I oversee the day-to-day activities of the Association of Chief Officers Scottish Voluntary Organisations (ACOSVO) and am line manager to five staff and four volunteers.  I am also a Trustee at The Junction, a Leith-based young person's well-being charity and a member of the Rotary Club of Corstorphine. 

After my customary morning swim in Stockbridge I get in early to catch up on emails, having been away at the ACOSVO Dinner and Annual Conference last Thursday and on leave on Friday. 

Pat Armstrong, our Chief Executive, has beaten me to the draw and is already in, trying to meet the deadline for an important funding application. So I am immediately side tracked as I try to critique and proof read her work. 

The ACOSVO Team are now beginning to drift into the office and my focus shifts toward preparation for our weekly Team Meeting where we discuss 'lessons identified' from our Conference, look ahead to events we are running over the next month and agree 'Leadership Exchange' matchings between our Members and Public Sector Leaders. 

Our Community Jobs Scotland employee in only his third week with us needs help accessing our database where he is researching local, community based, leaders who might benefit from joining one of our 8 Regional Networks.   But with numbers attending the next Regional Network meeting in Tayside only at a dozen, action is urgently needed to increase numbers, so I ask him to make contact with the local Third Sector Interfaces to see if they might be willing to advertise the event across their network. 

Next, I get a phone call from one of our Strategic Partners who is generously offering to conduct pro bono work to audit our pension provision and to help us prepare for auto enrollment.  We agree a way ahead and I quickly compose an email note of action outlining the main discussion points and timeline for the work.

Lunch is taken at my desk in discussion with our Communications and Marketing Officer.  We discuss the content of our post Annual Conference Report and analyse delegate evaluations from events we ran last month showing member satisfaction rates, one of our key performance indicators, continuing to grow towards target.

I now pop out for coffee to meet a potential facilitator of a couple of events ACOSVO intend to run in 2014 on a PR and Communications theme.  I am excited by the likely event content, agree broad details and I return to the office to put the ideas down on paper whilst they are still fresh in my mind.

The Office Manager is now seeking final approval of the financial forecast which will be presented at our next Board meeting.  Although we have run through the figures previously, we quickly become immersed in the detail and lose track of time. 

My computer flashes up a reminder that I need to leave immediately to get to The Junction's Board meeting.  I dash off to lead discussions on the planning and preparations for premise move, an exciting opportunity for The Junction to expand, upgrade and move from old, cramped accommodation into modern, purpose built, offices.   Thankfully, the Board have pre-read the material I circulated last week and we quickly reach consensus on the way forward. 

I arrive home, reheat my dinner in the microwave, join my wife in the lounge and open my laptop to finally access those emails!  Perhaps tomorrow will be quieter?