Julie Holden, IRRV President 2008-9

And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain ...

2009-10-04T18:42:00.003+01:00

What a fabulous night we had on Thursday! Incognito sang “My Way” - along with many other show time and jazz classics and it was a great start to the entertainment.

Those of you who were at conference and the awards night, I hope you enjoyed yourselves and had a superb time. I know that I did. For anyone that is in any doubt, Allan and John (three cheers for such great sports) had no idea that the whole “come to the stage bit” was a set up, but they took part with great fun (although Allan is promising to get me back). I had no idea what Andrew Castle was going to use me for when he asked me to be his assistant on stage! Had I known, I would have had a bit of catching practice beforehand - all I can say is that 50% (and one of them backwards) with 800 people watching is no mean feat!

I can also explain the presence of the man in black (“fiddling with me”) half way through the awards. When I handed over the second trophy, the radio microphone dropped from the back of my dress all the way through and was dangling around my ankles (I kid you not) and the weight was pulling my headpiece off. I knew that there was a danger it would not work, so I needed assistance. There was no way I could detach it myself - either someone had to come on and refit it (bearing in mind it went on with someone actually under my dress!!!) I thought more likely I would have it taken off and use the podium mikes. This is what we did, but of course no one knew what was happening - a lesson to be learned! Neither David nor Andrew had the inconvenience of the ballgown and no where to clip the mike pack!

Luckily Caroline was able to relay my predicament to the backstage and they helped out - much to Andrew’s delight - who announced to the whole room, “Hey! Hands off she’s mine!” Embarrassment factor 100% but what a lot of fun! These really were "money cannot buy” memory moments!

I got through the handover speech without too much emotion (I was worried I would collapse like a jelly when thanking my family for their support), but all was well and Geoff now has the reins. Dancing to “Abba Inferno” was great and the 3am bedtime was one I haven’t done for a while.

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my Presidency. Our members are a wonderful group of people to represent and I have been proud to do so. I have been given so many opportunities that my memories and deeds for the year are priceless - thoroughly enjoyable and so many times I felt 10 feet tall.

My week actually started on the Sunday prior to conference as we had the Council committees and meetings before conference took place. A very exhausting few days. On Tuesday, Conference kicked off with the AGM where we held a moment's silence for the members we lost this year, passed a special resolution to recognise the use of new designatory letters IRRV (Dip) IRRV (Hons) and to re-establish the presence of “Fellow” status of the Institute (more info will follow on how to reach this status). And my final duty was to present an honorary membership to Bill Lovell. Bill had not been advised this was coming and was shocked by the announcement - so much so that he didn’t stop to put his jacket on and asked for us to retake the photos on Thursday night!

The conference went extremely well. Paul Howarth, who always pulls a crowd, was delighted with the number who turned out. It was only after his session that we realised 50 delegates who were due to be in a different conference in the BIC had wandered in to our session in error. I hope they enjoyed it!!! The Exhibition was busy with lots going on and plenty of people looking at products and doing the rounds. It seemed to me to be a great success.

On Thursday we presented a commemorative certificate to Dr Josephine Lim from Canada. Josephine is the current President of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) and was attending our conference.

Then there was the awards dinner. As I said on the night, congratulations to all winners and commiserations to the other finalists - but all must remember how well they did to get to that stage. I look forward to judging the awards again next year and seeing even higher standards!

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me during the year and who have supported the charity. I think we are close to the £6,000 mark, but the final figure is not in yet, so I shall put an update as a news release with final figures when they are known - but thank you all so much.

It has been a great honour to be your President. I may be a bit quirky and informal at times but I hope I have shown some of the heart of the Institute during my year. It was my intention to try to bring the Institute HQ and Council out of the “mystery” and show you all what we do. If I have achieved a little of that, I have been successful. Thank you for reading the blog, I hope that you have enjoyed it. The blog like the year has been very individualistically me. I hope to continue on Council for a further term. I will be standing next summer, but - either way - I have some wonderful memories and to close in the words of the song…..

..To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows
I took the blows
And did it my way!

Take care of yourselves.

Much love

Julie

Conference photos!

2009-10-04T18:38:00.002+01:00

And Julie's latest photos!

2009-09-26T22:23:00.007+01:00

Latest from the President ...

2009-09-26T22:18:00.003+01:00

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

Scottish Conference

2009-09-08T08:42:00.006+01:00

Well here we are, it is September and the trees are starting to turn from green. This is my penultimate blog entry with only three weeks left now until Annual Conference in Bournemouth and the handing over to a new President. I must say I have an inkling of what it feels like to be old father time on New Years Eve, with the bouncing baby new year waiting to get started! (not that Geoff is a bouncing baby – but you get the drift ...)

The end of August was a quiet with very little activity, which meant I actually managed to have some time in the office, which turned out to be a good thing as staff were on leave and we had the annual billing and the adjustment to rents to put through. The rents are being adjusted tonight but the billing went well so all seems to be in a much more stable position, phew!

Last week saw the Annual Scottish Conference in Crieff and what a great conference it was. I was transported back to Brighton 2 years ago as during the opening morning the fire alarm went off and we had to start the evacuation! Bizarrely the hotel staff attempted to restrain the delegates in to the room as they felt it was the safest place to be!!!!!!!!!!! Anyhow, we all got on with the day “un-singed” and had a great debate about Debt Relief (Scottish Debt Arrangement Scheme and LILA route to bankruptcy), Welfare Reform and on to the launch of the Committee of Inquiry in to Local Taxation in Scotland. We were delighted that the 4 MSPs representing the four main parties, all stayed after their session to participate in the press conference launch. Those of you in Scotland can hardly have failed to see the amount of press coverage that it generated (click on headline above to view the BBC article) and we are really pleased about that. We now must deliver the inquiry with some firm proposals for discussion and further debate in the halls of parliament.

The conference was not of course all work, work, work; we had a lovely dinner on the first evening with the past presidents of the Scottish Association and honorary members. We were delighted to have so many distinguished legends in the Institute with us including Ron Skinner, Eric Geddes and David Shepherd. David had been National President in 1968 and having retired some time ago it was lovely to meet with him and see that he was incredibly fit and well. David has promised to attend the Past Presidents' luncheon in July next year, I look forward to seeing him again at that time. The Gala Dinner on the Wednesday was a great event with the awarding of the best in Scotland entrant to the IRRV Performance awards (Well done Dundee!!), an interesting after dinner speech from Bill Jamieson who told us of the events that lead to the collapse of Barings Bank and how he had the inside track and was able to “break” the story and finally a great time dancing the night away with the Ceilidh band albeit with some dubious Scottish dancing!

As always it was an excellent conference, set in the beautiful surroundings of Crieff Hydro and, although I was sad to say goodbye as President to the Scottish delegates, I really hope that I will be invited again some day to speak to the conference as it is such a hard working and enthusiastic group. Many thanks to all chairs and “questioners” who put the speakers at their ease, but were challenging and thought provoking in their own right.

Colin and I fly out for the IAAO conference in Kentucky on Friday and we are spending a few extra days leave on the end, so my final update will be during Bournemouth conference week if I get time …. Or perhaps Geoff will be so kind as to let me do a round up even after I have passed the chain over!

Some photos from Scottish Conference ...

2009-09-07T23:10:00.001+01:00

Above : Julie at the Students' Presentation

Above : Julie with the Provost of Perth & Kinross & Brian Jeffrey, Scottish Association President
Above : Julie hosted a dinner with former (and current) IRRV Scottish Association PresidentsAbove : The IRRV launched its committee of inquiry on local taxation at Scottish Conference. We were pleased to welcome MSPs from the main four political parties to Conference - from the left - Alasdair Allan MSP (SNP), Jeremy Purvis MSP (Scottish Liberal Democrat), Andy Kerr MSP (Scottish Labour) and Derek Brownlee MSP (Scottish Conservatives) Above : Julie with Conference Overall Sponsors - Gandlake - Rob De Felice and Carol Hill
Above : The Equita Presidential Penalty Challenge at Crieff!Above : Julie with Brenda Miller and Jane Crawford of Dundee City Council, winners of the "Best in Scotland" performance award

Latest from Julie ...

2009-08-10T20:14:00.005+01:00

Saturday 18th July saw me, Helen Robinson and Moira Hepworth (along with about 900 others) do the sleepwalk, in PJs at midnight around Haywards Heath. We were extremely lucky with the weather and it was dry for the hour and three quarters it took to get round. Thank you all who sponsored us we raised over £900 and with gift aid that is well over £1000. Thanks so much.

Prior to the walk we launched the President’s shoot out challenge (which will now run as a theme at the two main conferences in Crieff and Bournemouth to raise some more money). The photo's may look impressive and I did score 5 penalties, but it was our Chief Exec who was in goal! Thanks to all who turned out at a very wet Olympos in Burgess Hill to see us get this underway.

After I completed my events, my step-son Matt and a group of friends went out to do the three peaks challenge (Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell within 24 hours). They have raised over £1000 for their efforts and have added it to our total. Thanks guys so much - you were really tired at the end but I know you enjoyed yourselves.

The total for the charity currently stands at around £4,500 but I know we can do so much more. Thanks again everyone and a reminder of the “Just Giving” site : www.justgiving.com/julieholden1

Greetings bloggers!

2009-08-09T10:36:00.001+01:00

Another busy few weeks since the last update.

