Chairmans Report Incredibly, more than a year has elapsed since I was appointed as APEA Chairman. This past year has been an incredibly busy one for me in both my business and private life. Recently I have moved both my home and a large part of my business from the leafy surrounds of the south of England, to Barnsley in the north of the country. Having lived my entire life in the south, there have been many culture shocks for me to consider, but overall, I must report that the genuine friendliness and honesty of northern folk has delighted both me and my family and reinforced our opinion that we should have made the move years ago! Regarding the APEA, I am delighted with the way in which we have progressed throughout the year. When I took on the position of Chairman, we were without any administrative support following Brian Taylor's early retirement as a result of his illness. Without doubt, this difficult period put a huge amount of strain on the Association, but I am pleased to report that with the willing support of council members and other loyal supporters we rode the storm, until Jane Mardell came to our rescue in July last year! Working with Jane has been an absolute delight. She is efficient, superbly able to work on her own initiative and has a great personality and sense of humour! I am sure that I speak for all when I compliment Jane on the enthusiastic way in which she has approached her appointment as Business Manager. In my opinion, she has taken the bull by the horns, and has succeeded in injecting professionalism into the workings and presentation of the association The publications committee has been working extremely hard to improve the appearance, layout and content of the Bulletin. I am sure you will agree, that in its new format it is now most professional, and a publication which we can be justifiable proud of. Please keep up your support for the editorial team, and keep your articles and submissions coming. Throughout last year the APEA re-established and developed it's training programme. The training committee, under the chairmanship of Brian Baker, worked relentlessly to produce new and professionally presented training material. APEA training has been well received within the industry, with many large organisations signing up for bespoke training courses. I must compliment Brian and his colleagues for their diligence in promoting and establishing the association as a professional training provider.
the recent jointly hosted APEA/IFFE exhibition and conference held at the NEC in Birmingham. As an exhibitor and as a representative of the APEA, I found the whole event a resounding success, and it is my opinion that merging with William Reed Publishing was the right move. Exhibitions are all about attracting visitors, and William Reed with their publicity machine working overtime certainly managed to do that! They succeeded in increasing the "foot fall" far beyond that which has been previously achieved by the APEA when hosting its own event. Whether or not it is a principle that we should adopt in the future is a separate issue, and not for debate here, but I genuinely believe it was right this time, and I sincerely hope that all of you who attended found it to be informative and enjoyable. Without doubt, the 2003 APEA Annual Dinner was a resounding success! This event, which was held in conjunction with the APEA/IFFE Show saw us back at the old and preferred venue of the Metropol Hotel in the grounds of the NEC. This well established and unique event provides the perfect forum for socialising and networking with friends and colleagues, and from what I observed this year we certainly delivered the goods! On behalf of the council, I would like to thank all of you who supported us by sponsoring tables and hope that you will continue to do so at future events. It just remains for me to thank council members and the countless others amongst you who have given your willing support throughout my period of chairmanship. It has been a great honour to occupy this position and an experience I will cherish long into the future. Tony Jenner (Chairman)
Branch membership is still an area for concern, and I would ask that you give your local branch your full support. Members participation is the very lifeblood of this association, please consider what you can do to help revitalise your branch and encourage the support and attendance of others.. My report would not be complete without mentioning 5
