This week’s blog is a sneak peek into the life of our Fundraising and Engagement Manager, Roger Eynon! Roger has been with SADD for two years now and is well known around the SADD offices for his lengthy chats and his fondness of a cup of tea and a biscuit (or a Pravda cheese scone on a special day!). A vital cog and highly valued member of our team - here’s a day in Rog’s life!

Up until a few months ago I think choosing which day I talk about would have been a different task. I live in Carterton and the office I work out of is in Wellington. For 3 months I’ve been observing self-distancing and working from my dining table. We have a small place so I have to make sure I don’t take more than my fair share of table-top. As table-top encroachment is dealt with harshly in my house!

I’ve only just returned to the office. I’ve made the trip on 2 consecutive Mondays. It’s not a short journey but I get a chance to read up on what’s going on in the world on the way in – wi-fi allowing. Before the lock down, I would head in 3 times a week – 5.20am alarm. Not a problem in the summer but pretty unattractive any other time, getting home at around 7.00pm-ish.

Yesterday – I headed off at 5.50am to get my on-time train. It’s still not as full as normal but remains free for one more day. My head’s down and at Greytown someone heavily plonks next to me – on purpose as it happens and my old mate Marco is sitting there laughing at me. We spend the entire journey talking over his aches and pains and lost travel opportunities, football (the round ball kind) and overseas politics. We quickly returned to football. I hadn’t seen him at all since before the lock down.

I arrive at AA offices on Lambton Quay around 7.50. Jay’s there. He’s another early starter and is always good to cover off more football discussion. His cuppa is already on the desk and I set off to get one for myself. We have a neat little set-up with Jay, Ti and I all working in the same space (thanks NZAA!). We all missed that “coming together” part of life but managed to adapt whilst separated. I managed to wind Ti up twice today – once when she hooked up her laptop to a big screen for our Monday morning team meeting and later in the day with my tale of Shakespeare’s antique pencil. She hasn’t forgiven me for either!

Our meeting goes well and we all get a chance to talk over the important stuff and set ourselves up for the week ahead. There’s a couple of really important things on the go – website and the National Leaders event in a couple of weeks. Our September focus is coming quick – it’ll include our distracted driving theme this year too. I have to start on the latter this week. In our room – none of us have a cuppa handy. A mistake! Last week we celebrated the Wellington crew coming together after so long with a coffee and fantastic cheese scone (Pravda you beauty!). We didn’t repeat that this week cos you can have too much of a good thing. My waistline reminds me of that!

That meeting lasted about an hour give or take. I have another meeting lined up at 11.30 with Vic and Lydia. That’s to help confirm the content for a speaking opportunity with Wairarapa SADD groups – hosted by Holly from Wairarapa Road Safety Council. I’m stepping in cos I’m close at hand. That goes well and I’m looking forward to meeting existing and new local SADD students. Sounds like there will be quite a few newbies there.

Recently, I’ve led an exercise with the team – ahem – remotely. It would have been a lot simpler if we had been altogether at a team hui. A SADD Team Hui was due but we had to let that go for obvious reasons – never mind – we got through what we needed to do and the result of around two and a half hours of presenting via Hangouts was what was in front of me now. I spend some time after my last meeting tidying the results up and starting to analyse what it was telling me. “Interesting!” I say to myself – and coincidently, feeds into a convo later that day with Donna. My work had highlighted something that gave us confidence to pursue differently. It’s an interesting life alright!!!

I guess I should mention my role – Fundraising and Engagement Manager. It’s a mighty impressive title but I come from the school of common-sense and practicality so I get involved in things that simply need doing. We have a great team and it’s consistently the best bunch I have ever worked with – that’s saying something cos I’ve been working since 1982 (back in the UK).

I treat myself to a very decent large pork pie for lunch (which I’ve delayed far too long) and immediately regret it as it just “sits there” for the next 2 hours – so much so that I don’t even touch a 4 finger Kit Kat (unsurprisingly on offer at New World at $1 a throw). That’ll stay on the desk now until next week. Pork pie regret stays with me until I board the train home.

Back to my role. At SADD things don’t just happen by chance. We have to plan ahead. For me, I get to think over what could come next. It could be in 3 months, in a year or even beyond that and that’s kind of where a lot of my role sits – what should we be thinking about doing now that will put us in a good place in 12 months’ time. Sometimes that’s quite a challenge especially when it involves multi-layers of complexity and the SADD crystal ball hasn’t arrived just yet. I’m a bit of a plotter – things we are doing now, I prodded 18 months ago.

I dive in to do some SADD website scrutiny and line up a meeting with Vic for the next day. It’s a chance to discuss the National Leader event taking place in Auckland across 7, 8 and 9 July. We are all so looking forward to it. I won’t be there but excited all the same.

The rest of the day is spent across some research including Google Alerts that come my way and managing a really great future opportunity for SADD. A mega tool if all goes well. I’m just about to start drafting my part of my annual appraisal. I’d better make a start I think to myself. Then the phone goes and Donna saves the day. I tell her how pleased I am to have been distracted. “What can I do for you?” I ask. Next comes a juicy big opportunity – ripe for exploring and further consideration as well as some further discussion on the “mega tool”. That conversation lasts for quite some time – right up to my leaving time as my wife has also travelled in today (a rarity) and we’re getting the same train home.

Mondays can steer your week in one direction or another. This was a really positive Monday and as I walk to the station, I kind of debrief myself – we have some big pieces of work in the pipeline with other ones tantalisingly close. We will get to them when the time is right.

I track down my wife, and the train leaves a tiny bit late – not that I care. We exchange bits of our day and I then check out what’s been happening in other countries through online news. Just past Upper Hutt, I decide to “rest my eyes”. Twenty minutes later I open them again. Needed that. Tomorrow I’m at home so it’s a 7.00am alarm and a different structure. I’ll probably think over something from today and turn it round like a Rubik cube. I’ll note that little twist and amend some of today’s thinking tomorrow.