by Paul Gillett

What an interesting time to be involved with the IAM! No sooner has IAM RoadSmart celebrated its 60th Anniversary than we in NELE are preparing to celebrate our own – our first meeting was held on the 16th Oct 1957 at The George in Wanstead. Just as Head Office has used its anniversary year to make changes ready for the next 60 years, our committee is planning a number of events and initiatives to make the most of our own landmark. We’re currently working on a plan for the year’s activities, which we hope to unveil at this year’s AGM, which takes place in March. If you have any ideas of activities we could undertake to promote NELE during our 60th year, or can contribute something about NELE’s 60-year history, it would be great to hear from you before the AGM so we can incorporate them into our plans.

Speaking of the AGM, that’s the event when we formally elect a new committee each year. Of course, it’s not the only opportunity for people to join or organizing team: we’re more than happy to co-opt new members at any time! Nevertheless, it’s a useful occasion for members to reflect on whether they’ve some skills that could be put to good use in supporting NELE. We’ve already spotted one or two such roles:

Press and Publicity (getting us mentions in local media; liaising with local authorities, shops, dealerships and other organizations that could provide us with publicity opportunities)

New Media (generating interest in NELE and the IAM through Twitter, Facebook and other media; using NELE email accounts for both internal and external new campaigns)

If you’d like more details about committee vacancies, please feel free to contact me.

Of course, there’s always room for improvement. One area that we could do better is the ability to cope with more Associates, especially towards the East (Havering) and North (Enfield and Haringey) parts of our “patch”. That’s why we’re always on the lookout for more Observers to join our excellent team – just contact Peter Rowles for more details.

I hope that as many of you as possible will come to the AGM.

We’ll try to deal with the business side of the meeting swiftly and efficiently so that we can then listen to the excellent speaker giving us the lowdown on real-life crime scene investigation. It promises to be the start of a great year of NELE celebrations!