police world Edition 3 2013

A Word from the President

stock. VP Ronnie Dukes is currently reviewing our operation and will have benefitted from the insights provided by Johanna. While not a presentation as such, Mark Faunt proudly showed off Stan the Panda. Stan is a Morris Minor of some vintage that has been decked out in Heartbeat era police livery. Mark had driven Stan down from 3 Region for its first official outing. He, Bill Lloyd and I will be taking Stan amongst other places to the World Police and Fire Games at Belfast in August and the National Police Memorial Day in September at Cardiff. Ultimately the three of us with a back up crew will take Stan to the USA in May 2015. We will then drive through America from coast to coast raising funds for the National Police Memorial Day charity that also happens to be Section UK’s nominated charity.

Late Night: With the weekend coming to a close it would be remiss not to mention a few people. To David Read thank you for sharing your wisdom with us during the business meeting and thanks to you and Sue for sharing your time with all of us over the weekend. It was a delight to have you back amongst us. We should also reflect upon all of the hard work undertaken by the event organisers. While most of us simply turn up and hopefully enjoy all aspects of the weekend, there is very little respite for those who make it all happen. Of course their commitment starts at least a year in advance and does not end until the last guest leaves. And for Andy Mundy the Region Treasurer, it will go on for some weeks after until all accounts are settled

and the books balanced. So to the organising committee and helpers - Tessa Adams, Ian Tomlinson, Andy Mundy, Val Mearns, Graham Bulford, Mike Vince, Robert Peattie, Colin and Maria Gameson and others whom I may have neglected to mention, you all have our sincere thanks for what appeared a seamless and very enjoyable weekend at a stunning location.

National Awards

Stan the Panda, Dave Taylor, Mark Faunt and Bill Lloyd

As is tradition the awards of Honorary Life Membership are presented at the final gala dinner. The winners are selected by the NEC from the list of Region nominations. This year there was something of a departure when Tom Crozier announced that one of the 2012 – 2013 awards had already been presented. That particular award had been made to Jimmy Green a member from Northumbria branch. In late November 2012 Tom received a nomination from branch Chair Allan Young extolling Jimmy’s contribution to his branch over many years. Very shortly after this Allan again contacted Tom to advise that Jimmy had been admitted to hospital (see article in Edition 1, 2013). A decision was made to award Jimmy a Honorary Life Membership immediately, and this was presented to Jimmy by Allan on behalf of the President. Sadly Jimmy died a few days later. Befitting the recipient of the highest accolade that this Association can bestow, members and guests at the gala dinner stood in tribute to Jimmy according him a standing ovation. Treasurer and Andy Wright, Chair of 1 Region. Bill Lloyd joined IPA in 1992 as one of the so called Rochdale Volunteers when the new Rochdale branch was formed. He was active from the outset and became branch Secretary in 1995. In 2005 he moved to Bolton and took over as Chair of the branch, as well as inheriting responsibility for overseeing the Gary Waine Tour Award at Region level. More recently he has acted as support driver on the Motorcycle Group tour of Morocco and is one of the mainstays behind the ‘Stan the Panda’ initiative that will take him on the charity drive across the USA in 2015. Bill has only been a regular at National Council for the last five or six years, but has made a The other recipients of Honorary Life Memberships were Bill Lloyd, 3 Region

Ian Tomlinson and Tessa Adams

Andy and Shirley Wright

Bill Lloyd and Tom Crozier

Yvonne Taylor, Tom Crozier and Andy Gregory

significant impact. It was Bill who put forward the very sensible proposal that did away with the need for members’ money to be tied up for three years when a branch closed. He was also a strong advocate for a fixed levy to Regions that became a reality in 2011. As a Treasurer these were issues close to Bill’s heart, but more than that they are measures that benefit all of our members. Again at this year’s NCM he was active in the debates and it was his amendment to the motion on tenure that carried the day. Andy Wright was recently elected Chair of 1 Region having served as Secretary for the past seven years. His contribution to his branch and Region over very many years is considerable. He has actively participated in the organisation of five friendship breaks and has been the principal organiser in four of those five events. He is currently organising another friendship break based at Stirling in the summer of 2014.

In total Andy and his fellow organisers have catered for close on 1,000 IPA members, mostly from abroad. Those attending Andy’s friendship breaks invariably depart these shores not just with fond memories of the United Kingdom, but with a great respect for IPA UK. So well organised are these events that many foreign colleagues are regular repeat visitors. Andy has been and continues to be a great salesman for Section UK. Aside from all his commitments with friendship breaks, Andy is also part of a small team who organise the various golf events that are very popular in Scotland, including the annual competition against 2 Region Northern Ireland. If that was not enough he is now embarking upon another venture and is looking to establish a UK wide network to promote walking and hillwalking that he hopes will lead to the formation of a Special Interest Group.

Police World Vol 55 No.2 2010

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