I have been darting around the country concluding the visits for the performance awards shortlist and what a tough job it has been this year. I have been very fortunate to be involved with the inspections for about five years, but this year I had two categories and the standards were high, high, high! The board met on Friday to determine the finalists to be invited to the performance village in Bournemouth. Gary will be emailing out the results of this round today or tomorrow and by midweek the list of finalists will be on the Institute’s main website. For those that hove got through, see you at conference and well done! Those who are not through, remember that you had already beaten off a lot of entrants to get to that stage and you did well to reach the visit round. For those entries that did not make the visiting round, look at the submissions of the finalists and we hope to see you back again in future years!

I have also visited two more associations since the last update, we had a great day at the races on 20th July with the East Anglian Association in Great Yarmouth (wonderfully nostalgic for me as I spent my teenage years in GY and started my local government career at GYBC back in 1988). The following Friday saw us at the beautiful setting of Broome Park in Kent for the South Eastern dinner. Sponsored by Rundles, we had great fun playing the tables following dinner at a casino evening. Murphy’s law is that we were losing until we decided it was time for bed, bet the lot (to go out with a bang) and of course won!!! It was another 45 mins before we were able to drag ourselves away having finally lost the accumulated huge pile of chips on the blackjack table. My thanks to the executive committees of the two associations, for their hospitality, as they hosted really enjoyable events.

The following week was a light Institute week, but I did host two lunches, one for the senior officers at the VOA, where we said goodbye to David Park who is retiring from VOA after many years service and during that time has been a tremendous support to the Institute. We will miss David and wish him well for the future.

The second lunch was more of a “launch”, the Institute has been accredited as an awarder of the Recognised European Valuer (REV) standards. We had a press release and launch to mark the event. Hopefully it will not be long before the first award is made to an individual Valuer.

Bad news for me back at the office; the Surrey Police authority had lost their judicial review bid against the capping of their budget, so we are required to rebill for this year’s council tax, I had visions of my August bank holiday basking in the sun (well I could dream) - but instead it looks like we will have to be in the office doing the rebilling!!!! Can I just say what a bunch of stars my revs and bens officers are (you know who you are) that are wiling to come in that weekend (their choice) to do the programming and runs.

I have been lucky that I have managed to last the year without a cold or other illness (touch wood) so I suppose something had to give. I woke up one Friday morning about four weeks ago with blurred vision (it’s a bit like looking through thick fog) in my left eye. This was after a week of driving all over the country and some long days in the office so I thought I was just tired. By the Monday morning it had gotten to the point that I felt I needed to go to the GP. Coincidentally it was my wedding anniversary and hubby and I were planning a nice meal out. However GP had other ideas and referred me immediately to the eye hospital in Brighton. With fears of hours in the A and E waiting room, we hastily had a bag of chips on Wivelsfield station, maybe not the most romantic way of sharing our anniversary, but one we shall remember!

It turns out (two more trips to the eye hospital and an MRI scan that resulted in a performance visit being moved back, later) I have an inflamed optic nerve (long word ending in “itis”!) and it should get better on its own. It is a little better this weekend but I have been avoiding driving any distance and being on the PC too long, so apologies for the delayed update!

I have to go back to the consultant on 6th October, hopefully it will have healed by then and I will get the all clear (pun intended), so that is something in my diary after Conference anyway!

A very light August (thank goodness with rebilling) to follow and then an incredibly busy September. May the sun shine down on you whether you are at home or abroad during the next few summer weeks

Take care

Julie

Photographs from Warsaw ...

2009-07-16T18:51:00.007+01:00

Dzien Drobneh! That’s Polish for Hello!!

2009-07-13T14:32:00.001+01:00

The last couple of weeks have been quite eventful - apologies for slight delay in updating the blog with words!

19th June was the Welsh conference in Llandrindod Wells. It was very topical with speakers covering a range of areas and it was particularly welcoming to see Dr Brian Gibbons AM from the Welsh Assembly Government taking time from his schedule to address the meeting and talk about the good work that the extra money for take-up initiatives has reaped from the benefit services across Wales.

21st June saw me heading off for Warsaw to the International conference, the morning after my niece’s 40th birthday party (happy belated, Gail!). In our rush to leave the hotel we managed to leave my laptop behind (which was luckily recovered by said niece’s husband - thanks Chris!) which meant I was without the ability to prepare blog while away other than in old fashioned long hand format and as I have been busy with other things I haven’t had a chance to write it up, so here goes …!

We arrived to a lovely spring evening and, having added a couple of days leave to the trip, we were able to enjoy a day sightseeing before the conference started. Sadly the morning of our first full day “off” was rainy and low cloud making everything quite chilly. So besides a trip to the shopping centre we didn’t really do much sightseeing, but the cloud did roll out during the evening and our welcome reception on the 40th (yes 40th!) floor of the hotel did provide some lovely views. Later that evening we ventured to the old town for some dinner and were tempted into a restaurant by a gentleman dressed as a Polish Hussar! He obviously works on commission, as when greeted with 18 of us looking for somewhere to eat he literally jumped for joy!

We had great fun trying to communicate with the staff (our Polish was not quite as good as her English - but you get the point!) our meal preferences and it was a very giggly evening (from all concerned) to say the least.

The Conference itself was Tuesday and Wednesday, with speakers from all over the world talking about property rates and picking up the effect of the recession. The Institute was well represented by Richard Harbord, Carol Cutler, Tom Dixon, Geoff Fisher and Barbara Culverhouse, alongside speakers from Hong Kong, Brazil, China, Canada and - of course - Poland.

The conference concluded with IPTI president Jerry Grad and myself rounding up with a few comments on the papers and overall theme. On the Wednesday evening we had a dinner with the IPTI colleagues and afterwards went in search of the ice bar. It wasn’t quite Scott of the Antarctic, but the original group of 14 whittled down to 10 by the time we reached the bar and then it was great fun … Donning duvet type cloaks we entered what can only be described as a meat locker with ice statues in the corner. It was -8c in the room. We all had a vodka shot (cherry, yummy!) and then threw our glasses (which were ice not glass) on to the floor!!
This is obviously a Polish tradition - it was funny and there are photos to prove that we all had a very merry 15 minutes or so in the room.

Most of the group left the following day, but I had a meeting with the Polish Minister who wanted to talk about property tax reform in light of the conference, it was a good liaison and hopefully Geoff Fisher and myself represented the Institute well. We flew home Friday after spending Thursday afternoon in the old town and in Warsaw’s museums. It is a beautiful city and well worth a visit.

On the Saturday we picked up the new puppy, who is a delight and watched while he terrorised our three year old Golden Retriever, but they have quickly settled in to a sibling rivalry relationship!

The following week saw the start of the performance awards visits for myself and Chief Executive David Magor. We drove through the most awful storm on the M6 - I have never seen rain like it! We were down to 10 miles an hour! The visits are proving that the standards are as high as ever and whittling down the entrants to a small number for the final is not going to be easy!

Then last week was the council round and annual reception. I do hope those who went enjoyed themselves and had a good time on the Monday evening. We were at the London Transport Museum and it was really good. The band Perfidia worked really well in the atmosphere and it was an excellent evening.

The day was long as we had Committee meetings from 10.00 that morning and Council the following morning followed by the Past Presidents’ (and honorary members’) luncheon in Simpsons on the Strand. I very almost got to speak to one of my favourite authors Terry Pratchett as I was leaving. He was only two people in front of me (having been addressing a separate luncheon) at the restaurant, but as it was tipping with rain everyone was standing on the entrance steps and wouldn’t get out of the way, by the time I had “excused - me” free of the crowd he was just a figure in a black hat hurrying down the road. Ah well ….almost!

That about brings you up to date, I am in the office this week mostly, waiting to see whether I have to re-bill for Council Tax as Surrey Police Authority have had their capping order laid by Parliament. There should be a judicial review hearing and then we will know whether or not it is required, whoever said life in local government was dull????

Final reminder - the sleepwalk is this weekend, if you would like to sponsor me please visit my just giving website : www.justgiving.com/julieholden1

Many thanks to those that have already done so - we are doing very well against the overall target, but a little more will be most gladly accepted. If you are coming down for the walk, see you there!!!

IRRV Annual Reception 2009

2009-07-07T23:25:00.008+01:00

Julie hosted last night's IRRV Annual Reception at the London Transport Museum. Julie's full report on this will follow in due course, but, meantime, here are a few photographs from a highly successful reception.

Greetings bloggers!

2009-06-16T11:00:00.000+01:00

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks! I see it is three weeks since I last updated the blog, so here goes:

Where have I been and what have I been up to?

W/C 25th May

A rare chance to put my feet up on the Monday (bank holiday) but as I had only returned from Seville on the Sunday it wasn’t much of a weekend - still it was a chance to catch up on the washing and ironing pile which had reached mammoth proportions!

I was in the office most of the week with a trip to the LGA for the Benefits POG meeting on Wednesday and a teleconference for the publication sub committee on Thursday.

On the Saturday it took me nearly 3 hours to get from my home to Twickenham as I had picked a day when the Rugby was on and the roads were closed - great combination! The 56 miles was great for the first 45 - the last 9 – not so good!! Note to self - check sporting features before setting out in future.

Sunday 31st I was off to Harrogate (so no weekend for me!), I had also volunteered to run the Sunday School for church where we talked about Pentecost and had great fun pretending to be the wind and then talking in different languages (well saying hello anyway - I think we came up with about 10 “languages” that we could say hello in – the kiddies liked G’Day best and kept saying this is faux Australian accents, although they gave the Chinese a good run for its money too).

