Police World Edition 2 2015

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Article
7 POLICE WORLD Vol 60 No. 2, 2015
The Benefits
of Gimborn
Sean Hannigan, Vice President, highlights the reasons why and how
attending Gimborn can boost your professional development.
One of my enjoyable roles, as the newest
Vice President of Section UK, is that
of National Gimborn Co-ordinator. This
involved attending the 2014 Gimborn Kuratorium
in Germany and bidding for the 2015 English or
English/German seminars. We started off with 2
seminars being offered and by careful negotiation
with other Vice Presidents from other European
Sections and Gimborn, managed to put on 5
seminars in 2015.
Section UK supports Gimborn by offering a
bursary towards the cost of the Seminar, which
covers the majority of the cost; several Branches
and Regions also offer similar support to help
with travel costs. Gimborn offers a unique
opportunity to share experiences and take part
in presentations from world class speakers who
are expert in their own field. Each seminar’s
programme usually includes an afternoon
excursion to a topic related venue.
Gimborn is open to retired members as well
as serving police staff and police officers.
Participants come from all over the world and
from every rank of police personnel. 2015 Is an
exciting time at Gimborn with Seminars being
offered for English speakers including:
Islam - History and Culture of a world religion
between everyday life and extremism.
18 - 22 May.
Cyber Crime a look at Crime in Cyberspace
and how to detect and prosecute.
31 August to 4 September.
Evidence based Policing reviews how Police
Officers Research outcomes. October 5 - 9.
Homicide in the European Union comparing
different jurisdictions and investigations
23 - 27 November.
I have been planning the seminars for 2016 and
indeed Section UK IPA colleagues are helping
to develop several seminar topics for Gimborn. I
would welcome any IPA member who would like
to either present a topic or indeed has an idea for
a week long seminar at Gimborn to get in touch
with me before 15 June.
I am also pleased to announce that Section UK
will be hosting two one day seminars based on
CoPPRa which stands for Community Policing
Preventing Radicalism and Terrorism. The
seminar, which is internationally recognised,
will be delivered by a team of IPA members who
completed the CoPPRa Trainers course last
November at Gimborn.
You can find out much more Information about
Gimborn Seminars and Professional Development
by visiting the IPA website:
Pete Connolly, who took part in the innovative
Policing Change seminar at the end of February
had this to say about his experience.
“A series of very interesting and engaging
presentations were made by serving Police
Officers who shared experiences from their
working environments. Every presentation
allowed time for engagement, query and
conversation. Some of the presenters built
in group work, workshops and discussions
with student feedback being introduced from
those exercises.
Two particularly academic presentations were
included in the itinerary, whereby academics
provided insightful information on sociological
aspects of human migration, human
development and motivation for people who
are marginalised by society.
Every evening the students met up in the
Turmbar (this is an area of Gimborn set aside
for socializing) where conversations followed
on from the classroom situation. These pointed
conversations were not accidental in nature but
were very much a part of the Gimborn experience
where students arrange to embed their personal
learning.
I was interested to identify learning that I might
apply that may not already have been tried and
tested within my service.”
I think Pete sums up Gimborn very well indeed.
I would like every member to take part in the
Gimborn seminar experience at least once every
3 years. I have had some fantastic experiences
myself attending Gimborn as a participant,
presenter and Chair of Seminars since joining
Section UK 15 years ago.
If you would like to find out more information then
visit: or please
feel free to get in touch with me at vphannigan@
ipa-uk.org
In Friendship,
Sean Hannigan, Vice President
Sean Hannigan and Pete Connolly
Gimborn Castle