Welcome, to the Lancashire Branch 2011/12 Programme
Our last programme year has seen some significant changes within the branch from new events and technologies to new branch committee members each bringing fresh and new ideas. We have also created some new branch roles to enable us to deliver our branch strategy more effectively going forward. Later this year we will be piloting a new branch co-ordinator role who will be our main point of contact for the branch and will support all the branch administrative/co-ordination activities across Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside and Cumbria and will help share some best practise across the branches and enable us to work more effectively together.
We have received some feedback from our previous events to suggest that we should target events at specific audiences going forward particularly for paid events to ensure that the audience can get value out of the events at the appropriate level rather than mixing the audience groups/professional levels. We have taken onboard this feedback and this is something we have included in this year’s programme of events so please ensure that you review what the target audience for each event is so you can ensure it is appropriate for your CPD needs.
We trialled a number of paid events in our last programme and these have proved to be successful and therefore we have included once again a mixture of both free and paid events/workshops so please do check the detail on the listed event either in the programme or on our events page on the CIPD Lancashire Branch Website. To review any of our paid/free events or book onto an event its simple, just book online by selecting your chosen event, click ‘book event’ at the bottom of the page and simple enter your details!
Our main form of communication with our members currently is via our branch website or through the e-newsletters distributed by CIPD Wimbledon on a regular basis to our members. This is something we are looking to develop this year and are currently considering the CIPD email facility recently available to branches. We also have launched branch details on Facebook and will be looking to consider Twitter as possible options – so watch this space as this develops!
Some other areas of focus for the branch this year is how we focus our CPD to support the CIPD Strategy to grow internationally and therefore at a local level this means tailoring some of our events/activities at organisations/professionals operating within a global/internationally environment.
We will also be focused on gaining sponsorship/income for the branch to support the development of future initiatives to offer to you our members.
We will continue to run the independent consultant’s special interest group which is a valuable way for consultants to share experiences and ideas and to network with each other. For more details on how to get involved please contact our lead for this group Miles Peacock or contact any of our branch members.
Finally, I would like to thank you as our members for your continued support and engagement at our events and we hope that you enjoy this year’s programme and that it continues to support your CPD and networking opportunities at all levels in such a challenging and changing economic climate.
We look forward to seeing you at our events and welcome your feedback on how we can continue to develop our branch to support yours and your organisational needs.
Ema Perks
Chair & Council Rep
Tel: 07540 627934