Sunday afternoon and most of Monday was spent with the merry gang of the Performance Awards Panel. For those of you who entered - you will now know if you have made it to the long list (visiting stages). There were some crackingly good entries and it was tough to whittle the visits down to a manageable level. There are some great innovations and ideas out there and I will admit that I thoroughly enjoy being involved with this process (I have been a visiting panel member for about 5 years although this is my first time on the decision making group) and really look forward to finding new ideas and opportunities that I can take back to my own LA. This year has not disappointed! I shall report more as we go through the year as obviously I can’t discuss too much at this point.

Tuesday 2nd June saw the start of the Collection and Enforcement conference. Record numbers of delegates in the hottest week of the year so far. The programme, speakers and event was the best I have attended. I enjoyed it and once again picked up lots of tips and thoughts as to the development of my own services at TDC.
I have learned a very valuable lesson not to prompt a question from certain members of the VOA. Those of you who were in the audience and heard the questions after Robert Brown’s paper will know what I mean, I can only advise that I am on the lookout for an opportunity to get my own back!

Wednesday night I drove home and was in the office Thursday before flying off to Northern Ireland for the Belfast conference on Friday. We had an informal dinner with the executive on Thursday night which was lovely and honorary member Billy Jenkins presented me with a lovely Tyrone Crystal bowl engraved with a remembrance for the visit.

The day conference on Friday was again attended by some great papers and involvement from the floor. The conference attracted practitioners and Councillors and therefore the views and pressures were diverse. It was an excellent day, with updates on legislation, A2B benefit take up, potential reform of rates and discounts and even the future role of water rates.

Flying home was a peaceful experience, although a little bumpy (the weather was terrible), but the Thursday flight over had about 60 children from St Francis Primary School in Lurgan aboard, so anything by comparison was going to be quiet! To be fair the children were well behaved on the flight, if a little over exuberant on reclaiming luggage at the terminal!

Sunday saw the first of the rehearsals for this summers Pewmongers production (who said weekends are for sleeping???????), so bang went another day!

Monday – Thursday were office days, but I had meetings for various other reasons every evening, including an executive meeting on Wednesday night where Sussex and Surrey decided its programme for next year. We are sticking with the four meetings schedule we had this year, but we are also going to arrange some informal social get togethers, maybe a quiz in a pub or night at the dogs, just some opportunities to meet other members across the counties (we cover three counties) and to engender some more interest in the local association on a different level. So watch out on the website and your email boxes as we try to arrange events for you.

Friday was a trip to my old stamping ground of Dorchester (I worked for West Dorset DC for 3 years in the 90s) to attend the Wessex AGM at Kingston Maurwood. I was due to leave there and return to Worthing where David Magor and Gary Watson were taking each other on at a mock VT for the Sussex and Surrey Association. Both events were excellent although sadly due to timing going a little awry (technical hitches) at Wessex I was a little late leaving and got caught up I early weekend traffic so I did not make it to the meeting in Worthing. I did catch up with the parties concerned however later that evening and heard all about it!

My thanks to David and Gary, Richard Guy, Bill Lovell and Ian Nisbet for taking roles at the “VT” and making it not only instructive but also an enjoyable afternoon.

Saturday and Sunday I finally managed to catch up with some friends that I haven’t seen for a while as it was our village fete, Mum and Dad popped down as well and helped out. Sunday afternoon I managed to deliver a birthday present (2 weeks late) to another friend and have a brief catch up with her.

This week sees me in the office until Wednesday when I shall wend my may to Llandrindod Wells for the Welsh Conference and then this weekend it is off to Warsaw for the International conference

Finally a happy first wedding anniversary to my friends Sarah and Steve, sadly “Presidenting” has meant I have seen little of them this year, but hope you had a lovely day!
I’ll update again after Warsaw - until then enjoy the sun …

Northern Ireland Presidential Visit

2009-06-16T10:55:00.006+01:00

Two additional photos of rather better quality (thanks Colin!) added 20th June - of Julie addressing the conference and at presentation with Northern Ireland Association :

Original uploads - 16th June :

Above : Presentation to Julie by Northern Ireland Association. From left - Colin Wilkinson, Julie, Michael Martin and Billy Jenkins.
Above : Northern Ireland Conference 2009.

Above : Conference top table - from left - Julie, Zoe Anderson (speaker), Colin Wilkinson and Alderman Arnold Hatch (NILGA).

Above : Julie addresses the IRRV Northern Ireland Annual Dinner guests.

North Wales AGM - photo!

2009-05-25T21:15:00.001+01:00

Julie presents a Certificate of service to long serving member of the Association Colin Bailey

Hola pur Espana

2009-05-23T12:47:00.000+01:00

I am writing this blog update from the General Council of The European Group of Valuers Associations (TEGoVA) Spring meeting in Seville. The IRRV is a member of TEGoVA and the Chairman is the Institute Council’s own Roger Messenger.

Then reason for my attendance at the meeting was to receive the accreditation of the Institute to award the Recognised European Valuer status. The IRRV is the only Institute in the UK to have received this accreditation and we are pleased to be able to offer this international standard to qualifying valuers to give them a Europe wide recognised practicing standard.

The Seville trip was three days of meetings (Thursday – Saturday) and there was a banquet on the second night where we wandered the streets of Seville to find the Pallacio Libjia where the banquet was held. Amusingly our own provision was held up temporarily by a procession of children who were having their Holy Week celebrations. Now, of course, Holy Week in the Christian Church is held the week before Easter, but in Spain (corresponding with the week of the ascension) the school children have their own processions. These processions include the carrying of large platforms that need about 8 teenagers to stand beneath and raise them high above the crowd as the process. The platforms contain effigies of the Virgin Mary or symbols such as the Cross. Behind these “platforms” march bands or simply hoards of children. It was a little bizarre as, once you clear one of these processions, you come upon another one!

Chairman Roger Messenger, having complained that there was no marmalade to be found for breakfast (and after all this is Seville), was duly presented with three jars by the Leandro from the Spanish delegation at the banquet dinner!!

Prior to going to Seville I had a couple of days visiting different parts of the UK to continue with attending AGMs. Thursday last week I was back in Southport for the Lancashire and Cheshire AGM, this was a well attended meeting which saw Linda Price become President of the Association for the second time taking over from Claire Jenkins. Following the meeting we had a delightful lunch where we were joined by some former members and partners of members. It was a lovely luncheon after which I drove to North Wales for an overnight stay before the North Wales AGM. The hotel was absolutely charming and is winning the stakes of the Presidential year for best local hotel. If you find yourself in St Asaph I cannot recommend the Tarlady Hotel highly enough.

The meeting itself saw me able to carry out one of the most pleasurable of duties for a President when attending the local associations, that of presenting a certificate of service to long serving member of the Association Colin Bailey. Colin had stood down the previous year as Treasurer after many years service to the committee. Being able to honour the support that many local members give at a local level is a source of great pride to both the Institute and myself personally. I do urge you to please put in to Council for recognition of these long serving “unsung heroes” of the Institute. We want to honour them - however if you don’t tell us who they are it is not possible.

Tuesday saw a meeting at Doughty Street to help firm up the new diploma qualification framework and syllabus. I am pleased to say progress was made and we remain on track to deliver this new qualification this autumn.

Wednesday lunchtime was the turn of the Benefit Faculty Board to meet by teleconference. The meeting agreed to take forward the research projects previously identified and noted the progress on gathering the background and existing material that is available in the public domain. The board also noted that following a review of co-options two new co-optees would be joining the board from the July meeting.

That is about it bringing you up to date. I should get home Sunday evening and can relax on the bank holiday before it is back to work on Tuesday. Before my next blog update the IRRV June exams will have taken place. I want to wish all of you (and my teenager at home - Matt - doing his A levels this summer, already under way) the very best of luck, I know that come August we will have some great results for all of you!

Until next update, take care!

Northern Counties Seminar

2009-05-11T23:59:00.000+01:00

Above : Seminar Dinner

Above : Julie addresses the seminar

Greetings Bloggers ...

2009-05-10T19:48:00.000+01:00

The sun is finally shining on a Sunday afternoon, birds are singing and the spring flowers are pushing their way through the earth in to bloom…. bliss. Sadly not a lazy Sunday afternoon for me, as I have only recently returned from Yorkshire this lunchtime and I am hoping to catch up on some work before going back to the office tomorrow.

Keele Week was good fun and also a lot of hard work for students and teachers alike. While the students were revising for the examinations, a different group came together to undertake the management course. The course was lead by Carol Cutler, Richard Harbord, David Magor, Allan Traynor and myself. We asked the four groups to develop a recession busting action plan for a fictional authority (Oxbourne BC) and then lobbed in a few set backs along the way (such as a local business with 5 000 employees going bust). At the end of two and half days the four groups came together and presented to the “board” their plans. All were insightful and there were a lot of very good ideas put forward that had merit. The winning team were “red team” and they have each won a conference package prize, although as we are changing the format a little this year, there will be no presentation from the winning team at the annual conference. I found it valuable and the comments from the delegates all seemed to have found some elements very useful.

