Monday 18 February – Sunday 24 February 2008

Monday is spent agreeing the details of our interim Fraud partnership set up with Nuneaton and Bedworth BC and in staff meetings as we welcome Sally Roberts, a seconded member of staff from Coventry who is covering the Benefit Managers post whilst we explore whether we can work more formally with Coventry in a number of areas going forward.

On Tuesday, have my appraisal in the morning and spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon drafting some reports for a board in March. Nip over to the Belfry golf complex situated in our area during my lunch hour to discuss a sponsored idea I hope to hold in August. The meeting goes well so watch this space. Attend a board meeting at night which is through pretty quick which is great because I have an early start on Wednesday and have yet to finish the presentation I am due to give (nothing like being organised!).

Up at 5.30am, I am lucky there hasn’t been a hard frost overnight (so no need to scrape the ice off the car) as I misjudge how long it will take me to drive to the airport. Luckily I arrive with 5 minutes before check in for my 6.55am flight to Edinburgh closes. Picked up by Fraser at the other end gets me to Falkirk Council by nine’ish where I am going my paper at the Scottish AGM attended by over 70 members. The paper on being recognised for excellence links neatly with the launch of the Performance Awards 2008 (see website for further details and pictures from the day but my apologies for the absence of the Presidential chain. I decided against taking it as firstly I didn’t think I’d need it (I wasn’t aware I would be presenting successful students from December their certificates), secondly, getting it through security at the airport often results in being pulled for a closer inspection and most of all, it weighs a ton! Back to the airport by 3, I catch up on e-mails before arriving back in Birmingham by 7pm and just in time to catch Masterchef.

Spend Thursday at work before leaving at 4pm to get home, change into my d.j and drive over to Coventry to get the train to London for the CPFA annual dinner. Get some reading done on the train and arrive at the Warldorf near Covent Garden just gone 7pm for a very enjoyable evening with our accountant and audit colleagues. David arrives just in time for grace as he has made a mad dash from Bristol where he had been speaking at the Severnside association. The dinner attended by some 500 people is hosted by John Butler, the first person to have been both CPFA and IRRV president, and I get away just after coffee to get the 11pm train back to Coventry getting me home just past 1pm.

Friday is spent catching up on the week’s events and finalising shortlists for forthcoming interviews to fill our vacancy lists.

Saturday is my 42nd birthday and I like many other weekend when you are out of the office as much as you are in the Presidential year spending the day catching up on work and doing some IRRV work (very sad!). Not to say its all work and no play, a few of the family pop in bearing cards and gifts and J, Louis and I go out in the evening for a meal before getting in to watch the second half of the rugby (why didn’t England play like this against Wales!). Its now Sunday morning and my mum and dad are coming for dinner. I have been banished to the study to get out of J’s way while she prepares everything so once this is signed off, I am going get onto the internet and hopefully find some inspiration for my performance awards night entertainment Having come up with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers for last year it is going to be a hard act to follow in Manchester but hopefully we will rise to the challenge again. Hopefully you will think about entering your services for an award as it is truly a brilliant night to celebrate success and I know from my own and teams experiences it is something that you will never forget.

No institute stuff this week coming although with setting the Council Tax, the first two days of a 4 day health and safety course to attend, a day of interviewing and Dave Chapman’s stag do playing golf on Friday and Saturday no less busy.

More photographs from the IRRV Scottish Association AGM

Bob with Hillary Kelly, Scottish Association President

Successful students from the recent IRRV Examinations with Bob and Hillary

Bob speaks at the IRRV Scottish Association AGM

Video from Scottish Association AGM

Monday 11 February – Sunday 17 February 2008

Its Sunday morning and whilst Allan Traynor, the Immediate Past President and Dave Chapman, the new Chair of the Revenues Faculty Board have yet to rise, the President is up with renewed determination to keep his blog up to date.

The lads are not sleeping off any hangovers or heavy night but a game of golf yesterday that along with David West from Capita saw honours even after 18 holes in beautiful crisp February weather around the beautiful countryside of North Warwickshire, I think we are all feeling our age ! A night was spent watching the football, having a Chinese and a very friendly game of buzz (I wasn’t capable of setting the Wii up) all washed down with a few bottles of red as opposed to a night on the tiles. We do it all again in a few weeks at Daves stag do as he is getting married in March.

Monday was spent in a multitude of meetings following a certain amount of a relief that a major upgrade on our CRM platform has successfully worked over the weekend and we are up and running and taking calls.

