I'm sorry I haven't a clue

Thank you God for Stephen Fry who did what I would have almost believed impossible last night and gently put away the slippers of dear old Humph to graciously slide his own feet under the table of my favourite quiz game - I'm sorry I haven't a clue. The replacement of Samantha with Sven was brilliant - so too was the careful mix of old and new games (but PLEASE can we have Mornington Crescent back) and the erudite repartee- Oh well done sir, well done..

The show took the sting out of my own truculent mood by giving me an idea for a new game - where contestants have to try and guess by matching up 'essentials' or 'desirables' from a person description and 'tasks' from the job description - what the person to be appointed by the Methodist Church will actually be doing in and for the Church.

As an example - try and determine

For which of our new posts on the Connexional team is it considered essential to have experience of

Researching information from many sources, including the internet

For which post is it also essential for the candidate to be:

Strategic, highly numerate and analytical with creative flair

This is not true of all the posts, but for which one(!) is it desirable for the candidate to have knowledge of

An understanding of the Methodist Church

And last but not least, for which post is it essential for the candidate to be able to demonstrate the

Ability to think through, develop and clearly articulate key policy issues

Having done that - now try and match those with a of the key task taken from the same range of adverts:

developing policy and other documents for a range of meetings including Strategy and Resources Committee, the Council and the Conference. This will involve rapidly developing an understanding of how these governance bodies work and their expectations for agenda documents (is this so that they can inform the rest of us!)

Ensure that our understanding of the audience (!?!) is used to inform the development of new products

facilitating effective consultation practices and convening ministerial stakeholders forums (a new name for synod perhaps?) and practitioners forums (conclave?)

Now guess what the posts are for - no cheating - answers on my blog please, cos if I'm honest - I haven't a clue!