Keele was rounded off with the Thursday night dinner held in the renovated rooms in Keele Hall and a fantastic evening was laid on. Of course the “entertainment package” was well worth waiting for with Britain’s got no talent, proving this point with attempts on the world record for eating Ferrero Rocher chocolates - a gallant failure from Phil Triggs who only managed two (but counted these on his abacus all the same), Susan Boyle-Chapman made an appearance and wowed the judges but it was Fraud lecturer John Rosenbloom who won the night with a (quite good really!) rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” following an arbitrary decision from the Institute’s own controversial judge Mr David “how did Simon Cowell make his millions?” Magor.

Following the contest “Fern Cotton-Lee” and “Holly WilloWatson” handed over to “Almost no Girls Allowed” to belt out their recent hit “Promise.” I think the less said about certain male council members’ affiliation for heels and long wigs, probably the better. I have posted some pictures to “prove the point” for those of you of strong constitution who were not present!

This week I have been able to have a couple of days at work (as a bank holiday got in the way) where we had our use of resources challenge from our external auditors. It is certainly going to be tough to maintain our high score of last year, but once we all got together and started brain storming the progress and outcomes delivered, it was pleasantly surprising as to how much we have done in the past year. Fingers crossed that the auditors thought so anyway!

Thursday afternoon I left work early to drive up to Chester-le-Street for Friday’s Northern Counties seminar and informal dinner. The seminar had over a hundred delegates and it really seemed a worthwhile day, discussing aspects of the recession and other topical Revs and Bens matters (despite the IT proving challenging all day with the mic’s not sure if they wanted to work or not! Reg Bascombe (Northern Counties President) did an excellent job of handling the unpredictability of these presentation aides! The venue for both the seminar and dinner was the Riverside Ground, home of Durham County Cricket in Chester-le-Street. It was the most gorgeous setting with Lumley castle up on the hillside overlooking the ground.

We were staying at a charming hotel in Beamish where suits of armour greeted you as your first visual as you walked through the door and on Thursday night (as we were waiting to go to the dinner) we were besieged by about 200 youngsters having their school prom. To say that some of the girls outfits looked like they had fallen off a Christmas tree would be an understatement! But they all looked like they were determined to have a great time and there couldn’t have been any limos available for hire in the area as getting out of the car park due to the presence of umpteen limos was quite a challenge. Some as big as coaches! We were even treated to an appearance by “The Stig” as one young man was dropped off by the helmet clad driver in his silver Porsche! (See picture below).

Saturday saw us wend our way down to Hollins Hall for the Yorkshire and District Annual Dinner. This successful association put on a great evening through the hard work of the executive officers lead by President Lisa Rawson and Social Secretary John Clark. With dinner (including an enormous yorkshire pudding – well what else would you expect ?), all speeches, toasts, the quiz (we came second, pipped by one point, much to the Chief Exec’s chagrin) and raffle out of the way, we did get down to some serious dancing and had a great time on the dance floor until the wee small hours. My thanks to the association for entertaining us so well yesterday. We had a great time. Lisa raised over £250 for her charity the Bluebell World Children’s hospice in Sheffield - thanks to the generosity of the guests.

This week sees yet more AGMs and trips to the west of the country and in to Wales. I look forward to bringing you up to date on these and other matters as they unfold!

"The Stig" and Durham CC ground

2009-05-10T19:35:00.004+01:00

Photos from Keele

2009-05-10T19:29:00.005+01:00

With thanks to Sue Williams-Lee! Above : Not many girls allowed!

Above : Susan Boyle - Chapman!
Above : One ferrero ... two

Latest update from Julie!

2009-04-28T20:31:00.006+01:00

Pitter pat little April showers….. I hope that you are all managing to dodge the rain drops that seem to have swept the country over the past few days.

I have decided that being Institute President means that you move too quickly to be rained on anyhow!!

Since my last update I have started the AGM attendances for the associations. The first (as they seem to be first with most events) was the East Midlands on 15th April. Leicester I am afraid was a mass of road works, but I picked my way along to the glorious old town hall building, it is so nice to still see some of these housing local government as so many offices are modern buildings. Leicester Town Hall was undergoing a lick of paint but all the same it was a friendly and familiar feeling.

The Friday after, I attended my own AGM of Sussex and Surrey Association. We run our AGM as a normal meeting as well as having the President speak and election of officers we also have a guest speaker for a topical subject. This one saw Geoff Fisher SVP give an update on the 5 “R’s” (Recession, Revaluation, empty Rates, Regeneration and Rent service). Geoff felt that the change to the values on revaluation may well mean that the poundage (multiplier) will need to drop steeply to keep the overall contribution to the fund even. He remains quite confident that we will have a transitional relief scheme for the new list however … oh joy!

Monday 20th was a teleconference for the LTR faculty board. Despite various people calling in from laybys and “borrowed” offices, it was a good meeting and we were able to discuss some of the current issues affecting the revenues world. Particular concern was raised over the anticipated legislation concerning deferment of rates. The board has prepared an initial briefing paper to send in to CLG raising queries that we hope will be addressed when the legislation is finally released in July. Failure to address issues such as what happens if someone on the deferment scheme vacates during the period, and how should the pool be accounted for and contributions made in respect of these deferred amounts could lead to a real quagmire for administrators. We hope that the department will address all of our issues!

Tuesday 21st saw me arrive a little late for the London and Home Counties AGM due to my misjudging the time to take the changed route on the Thameslink train in to the City. Luckily they delayed the start of the meeting until my arrival and we finished almost on time! The meeting saw the installation of former Council Member Peter Scrafton as Chairman for the year.

Wednesday morning I was off to South Wales (Swansea) for lunch with the executive and AGM. Determined that I would not be late I gave myself an hour and half more than the journey time, thinking I could get a little retail therapy in before, however the accident on the M4 leading in to London meant that it took me 2 hours to get on to the M4 when this would normally be 50 minutes. I arrived in Swansea with 15 minutes to spare and the shoe shopping was therefore abandoned!

I listened to the Budget for part of the journey but it was the following day before I read the paper and picked up on the matters that affect us. I was very puzzled at the Chancellor's comment that LAs have had no increase in caseloads although the benefit expenditure has gone up. I am sure that all of our statistics disprove this. I may well be writing to the Chancellor to point this and a few other inconsistencies out!

I think that brings you up to date. I am off to Keele this week (students have been there since Saturday) for the spring revision course. Clearly this is a major week for our students preparing for the June exams and I shall enjoy spending a few days with them. Of course I wish them all the very best of luck in the forthcoming exams, but then hard work and dedication (demonstrated by all students that I meet) pays off too!!

London and Home Counties AGM - pictures

2009-04-28T20:30:00.000+01:00

Charity Progress

2009-04-13T19:52:00.002+01:00

I challenge you to come along on Saturday 18th July at midnight in Haywards Heath West Sussex to join in the sleepwalk!!!!

Team IRRV has entered to raise money for my charity St Peter and St James Hospice in Wivelsfield. The walk is for ladies only (but chaps you can come along and be stewards - or join in the men only event that will take place simultaneously in Burgess Hill - involving football !!!! - more info on this in due course, as it gets finalised) .

Ladies – it is a 10k walk round the streets of HH, you have to wear walking footwear (ie trainers not fluffy slippers) but otherwise it is nightwear (some of you may need to buy something for the occasion!!). Be as outrageous as you like!

As this is an official walk, not solely an IRRV event, you need to enter on the St Peter and St James webpage if you want to walk: http://www.stpeter-stjames.org.uk/events2.php?EventID=203

PLEASE MARK YOUR ENTRY TEAM NAME IRRV so that we know how much we have raised as a team.

If Haywards Heath in July is just not much of a pull, nor is the idea of walking around the town in your nightie, or you are a fella! Please consider sponsoring me instead…. I have set up a just giving page where you can donate quickly and securely on line and the money goes straight to the hospice.

This is the link : http://www.justgiving.com/julieholden1

Many thanks for your support, please let me know if you are coming down to take part, and thank you so much if you can sponsor me, £5 or £50 is all for a worthwhile charity and means so much to those who need hospice care.

Thank you for caring

Julie

South Africa visit - photos

2009-04-13T19:43:00.004+01:00

Above : African wildlife
Below : David Magor, speaking in Pretoria

Red Nose Day!

2009-04-13T19:29:00.000+01:00

Red Noses and Rhinos!

2009-04-12T20:26:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the long delay in updating the blog! I have been a bit busy the last few weeks. This will be a super long entry to bring you up to date.

Thursday 12th March saw the annual lunch of the AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) in Haberdashers Hall in London, a very modern building with a water fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Then Friday we were at Claridges (Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant) for my Presidential Luncheon. This event is an annual event for the IRRV President to entertain other Presidents of kindred organisations. As it was also comic relief, red nose day, it seemed only right to present each of our guests with a red nose for an official photograph, just to prove that we can all have a little bit of fun regardless as to the fact that most of the time we are pretty serious folk! My thanks to Paul Sanderson (“Honorary President of the VOA” for the day!) for the photographs which I will upload as soon as I can.

As always it was a great afternoon which ended in the bar a little later in the evening. We were impressed by the paparazzi presence at the door, but sadly it was not your President that was drawing the attention but first Lily Allen and then apparently Posh and Becks were due to turn up!

The following Thursday was the Examination and Assessment Board meeting, the first meeting to consider the papers for the June examinations. I don’t normally attend this meeting as I am an examiner as well as President, but as this was the first setting of the new papers for the revamped IRRV Certificate, The Chief Executive and myself went along to present and discuss this paper. This is quite an exciting time for us as this new examination syllabus is fit for purpose in the modern world of Revenues and Benefits and is aimed at the right level of qualification and competence. It complements the NVQ and in time could be the “foundation” level of the full professional qualification. Those discussions are still in the pipeline and nothing is as yet decided by Council but this is one possibility that could come through.

