Did It All Change As Predicated?
Even if this gets put up on our website on in the first working-days of March, I will count it as February’s blog and if so I have managed so far to keep to my resolve of 1 blog a month – not sure anyone will be that interested but it leaves me with a warm glow if nothing else! These have been fraught days in our household, with A2 mocks being sat by the youngest member of our family, who decided last Friday evening that his eyes needed testing as he was having trouble seeing things on the board at...
What Colour is January…..?
Strange question you may think. I understand some people attribute colours to days of the week – