BAHÁ'Í NATIONAL CONVENTION

To East Midlands Conference Centre (photo above) at Nottingham University this afternoon, to drop in for a few hours at Bahá'í National Convention. Today is the Twelfth Day of Ridván, marking the end of the holiest festival period in the Bahá'í calendar. National Convention is always held during this period, not just for the Bahá'ís in the UK but for every national Bahá'í community all over the world.

When I worked for the Bahá'í Publishing Trust in Oakham (between 1987 and 2003), I attended this event every year, often as a delegate for the regional community: Rutland (as I lived in Oakham virtually all that time) combined variously with parts of Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. I remember conventions in Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Llandudno and Southport, among other places. I'd attended National Convention for several years before that, again, often as a delegate for Glasgow and its environs. I would also have attended other national Bahá'í events around the country, representing the Publishing Trust - maybe another two or three per year. After leaving the Bahá'í Publishing Trust in the spring of 2003, I thought I'd take some time away from these events, after fifteen years in suit and tie working in the bookshop. Amazing how time flies; this is the first national Bahá'í event I've done since 2002 (apart from a flying visit to a speak to a special interest group at a national Bahá'í conference held in Warwick University, January 2008).

The East Midlands Conference Centre is an excellent, modern, stylish facility, with the main meeting hall, food, space for exhibitions, displays and the ever-popular bookshop, rooms for children's activities and breakout meetings all under one roof, parking and overnight accommodation on site. I've visited here once before: 19 January, for the first in the series of Involvement Events with the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). I didn't get to see much of the centre that day, though I remember it being very cold inside - not something you could say about it today.

These events always provide evidence of the Bahá'í welcoming - and enjoyment - of diversity. This time, activities for those who aren't delegates include the opportunity to have a go at playing in a gamelan orchestra of Indonesian drums and gongs!

I'm here with Clare, on her first visit to a Bahá'í event. There are around 700 Bahá'ís here in all. We're hardly through the door and have already met half a dozen or more old friends of mine, who greet us warmly: Dickie Fuscoe, Laili Cleasby, Wendi Momen, Shahram and Karin Firoozmand, Marlyn Thoburn, Shiva Nolan, Mahzad Mazloomian, Jackie Mehrabi. They and others offer hugs, kisses and exceptionally kind words of welcome. I get to talk to all of them about my work for the Council of Faiths, leave them with my card and samples of our leaflet on Leicester's Bahá'í community. Some of them ask if I could come out to their communities to give them advice on local inter-faith work.

Half an hour or so is spent in the main hall, before the session breaks up for dinner. Not having seen this for so many years, I'm impressed all over again by how courteous, reflective, good-humoured, positive, collaborative, considered - even stately - the process of Bahá'í consultation can be. I can't help but wish more of my friends and colleagues could see this for themselves, as it's such a distinctive model of discussion and decision-making. As well as consulting together on the main issues that affect the current condition and future progress of the UK Bahá'í community, the 95 delegates have the responsibility to elect the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the UK. Our local delegate is Minou Cortazzi, former Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths.

We don't stay very long (hardly more than three hours) and go back to Leicester before dinner. But it's enough to leave me with the sure and certain feeling that it's been good to reconnect after all this time.

REDP INVOLVEMENT EVENT: NOTTINGHAM

To Nottingham, for the first in a series of "Involvement Events", launching the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP) into the wider world.

Train from Leicester Station at 0725 with Dennis Bradley, Community Development Officer at Leicester's LGBT Centre. Dennis is part of the Amplified Leicester project. I'm not often given to envy, but each time I speak with someone who's doing that, I can't help but wish I was on it! At Nottingham Station we meet Ian Robson, Director of the LGBT Centre and share a taxi to the venue, East Midlands Conference Centre at Nottingham University (photo above).

I'm chairing this event, Ian is leading the presentation on behalf of the Core Partners, with support from Iris Lightfoote from The Race Equality Centre (TREC). We have engaged the services of Judith and Karen, BSL interpreters. We have about a dozen people signed up for this event from the VCS sector in Nottingham, representing Nottingham Council for Voluntary Services, The Deaf Society, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham Refugee Council, and East Midlands Ambulance Service amongst others. Nice venue: food is good and plentiful but the room is really cold and seems resistant to all attempts to heat it. Even in the Gents, although the taps had that sign saying "Danger! Very Hot Water!" what came out was stone cold!

I'd like to keep to the schedule. After my general introduction and housekeeping announcements, Ian has half an hour to present a "beginners' guide" to REDP. He sprints through it and finishes in five minutes. Time to switch to decaf, Ian! We're not going to have 25 minutes of dead air, of course, and I'm not going to chuck out the timetable at this early point, so I fill - for 20 minutes. The attendees don't know that this isn't how we planned it, so as long as I can keep the ball rolling then all's well. We take a short break then go into the workshops on time. These include some very strong and positive contributions an take us through to lunchtime.

The afternoon session begins with our guest speaker: Rauf Mirza, one of some 200 ambassadors around the country promoting public appointments for the Government Equalities Office. For some little while now there's been a cross-departmental drive to increase the diversity of people sitting on boards of public bodies, with particular emphasis on women, members of ethnic minorities and disabled people. I found especially interesting the part of Rauf's talk when he focuses on the seven principles of public life as outlined by the Nolan Committee. These are: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

Carolyn Pascoe, REDP's Researcher, presents her Regional Profile, looking at the facts, figures and stats illustrating various equality strands in Nottingham, and in comparison with the rest of the region and the country. I give the final presentation, which is on the Equality Bill - and we finish on the very stroke of 4 o'clock.

In summing up at the end of the day, I said that if we were a theatrical company on tour, this would have felt like a public dress rehearsal. There's a few bugs need ironing out, and many of those attending have given us helpful notes.