The following Sunday (arriving Monday morning), we flew to Pretoria for a conference held by the International Property Taxation Institute in partnership with the African Taxation Institute. I presented a workshop concerning good practice in tax collection. As well as enjoying the conference, Chief Executive David (who had three session to speak or facilitate!) and I have embraced the opportunity to fly the flag for the Institute, there are so many opportunities for membership and development in Africa, we hope that this is simply the start of being able to bring practical good practice and advice to the practitioners over here. The interest and questions that followed the session proved that the problems here are not so very different from our own in collection and enforcement of taxes. I will do a write up of the conference for Insight soon to share with you all the work that is going on here.

Having gone all that way it seemed a bit daft not to add a couple of days leave and we did get a chance to go “walking with Elephants” on the Tuesday before the conference started. What a fantastic experience. I never thought that joining the Institute all those years ago would afford me such fabulous opportunities.

After the conference we were flying back on the Sunday so we were able to go North to the Pilanesburg National Park on the Botswana border. Although not as large or as famous as Kruger National Park it still boasts the big five (Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino), We were lucky enough to see four of the big five including a race to see a leopard when the truck hit a bump in the road and sent me about 18 inches in to the air! Bumps and bruises aside we were able to get there in time and have some fabulous pictures and a lot of wonderful memories.

Having returned to the UK, I had the rest of the week in the office and then had a week full of meetings including the AGM of our Parochial Church Council. Now whether it is that I am horrendous at saying “No”, but I am now a Deputy Church Warden for my local church. After that I had until Sunday to prepare for the next Council round which was the “at home” round where we traditionally come out of London to the area of the President of the day.

On Saturday I had a small get together to celebrate my forthcoming birthday, as I write I haven’t quite reached the magic “0”, however I seem to be clinging to this age with the very smallest part of my fingertips! Sadly before I even had time to recover on Sunday I was bound to attend the Felbridge Hotel in East Grinstead for the next Council Round.

We have just spent two days going through the process where we have furthered the educational reforms, annual conference preparations and had a long discussion on wide ranging governance issues. Watch out for the summary that John Roberts puts in Insight in the coming weeks. Monday night was an opportunity to raise some money for my chosen charity. We had a great evening including a charity auction, I was lucky enough to have had donations including a Swarovski necklace, radley items, tea for two at the ritz, dinner for two at the felbridge hotel, malt whiskey, mobile phone and Nintendo DS as well as red letter days at a spa and driving a ferrari. There were also three “promises” of the handymen (Ian Ferguson. Dave Chapman and Kerry MacDermott), a dining experience (Carol Cutler, Caroline Hopkins, Tracy Crowe and Mary Hardman) and a day out with Gary Watson in his Mini Traveller!!!!!!

I am so very grateful to all who gave of their time or donations and the guest auctioneers who handled the “lots”, this was a good fun evening and raised nearly £1500 for my charity.

The next event will be the sleepwalk on 18th July in Haywards Heath. I am going to set up a just giving page for those of you who would like to sponsor me to walk around haywards heath in my PJ’s at midinght !! We are going to make a bit of an evening/ morning of it (including an event for the boys) so if you would like to take part, please register by contacting the hospice directly (their link is on our main page). If you would mark your entry “Team IRRV” - we will know how much we raise from the event. I will also have a just giving page set up shortly so that if you can’t attend the event yourself but want to support us you can sponsor me directly.

The hospice is a great cause so please do give some consideration and helping us to reach a great total of money.

Well I think that brings you up to date, I promise not to leave it so long next time!

Julie

March 1st update ...

2009-03-01T20:42:00.002Z

Happy St David’s Day! I have had a busy couple of weeks with some official dinners and even an association student meeting.

The weekend of 21st March saw my council undertake our annual billing process. We had a few hairy moments with the new leaflet that was not with the printers as early as we would have liked, but all is well that ends well and the billing went very smoothly and - for the first time ever - we were back up on the Monday morning after having closed at 5pm on the Friday night. Practically no loss of office time. I must thank my revenues and benefits team for their efforts over last weekend as this was a marvellous result.

Although we were billing, I had to drive up to Cheshire to attend the Lancashire and Cheshire Association Dinner Dance on the Saturday night. It was a great meal and the raffle raised a fair amount for President Claire Jenkins' local Charity. A big thank you to all who attended and also to those who sponsored the evening as it was an excellent event.

Monday evening - I drove up to Nottingham as I was speaking at the Students' Day in Notts on Tuesday morning for the East Midlands Association. It was a well attended day and it is really great to see the associations holding events on topical matters for the students and members in the area.

On the way back to the office on Tuesday I was listening to the Jeremy Vine show and there was a phone in concerning the Swansea City Council benefit fraud that was recently uncovered, involving a lady who was claiming HB and Incap for several years. She was only spotted after holiday snaps featuring the lady on a round the world cruise were posted on the internet. It was the Swansea Housing Benefit service that made the discovery, investigated and prosecuted. The majority of the callers were in full praise of the work of the council and it was heartening to hear.

It really has seemed like a very long week as after the drive back on Tuesday I have been in the office, however Friday was my 10th day and I took the opportunity to meet with Rachel Toombs from the Institute and look at hotels that may be suitable for the April Council round (we try to have this in the area of the President of the day as it is the “at home round”). Some of you may know that other than Gatwick there are not a great deal of hotels in the areas that could accommodate the size of council and the committee meetings that need to be held, so it was a bit of a small shortlist! Having said that I think we have been successful.

Just a short word concerning my chosen charity this year, which is St Peter and St James Hospice in East Sussex. This is a local hospice that provides so much good work in respite and terminal care of cancer sufferers and I know that so many people have relied on them for support and care of loved ones. The hospice is completely privately funded and relies on so much support from the community to provide the care that they give. At points during the year I will be undergoing some peculiar activities to raise some money for them and I do hope that some of you will be able to sponsor and support me as I endeavour to do so.

I will be taking part in “the sleepwalk” (around Haywards Heath dressed in PJ’s at midnight!!!) in July for the hospice, but I hope to do something special as well during my year. You should find there is a link to the hospice on the IRRV homepage shortly where you can find out more about their work. Later in the year I hope to put an electronic link for sponsoring me too.

I am spending this evening putting the final touches to my exam paper for June and writing up this blog ... so just to prove that there is never really much chance of putting your feet up even on a Sunday night!

Sad times and happy times

2009-02-15T20:17:00.002Z

Over the past two weeks I have had the great pleasure of attending the conferences that I most looked forward to in this Presidential year - the Benefits and Benefits Fraud Conferences held consecutively in Southport. Southport was a new venue for these conferences although some of you may recall that we have used Southport for annual conference in the past. Indeed Frank Newton reminisced that he spoke at his first IRRV conference there 26 years ago!

A little time after Frank, my first benefit conference was Bournemouth in 1994 and Fraud came along later at Blackpool. As benefit is my primary discipline, these two conferences were really a proud moment to open and address my peers. I mentioned in my opening that I have been in benefits for 20 years. Actually it will be 20 years on 6th March ... it seems a long time ago in some respects, but I still remember my first day, when I was given the job of fetching the tea on the 2nd floor and promptly dropped the tray just as I arrived back on the ground floor. I think it is safe to say that on that day, none of my colleagues at Great Yarmouth Borough Council expected me to end up as President of the Institute !!!

Anyway, back to Southport... The new Ramada Hotel and renovated conference centre provided an excellent venue and although the hotel only has 135 rooms, there were plenty other hotels nearby and I heard delegates remark that it was nice to get out for a few minutes each day even if it was only for a brief walk between the venues.

The conference was a great success, with papers presented on many topical subjects. The Institute launched its new occasional paper on welfare reform where we are challenging the Government to consider our practical proposals on improved welfare delivery, not just limited to Housing and Council Tax Benefit. The paper will be available on the website shortly and we shall do further work on the areas that we hope will be taken forward in time. If you agree with our proposals please do help to raise the profile of this paper through your local MPs and pressure groups.

Sadly, I had to leave Southport on the last morning of conference, at the slightly unsocial hour of 6.00 am as we had learned of the death of Honorary Institute Member Frank Wright the previous week and his funeral was scheduled for the Thursday.

Frank was a very early member of the Northern Ireland Association and was pivotal in its development and successes over the years. I was able to meet Frank last year when I was in Belfast for a conference and he was indeed a worthy holder of the title of Honorary Member, Frank was hospitable, charming and kind. I felt honoured to have met him and I think it was only right that I should have attended the Thanksgiving Service with the Chief Executive.

For those of you who are unaware of the Honorary membership, we have very few of these. They are conferred by the Institute's Council to those that have given so much to the Institute, without self interest or reward. Should you meet one of our Honorary members you are indeed in privileged company.

I am looking forward to a full week in the office this week as we start our annual billing process, although I do have a dinner on Thursday night (CIPFA) and then the Lancashire and Cheshire Association dinner next Saturday night (providing all is well with billing!), so a quiet-ish couple of weeks to follow.

Still at least I am at home, Chief Executive David is flying out to Pakistan this week as the Institute has won some work advising on property rate scheme review. This is an excellent opportunity as we continue to broaden our commercial presence in other countries, sought after because of our expertise and abilities in billing and collection works. I wish David well on his travels!

