PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Hello everyone – in my last column I started by saying “we are well into the first throes of Winter now” and went on to suggest we may well have a potentially harsh Winter! Head of Qualifications & Training), her partner Mark, and myself were also part of the BOHS contingent for the 3M Fancy Dress Dinner, on the subject of recycle, reuse or re-purpose.
JOHN DOBBIE BOHS PRESIDENT
Well so far, I was a long way off the mark – with it remaining very wet, but unseasonably mild. I wrote that column from Perth in Australia, where I was attending the annual AIOH Conference, this was before the devastating fires that we have seen in many parts of the country, resulting in the horrific loss of lives and livelihoods. My heart goes out to everyone who suffered in any way from the fires or their aftermath and I am sure you will join me in hoping they recover and rebuild as quickly as possible. I mentioned too, that Lisa Williams (our
I am sad to report we didn’t win, but there was a very strong field of competitors – who in some cases, at least from my perspective, were only very tenuously linked to the theme of recycle, reuse or re-purpose. I still maintain we didn’t get the recognition we deserved, but that may be a character flaw in that I never like losing to the Aussies! Another good thing to come out of the AIOH Conference was the chance to build on our colloboration on Breathe Freely. The AIOH are not only implementing it very effectively, but we discovered that some of their learnings will be useful to us too. There was also interest from the New Zealand Occupational Hygiene Society in adopting Breathe Freely, which is now actively being looked at.
Many of you will have heard the sad news that our CEO, Simon Festing, has elected to leave the Society, owing to the challenges of balancing his work against his family life, exarcebated by needing to travel between a flat in Derby and his home in London. We fully understand his position and I know he will be greatly missed, and we wish him well for his future ventures. Simon joined BOHS at a time when the Society had ambitious plans to raise the profile of occupational hygiene and had embarked upon the Breathe freely campaigns, which had great success in heightening our external presence. To respond to this rapid progress both the head office staff and the Board (then, the Council) had increased their efforts and workload to meet the technical challenges, but had possibly drifted a little in terms of governance and internal processes. Simon rapidly managed to address both these areas with significant success. He leaves BOHS in a much better place than it was when he started. I wish Simon every success in the future and thank him for all his effort over the past two years.
I am hopeful that we will be successful in recruiting a great CEO, who will continue in the task of building the BOHS into a progressive, outgoing, and successful professional body.
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