Sandal wearing? Sometimes, but laid-back - never!

So now you're going to hear from one of the 'older' voices at Greenpeace. Yes there are a surprising number of us over 50s working here at Canonbury Villas. I joined Greenpeace eight years ago to work for our previous Executive Director as his personal assistant. I had very little experience of the green campaigning world and many of my friends thought I was joining a bunch of sandal-wearing hippies. Well there may be plenty of sandals, as well as plenty of shorts and even bare feet in the summer, but don't let any of this imagery confuse you. There is nothing fainthearted or laid-back about our campaigners. If you are fighting to save the planet you have to be clear-sighted, single minded and dedicated.

The first thing I appreciated when I joined Greenpeace was that all our work is funded by individuals, no corporate or government funding accepted. This gives our campaigns much more independence than many other NGOs. The political think tank I worked at previously relied heavily on corporate funding, but it's so much more difficult to sound authoritative and independent when you produce a report on energy and it's funded by a major utility company. So a huge thank you is due to all our financial supporters, a surprising number of whom are my age and have been with Greenpeace since we started.

My next insight into the working of this organisation was to go on an NVDA (non violent direct action) training day. Once trained I was able to take part in a direct action in Whitehall to highlight the fact that ancient forest timber was being used in the refurbishment of the cabinet offices. This and other actions I've been involved in have impressed on me how amazing our active supporters are, often taking holiday from work in order to take part in these actions.

What is my day job here all about? I work across many parts of the organisation setting up and taking notes at meetings from the weekly management meeting and the policy energy working group to the three Board meetings and Annual General Meeting. Perhaps my most challenging group to administer for has been our information systems working group (IT). I've learned a whole new vocabulary about software, virtual networks, web terms and frequently have to ask the 'idiot' questions in order to make sense of any notes I'm writing. I'm responsible for our Executive Director John Sauven's diary and keeping an eye on what he's up to – trust me it's not an easy task. Most correspondence these days is done by e-mail, and many hundreds of emails come through to our ED each day. I help keep track of these and pass on any urgent enquiries when John is out of the office. Co-ordinating our 'snail mail' correspondence with minsters, MPs and the CEOs of our 'target' companies needs to be carefully monitored and filed – you never know when a legal campaign opportunity might arise and a good paper trail is essential.

Finally, as an international organisation we have a lot of contact between our offices. I often get requests from international staff who are coming to London and need help arranging travel plans, accommodation and meetings with staff here. It's great to feel part of a world-wide team and I get such a thrill when an e-mail from one of our offices in Brazil or China pops up with news of our work going in that country.

What am I looking forward to next? Well I'll be helping with the digging on our new   'Airplot' site in Sipson village this Sunday (the site of the third Heathrow runway that the government is keen to build and we are determined to stop). Hopefully it'll be a nice sunny day and the ground won't be too muddy, though I might be a bit stiff when I get back to the computer on Monday morning…