Hi Everyone
ADSO Awards
I hope everyone who didn’t get to see the ADSO Awards live last week has had the chance to catch up with the video of the event which is on our website https://vimeo.com/485866190
I really enjoyed the event and it was great that we were able to shine a light on some of the great work you have all been doing. I know our sector isn’t good at coming forward or telling people about the valuable work they do as they just seen it as doing the day job. In the submissions I saw it certainly went over and above doing the day job. A big thank you to all those colleagues involved in putting the event together as I know how much work that went into it. Also many thanks to LLG for all their help and support.
We had a really good Board meeting today and discussed how we could improve the awards and had some ideas on its frequency and some new categories and how we could use the winners in all the various categories to contribute towards our work over the next year and also share their good practice with others. Regional Reps will also be asking for your views at their next meetings before we make a final decision.
ADSO Reserves
We also discussed the question on reserves at the AGM and how we could improve our support to learners and members overall. Some really good ideas re bursaries, cost of the qualifications and ideas on how to help those members or authorities whose budgets were small to be able to take part in the qualifications.
As always the devil is in the detail and I have been tasked to come up with criteria that is clear, fair and manageable but also helps us targets those individuals and authorities that need the most help. Regional Reps will also be consulting members on the options we discussed before the Board make final decisions at their next meeting. The Board also agreed to continue its sponsorship of the Scrutiny Meetups that Dave McKenna has been running virtually and we know members have found these useful sessions.
Members’ Code of Conduct
I hear the new Members’ Code of Conduct has been agreed and we hope to place a copy of it on the website when we get sight of it. This will probably be a good subject for our first webinar early next year.
Newsletter subscription
I know Joanna Boaler and Sarah Hawkins have been busy not only updating the website but investigating and sorting out problems with those members who have had difficulty receiving the weekly newsletter. They have refreshed some settings which may have changed your subscription preference. If you don’t want to receive the newsletter, although I’m not sure why you would want to take that option, then just unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.
ADSO Main Sponsor
The deadline for submissions to be ADSOs main sponsor for the next two years is close of play today as I write this newsletter. We have had strong interest from sponsors and the Directors will be assessing those bids over the next week.
IIMC Region XI Newsletter
We will be working closely with Hans Rijs, the new Regional XI Director on the IIMC Board to foster and improve relations with our colleagues and partner organisations across the Regional XI area. Here is a link to the latest IIMC newsletter https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/widget.html?hash=7c8gmnprzp
ADSO Forum
There are some interesting topics in the forum this week highlighted in the ‘Latest from the members’ forum’ section below.
That’s all from me, have a good week.
John Lynch, Director of Finance