6.18 — weeknotes — Bumper Edition - Socitm — Award Winning!
These are later than I wanted but I needed to take some time to reflect on President conference and the last year as Socitm President (and was in a field in the west country last week in the van, so perfect opportunity to reflect).
What an amazing and privileged year to be President, we have achieved so much over the last year. Most notable Socitm has become a charity after several attempts over many years. This will ensure that the organisation is able to really meet the needs of our members into the future.
An amazing amount of work has gone into achieving this by a huge number of people but I’d like to mention David Bryant who has steered a path through the process with grit and determination. Without him, it just wouldn’t have happened and some of the processes that we have had to go through this year have been convoluted.
A dry subject I know but we have spent a lot of time this year on governance. Making sure that we have the right processes and understanding of the complexities of the organisations is really important and I think we have put in place the processes to continue this into the future. Ensuring that we have good documentation and approach means that we won’t lose the momentum.
The Presidents team over the last year have just been amazing. From all over the UK we have genuinely come together to be good friends. Able to challenge and support each other. We have all had challenges both personal and professional but it has genuinely felt like we have been there for each other. Something as simple as the WhatsApp group I created for the team has really connected us — also created a welcome escape from the challenges at work as well.
The Socitm team, led by CEX of the Year, Nadira Hussain are simply amazing. Like a very well-oiled machine, like a family. It takes a massive amount of work to organise and run these events (and everything else that Socitm does) and we are striving to be different, keep things fresh and continue to work for our Members. They are all such a dedicated group that stretch and push themselves and each other to move things along and deliver exceptional results!
The day before conference we all came together for a strategy day to really think about and drive the future of Socitm — some great ideas and things to come!
So, onto president's conference. Wow! I know I’m going to be biased but what a conference! Genuinely gutted that Huw, Matt and Kurt were not able to attend and they were missed. With the planning for the last couple of years I really wanted to ensure we were delivering value for our members. I think we more than achieved that. So many people took the time to come up to me and say how much they enjoyed the conference and to me that says it all.
OK, so my chairing skills on the first day meant that we were 20 minutes over time but how can you stop such amazing speakers — that’s my excuse anyway. Was great to see Ian Thomas open the event and speak so passionately about people and embedding diversity within his organisation. The day just got better and better — not ever going to forget Dragons and Unicorns!
It was a mixture of sadness, relief and happiness that I passed the chain over to Carol from Walsall Council. It genuinely has been an amazing year and such a privilege to have been President this year. I am now Immediate Past President and looking forward to supporting Carol in her Presidential year.
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A week off was needed — was so nice to spend some time in the campervan in a field in the west country. The weather was kind, the lemonade was chilled, the new awning that I bought and inflatable sofa were amazing!
I know you shouldn’t when you are on leave, but I did enjoy attending the Penna / MJ roundtable discussion on AI from the Campervan as well — the 5G mostly worked well!!
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Award winning!
Whilst I was away on leave Hounslow won the MJ Award for ‘A whole-team approach to tackling health inequalities’ — specifically for the work done on Digital Inclusion — I couldn’t be prouder of the organisation or the team for this and was great to see Sadia from ChelWest there collecting the award. So Proud!! As I was on leave I wasn’t able to be there with the team to collect the award — but managed to have a little photo shoot when it arrived back at Hounslow House.
The MJ Achievement Awards — The Health Foundation
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Back in the office this week and for one reason or another have been in Hounslow every day. I don’t mind saying that has been a bit of a shock to the system. Not done 5 days since pre pandemic.
Tuesday was especially fun dashing home from Hounslow to give an update at Cabinet Political at 2030 on the TCE work. Rushing around in the heat is never fun.
A very busy but productive week.
The team organised with the Met Police, some counter terrorism training for Shop Keepers of Hounslow on Wednesday — was good to be part of this and bringing alive how we are keeping communities safe.
Some challenges on the new planning system so the team focussing on this a lot. Bringing the right people together to spend some focussed time on this has been really successful in working through the issues — getting there.
General Election next week — as usual involved in the count on Thursday night — delivered the training this week to some Count Supervisors so fresh in the mind now!
Finished the week with a day of Emergency Planning training — phew!
Tune of the Week: GhostMasters — Celebrate Good Times (Extended Mix)
