I’ve just found enough time to do one more snippet before I head off to Bournemouth for the conference. I am granted one round up after Conference which I will look to do next week.
But to bring you up to date since the last blog, on 9th September - the Sussex and Surrey Association had a well attended meeting on take up for benefit’s looking at the Welsh experience. Prior to the meeting the executive met in order to present two certificates of service (awarded by the Law Research and Education committee in July) to Association President Ian Nisbet and Former President Colin Holden. I have to admit to a huge amount of pride in being able to sign and present Colin with his certificate, he had no idea it was coming and it was very richly deserved.
I then attended the IAAO conference (International Association of Assessing Officers) in Louisville (loah ville) Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby, the Louisville Slugger (a baseball bat) and Muhammed Ali.
Colin and I arrived on the Friday night via Chicago O’Hare where we had a five hour wait between flights. O’Hare domestic is not the best terminal to have an elongated delay but we did enjoy watching the passengers walk out to their planes, hand over their carry on bags (to be stowed in the hold) before being allowed to take off. We also watched arriving planes with their owners reunited with their carry-on on the tarmac!!!
We had been through three time zones by the time we arrived In Louisville and were a little disorientated as we gained 6 hours and then lost 1. Amusingly, our luggage arrived 3 hours before we did as it was loaded on an earlier flight!!!!
The conference opened with traditional singing from Kentucky followed by the motivational speaker, we then had the AGM of the association as a plenary session. The exhibition was in the main hotel and looked very different to our own as it is less “slick” but none the less full of interesting and exciting exhibits. We were delighted to see one of the company’s that is shortlisted in our performance awards there also.
We had Wednesday night to ourselves and decided to have a trip up the Ohio river on the Spirit of Jefferson. This was great fun and finished with a bit of a sing – a –long (or maybe it was just us) as we pulled in to dock.
The conference concluded with the gala dinner, the only real difference to our own being that the entire Council (or Board) sit on the stage looking out on the audience for the meal. I’m not so sure that would be favoured by our own Council members!
After the conference, Colin and I went to Washington DC via Chicago (where I met up with my long term penpal Angi who lives in Michigan. Angi and I have been writing since we were 17, we met up for the first time in Chicago, it was a great night!). Washington was a great as I remembered it 30 years ago when I lived there. We had a super time showing Colin the sights and wandering around in the sunshine and high 70’s temperatures.
Sadly while we were in the States we got the news that long serving member of the Scottish Association Executive Janette Proud had passed away. Janette had been suffering from cancer but she had such a fighting spirit and we had seen her at the Scottish Conference that it came as quite a shock. Her funeral was this Wednesday which was attended by over 200 family, friends and colleagues, I know that we will all miss her and send our condolences to her husband Dave and family.
I leave for conference tomorrow as we have a full two days of meetings beforehand, I hope to see many of you there and am looking forward to Thursday night when I shall pass the baton on to Geoff.
Take care
Julie
But to bring you up to date since the last blog, on 9th September - the Sussex and Surrey Association had a well attended meeting on take up for benefit’s looking at the Welsh experience. Prior to the meeting the executive met in order to present two certificates of service (awarded by the Law Research and Education committee in July) to Association President Ian Nisbet and Former President Colin Holden. I have to admit to a huge amount of pride in being able to sign and present Colin with his certificate, he had no idea it was coming and it was very richly deserved.
I then attended the IAAO conference (International Association of Assessing Officers) in Louisville (loah ville) Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby, the Louisville Slugger (a baseball bat) and Muhammed Ali.
Colin and I arrived on the Friday night via Chicago O’Hare where we had a five hour wait between flights. O’Hare domestic is not the best terminal to have an elongated delay but we did enjoy watching the passengers walk out to their planes, hand over their carry on bags (to be stowed in the hold) before being allowed to take off. We also watched arriving planes with their owners reunited with their carry-on on the tarmac!!!
We had been through three time zones by the time we arrived In Louisville and were a little disorientated as we gained 6 hours and then lost 1. Amusingly, our luggage arrived 3 hours before we did as it was loaded on an earlier flight!!!!
The conference opened with traditional singing from Kentucky followed by the motivational speaker, we then had the AGM of the association as a plenary session. The exhibition was in the main hotel and looked very different to our own as it is less “slick” but none the less full of interesting and exciting exhibits. We were delighted to see one of the company’s that is shortlisted in our performance awards there also.
We had Wednesday night to ourselves and decided to have a trip up the Ohio river on the Spirit of Jefferson. This was great fun and finished with a bit of a sing – a –long (or maybe it was just us) as we pulled in to dock.
The conference concluded with the gala dinner, the only real difference to our own being that the entire Council (or Board) sit on the stage looking out on the audience for the meal. I’m not so sure that would be favoured by our own Council members!
After the conference, Colin and I went to Washington DC via Chicago (where I met up with my long term penpal Angi who lives in Michigan. Angi and I have been writing since we were 17, we met up for the first time in Chicago, it was a great night!). Washington was a great as I remembered it 30 years ago when I lived there. We had a super time showing Colin the sights and wandering around in the sunshine and high 70’s temperatures.
Sadly while we were in the States we got the news that long serving member of the Scottish Association Executive Janette Proud had passed away. Janette had been suffering from cancer but she had such a fighting spirit and we had seen her at the Scottish Conference that it came as quite a shock. Her funeral was this Wednesday which was attended by over 200 family, friends and colleagues, I know that we will all miss her and send our condolences to her husband Dave and family.
I leave for conference tomorrow as we have a full two days of meetings beforehand, I hope to see many of you there and am looking forward to Thursday night when I shall pass the baton on to Geoff.
Take care
Julie
