Presidents Blog 2

PRESIDENTS BLOG 2

11TH January, 2008

An early start for the Hertfordshire Branch New Year Lunch held in The Cricketers in the lovely village of Sarratt. My thanks to everyone for their hospitality, and Peter Clark for the lift to the station.

24th January, 2008

Meeting of the Cabinet at Stratford-Upon-Avon. An interesting meeting but I was unable to stop for the Friday, as I had already arranged to attend the Annual Lunch of the Essex Branch on 25th.

25th January, 2008

For some reason I had in my head that Essex was all urban how wrong can you be, the drive from Stratford-upon-Avon took me through some beautiful villages. Held at the Channels Golf Club in Little Waltham, the lunch was very well attended, and again my thanks to everyone.

Bearing in mind that other parties were also in the room, I thought they took finding out about the work of Clerks to Town and Parish Council’s very well.

11th & 12th February, 2008

Back to Stratford-Upon-Avon for the National Executive meeting which in my opinion was a very useful meeting looking at some of the major issues which face the Society in the near future. The Society is developing, and we need to make some decisions on how to structure the Society’s administration to meet the increasing demand.

It was good to meet the Members of the N.E.C.

26th February, 2008

Arriving in the early hours of Tuesday morning following a meeting at Peterlee on the Monday night, I stopped at the hotel next to the Oxford Kassam Stadium. The meeting of the Oxfordshire Branch was held in Abingdon, and was very well attended. I called in to see Nigel Warner at the Town Council but he was on holiday, skiing. At the meeting one Clerk raised a very pertinent question in that as a part time Clerk who is not, particularly well supported by her Council in attending conferences etc how does she gain the points required to maintain Fellowship of the Institute. I did take her point and have raised this matter with Tim Ricketts for him to consider. My thanks to Dominic Stapleton and everyone for their kind hospitality.

28th February, 2008

I drove down on the Wednesday night for the Buckinghamshire Branch Local Conference on the Thursday. Stayed in Weston Turville overnight, so I would be close to the venue for the 9.30 start. Unfortunately, the sat nav was not at its best and it took nearly an hour to find the venue. Having passed John Findlay, the Chief Executive of NALC travelling in the opposite direction, I was convinced John would be late for his presentation. Wrong Again! I arrived just in time, but what a venue, (RAF Halton) and I have to say what a good conference. I was really surprised by both the number of Clerks and Councillors at the Conference. Congratulations to all concerned, especially Ann Hooton, Lorna Harvey, and Gloria Barclay of Little Marlow Parish Council who thoroughly deserves the Buckinghamshire Clerk of the Year Award she received.

29th February and 1st March, 2008

From Halton straight to Stoke for the Practioners Conference. This Conference is aimed at smaller and medium size Councils, and I have to say was probably one of the best conferences I have ever been to. Duncan Wright and Mike Page seem to have found the right format for this Conference, short presentations, followed by longer question and answer sessions. A really good interactive conference where delegates really do involved. Thanks to everyone who took part, particularly the speakers who stood in at the last minute, Mike, Alan and Janet for their usual professional management of the event, and the rest of the team of 10 who worked so hard in the organisation of the event.
P.S. Mike, I’m not so keen on these breakfast meetings.

7th March 2008

Attended the Clwyd Branch Meeting in Abegele. This was only my second visit to North Wales, but what a beautiful part of Wales, and what nice Town Council offices Abegele have. It was interesting to learn a little about what is happening in Wales, but also that the same issues about clarity of Central Government directives also exist in Wales. My thanks to Keith, Gareth, and all the Branch members for their warm welcome.

13th March, 2008

Not too far to travel this time the S.L.C.C. North East Regional Conference held here at Shotton Hall. Peterlee. Although not an enormous number of Clerks, those who attended seem to have generally got something out of the day and the feedback has been very good.

Thanks to everyone especially those who made a special last minute effort to attend, and the Clerk who travelled from Lancashire. Apparently, the open session Chris Geeson and myself did seemed to go down well, but we were not so impressed when the comment was made “Don’t those two look like the “old guys” in “The Muppets”.

15th March, 2008

Again, reasonably close to home, I travelled to one of my favourite places, the Lake District, for the Cumbria Branch meeting held in Scotby, just outside Carlisle. Driving past Carlisle’s football ground, on such a lovely morning was hard to imagine, how recently this area was under several feet of water. Although the meeting was attended by only a few clerks I really enjoyed it this was more of a conversation than a presentation. It was helpful to understanding more fully some of the difficulties of a clerk in very small rural Parishes. My thanks to everyone.

20th March, 2008

Rarely travelling to the South-East of the country you forget just how much of England lies south of London but also how busy the M25 really is. Such was the case when I drove south for the Sussex Branch AGM to be held in Southwater. Having pulled over for a stop close to the Dunstable exit, I was really surprised when Chris Rolley told me I probably still had 1 ½ hours driving to do. We eventually made it around 10.00pm. A really good meeting, how well supported and organised the Sussex Branch are.

My thanks go to everyone, with a special thanks to Trevor Loggo for helping sort the IT, Chris and Sue Rolley for their exceptional hospitality, and to all at Southwater Parish Council. Could I just say the Town Centre project was excellent and you should be really proud in what has been achieved.