I spent the weekend of 15-16 May 2010 attending this year’s BECTU Annual Conference in Bournemouth.
I prepared the slides for the Conference on Saturday 15 May, along with those for the BBC Divisional Conference the following day, which were expertly projected on the screen behind the stage area by the regular vision and sound team of Neil Denbow and Ross Hammond.
As well as the decisions taken by BECTU Branch delegates at the Annual Conference, the event was also noteworthy from my perspective for three other reasons:
- This was the final Conference for the organiser, David Cormack, who retires from the union as Administrative Officer after 31 years service at BECTU and it’s predecessor unions. He has ensured there has been an effective administrative core to the union’s activities. Many thanks to David for the advice he’s given me over the years, and good luck in all future enterprises.
- It was also the final Conference, as BECTU President, for Tony Lennon. He has chosen not to stand for re-election as President this year, following 18 years in the position, in view of his retirement from the BBC. Tony has ensured BECTU’s message has been communicated far and wide using every available medium. Tony and I instigated the BECTU website in 1997, then one of the first union sites. In the subsequent years we developed the site and provided content until early 2009; in the early years sometimes to the bafflement of others who had not understood the long term significance of the web. I await Tony’s next career move with interest.
- The result of the 2010-2012 BECTU President election was announced at the close of Conference, with Christine Bond emerging as the winner. I predict Christine will prove to be a worthy successor to Tony, and the website I built for the election campaign will provide a further potential channel of communication for the new President.
Following the union’s Divisional Conferences on the Sunday morning, a select number of delegates explored the real ale delights of The Goat and Tricycle pub.
Pictured by Mark Dimmock above is a rouges gallery of those attending Conference connected with my former Branch ESPG. They are Henry Gibson, Tony Thomas, Nick Carroll and Ken Southern.
At least three of them were last seen in the vicinity of Waterloo Rail Station on or about the afternoon of Monday 17 May 2010.