Spend Tuesday in London with David and Gary at a commercial event in Earls Court connected with our conferences and events. Whilst exhibitors promoting exoctic locations from all over the world were present, we were particularly interested in the new conference venues in Liverpool and those planned in Stockport !! (no need to pack your passport and sunscreen for these two).

I spent Wednesday exploring a number of shared service possibilities with meetings at two neighbouring Councils fitting these in around a number of internal discussions as Jane leaves on Friday. I spend Thursday morning with another as we seek possible solutions to filling our benefit and fraud vacancies to name but two. The afternoon is spent writing up my thoughts before doing a question and answer briefing for the opposition members in the evening on the proposals for a local concessionary travel scheme being considered.

Friday is spent very enjoyably with almost a brand new team at the CLG who head up the Council Tax and NDR policy unit. These meetings are invaluable to us as an Institute in creating understanding and influence. Whilst this clashes with a DWP called meeting around the “Tell Us Once” agenda which we hope to pilot as a Council in what is a very busy year, it is impossible to cram everything in.

Oh well better sign off and get the bacon and coffee on.

Bob.

Monday 24 December – Sunday 10 February 2008

My apologies to avid readers of my blog that this New Year addition is so long overdue. In all honesty I didn’t think as many people read it but having received a number of e-mails and comments chasing me up I have finally found some time to remedy this situation.

Christmas and New Year was spent at home and in Barcelona for 5 days with family which whilst hectic was great but all to soon it was 2008 and back to work.

First week back is always difficult particularly having enjoyed a week off but a few meetings around the shared service agenda with my impending vacancy list growing certainly concentrates the mind. The Friday was spent with officials from the DWP and Government Connect discussing becoming a key pilot site for this platform along with Bedford run by fellow Council member, Kevin Stewart. The importance of what has been a project that has been around for a few years with little momentum suddenly has new impetus with a solution needed for the data exchange issues. My advice go and see your ICT managers to get them tuned into getting the Governments Co Co validation process started as adopting the secure internet link via GCSx has risen up the Governments agenda.

A weekend spent updating my NDR and Council Tax notes in preparation for my Swindon students who I am seeing again soon is followed by 3 days in work spent largely pulling together a number of options for changes to the concessionary travel scheme I am responsible for administering at work. Leave on the Wednesday night for a journey up to Manchester where I have a meeting over dinner with David Magor. The 2 day trip allows us to attend the Civica conference which is held at the Theatre of Dreams at Old Trafford and the great man “Mr Ferguson” makes a surprise visit to the conference to listen to a key note speech given by the king of spin and his close friend Alistair Campbell. He was surprisingly very down to earth and entertaining but I missed the opportunity of a prized photo opportunity on the IRRV stand as I got shy just at the moment they walked within inches of Messrs Doherty, Magor and myself. The evening was spent in good company being put on the same table as Barry Norman of 80’s film buff fame. Having only watched about 10 films start to finish in my entire life (including Forest Gump twice) meant conversation at dinner was not as easy as it should have been! We took the opportunity to undertake a visit to the G-Mex early on Friday in preparation for the October conference having been joined by Gary Watson in his new role as Deputy Chief Executive. Away by lunchtime meant I had time to get back to the office for a evening at the laptop

Popped in on the Saturday to catch up before spending the rest of the weekend with friends, shopping for an impending trip to Thailand and tidying the study (a trip to the recycling plant with all the paper I seem to accumulate very quickly is necessary!)

The Monday is spent in a series of meetings with Members and preparing for not being in the office for a fortnight and thankfully the evening’s committee meeting is short. An early morning drive to Swindon in atrocious weather conditions sees it take me nearly 4 hours to do what is at most a 2 hour drive where I arrive just on time to deliver 10 hours of NDR training over the following 26 hours. Leave early in the afternoon for the relatively short drive to Bristol where I present a paper on Delivering Excellence in Customer Service to the Severnside association. I have now done 7 papers to different regional associations in my first 4 months so I am well on target to visit them all. This means getting in just before 9pm and thankfully J has packed my bag for my journey to Thailand the following day.

