A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.' Gandalf – Lord of the Rings
Perhaps the same is true of CEOs? Certainly as Buglife has been up and running for 12 years and I have been working for the charity for the same length of time you might wonder why we have chosen to start a CEO blog now?
I have not delayed because I am afraid of words, I have written guest blogs before (here's another guest blog example), and I write a regular column in The Guardian.
Nor is it that Buglife is the sort of organisation that has nothing to say for itself. Any internet search will show us to be expressing strong opinions on issues as diverse as Ragwort pulling and plastic fragments building up in the stomachs of Scampi.
Buglife has to stand up on behalf of the smallest, least privileged inhabitants of the world. There are billions of them, they are routinely neglected, so there is a LOT to be expressed on their behalf!
I have to admit some fear of the time commitment of a regular blog and a pinch of hesitancy about appearing self-obsessed, and thereby detracting from the important, and often serious, messages and data that all the staff and volunteers at Buglife are busy communicating.
Certainly, when working for a small charity one has to rigorously prioritise work, and stretch and contort to cover all the bases. But Buglife has grown and we now have staff capable in many different professions; the CEO can consider (particularly when nudged) taking on new roles that will help to spread Buglife’s important messages further and faster than before.
The fact that our twitter account @buzz_dont_tweet now has 12,927 followers is an important consideration. Clearly people want to hear more about bugs and their conservation and it is important that Buglife provides the information that will enable them to help to conserve our wonderful, but imperilled wildlife.
Thus I arrive at my first blog.
Once a week I will do my best to entertain, inform and engage. Please feel free to sign in and share thoughts and comments. I will also be tweeting from @MattEAShardlow in between blogs so please follow me on that as well.
