Well the time finally came last week for me to take over the reigns as President of PPMA from Stephen Moir. In my acceptance at the AGM I said how surreal the moment was as I had sat in the audience at PPMA Conferences more times than I care to remember never thinking that one day I would be wearing the chain of office!

It’s going to be a very hard act to follow the outstanding year that Stephen has had but we have a great team at PPMA and we will all work hard to make sure that this year is equally successful as last.

I took a bit of a gamble in moving our flagship conference to Manchester but I have to say I think it paid off. The theme for the conference was Purpose, Passion and Performance. All the speakers focussed on what that meant and were able to bring invaluable thoughts, ideas and debate to the bumper size audience. For those of you who were not able to attend, the speakers slides will be available for download form the PPMA website later this week. On the front page of the conference section you will also see a downloadable version of my opening address at the conference.

Copies of pictures from a very entertaining Thursday night can also be downloaded from www.prazzi.com/ppma2009  

I also set out my manifesto for the year at the AGM and this is something that I will be focussing hard on over the next twelve months. The five key areas of focus are:

• The efficiency agenda
• The changing size and shape of our organisations (see the PPMA/Deloitte thought leadership booklet on this topic that was distributed at the conference)
• The future of public sector reward and pensions
• The crisis in social worker recruitment
• Leadership of our organisations  

Watch out for more news on these issues throughout the year.

Finally, I also had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful people from PPMA, our sponsor organisations and partner organisations from across the globe during conference week. I was a pleasure to meet you all and thank you for your support at the conference. It is certainly a week I will remember for a long, long time to come.

Gill

Well, who would have believed that 12 months could go so quickly? I’m still a bit surprised that the PPMA conference is almost here again. As I write this post, I’m already in Manchester at the conference venue, with the team of people that are helping to get everything ready for the days ahead.

The conference run up has once again seen PPMA in the media including our incoming President giving some hard but necessary truths about public sector employment, especially in a time of recession, in People Management last week. I also wrote my last H R Columnist piece in the same edition of PM. I’m also sure the media profile for PPMA will again go through the roof this week as the conference gets into full swing (the cast of speakers alone merits this).

So, that’s really it. My Presidency comes to an end tomorrow at the AGM and all that remains is for me to thank you, the PPMA members, who gave me this wonderful opportunity. It has been my distinct privilege and pleasure to serve as President for 2008/09 and I look forward to continuing to serve as both Past President and Treasurer for the next 12 months.

In case you wanted to ask the killer question has the last year been worth it? The answer is a resounding yes from me, the real test is whether or not you, as the Association, also think my tenure has been worthwhile - I hope you equally agree.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing you in Manchester later this week - Gillian, over to you and best of luck.

Best wishes and thanks to all,

Stephen

The sun is shining, I’m sat on the train from London to Cambridge and I’ve chaired my final PPMA Policy Board as President.

The meeting today was really well attended and supported by Regional Chairs and Lead Officers and gave the Board a chance to review the annual report submissions for the forthcoming AGM at the conference.

Reflecting upon my time as President, I had the chance to thank all the people that have supported and enabled me to do this - you know who you are!  Best of all, I get to attend the Conference this year as a Delegate and will enjoy what will be the best PPMA Conference yet and learn, from the best, including David Ulrich himself.

The Policy Board also debated key issues relating to Local Government Pay and Senior Salaries/FOI issues and it felt that some key policy positions were arrived at.

I look forward to seeing you in Manchester at the end of April, at which point this Blog will become Gillian’s to lead as well…I hope you have booked your places at the conference!?

Best wishes

Stephen

Hi all, not much to report this week - surprisingly I’ve actually managed to get another day to work at home - twice in two weeks is a bit of a record!  All things PPMA are becoming really quiet pre Christmas, although I did have a chance to catch up with John Tonks last night and all seems to be moving along well for the 2009 conference - but can I remind you all to please book your places as soon as possible - leaving this to the last minute will only lead to disappointment…

That’s pretty much it for this week - I’ve now got another piece to write for People Management - let’s hope the creative instinct kicks in soon!

Have a good weekend and wrap up warm.

Stephen