Page 6 - police world Edition 3 2013

Police World Vol 55 No.2 2010 6
A Word from the President
Friday - Late Morning: Arrive at conference
venue, the Palace Hotel at Torquay for two days.
Afternoon: While the formal business meeting
takes place on the Saturday, the first day could
also be considered a full working day for
delegates with the traditional separate meetings
of Chairs, Treasurers and Secretaries taking up
most of the afternoon.
There were a number of other fruitful meetings
which took place on Friday including a meeting
of all the London Regions which was also
attended by the President, Tom Crozier, and
myself. The sole purpose of the meeting was to
address the role of the London Reception Officer
that had been vacant since Steve Connor stood
down after five years in the role. Bob
McCormack, Secretary of 6 Region spoke with
some authority having been involved with the
role previously. After an informed discussion the
group were advised that there were two
intimations of interest in taking on the role.
Given Bob’s knowledge of the role he was the
favoured choice. As you may have seen on the
Web News Bob has already visited staff at BSAC
to confirm arrangements for handling overseas
enquiries.
Evening: There was an informal dining night
attended by the invited guests Past President
David Read and his wife Sue, President of
Section Ireland Denis Dunne and his wife Noirin
and President of Section Netherlands, Johanna
Schotanus.
Also present as guest of the organising
committee was recently promoted Chief
Superintendent Jim Nye. So recent was his
promotion that he was taking up his new posting
the next day. Jim spoke very warmly of his
connections to IPA and in particular to friends in
the IPA Triathlon Group. He invited 7 Region
Chair Ian Tomlinson to meet with him to discuss
promoting IPA within his force area.
Tom Crozier presented both David and Jim with
copies of the limited edition Jedd IPA prints. He
then made Presidential Awards to Andy Gregory,
Chair of 5 Region and Yvonne Taylor from 3
Region. Presidential Awards are in the personal
gift of the President for what he considers
meritorious actions that exemplify our motto of
Service through Friendship.
Tom described how Andy had selflessly
promoted IPA and IPA members over a number
of years. He recalled instances in very recent
times during the course of Andy’s mother’s final
illness when Andy still put the interests of other
members before his own very personal
circumstances. Finally Tom referred to two
separate incidents over a three year period that
might have been damaging to the reputation of
IPA that Andy was instrumental in managing and
resolving on our behalf. One incident might
literally have been a life and death situation but
for Andy’s intervention and involved the son of a
foreign member who had suffered a breakdown
while studying in the UK.
Yvonne is an Arthur Troop Scholarship winner.
Her scholarship involved undertaking an
intensive 3 week course in drug driving
detection in the United States. Thanks to the IPA
scholarship she is now one of the most highly
qualified officers in this field in the UK. For that
reason Yvonne has been the subject of more
than 40 newspaper, radio and TV interviews as
well as giving numerous professional police
presentations at home and abroad. Yvonne
never fails to acknowledge the part that IPA
played in her gaining her qualification and a
stipulation of every interview is that the IPA
receives prominent coverage.
Saturday - NCM Meeting: Tom opened the
meeting by introducing the invited guests and
also welcomed Immediate Past President Steve
Connor and Assistant International Secretary
General Stephen Crockard who, by the privilege
of their positions, are members of Council in
their own right. He also gave a special mention
to another Past President John Owen Evans who
was attending the meeting as an observer.
Proposals - Membership
Readers will know that the debate on extending
the membership has been a hot topic for many
years. After many years of seemingly implacable
opposition Council agreed the principle at NCM
in 2010.
However the extensions approved at
that time were limited to three specific
roles undertaken by Police Staff.
The motion this year was to open up
membership to all Police Staff employed by
a Chief Officer of Police. The motion was
structured so as to accommodate future
changes to the governance of police forces and
is flexible enough to accommodate differences
in current force arrangements, e.g. Police Staff
in London are currently employed by the office
of the Mayor of London.
Tom, who led the debate in 2010, again spoke
on the proposal on behalf of the NEC. On this
occasion there was only one speaker against
the motion and the proposal was carried by 36
votes to three.
As a footnote to this debate, just as the meeting
was about to close Sav Kyriakou, Chair of 9
Region announced that his Region had signed
up the first new member who now qualified
under the changed rule!
Charity Directive
On behalf of the NEC Mark Kernohan
proposed dispensing with the Charity Directive
that is now regarded as being too restrictive
and potentially discourages members from
organising events or at times places organisers
of otherwise appropriate charitable events in
conflict with the current rules. Mark’s rationale
was accepted by all present and the vote in
favour was unanimous.
Presentations
The day was interspersed with a number of
presentations that provided some relief from
the business. Ian Tyres from the Triathlon
Group gave an enthusiastic talk on the rigours
of his particular sport, while Johanna
Schotanus’s presentation on the success of
Netherlands Web Shop was a revelation when
compared to our own turnover and variety of
6
Tenure of Office for NEC
Pete Connolly proposed removing the rule
of tenure for all NEC posts with the exception of
President. Tom Crozier spoke in favour of the
motion saying that he believed it was good for
the well being of the Association.
Bill Lloyd from 3 Region offered an amendment
that tenure should be removed from all NEC
posts. Past President David Read spoke in favour,
urging Council to support the amendment. The
crux of Mr Read’s argument was that Council
should be the arbiters of who is elected and
when, and if Council believed someone was in
office too long or not fulfilling their obligations to
members the remedy was in the hands of Council
members.
The amendment was carried by a large
majority, with the effect that NEC members
are no longer limited to a maximum of two
terms in office.
NCM Diary
The National Council Meeting 2013 w s held at the Palace Hotel, Torquay - hosted by 7 Region -
over the weekend of 10 - 11 May. Secretary General Dave Taylor summarises the main events
that took place.
Elections
Council gave its unanimous backing
to both Mark Kernohan and Ronnie
Dukes who were both re-elected to
the NEC unopposed.