PW_2_2019

Keeping you informed

Keeping you informed As this edition of Police World drops on your doormat, Helen and I will be embarking on a cruise from Durban in South Africa back up to Venice. I have spoken before about the benefits of the IPA travel form and I will tell you in the next issue about how we got on. We are scheduled to meet with IPA friends in South Africa and perhaps also in Mauritius.

W e have recently returned from a weekend in Ghent where I attended meetings with other European section presidents. International elections later this year dominated the discussions, but there was also lots more to talk about. Helen and I were also fortunate enough to be invited to attend the Viennese Police Ball. We attended at our own expense and it was worth every penny. A fantastic venue, a beautiful city and excellent hosts. My thanks go to Micheal Guttner, of Region Vienna for his invitation to a hog roast the night before the ball and to Martin Hoffman, President of Section Austria, for his very kind invitation. Whilst there I did undertake some IPA business.

of the Association. I know many of you have been doing this, in some cases for decades. Let’s hope that this year some of our younger members might recognise the transferable skills that can be demonstrated at work, from taking on these additional responsibilities in their personal time. If anyone would like more information about expectations of taking on some of the roles, I’m sure your local branch Chair would be only too pleased to talk with you or you can always contact me directly. Talking about all things young and technological; a couple of mentions here. Firstly, we now have a Zoom facility. This allows videoconferencing from your phone, tablet or computer and can allow a simple meeting to be held without the need to travel. I’m grateful to Vice President, Sean Hannigan who has developed this as part of his Comms portfolio and if you think it might be useful to you, give him a ring or drop him a line. I’m sure he will be more than happy to explain it to you. Whilst talking about Sean, with his other hat on; which is his lead on Cultural matters for the Association, I know he met recently with our National Archivist Phillip Powell, to discuss how we continue to retain the corporate memory of the Association. I am grateful to Phillip and his wife Vivian for the work they do, but recognise that Fox Road is not the most convenient location for them. This is why we are seeking volunteers to help Sean and Philip digitalise our archive. We had a good start to this, with Tony and Anne Berrington from Nottinghamshire being trained up, so our thanks go to them. If you are able to get to Fox Road and can spare half a day occasionally, Sean would love to hear from you. I told you last time that we were hosting the Young Police Officers Seminar 2019 in Scotland, in June. Planning for that under the leadership of Vice President Yvonne McGregor continues at a pace. Now as an aside, following some work I did with them previously, I was recently invited to become an Ambassador for the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester. Whilst I’m still not absolutely sure what that means, I thought as they provide significant distance learning courses, I might ask them if they wished to be the sponsor of the gala evening in Scotland. I am very pleased to announce that they have agreed and we look forward to welcoming them at the event. In order to keep costs pegged back as much as possible, I am looking for sponsorship for other events during the week. If any of you know of a company who might be interested, please ask them to contact me.

Police Ball Vienna

I met with the publisher of the equivalent to Police World for Austria and five other European countries, and started to explore how we might reconfigure our magazine. The annual cost of printing and postage, as I’m sure many of you know is quite excessive. I am though, resolute in not wishing to diminish in any way the member benefit that Police World is in any way, especially for our members who only receive the magazine by post. Anyway, more about that later I’m sure. As well as being the Austrian ball season, it is also the season of our Annual General Meetings. I wanted to thank all of you who continue to put yourself forward for positions; either at Branch or Region, to help support the running

4

POLICE WORLD Vol 64 No.2, 2019