Merseyside & North Wales Branch
Fizz, quiz and multi-tasking
Taskmasters and chief protagonists: Colin Pratt, John Trafford and Bill Dunlop.
The Merseyside and North Wales branch social event held at the offices of Hill-Dickinson in Liverpool was a resounding success.
To begin, Colin organised a wine-tasting competition which immediately helped the attendees to relax into the meeting. It started with a competition to identify three white wines as Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc. Three tasters correctly identified the wines but a series of tie-break questions about the nearby Mersey Tunnels decided a winner. The winner was the team of Arthur and Pat Critchley who walked away with a prize bottle of champagne.
Members then regrouped into teams to answer the fiendishly challenging questions posed by quizmaster John Trafford. There was something for everyone, with the questions ranging from the very local World Heritage Skyline of the Three Graces (just 200 yards away) to International questions about Britain's trading partners, from X Factor winners to Shakespeare, and from sport to classical music and architecture, many of the questions were also linked by a seasonal Christmassy theme. Jo Ashton's team "Apollo" won with the score of 14 out of a possible 25.
Colin resumed the wine-tasting competition with the challenge to identify three red wines as Merlot, Rioja, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Kellie Ashes was the outright winner of this tasting competition, and her deft palate belied her young years. Kellie too took away a fine bottle of fizz.
Assisting at the event was Bill Dunlop of Tower Associates, who came highly recommended by the South Yorkshire Branch. He specialises in Functional Credit Management training and behavioural training.
The meeting was in full flow as Bill organised everyone into a circle to introduce themselves, before they commenced to "Multi-Task." Bill had the aim "To make this group more effective when working together". Bill set the collective the objectives for all attendees. To review information, allocate tasks on the basis of that information, prepare a budget that will deliver an acceptable performance and "Bid for our Budget" number of points."
The group bid low for a budget number of points. Bill rejected that bid, the group bid again, and again Bill declined the bid. Only at the third attempt did it have its budget bid for points accepted.
Everyone split in to four smaller teams to achieve the tasks simultaneously in the time limit of 30 minutes, using only the most unlikely of materials (marsh mallows as construction material!) provided for each task. Each team needed to complete their tasks successfully for the collective group to reach its "budget for points".
All four sub-groups worked well as teams to complete their task within the agreed time limit, and as a whole everyone reached their budgeted points total. Teamwork won, as Bill set objectives and helped us to achieve them, and Bill has offered to feature at a future branch meeting to add some constructive fun and interest.
The branch is striving to improve attendance; this meeting was an eye opener for some debutantes, and will only enhance its local reputation for bringing interest and enthusiasm to our meetings. It aims to strengthen the committee and welcomes applications to stand for the committee before the AGM on February 16. Please contact Secretary John Trafford ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you wish to stand.
Thanks to Colin, John , Bill and all attendees (especially Pat Critchley) for making the event a success.
Should you wish to find out more about the branch, which spreads from Ludlow to Blackpool, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
"Congratulations on an excellent night. Pat and I really enjoyed the evening as I'm sure everybody else did."
Arthur C
Informative Credit strategies presentation
ICM Merseyside and North Wales branch meeting was held in June at the offices of Hill-Dickinson in Liverpool.
Working with Hays, the ICM's recruitment partners to stage the meeting, we had 25 attendees, which was a considerable improvement on some recent meetings.
Angela Bradbury delivered the main presentation of the evening, 'Beyond the Credit Report'. Angela is Group Credit Manager of Innospec, which is a major manufacturer and exporter of fuel additives with operations in 14 countries and customers in over 100 countries.
A very attentive audience learned about Innospec's credit strategies. Angela explained how she manages to keep all the balls in the air as the team manages credit risk and collections globally on sales of $700 million, of which 96 percent is outside the UK. The model involves centralised risk management but devolved collections to ensure that there is one focus and one direction for one business.
The Innospec credit team use their in-house country risk matrix model to control the complexities of decision-making in a diverse market place. Several branch members have since been in touch with Angela to share her expertise.
The advertised presenter Terry Jakeway of Johnsons Cleaners was unable to make the meeting so Brain Ward made a presentation at short notice about managing risk and optimising collections.
We had a large boardroom layout for the attendees which allowed members to face each other, break down any natural reticence and enjoy a light-hearted quiz in which the Institute and social networking figured strongly.
Before the meeting closed the Vice-Chairman urged the group to join the ICM Group and the Merseyside branch groups on LinkedIn. He also made an appeal to members to consider standing for committee.
