PW_04_2017

Working on your behalf

Meeting of the Northern European Forum The latest meeting of the Northern European Forum (NEF) took place in Moscow over the weekend of 29th June - 2nd July 2017 with twelve Sections in attendance. President Mick Luke attended as our delegate and made a presentation to Alexsey Gankin, President of Section Russia and IEB office holder of an engraved Section UK Quaich, together with a small whiskey, which was shared as a sign of friendship. D uring the meeting a significant number of topics were discussed with the aim of sharing best practice and to have an understanding of the current strengths and ongoing developments within each Section. Comment was made of the current vulnerability of some Sections with regard to recruiting younger members and Jaap Taal, President of Section Netherlands spoke about the ‘Gimborn Talks’ (an article was published on our website regarding this initiative on the 12th July). Mick spoke about Recruitment & Retention, Communications, Partnership Working and the need collectively for Sections to be more forward thinking rather than just have strategies in place for the current term of office holders so that the Association’s strategies are medium to long term. Mick gave examples of Section UK planning International Events, the 20-in-2020 initiative and other ideas which the Section are currently undertaking. Among many ideas offered by delegates present, Oliver Hoffman gave a presentation of an APP

open house at HQ in the afternoon for members and friends followed by an evening meal at a local restaurant. A number of dignitaries have been invited as well to help us celebrate the occasion. The NEC look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible so if you can attend please book in via the staff at HQ The International Youth Gathering which we are to host in 2018 was discussed in detail and is led by Vice President Sean Hannigan. The excellent programme proposed will give a mix of professional, social and cultural activities for the two weeks for those who attend and the NEC hope to see a number of applications from the UK. Again further details can be obtained from staff at HQ. The NEC also began to debate the format of future NCM’s as for the first time in 2018 there will be no elections which presents opportunities as to how we operate and organise these weekends in the future. Any suggestions are most welcome. Looking further ahead the 20-in-2020 methodology was presented as a discussion paper during the meeting. This includes a time scale for decisions to be made by and has been circulated to all office holders. The aim is to host twenty major events. Once again any ideas around events and activity are still wanted to help us celebrate what I hope to be a fantastic year. To conclude the staff at HQ and the NEC has tried to push as much news out as possible on our media channels with regard to events and member opportunities and ask that you continue to submit your articles into HQ and the Editor so that we can showcase your activity. Please don’t forget his can be done pre-event to attract attendees and equally important is to fill out the events tab on the website as early as possible once your event date is confirmed. This enables extra publicity as well as covering the event for insurance purposes. Thank you all for your continued support, keep safe and have a fantastic festive period. Until next time in 2018 Mick Luke Proud to be President of Section UK.

Delegates at work

which Section Germany have recently launched which interacts with members regarding events and those interested in becoming a member of the Association. This product will be reviewed by the NEC to see whether it is viable in the UK. The upcoming World Congress was discussed with delegates asked to discuss motions they intend to propose. Section France presented a motion for a new commission dealing with internal and external communications as they felt this was not effectively being dealt with. A good discussion was had around the ‘lack’ of corporacy across the various Sections with regard to IPA branding and how this should be addressed. These discussions continued way beyond the scheduled meeting end leaving delegates with many thoughts and ideas to progress when they got back home. Thankfully there was an opportunity to have a whistle stop tour of some of the sights in Moscow during the night. Bizarrely a visit to the various older metro stations is recommended as they contain some wonderful architecture and bronze statues. One metro station alone had seventy-five! A good weekend, which will enable the development of ideas that potentially can be utilised for the benefit of members in the UK.

Red Square, Moscow

All set for the Gala Dinner

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POLICE WORLD Vol 62 No. 4, 2017