Bigger than ever

At the County Commissioners conference last weekend, Gill Slocombe asked us to get one more girl into our units - and it looks like we are already doing that: yesterday I discovered that Surrey West have 9800 members and recognised volunteers on Go! Our numbers have been creeping up but never before been above 97xx. Hurray and well done!
It was also a relief at last to meet with County Commissioners of as big and some bigger Counties at the conference. In the session where we joined in size groups I was with Leicestershire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire and one of the CCs said what a relief it was to not feel like a freak. I know what she means. Being so large, Surrey West has to be efficient and as professional as it can. Equally it is able, should it choose, to pay for services. Many smaller Counties can run in a much more informal way. Trying to tell them about how you have a County Office or use an accounting package is not relevent for them so I was finding that networking consisted of me telling them things they weren't interested in and them telling me things that we have moved well beyond. I spoke to Gill Slocombe afterwards to suggest a Large Counties conference so we could share ideas and experiences. I am sure we would find it really useful.