Director Appointments:
The deadline has now passed for nominations to the Director positions that are subject to election this year. There are no contested positions. The following valid nominations have been received for Board membership as follows:
Chair – John Austin
Vice-Chair – Dave Burn
Director of Finance – John Lynch
Director of Communications – Wayne Chandai
Company Secretary – Pete Savage
These nominations will now be put to the AGM on 22nd November for approval.
Annual Conference:
The programme for this year’s Annual Conference is coming together and we hope to be able to issue the programme in the next fortnight or so. There will be a range of interesting workshops and speakers over the 2 days. Of particular interest to many will be the workshop on the relationship between Democratic Services and the Monitoring Officer role – being delivered jointly by our chair, John Austin and Suki Binjal from Lawyers in Local Government (LLG). I’m also looking forward to the plenary session on day 2 and hearing from Stewart Jackson – former Peterborough MP and Chief of Staff to David Davies on the impact of Brexit on Local Government.
https://www.adso.co.uk/annual-conference-2018/
Training Courses:
There are still places left for the ‘Just a Minute’ training course in Sheffield City Council on 9th October:https://www.adso.co.uk/adso-training/book-your-course/
Scrutiny guidance:
There’s an excellent discussion and exchange of views going on right now on the ADSO forum about the emerging guidance for local authorities on Overview and Scrutiny: https://www.adso.co.uk/forums/topic/help-develop-the-guidance-for-how-os-works-in-local-authorities/ Please look at the posts and feel free to contribute your own ideas and suggestions.
Ward Boundary Reviews:
Starting later this year, both Richmond and Wandsworth Councils begin their first Council-wide ward boundary reviews for almost 20 years, working to concurrent timetables. Those colleagues who have been through this recently will remember the joy and excitement of drafting the ‘Council Size’ submission and liaising with political groups about warding options. Wish me luck as we enter that process in the coming weeks and keep an eye out for my cries for help on the forum!
Regional Meetings:
The work done in the ADSO regions continues to be the most important thing we do; sharing best practice and offering a sounding board for dealing with operational difficulties. There will be Board member attendance at two forthcoming regional meetings: John Lynch at the next South West region meeting on 11th October and me at the next Eastern regional meeting in Welwyn Hatfield on 1st November. John and I are looking forward to those events and meeting more ADSO members.