We're All Going on a Summer Holiday

It's been a long time coming, but finally it's time to catch a plane which this time has sun, sea and sangria at the end of it, instead of work and let me tell you I'm more than ready to recharge the batteries.

It could be just me, however nowadays I seem to have to put in two weeks worth of effort, the week before I go away, just to have two weeks off?

I'm the first to admit I have a Degree in procrastination, but "it" just never seems to stop.

I've been mulling this over since last week when I was speaking at a conference down South. One of the speakers, on before me, was talking about the myriad of 'mobile applications' that exist nowadays. They used the phrase "employees of companies have now been empowered and can access business information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week".

The speaker then went on to add they use such applications, and sighted such an application which allowed them to 'approve' a batch of purchase orders while they were at the gym the night before!!

Is that what he pays his gym membership for?

This got me thinking and when I went up to speak, on an unrelated subject, I couldn't help but ask "do any of your employers have governance around acceptable levels of response out with normal working hours?"

There was over sixty people in the room, but the room fell silent. Not because they didn't understand the question, it was because no one knew the answer!!

So I then asked "what is acceptable?"

Do you get that ten o' clock email from your boss asking for information 'immediately'. Do your customers expect unrealistic responses if they email you early morning, often two hours in advance of the working day?

Again there were murmurings and possible recognition that perhaps life would never be the same again, unless we effect change.

What happened to home at five and weekends with the family, unspoiled by the tip tapping of emails?

It's the same here at The Kiltwalk. I'm a Trustee of The Kiltwalk and I love being involved, however I have a fairly demanding day job and tried, on a part time basis, to react to questions from our 8,000 Kiltwalkers which arrive 24/7 across email, Facebook, Twitter and our webpage.

As a charity we realised this was an unsustainable model as something would finally give and recruited someone with the relevant attributes to fill this key role, as Customer Communication is key to everything we do.

So we filled the position by bringing Oor Zoey on board and she's started to find her feet after landing just before the Edinburgh Kiltwalk, talk about a baptism of fire!!

Three days had gone by and I gave Zoey a call late one evening to ask "how are things going" and she said "fine, but it's relentless.

"People" she said "get in touch constantly and I don't like to let them down, so I'm answering emails and Facebook posts late into the night, every night".

Then she asked "I mean when do I stop?" and I had no answer. I fobbed her off by saying "have a cut off period" and then only answer queries outside those hours if youre on email or Social Media and see them.

It was of course a kop out as she's 23 and spends her whole life on Social Media, so of course she would she the queries coming in at all hours of the day!! Just like I used to do, but it's not right. Problem is, Social Media never closes, it follows the sun, so there's always someone asking something.

Talking of resource you'll have noticed we're recruiting, again!!

As you would expect we have a 5 year plan for The Kiltwalk, of which we thought we knew what was happening in the first 3 years. How wrong were we? Very is the answer.

Well I say very, but with the exception of some new exciting walks we're about to announce, nothing we didn't plan to do hasn't materialised. What has happened is we're achieving accelerated results due to Oor Kiltwalkers.

We planned for growth, however you have all taken the Kiltwalk to your hearts a year earlier than we thought. Glasgow was double what we expected. Edinburgh as a first walk beat budget and Speyside is already ahead of last year, with three months to go adn Aberdeen and Angus are shaping up nicely.

As a an old boss of mine used to say "Ian, opportunity is a great thing to have" and he's right of course. It's just about how you manage it and the impact it has on the charity and our people that as Trustees we need to keep an eye on.

Without telling tales from the Boardroom then when ever Carey, who we employed as our CEO to run things professionally, has asked for resource or financial backing, he's never been refused because he's always had the business case to back it up and it's all building nicely to meet our objectives of becoming the most loved children's charity.

We've come along way in a short period and have made mistakes, however there's no one more critical of The Kiltwalk than ourselves and we take each mistake as a learning point and strive to improve the whole experience event after event.

Anyway, I'm rambling and this Blipfoto hasn't turned out as planned, in fact its all over the place but I hope you've enjoyed a small behind the scenes insight.

So we have Carey on holiday, Zoey too and now I'm hitting the beach, however it's still all go for Alison and Richard. They were in Angus this week for several planning meetings for the 29th September event which I hear went well.

There's our Team cheque presentation and 2014 Launch nigh that will take place in August and September, to organise. Then there's literally hundreds of applications to sift through, with every one being carefully considered and I wish all of you who applied good luck. And finally I received an email from Richard this week who wants to meet to kick off planning for next January's Burns Supper Awards Night, so it's all go.

So let me start where I began. I'm on holiday and as we speak I'm 32,000 feet in the air heading to Lanzarote. The holiday was hatched last year and now the whole gang including the kids, girlfriends and boyfriends are descending on Lanzarote where we've hired a villa and now I'm sipping a wee Vodka and Coke, courtesy of British Airways, then I can't wait.

I'm going to kick back, take it easy and try not to incur Kiltwalk fines!! Yes the gang are threatening to fine me a Euro every time I mention 'that' word.

I will however get the last laugh as I have a collection of Kiltwalk T-Shirts with me, one for everyday in fact, so if I post any pictures, it's not the same one I'm wearing :-)

I'm also looking forward to catching up and writing all the Blipfoto's I haven't yet written, due to the day job. So watch this space.

Happy Holidays Kiltwalkers x