Benefits Conference 2009 - photos

2009-02-15T20:13:00.007Z

First 2009 updates!

2009-02-03T22:25:00.000Z

Blog update time folks!

I have spent the last couple of weeks in the wonderful sunny climate of the Caribbean, therefore there has been no blog update for nearly a month.

I arrived back in the very cold UK on Wednesday this week and after a quick bit of shut-eye, I had repacked my bag and headed off to London for the January Council round. We normally meet on a Monday and Tuesday but as I had some committee meetings at work at the end of the first full week of January I couldn’t have fit in a holiday without a bit of manoeuvre.

Before I went on holiday I had visited the Bournemouth International Centre with Caroline Hopkins and Gary Watson to walk through the venue for annual conference in October. It looks set to be a truly memorable conference as once again we are looking at doing some slightly different things than when we were there last time.

Council round was busy as usual with Professional Conduct Committee starting at 9.30 am, followed by standing committees at 11.00 (working lunch) and then Policy and Resources at 3.30. We finished at 4.30 giving us 2 hours to get ready for our evening out, but I had a separate meeting with senior vice president Geoff Fisher and signed some certificates following the recent examination round. I feel that it is important that final qualification certificates are signed personally to recognise the achievement and work that the students have put in, well done to all those that are due to receive a certificate over the next few weeks.

We had an inter-institute wine tasting quiz with the Rating Surveyors Association as Tom Dixon (one of our council members) is also the President of the RSA this year. It was tough but great fun and it was two IRRV teams that finished first and second, I am not sure what that says about the IRRV council members and wine, I think I will leave you to make your own minds up!
I ended the evening with a couple of presentations to Bill Lovell and Alan Titheridge who had stepped down from Council in October but had joined us for the evening and also to Bob Trahern (Immediate past president) and a special presentation to Charles Partridge to congratulate him on having been awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

Council was at 9.00 on Tuesday morning, finishing around 11.00. It was nice to welcome the five new members to Council to their first meeting since the elections in October. They all demonstrated that they were keen to take part in the workings of the Council, joining in votes and debates. I also presented Bob with his past president badge, as a memento of his year in office.

I was able to spend most of Friday afternoon working through the mass of emails that accumulated during my absence from work as we were staying in Town for the London and Home Counties Association annual dinner. It was held in the magnificent surroundings of the Innholders Hall, the current building that dates back to just after the Great Fire of London in the 1660’s. It was truly a splendid evening in the company of the Chairman Kevin Sutch along with members of the association, sponsors and guests. There were also four other Council members present so it was indeed a glittering occasion. Kevin held an auction to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Research, and also a sweepstake based around the time that he hopes to run the London marathon in. As a result over £700 was raised on the night for his very worthy cause.

On a sad note, I intend to attend the funeral of Brian Hill this week. Brian was the Secretary of the Institute (now the position we call Chief Executive) prior to 1990. Brian was with the Institute for many years and there are many members that will remember him well. Brian’s funeral service will take place in Brighton on Tuesday, should anyone want details please contact the Chief Executive's office at the Institute.

I have this week in the office before I am off to Benefit conference in Southport, I hope to see many of you there. In the meantime, wrap up warm and let the preparations for annual billing keep you busy!

Caribbean photographs!

2009-02-03T22:21:00.001Z

A Merry Christmas - from the President!

2008-12-23T08:55:00.000Z

Julie's on-line Christmas Card can be viewed properly by clicking on the headline above.

Julie's and Colin's Christmas Lights!

2008-12-23T07:36:00.001Z

As you can see below, the Holden household has got into the spirit of Christmas!

Julie's Christmas Update!

2008-12-22T22:30:00.002Z

The past two weeks have mostly been about the build up to Christmas, and the Institute and Associations all know how to build up to the festive time very well.

The 11th saw David Magor and myself go to the East Midlands' Association Christmas Lunch in Oakham in Rutland, The Chairman of Rutland Council also attended the lunch but had to leave early to attend a greeting of the troops at a nearby Army base where troops had just returned from a tour of Afghanistan. I expect no less of an excuse from anyone else that needs to leave an event early, so take note!!

The lunch was great fun culminating in a round of Happy Birthday to David and the presentation of a fabulous birthday cake from the Association. I have never before seen David lost for words, so that was a first indeed. David had no idea that anyone knew it was his birthday and was therefore most surprised. Sadly we had to leave all too soon to get home at a reasonable time and Gary Watson was entrusted with the cake to return to HQ for David, which I am pleased to say got back in one piece.

On 15th the benefit faculty board met by telephone conference. As Council members we also sit on the faculty boards by right. We can sit on two and this week saw meetings of both the Benefits Board and Local Taxation board. Unfortunately I had to give apologies to the LTR board the previous week as I attended the Surrey Treasurers meeting in Kingston the same day (Well, I have to work for Tandridge at least sometimes!)

The 16th saw me off to Edinburgh once again for the third leg of my great Scottish pre Christmas adventure. No snow this time, it was actually quite mild, but it was a very early start that got me to Gatwick for the 6.30 am flight. I met with Rob De Felice from Gandlake at the airport, although we were both somewhat bleary-eyed and had a second breakfast (but then the BA one was a bit too early anyway) when we arrived at the hotel in Edinburgh for the Gandlake Focus day. Tandridge is a Gandlake customer and as I am away for the next user group in England in January, it was an opportunity to take part in the day in Scotland. The focus group is about sharing ideas with the supplier and each other to share good practice and help develop enhancements for the future. It was a great day with sessions lead by David Magor and Bill Sproul (from Gandlake) helping to kick some ideas around. As always I found it useful and a good networking opportunity.

The evening saw the Scottish Christmas reception and this was held at the Scottish Parliament building. We were lucky to have a brief tour by Alison McInnes MSP, our host for the evening, and the debating chamber and other committee rooms really are very impressive. It was nice to see some old friends and colleagues and to say thank you to supporters of the Institute in Scotland, we were also able to present a small Gift to Maureen Collins from Glasgow City Council, winner of a Gandlake student bursary. John Gandley was able to present the gift as we were so pleased to have them present at the reception. We had a lovely dinner with them afterwards and then walked back to the hotel (with some slightly dodgy directions that made a five minute walk last ½ an hour)! But no harm came to anyone and we made it back safe and sound eventually!

Last Friday was the Institute Christmas party and it was indeed an honour to attend. I met with David and Gary to clear up a bit of business before the “festivities started” and then at 11.00 sharp we started Gary’s quiz, for a large part of the morning we worried that “the A team” (David, Rachel Toombs and myself) might actually win, but a last minute substitution when Gary had finished his quiz and my own offering was the final round, saw us slip back somewhat and the team of Evonne, Mark, George and Shola pipped us at the post. Well done to them!

We then popped off to the Blue Lion around the corner from Doughty Street and had a great afternoon which of course included a secret santa round. Although we couldn’t quite work out why Evonne had been bought a purple space hopper, at least her Santa had been thoughtful enough to provide some plasters for the inevitable!

For those of you who know me, know that I love the Christmas season and our house is always festooned with lights, I shall post some pictures to show you the full effect shortly. I wonder how many other Institute members do similar? Would love to see your offerings….

This week will see me at work for the three days before Christmas and then a four day break. The Institute Official E-Christmas Card went out today, the savings from not sending actual cards will be going to my chosen charity which is the St Peter and St James Hospice in Wivelsfield, East Sussex. I shall post more about the charity as the year unfolds.

May I wish all of you a peaceful and blessed Christmas and all good things for the New Year. I shall do one further update before my holiday in January, so stay tuned and try not to over indulge too much over the holidays.

Some photographs from Scotland

2008-12-22T22:28:00.000Z

Above : Julie at the Gandlake Scottish Focus Group meeting - IRRV Chief Executive David Magor addresses the group.

Above : Julie with Alison McInnes MSP and Scottish Association President Hillary Kelly.

Above : Julie with Scottish Association President Hillary Kelly.

Very tartan fortnight!

2008-12-06T19:42:00.003Z

Well what a busy and very tartan two weeks it has been.

Last week I was in the office until Thursday lunchtime and then I was off to Gatwick to fly to Glasgow for the Scottish Traditional Chinese karaoke evening in Dumfries (yep, you did read that right!). We had a brilliant evening, the Chinese was second to none, but the karaoke…. Well, I can’t sing at all, but before the end of the evening Hillary Kelly had lead the challenge with “Sweet Caroline” and I had responded with “You don’t have to say you love me” and even duetted with past president Allan Traynor on my favourite ever song “The Summer of 69”. However we were all upstaged by Bob Mackay's performance of the donkey song, don’t ask me ask him.

The following morning we went off to the forum meeting which saw the Chairman (Allan Traynor) and Reporter (Mike Peterson) both of many years, stepping down from the posts. Allan has moved to the Midlands and Mike to a different role at City of Edinburgh Council. The Association recognised their past commitment and presented them with a gift of thanks. I also addressed the meeting and spoke of the work being carried out on the education strategy. After a few questions we had to leave in order to make our way home at a decent time. David was driving and we dropped Allan off on the way. We were able to get lots of work done as I had my laptop with me and although you may think that the President and the Chief Exec spend a lot of time together, it really is snatched time and this was a great chance to spend 4 hours working, discussing strategy and firing off emails. David dropped me at Didcot Parkway at 5.30 and I still didn’t get home until 8.30 but it was still an excellent use of the day. I got home to an empty house as hubby and youngest were out playing badminton, charming home coming, I had to make my own dinner!!!!

