It doesn’t bode well with lockdown measures being imposed in some parts of the country, curfews after 10pm, several authorities stating they will have trouble setting a balanced budget and asking for help, a large number of redundancies on the horizon to help meet budget cuts and possible reorganisations of the local government structure are just a few of the issues that come to mind. 2021 will be even more challenging than 2020.
With that in mind it’s nice to have some positive things to look forward to such as the virtual awards for our learners who have successfully completed their qualifications and the winners of our ADSO Team of Year and Rookie of the Year Awards. We are working on arrangements as I write and will let you know the date for these as soon as possible.
We had our Board meeting at the end of last week and set out below is a quick update of things we dealt with:
We welcomed two new regional representatives to our meeting. Firstly, Katherine Harclerode from Rotherham Council, representing the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside. Katherine will be working with Michael Robson in that region. Secondly Douglas Campbell at Swindon Borough Council who will be supporting Libby Johnstone in the South West. Thanks to both for taking on these roles. We look forward to working with you.
We place increased importance on promoting the democratic services sector as a worthwhile career. Had it not been for Covid, we would have wanted to attend more university/college career events in 2020 but clearly that’s not been possible. We are approached from time to time by people asking how they secure jobs in democratic services and we advise them as much as we can.
The Board agreed to offer 12 months free membership to those who are actively looking for a job within democratic services and are currently unemployed. This will hopefully help to increase their knowledge and networking and improve their employment prospects. We don’t expect the numbers to be huge but it may help a small number of people enter our profession and support your recruitment. If you are contacted by anybody who fits the above criteria, please refer them on.
The Board also discussed the weekly newsletter and the relatively low number of members who read it. We are looking to improve the format and content and I will shortly be opening a thread on the forum seeking views. For example, is the information we send you helpful? Is weekly circulation too often? Would fortnightly be better? Is Monday the best day of the week for you to receive it? Please check in on the thread and give your views. If you are a regular reader, please promote the newsletter to your colleagues. Also discuss with colleagues why they may not read it and let us know why.
We agreed proposals to develop our virtual training offer and details will be published as soon as possible. Remote delivery is so different to face to face contact so we are re-training our trainers and adapting the training content to ensure we are equipped to provide high quality remote courses in the future. We also agreed proposals to deliver our webinar programme from later 2020 into 2021. Watch out for further details.
John Lynch, Finance Director