Latest update from Julie!

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

Charity Progress

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

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

Red Nose Day!

Red Noses and Rhinos!

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 ...

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

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

First 2009 updates!

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!

A Merry Christmas - from the President!

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

Julie's and Colin's Christmas Lights!

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

Julie's Christmas Update!

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

Update : 25th October 2008

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!

Luna, Julie's dog!

Julie's latest update!

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!

Photographs from Performance Awards NIght!

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

Two of Julie's Presidential Photographs below: