DASA AGM 2004

[kwatt]

The following is a copy of a letter sent to DASA members recently, written by Neil Howieson, which gives a review of the DASA AGM last held last month in York. Jason agreed to let it be re-printed here for general consumption.

Enjoy.

K.

Neil Howieson wrote:DASA AGM SATURDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2004

Dear Members, Council Members and Industry Colleagues,

Following our Annual General Meeting of Saturday October 16th, I am writing to personally thank every one for their support of DASA and the industry at large, especially to those of you who were able to attend on the day.

To say that the day was Highly Successful would be an understatement of the highest order. There was a highly charged and vibrant atmosphere from beginning to end, and everybody from the council, all our members, associate members and guests, enjoyed a jam packed day flowing with ideas, information, news and developments.

I wanted to mention a special thanks to Walter Russell for arranging the venue and accommodation at the Holiday Inn, close to the centre of York. The rooms and facilities were superb, as was the hotel staff and restaurant, and many a DASA gathering occurred in the bar over the Friday and Saturday (so much so, that the Grolsch actually ran out during the Friday evening!)

Also a special thanks to Scott Pollock for going to such great lengths to organise the meeting room, information packs and agendas, which all paved the way for a very smoothly run and well organised meeting. All this was on top of Scott’s regular duties as DASA I.T. & Communications Officer, which has included the DASA web site, DASANET forum and web mail. Scott both stayed up late and got up early, in order to make these arrangements, so a big thanks to Scott from all of us.

In addition, we must not forget all the work which both Mark Scogings and Jason Huby conduct behind the scenes, in their respective duties of DASA Chairman and Treasurer. Most members are aware that ‘surface’ or visible items such as the web site, meetings, Orbit and communications, are only the tip of the ice berg- a massive amount of work goes on behind the scenes by the council and officers, and all our thanks to Mark and Jason for their efforts.

Finally, it would be very remiss of us to forget to mention our old friend and brother in arms Ralph Halford. Ralph has retired from active service work some time ago, but did not sever his links with the white goods industry, going on to work closely with the NVQ qualifications system, and eventually becoming an assessor. More recently, Ralph has become heavily involved with the running of DASA, and has provided the council and officers with invaluable help and support, carrying out administration and telephone duties, and attending various council and external meetings. All out thanks go to Ralph for his loyal and tireless support.

One of the great highlights of the DASA AGM, or the ‘DASA Weekend’ as it is affectionately known, is the Friday night gathering, where the members are able to get together socially following Fridays council meeting, and prior to Saturdays AGM. This year of course, we were gracing the historic city of York with our eminent presence, and we booked in to a most wonderful Sardinian restaurant called Del-Rio’s.

The best part of three hours was spent in Del Rio’s by about 23 DASA members, and the wine flowed freely all night, as did the laughter and friendship. We had a whole corner of the restaurant to ourselves (the other customers insisted on it) and we all experienced some of the most stunning, top quality food ever, and all with fantastic service in wonderful and intimate surroundings. Following a short taxi ride back to the hotel, we surprisingly ended up in the hotel bar, where the boys such as my self departed to bed at around 12.00ish, and the real men amongst us somehow lingered until around 4.00 A.M I am told. We shall mention no names.

One of the greatly encouraging things about Saturdays AGM, was the number of DASA Associate members and guests, who saw the DASA AGM as a worthy enough cause to give up their own personal time on a Saturday. Clearly DASA is recognised as an industry leader, and its importance in the industry continues to grow, along with the changes, legislation, pressure and confusion which has become a feature of our industry. DASA is a sobering and respected entity, which continues to forge a link between quality independent repairers and the rest of the industry. On Saturday, a cornucopia of industry sectors recognised DASA as THE service industry leader, including representatives from sectors such as Gas Training, Service Networks, Vocational Training, Spares and Manufacturing.

In particular, we were all very pleased to hear from John Hopwood of the CDA group, to whom many DASA members provide service to their range of kitchen equipment. John came to CDA from the brewing industry, and therefore came in to the White Goods world with a fresh perspective. John spent over half an hour talking about the benefits which CDA gain from using DASA members. John said that DASA members provide palpably better quality service than non members, and that many DASA members under value themselves! You can view John’s full presentation on the DASANET web site.

