Weekly message from John Austin, Chair

Another conference, AGM and awards ceremony has come to an end. Our first remote conference went off successfully and the awards were an amazing celebration of everything good about our profession. It’s great to see that feedback is already positive.

The AGM re-elected the ADSO Directors as follows:

John Austin – Chair
Peter Sass – Vice-Chair
Susan Biddle – Director of Training
Joanna Boaler – Director of Communications
John Lynch – Director of Finance
Priya Patel – Company Secretary

Our congratulations again to the following winners at the awards ceremony:

Learner of the Year:  Cathy Hayward – London Borough of Sutton

Rookie of the Year:  Marianne Unwin – Wyre Council

Distinguished Service Award:  David Hair – Lincolnshire County Council

The standard of entries was very high indeed and well done to all those shortlisted.

Conference gave us an excellent variety of webinars with some great question and answers, including a brilliant Q & A panel at the end, expertly chaired by Peter Stanyon (Chief Executive of the AEA) and comprising:

Councillor Nesil Caliskan: Leader – London Borough of Enfield
Colin Copus: Emeritus Professor at De Montford University and ADSO Non-Executive Director
Councillor Jane Corbett: Deputy Executive Mayor – Liverpool City Council
Nick Golding:   Editor of the Local Government Chronicle

All four panellists provided quality answers to some very searching questions, and we could have gone on for a lot longer than an hour.

The three events were supported technically by our friends at LLG and my thanks to them for their support and expertise. A big thank you as well to Sarah Hawkins for all her work before, during, and after the events.

Our £100 charity prize draw at the awards was won by Monika Balazs from Cambridgeshire County Council who will nominate a charity of her choice to receive the donation. Well done Monika.

The ADSO Board never sleeps and planning is already underway for Conference 2022.

John Austin, ADSO Chair

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