The final arrangements are in place for our Annual Conference on 21 & 22 November and we are looking forward to a tremendous 10th birthday celebration for ADSO. We are almost fully booked but some places are still available if you hurry.
I am pleased to say that we have increased the number of commercial sponsors this year including two, possibly three, from Europe. This is a really positive sign that ADSO’s name and reputation is spreading, not only within the UK but abroad as well. With Brexit looming, we think it’s even more important to strengthen our links with like-minded European organisations.
Continuing with the international theme, our chair John Austin, plus Paul Wickenden and Peter Sass, attended the VVG Conference in the Netherlands between 2 and 4 October. VVG stands for ‘Vereniging van Griffers’ and it’s the association of Council Clerks in the Netherlands and very similar to ADSO in many respects. We were invited as their guests and we have returned the invitation to Hans Rijs, one of their leading members, to our conference in November. Those of you who attended the summer Symposium in Stratford upon Avon may have met Hans. We have discussed with VVG the possibility of exchange programmes between ADSO members and their staff in Holland during 2020. Further work is required but we are very confident that this will happen. It may be of particular interest to our learners to expand their knowledge of governance models outside of the UK. If you are interested in visiting the Netherlands and/or in hosting a visit please let John Austin know. We can then start discussions with interested parties as soon as possible. We have also been asked to take a more active role in their conference next year and we hope to offer a package of support for a number of ADSO members to attend. More about this in the coming months.
Whilst at the conference, John, Paul and Peter also had productive discussions with the SLCC (Society of Local Council Clerks) about the relationship between the work their members do and the links with ADSO members in other tier authorities. We will continue these discussions perhaps with a view to working up some joint initiatives for those of you who work with parish and town councils.
We are working hard to raise our profile in other areas too. For example, I attended an event in Hackney organised by an organisation called Public Practice They asked ADSO to talk to private sectors architects, surveyors, and sustainability staff who are starting placements in various local authorities and who knew nothing about local government governance or about local councillors. This was was an excellent opportunity to help fellow professionals and to highlight the important work ADSO members do. Secondly, we are dipping our toe in the water and attending our first University Careers Fair at Bath on 24th October. The aim is to promote careers in local government in particular governance and democratic services. This is part of our strategic objective of supporting and promoting the governance sector to the outside world.
As we all know, a general election is looming. Along with the AEA, we have been asked if we would be willing to arrange placements for House of Commons staff within local authorities during the election period, whenever that may be! Such staff will be in a period of ‘downtime’ leading up to a Parliamentary election and are therefore seeking opportunities for professional development and different experiences. The idea is that such placements could support election and democratic services staff within Councils’ in pre-election work. The Commons staff will vary in seniority and experience but will generally be people with similar professional skills to those working in the democratic functions of local authorities. If you are interested in getting some extra support during the frantic election period, please let John Austin know as soon as possible.
There are a couple of requests for information on the members’ forum this week. One relates the structures and roles, the other about a members’ weekly bulletin. Please take a look and respond if you can.
Have a good week.