Chairman’s end of year message
I find it hard to believe that another year has gone by since I was granted the Honorary Chairmanship of the Federation.
I do not however involve myself in the day to day running of the Federation as this is admirably carried out by Roger and indeed Heather with her incredible control over matters financial.
Again in 2015 the Federation has struggled to maintain high membership numbers and again unfortunately numbers have decreased slightly due to companies closing etc, however we have also welcomed both new members and strategic partners who hopefully are now benefiting from their status.
The website continues to improve under the care of Zein Marketing and advertising is now available in the monthly newsletter. I personally enjoy reading the up to date information and look forward to its arrival.
This year, 2015, has been a tricky one to keep on top of and I know that Roger has been attending more meetings than usual in an effort to alleviate problems that would affect the membership and he should be congratulated for his persuasive nature in these meetings.
The Salvage Code of Practice is a classic example, the final draft that was attempted to be railroaded through was stopped and is still under discussion thankfully, had it have been accepted as it was then this had the possibility of company ruination and indeed danger to staff members.
Roger is still battling the restrictive practice in the current code preventing the sale of undeployed air bags and is in the middle of a series of meetings in this regard.
A number of members were having issues with delays in obtaining V5c documents when these had been lost by a previous keeper so Roger created a document to assist and managed to get this passed by the DVLA legal team for Members use. It is this sort of work that tends to go unnoticed by some but is of huge benefit to us, the members.
Finally in my short list was of course the final closure of the VIC scheme, something that we have been fighting for years and finally in October this year we were successful.
Obviously this is just a snippet but hopefully it gives the reader confirmation of some of what is happening behind the scenes.
The BVSF have retained their excellent working relationship with many government departments, the DVLA, ABI and indeed the Police and it should be noted that the BVSF are the only Trade Association in this sector to be invited to attend the DVLA Industry Liason Group meetings.
Moving on to the AGM back in April and it was confirmed by many that this was the “Best Yet” so of course will be very difficult to follow and improve upon, although I know what is in the pipeline and would strongly advise all those that are able, to attend. The AGM is the most important day in the BVSF calendar. In 2016 the event is again to be held at the Coombe Abbey Hotel, on April 14th. Watch out in the post for your invitations!
In closing I would add that I am very pleased that the Federation remains at the forefront in our working sector with Roger and Heather at the helm and look forward to working with them both in the coming year.
It just remains for me to wish all members of the BVSF, their staff and of course families a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous and healthy New Year.
Percy Snow
Honorary Chairman
