots to national strategic levels. I’ve enjoyed some really bizarre situations, including a meeting in the wood panelled grandeur of The Chancellor’s Office in the HM Treasury building when, whilst waiting for a Minister to come and read a short statement to us, it gradually dawned on me that I was sitting between the (huge!) reps from Rugby Union and Rugby League. It turns out they get on really well in real life! Who knew? There was another time when sharing the celebrations of a client’s significant anniversary and their recent survival from the threat of closure, three of us were quietly paddling a canoe around the wonderful wetlands of Slimbridge when we saw a water vole just a couple of feet away. Or that time when those of us involved with fundraising at Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum were grinning at the sight of the completed car park – as the Head of Fundraising said ‘I didn’t know it was possible to be this excited about a car park’. I have so many cherished memories. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing others thrive. What’s more this work has meant that I have been able to mainly work from home and raise my children as a single parent. I have been so very fortunate; and all because I finally plucked up the courage to go through the door, into that playgroup session, one grey November day in the late 1990s.

If I could sum it up, I suppose I could say that I am an enabler in the voluntary, community and charitable sector. I help charities and voluntary organisations make the most of their time and resources, ensuring that their people work harmoniously together, and that resources are used efficiently and effectively. I don’t ever work with an ‘organisation’, I work with people – the senior volunteers and staff, all of whom initially stepped up because they had something to contribute. I help people like you to step into greater contribution with integrity and confidence to honour your reasons for getting involved in the first place. I am so fortunate to work beyond the possibility point, where actions are amplified, because whoever I am working with and whatever we’re doing, there are many other people, places or animals that are benefitting. Plus I really appreciate the type of people who choose to work and volunteer in this sector – there is purpose, authenticity and heart at the root of people’s motivation. That matters.