As most of us know the DASA AGM took place over the weekend in York.
The event was reasonably well attended by members, work providers and a couple of manufacturers.
During the opening remarks Mark Scogins (Chairman) explained that with the loss of Chris Hayter that the event had been a learning curve for people unfamiliar with organising such an event and that the information left bt Chris was lacking. Also in the address he went on to say that, whilst by the terms of the constitution of the organisation having himself remain as the chairman was not correct, it was preffered for stability within DASA. This was put to the floor and there was no disagreement from anyone present, it is therefore assumed that this has the backing of the membership.
Steve Roachfort then presented his findings upon his recent survey carried out of DASA members which was most interesting.
Without going into detail on Steve’s findings the general sentiment was that changes were required as soon as possible. The officers are to look into the recommendations from this report at the earliest opportunity.
The election of officers and council was then held with little change from the previous year.
The afternoon was dominated by various speakers, Steve Clarke from Electrolux gave a talk on AMDEA (Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Electrical Appliances) with a view to DASA working closer with AMDEA.
Roy Fisher gave a presentation on CDSL and what they were and their goals as well as giving an overview of the trade in general.
Carole Madden from NESN gave a short talk and publically apologised for any wrongdoing by her predecessor/s.
Tony Brown from MFI also gave a short talk on where MFI was one year on from choosing the independent route for service.
This was followed towards the end by a talk from Terry Tudor on training for new candidates into the industry.
MPK gas training rounded off the day and left some with some absolutely horrific facts and figures in regard to the new safety initiutive from CORGI. It was evident from the reaction that many people within the trade had no realisation of the true implications of this proposal.
Figures were given for a company running five installers, installing five appliances a day, this would come out to effectively making CORGI registration cost £25,000 per anum. Yes, you read that correctly, £25,000!
Whilst initially this will affect installation and exchanged products only, the proposal will most likely be extended to cover all repairs to gas appliances as well with the change to be instituted in 2006/7.