This week was Scottish Benefit Conference and Colin and I flew on Tuesday afternoon to Edinburgh and then on to a very cold and white Crieff, meeting up with Allan Traynor and his partner Dee at the airport. Allan is the most superior sat nav that I have encountered to date, getting us to Crieff in record time. The conference had an excellent mix of DWP officers, auditors, fraud experts and LA benefit practitioners. It was my privilege to open the conference and make a few observations as to the challenges facing benefits especially in the current economic climate.

I am on record saying that the Scottish Benefits Conference is my favourite of the Institute's annual events. This year did not disappoint at all and I maintain that it is the “kick off” to Christmas with great fun on the Wednesday night as we danced the night away to the disco. It was yet another late night and I was chairing all day on the Thursday so I had to be up and awake for the 9.30 start, no problem as I slept like a log and was up in plenty of time. It must be said that so were the delegates and I do pay them tribute as they never fail to amaze me with their dedication to this particular conference, and despite the bad weather warnings and more snow over night, almost everyone stayed to the end.

The snow did stay away in the morning and we were able to leave and get back to Edinburgh in good time.

Friday was my day off (I work a 9 day fortnight) but I still had a teleconference with David and Kevin Stewart, however proving my multi tasking abilities during the phone call I put the shopping away and did the polishing during the span of the phone call. Hoorah for cordless phones!

I have been off to the Christmas food and drink fare at Ardingly this weekend and am pleased to report that I have just about finished my Christmas shopping, all a bit manic, but with these clod and frosty mornings I certainly feel in the mood this year, how does the song go… “It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas….”

Until next time, take care …

Scottish Benefits Conference 2008

2008-12-05T16:19:00.009Z

An update by Julie on her attendance at Scottish Benefits Conference will be covered in her next update, but meantime, here's a few photographs from this highly successful event!

Below : A couple of photographs from Crieff, where the Conference took place - luckily all speakers made it to the Conference - as did almost all delegates - very lucky in fact, given the weather conditions. Below : Julie with Rob De Felice of Conference Sponsors Gandlake.

Below : Julie with some of the DWP speakers.

Below : A lively exhibition area.

A few photos from Dumfries!

2008-11-29T20:07:00.006Z

Below : Julie and IRRV Chief Executive David Magor at the IRRV Scottish Association and Forum's Chinese Karaoke Night in Dumfries!

Below : Past President Allan Traynor and Scottish Association President Hillary Kelly
Below : Julie addresses the IRRV Scottish Association and Forum Joint Meeting

Photographs to go with Julie's latest update!

2008-11-23T11:20:00.003Z

Above : Julie with President of the East Midlands Association, Alistair Townsend
Above : Awards in Birmingham

Above : At the awards in Birmingham

A busy two weeks it has been by no means!

2008-11-22T21:45:00.006Z

Friday last I attended the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors' centenary luncheon. It was a lovely lunch in the crypt at the Guildhall. However, I think I was most impressed over the comparison with our own Institute. We celebrated our 125th Anniversary in 2007, so we are of a similar age of ACES. However, in comparison with our 5000 membership, ACES has only 400 members. We must step back on occasion and consider the attributes of our Institute. We often say what a small organisation we are, but, in comparison with others, we must appear actually quite large.

This week saw a rare attendance at a Forum day on Monday. As always I was really pleased to see that many of the attendees are happy to contribute to the information exchange and that the coverage was as good as ever. I am sure that those of you who do subscribe to the Forum really find them of value and those of you that don’t - maybe it is time to give it a go?

Tuesday - we had a syllabus review group at Doughty Street and got our teeth in to the format of the new corporate examination structure. Most of you will be aware of changes to the certificate examination are being finalised and it was time to turn our attention to the remainder of our qualification to make it relevant and adding value to our members and potential members today. We have some audacious aspirations for the qualification with each stage resulting in a recognised level of qualification with transferable elements for outside qualifications at the higher levels. I shan’t say anymore other than it is quite exciting and this will be driven forward over the next few months.

Wednesday - I travelled to Birmingham in the evening for the World of E-learning Awards, where the ESA module of Euclidian was up for a rapid learning award. Sadly we didn’t win but it was a fun evening (including service highlights such as the plates were piled up in front of diners on the table to be cleared and the poached pairs being so undercooked that they were all but pinging off the plates as diners attempted to carve them by spoon or fork, perhaps we would have been more successful with a chain saw? - must remember to pack one for future events).

Thursday saw a very early start as we left Birmingham on the 8.00 am train in order to make it back for the Examination and Assessment Board meeting at 10.15 in London. I was able to do some e-mails and work on the laptop on the way so it was 2 hours well spent. The Board was considering the final tweaks to the certificate syllabus and discussing matters such as transition for existing students who may be caught up in the change. You see, when you change a syllabus or structure, there are many elements that have to be considered to ensure as smooth a path of change as possible.

After the board meeting, David Magor and I met with the Institute's accountants for an update on our financial position and then we had a lunch date with past president Tom Dixon, to talk about a liaison event between the RSA (of which Tom is the current President) and the IRRV in January. The day did not end there as after lunch David, Rachel, Colin and myself met up at a potential venue for the annual reception in June to see if it could meet our requirements. As you know the venue is kept as a surprise until much nearer the date, but I will say that I hope that those of you who attend will have a fun evening and if David's and Colin’s reaction at the venue was anything to go on, I think it is safe to say that you will!

Colin and I finally got out of London at 5.30 (having arrived at 9.40am!) and had to hope the train wouldn’t be delayed as we were due to meet Colin’s Brother and sister-in-law from Gatwick and then go out for dinner. As it turned out they hopped on to our train at Gatwick so we all arrived home at the same time!

Friday was my 10th day and so I did not have to fly off to work first thing - a good job as we were off at 12.30 to attend the East Midlands Association dinner that evening. What should have been a 3 hour drive turned in to 4 and a half, largely due to the volume of traffic and roadworks along the M1 but also as he instructions we had to find the hotel told us to take the third exit off the roundabout (or Traffic Island as they call them in the Midlands). However, not only do we call the “roundabouts” by different names in the south we seem to have a different method of counting. Now I know that maths is not my strong point, but I defy anyone to exit on Junction 24 of the M1 and find the Hilton Hotel on the third exit! It is actually the 2nd exit, but, because there is a dual carriageway entry and exit on the roundabout for the prior exit (which I count as one not two) it is somewhat confusing! There are four roads that lead off this roundabout and I am now well acquainted with all of these roads as it was “Murphys” law that proved the last one that we tried was the right one! We arrived at the hotel a little frazzled but with plenty of time to unwind and relax before the dinner.

The black tie dinner was excellent with over 130 guests. We were all delighted to see that Gary Watson was able to join us, looking fit and well and very much on good form! The band and disco after the dinner were really good and the dance floor was full most of the night.

Our table nearly set off the fire alarm as the CEO managed to place his charity envelope a little too close to the tea light and it was only when we saw the plume of smoke rising that we realised he had actually set fire to it! David didn’t win in the raffle I suspect that his entry was somewhat charred!

The Raffle raised over £700 for Alistair Townsend’s chosen charity of the paediatric unit at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, a worthwhile charity and fabulous support from those in attendance. I have asked that Presidents/Chairs of the Associations do adopt a local charity for any fundraising at their events as I think that local people are happy to support local charities and this was an excellent example of this.

I was very pleased to be part of the event and I would like to say a big thank you to all who were there for making us feel very welcome, especially the exec members who proved (especially in comparison with the events from earlier in the week) how very brilliantly the IRRV stages social activities.

Greetings blog spotters!

2008-11-09T20:41:00.004Z

Another two weeks have passed and it is time to let you know what I have been up to.

Last week was Institute activity free so I was pleased to be able to drop by the vintage car rally (London to Brighton) on Sunday 2nd to watch some of the old cars. Living on the route of the original rally (you remember the old film Genevieve with Kenneth Moore?) Colin, myself and a couple of friends try to make it a tradition to cut along to London Road to sit in the Continental Café (run by the wonderful Inga who serves homemade goulash to keep you warm) spotting the cars and waving to the occupants. Sometimes you are treated to a breakdown and other times just a cloud of smoke! But it is all great fun, and the condition of the cars shows the great care and love that the owners have for their cars. I have included a couple of photo’s to show some of the cars.

I spent the early part of this week on some management and leadership training that we are carrying out at Tandridge DC. We were talking about strategies and how these should best be communicated to an organisation. It was really good and there were lots of hints and tips that I am looking forward to putting in to practice. Thursday saw me meeting with David (having travelled to town dressed ready for the Black tie Rating Surveyors' Association dinner that evening and enduring some very peculiar looks from fellow travellers), to discuss some upcoming events later this year including the programme for next year's International Conference.

David and I walked the fifteen minutes to the Chancery Court Hotel, luckily it wasn’t raining and I managed to get there without being too windswept. This event was the first outing for the Presidential Medal – albeit without the chain which is still being re-gilt and engraved with the names of the last few past presidents – it also now has a nice new green ribbon. The dinner was a fabulous affair with many other Institute members present, Tom Dixon (Institute Council member and Past President) is currently the RSA president and it was lovely to see him hosting and enjoying such a successful evening. Tom and his Vice-President regaled the assembled with a very funny skit based around US media coverage of Gordon Brown taking over the premiership from Tony Blair, centring round the very different approaches of electing the leadership of the two governments.