Another interesting speaker was our very own Steve Rochefort, with whom most of you will have already spoken. Steve was charged with the task of contacting DASA members past and present, and has completed this task in recent weeks. The idea behind this exercise was to help forge relations between your ‘new’ DASA and the rest of the industry, more specifically the membership itself. As many of you are aware, DASA has undergone huge changes this past year, and the council has recognised Member Communications as its number one priority. This was borne out by the findings of Steve’s telephone survey.

In addition, we also had valuable contributions from Roy Fisher of Connect Distribution, who are loyal, long term associate members to DASA. Many DASA members have purchased spare parts from Connect for years, and now many are receiving volumes of service work through Connects own service network. Once again, Electrolux were kind enough to support DASA in the shape of Steve Clarke, and the council continue to work with Steve and Electrolux, in forging closer links between our organisations.

NESN were represented by Carol Madden. Carol acknowledged that there had been certain difficulties at NESN in recent times, but gave passionate assurances that these troubles were a thing of the past. Just like DASA, NESN seem to be creating a new future by overcoming obstacles of the past. We all wish Carol and NESN all the very best, and we await future developments within their organisation. MFI were again represented by Tony Brown. Many DASA members receive work from MFI as a direct result of their membership, and Tony has been a committed supporter of DASA and its members, and has provided many members with quality service work. Tony spoke for several minutes, acknowledging that DASA was a quality outfit, and he outlined his commitment to work with DASA in the future.

Finally, we all need to thank Terry Tudor, and MPK gas training for attending our meeting. Terry is an old friend of DASA, and is heavily involved with promoting standards and training in the white goods sector, so clearly DASA and Terry have a lot in common and will continue to work together in the future. MPK gas training were represented by Paul & Mike, who gave us all a very entertaining and thought provoking talk regarding the gas industry generally and about their own training facilities in York. Any DASA members needing CORGI training would be well advised to check out their web site on http://www.mpk.co.uk

Your DASA council has pledged to take DASA in a new direction, and to involve its members much more than in the past. Now that the day to day running of DASA has been assumed by normal DASA members just like you, we will be able to take a fresh look at the aims and responsibilities of DASA. Although your officers and council are under a great deal of pressure running DASA whilst taking care of their own businesses, we nevertheless feel that this is the correct way forward for your organisation. In accepting this terrific work load, the actions of the council and officers will allow the association large cost savings, whilst allowing the membership to take more control, and to gain much more benefit from future DASA activities.

Please remember, DASA is your organisation, and is there for your benefit. You are more than welcome at any time to contact the DASA office via the web forum or council email, to put forward ideas and to offer help. In particular, we are looking for people to serve on the council and share the workload. We are looking for article contributions to appear in Orbit- the more articles we receive, the more often Orbit can be published. Also, you can help by taking part in the DASA web forum where you can post new topics or reply to current topics. What ever you choose to do, you will be helping your association, your industry, and your self. Please remember, what ever the council and officers do is completely voluntary- we attend at least 6 meetings per year, and do not receive travel or accommodation expenses. We pay for our own meals, fuel, hotels, and more importantly, we give up valuable time to be away from our own businesses in order to help your association. The officers accept that under the previous regime, you, the member, did not always receive the benefits from DASA which you would have liked. Although an enormous amount of work has gone on behind the scenes over the years, we accept that we have not communicated this as well as we should have. Things have changed now. The past is the past, and the DASA as it is now, is not the DASA of the past. The quicker everyone rallies round to support the council and officers, the quicker we will make progress.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those members who have stuck with DASA through thick and thin, and to welcome back old friends with open arms. If you are reading this and you feel that having been a DASA member, you would like to try us again, then the doors are always open. I hope to see many of you in the new year, both members and associate members at council meetings, and I look forward to an exciting and prosperous 2005 for DASA and all its friends.

Best Regards,

Neil G. Howieson
DASA secretary

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