Dear Members
It was good to get together for our AGM, Meeting and Dinner at Marriott Forest of Arden on Thursday, this was our first face to face AGM and Dinner since 2019 as Covid had prevented us meeting for the last two years.
It was also a great opportunity to introduce Alisdair Perry (Ali) our new Chief Executive.After a very successful recruitment campaign which attracted over forty six applicants, BAFSA Council Members interviewed and selected Ali from a very competitive short list.
Since our last face to face AGM, BAFSA has gone from strength to strength and embraced online technology for many of our meetings including the AGM.
We have done more online training courses; this was caused by necessity however it is likely that much of our training will continue in this mode.
BAFSA Council has continued to meet on a two to three monthly basis online, this has proved to be very effective and time efficient, allowing Council Members to join the meetings from their workplace.
We will continue to meet in this manner but always have one face to face meeting to coincide with the AGM.
BAFSA’s training for Installers and Designers has carried on almost uninterrupted, thanks to the good work done by Ruth Oliver and Alan Crichton our courses are now available online.
We have also managed to maintain a small number of face-to-face designer courses, these are delivered by Alan and Tony Marlow
From early next year we will have our new Chief Executive, Ali Perry in post and he will be working with BAFSA Council to produce a new five-year plan for BAFSA and I would encourage all Members to let Council know the direction of travel you wish your organisation to take?
I would like to thank all the BAFSA staff for the excellent work they have done over the last year, Joe and Stewart continue to give us the benefit of their technical expertise, Ruth and Alan have done an excellent job with training, Ritchie and Danny have flown the BAFSA flag in Wales and Scotland for many years and see the success of our campaigns in these countries.
Wendy has been irreplaceable, she has taken our publications, videos, and events to a new level. Our annual sports day has been an unqualified success and it was pleasing to see it return this summer and once again be oversubscribed.
Lastly, we come to the newest Member of the Team, Nick Coleshill.
Nick joined us from London Fire Brigade where he had frequently partnered with BAFSA during our seminars in the capital. Nick is leading on the many sprinkler saves that we get around the country, he encourages Fire and Rescue Services to submit reports on any saves they encounter, he would also like to encourage installers to submit reports on incidents where sprinklers have actuated in order that we can keep a record of our successes.
We are keen to see BAFSA continue to grow and are aware that there are more Third-Party Accredited Installers out there, we need to encourage them to join BAFSA. I can see this is a bit of anathema that you would encourage your competitors to join, however there are also benefits in having them inside the tent rather than outside.