Today has been Remembrance Sunday - I very proudly watched Colin lay wreaths at both the Church Service and then later at the war memorial in Wivelsfield on behalf of the Parish Council (he is a Parish Councillor). Every year the familiar words of the service and the hymns and music we hear never dim the feelings of loss and immense gratitude for the sacrifice made, in so many conflicts and wars, distant and more recent. Those four words are so poignant and never lose their edge, and so as we mark 90 years since the end of the first world war. We shall never forget.

Some photographs to go with Julie's latest update!

2008-11-09T19:59:00.002Z

Tom Dixon and his VP "skitting the american media" : Credited, with thanks, to : Robert Brown Director at Sanderson Weatherall

Update : 25th October 2008

2008-10-25T20:00:00.001+01:00

I left home on Friday morning to catch the 06.15 train to reach Keele University where Lindsay Frankland had organised a S/NVQ day for new students. Despite each leg of the journey on the way up encountering delays I still arrived in good time, having met up with Michael Hopkins from HQ on Euston Concourse.

It was great to open the day and to (hopefully) encourage the students with their studies and their on-going career and involvement with the Institute. There were 32 students and reps from NVQ centres present, they worked their way through practical exercises involving nails and a block of wood to underpin the point of “competences” and although light-hearted the message was well delivered. This exercise was run by Judith Johnson an external verifier for the NVQ’s for whom I have to thank for the photographs (as I forgot my camera). Actually it was Lindsay that was snapping away, although he was seen to raise a blush when instructed by one of the attendees on near completion of the balancing task - “not to flash”!

I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the students as I was able to pass on a few remembrances from my own student days. Although there were no competence based qualifications back then (it was exam or nothing), I am so pleased that we now offer a much greater range of study method to reach our technician membership criteria.

Michael and I left at lunchtime as we were booked on early afternoon trains and after a bit of confusion at the ticket office managed to get Michael’s ticket amended to allow us to travel on the same train to continue earlier discussions about the progress on the new syllabus for the certificate examination and the full professional qualification. More on this will follow over the next few months as the Law Research and Education committee as well as the working groups firm up the proposals and syllabus.

Last night I managed to meet up with some girl friends for dinner, there were four of us and it was amusing to note that at one time or another all four of us have been members of the Institute! One of my dinner friends, Sarah Sears has recently taken over the expert content updating role for Euclidian and she was telling us about odd hours of the day and night that she was doing the updates.

Today saw me having a rare Saturday all to myself, besides the obligatory housework that had to be finished, I managed a trip to the garden centre (all the Christmas lights and trees were there already!) and a nice long walk with the dog, I think the dog was impressed anyway as I don’t often get many chances to walk her at weekends these days. I am currently indulging in “Strictly” for the first time this season, the Viennese Waltz is one of my favourite dances and the girls frocks are beautiful.

Ah well that’s about all for now, the honeymoon is almost over, as November shows the diary really to be filling up, so updates may become much more frequent.

A quick update on Gary Watson, who as most of you will know, fell ill just before annual conference. He is at home recuperating and we hope to have him back with us soon, I am sure that you as well as all of us, continue to wish him godspeed in his recovery and look forward to his return to HQ.

Photos from Keele!

2008-10-25T19:56:00.005+01:00

Luna, Julie's dog!

2008-10-25T19:50:00.000+01:00

Julie's latest update!

2008-10-15T21:58:00.001+01:00

What a busy week I have had, but not all of it has been Institute related!

Last Friday I met David Magor and his PA Rachel to discuss diary dates and set up a few important things to allow the presidential year to work smoothly (setting up an account with the car hire firm for example!). For those of you who think that the Institute always eats in the most salubrious of places let me advise you that we did go for lunch in a very sweet little Italian on Gray’s Inn Road (just round the corner from the Institute), the speciality of the day was penne al arrabiata with sausages! Plain, simple but yummy!

I had to rush back from the meeting to make sure that I was home well before 7pm as I was treading the boards at our local village hall, where the “Pewmongers” were putting on a music and sketch review called “artistic licence”. It was great fun, and although occasional lines were dropped or props were left behind (we discovered 2 minutes in to opening night that the bell used to summon the “artists wife” was still sitting on the piano backstage), but a great time was had by all and yours truly was singing in the chorus and doing a little acting and poetry recital. It was a bit of a different stage to the one at Manchester central two weeks ago, but it was none the less nerve wracking.

Monday saw my first official engagement as president - I left work at lunchtime and drove for four and a half hours (minor panic at the Severn Bridge when just for a moment I thought that I had no change and the toll bridge only takes cash!). I drove to beautiful Llandrindod Wells for a Seminar that was taking place on Tuesday. The Seminar was attended by almost all of the authorities in Wales and there were over 40 delegates present. We talked about the funds awarded to the Welsh Authorities by the Welsh Assembly Government for benefit take up campaigns. I made the point that the rest of the UK is very envious that a further £3m will be distributed to the Councils over the next three years for them to take forward take up initiatives. There were some excellent examples of innovation and proactive partnership working, which now needs to be picked up by all Councils to ensure that we are promoting income maximisation in our communities, especially in light of the current economic situation. I left Wales with many ideas scribbled on my note pad that I intend to look in to further, sadly however I don’t have the funding to implement many of the ideas, but will see what we can do within our existing budgets!

For those of you that want to see the full report on the work carried out so far the Welsh Assembly Government has compiled a report which is available on their website http://www.assemblywales.org . I can’t commend it highly enough, as any assistance in helping people to claim the benefits that they are entitled to has to be a great idea.

The diary is starting to fill up, so I will be back soon with a next instalment - until then may your glass always be half full.

Latest Presidential Photographs!

2008-10-15T21:54:00.004+01:00

Photographs from Performance Awards NIght!

2008-10-06T13:15:00.003+01:00

Here's a photograph of Julie from the IRRV Performance Awards Night taken by the Digital Paparazzi. You can see a host of photos from Awards Night on the IRRV website (just click on the headline above!)

Julie's Presidential Photographs

2008-10-06T11:55:00.003+01:00

Two of Julie's Presidential Photographs below:

Julie becomes President - video clip

2008-10-05T22:21:00.000+01:00

Julie's first blog update!

2008-10-05T20:13:00.004+01:00

Well here we go with my first blog update since taking the Presidential “baton” from Bob on Thursday night.

It was a fabulous night although I must admit to some nerves before getting on stage for the handover. I hope that those of you who were there enjoyed the US presidential election spoof, for those that want to see the full version (only a clip was shown on the night – as the full version was a bit too long) it has been added to the blog. You can change the name and spoof your friends too if you like!

After the handover, we were able to congratulate some winners of the evenings awards and commiserate with the “runners up”. There are no losers at the finalist stage of the performance awards as they have all proved themselves to be without a doubt excellent in their field, unfortunately the trophy can only be given to one entry though, but I hope that they will re enter and try again in future years.

Friday morning I arranged for some pictures of the new Senior Vice President Geoff Fisher and Junior Vice President Kerry Macdermott, they will appear in a future “Insight” to make sure that all members are aware of the succession for the Presidency.

As well as the President's chain I also brought a cold back from Manchester (must have been all that rain - did it stop all week???), so I spent Saturday on the couch finally getting to watch the previous Sundays Redskins v Cowboys NFL match (Redskins won – Yay!), and getting through a box of tissues.

With red nose covered by a large amount of make up, I went down to Lancing today for my official presidential photographs, but not before the vicar in my local church had announced to the congregation my ascension to president and asked if I would please wear my tiara(!) to church soon. I’m not sure he completely understands the Institute, I wonder if Geoff and Kerry would be pleased if I had the chain altered to a tiara instead?

Official duties start next week, so I look forward to updating you on these as we go…..

(Pictured below is Julie with Kerry -left - the Junior Vice President and Geoff - right - the Senior Vice President)

Gospel Choir at Performance Awards Dinner!

2008-10-03T19:09:00.002+01:00

There will soon be an update from Julie about IRRV Annual Conference and the superb Performance Awards Dinner, after which Julie was inaugurated as the new IRRV President ... so update and photos to follow! Meantime, here's a short clip of the superb gospel singers from a super IRRV night!

10 things to know about Julie!

2008-09-21T09:06:00.000+01:00

1 - She was born in Germany

2 – She supports the Washington Redskins American football team

3 – She did a year's work experience before retaking her A-levels at Great Yarmouth Borough Council, never re-took her A levels but stayed on for five years in Benefits at GYBC

4 – She is married to Colin, another IRRV Corporate Member, who she first met when she was an IRRV tech student

5 – She did an excerpt reading of the 4th Harry Potter book on release day for WH Smith

6 – She has two step sons and a golden retriever called Luna

7 - She has been to every mainland state in the USA

8 – Her house looks like Santa’s grotto at Christmas because of the number of lights inside and out!

9 – She met the Queen when she was 8 years old

10 – She is up for anything daft to raise money for charity and has taken part in the race for life for many years, as well as sleepwalks (in PJ’s at midnight)!

Some photos of Julie ...

2008-09-21T09:05:00.003+01:00

Above : Recent picture of Julie Above : Julie addresses IRRV Scottish Conference 2008
Above : Julie at the Trevi Fountain in Rome - 2007

Above : Julie and husband Colin

Above : Julie with Colin and her parents