Weekly message, John Austin, Chair

The national political farce continues and no doubt many of you are on election alert. It certainly seems to be when it will take place and not if. In fact as I’m typing this, my Household Enquiry Form has just dropped through my letterbox. Thank you Sefton Council! I said to somebody the other week that they should have put DSOs in charge of Brexit and it would have been sorted long ago. The more I watch the news and read the papers, the more I believe that!

You will have received a number of reminders about the annual conference in November. This promises to be a great event in a new venue so if you are interested, please book as soon as you can. It’s our 10th birthday and we will have one or two surprises in store. So come and celebrate with us.

I’m pleased to say that ADSO is increasingly being asked to undertake different types of constitutional reviews within authorities. This is a sign that we are valued as a professional organisation and are seen as adding value to local democracy within councils.

We had the ADSO Board on Friday 20th September and we will report on the main outcomes in future newsletters. We continued our strategic review of ADSO as an organisation so we can ensure we are fit for purpose in the years to come.

Nominations for Board Directors are now open so if you are interested in putting your name forward then please visit the website under the tabs ‘About Us’ then ‘ADSO Governance’ and all the information is there. If you want an informal chat then please give me a call (07793 013616) or drop me an e mail (john.austin@adso.co.uk).

There are some interesting topics on the members’ forum this week and I’m pleased to see the debate is still on-going regarding the next version of Knowles. This is a unique opportunity for you to influence the next edition and suggest how you think it could be improved. Please keep the suggestions coming in.

The following topics in particular are lacking replies so perhaps you could take a look and see if you can respond:
-Extra-Ordinary Council meetings
-Resident Parking Permit Schemes
-Member e learning
-Policy on policies
I-RP Review – Member Survey

That’s all for now. Have a great week.

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