Thursday morning is spent at work tidying up some loose ends and making sure my blackberry will work whilst out of the country so I don’t come back to hundreds of e-mails. Just before boarding the coach down to Heathrow hear a plane has crash landed meaning all flights out are delayed which sees me preparing for a long wait but fortunately I am only delayed a couple of hours jetting out just before midnight. The usual “I’m 6 foot 2 and any chance of additional legroom” pays off as I am assigned the seat next to the toilets (for every upside there is a downside) but 12 hours later I arrive in the Far East where I have been invited to give a paper at an international conference. The benefit of such a long flight and a few days break is I catch up on 16 IdeA front office case studies, the KLOE’s out for consultation and some other reading which guarantees no one asks to borrow your reading material when you finish with it. The intention is to get some R&R, do a little bit of work hence me sending e-mails at midnight being received in the office part way through the morning and take in some visits to Government offices in advance of the conference.

The difference with international events I have found in recent years is they like to start early 8am and finish late with organised networking opportunities arranged at every break but the conference is interesting in terms of the different issues we all face in both the developed and developing world. Following the conference dinner of 9 courses and declining to sing on the karaoke machine following my Scottish exploits, the evening ends with a cultural trip of Bangkok nightlife organised by the hosts. I retire fairly early as I have an early flight back to Heathrow originally booked to enable me to get back to attend the Blackpool weekend school run by the Lancs and Cheshire Association which I have supported for a number of years. Unfortunately, due to low numbers it is cancelled for the first time since it started 20 years or more ago which in hindsight is a blessing in disguise as having blagged the extra legroom seat by the toilets again I failed to get any sleep meaning most of Saturday involves sleeping and getting my body clock back to UK time zones.

Having caught up with some work on Sunday morning, Julie and I head down to London in the afternoon in readiness for the January Council Round we have 4 times a year. A couple of meetings in the evening before I step down from my Chairmanship of the Commercial Services committee on the Monday but take up the role of the Chairing the Full Council meeting as President on the Tuesday morning. We tend to cram a lot into this day and a half and we make some decisions to hopefully see the Institute prosper in the coming year and onwards.

Back by mid afternoon allows me to get back to work (being President means you keep some very funny hours) and early Wednesday morning as I have booked an afternoons leave to stand in for Julie who is lecturing on the West Midlands Technician course – just my luck as students are treated to an afternoon of grasping Transitional Arrangements and Payment of Interest. Back in work on Thursday the afternoon is spent at the neighbouring Council at one of our bi monthly meetings of all the Head of Services in the county where we discuss ongoing and future collaborative working arrangements. Whilst not impacted by the forthcoming unitary changes, we have been committed for a number of years to working closely across the County where possible which has resulted in a lot of our successes as a Council.

Arrive and leave work early on Friday to get the late afternoon train down to London where I am attending the London and Home Counties dinner hosted by Andy Cummings and well organised as always by Gordon and Carla Heath. It is a very enjoyable night in a beautiful setting close to Tower Bridge and having had a different wine with each course, the evening ends with cup of hot chocolate and lights out just before midnight (gone are my days of hell raising !).
We leave London early to get back for the England v Wales rugby match (I wish I hadn’t bothered) and catch up with day to day chores. Spend all day Sunday writing committee reports on a number of corporate initiatives I am responsible for which need to be in as I am in Harrogate at the Benefits and Fraud conference most of the following week. Spend most of Monday morning proof reading and amending them! The afternoon is spent talking at the local Older Peoples forum meeting on travel and benefit issues before driving up to Harrogate in the evening in readiness for conference.

Having just returned from a busy week, the revised format of running the Benefits and Fraud event back to back makes for a well attended event which although subject to an unfortunate late pull out by James Plaskett MP produced a programme full of the latest issues with both Senior Government and Council speakers and most pleasing some great presentations by new Local Government speakers. This bodes well for the future and hopefully means the call for papers in future will mean the work can be shared around more than the usual suspects. If any of you reading this are interested in speaking at an IRRV future event, drop me, David Magor or Gary Watson an e-mail with what you want to talk about and we will see what opportunities we have to give you the platform.

Return on the Friday having hosted 2 gala dinners and chaired a number of sessions including an interactive and live debate. Last years President Allen Traynor and his partner Dee call in on the way home from the airport before we crash in front of the TV with some fish finger sandwiches (a real treat after the hectic week)

Oh well that brings me up to date, today has been spent e-mailing and preparing for some meetings Monday. Looking at my diary, things are a little less busy on the Institute front in the coming weeks which for me is welcome as we prepare for year end, billing, the issue of the new free bus passes and LHA. My benefit manager leaves next Friday so we have a busy week ahead in ensuring arrangements are in place so we as a small team can continue to deliver. Apparently response to our advert in opportunities to fill a few vacancies I already have has received a good response so hopefully we will be back up to full strength by the Spring.

Oh well signing off. I won’t leave it as long next time….promise

Bob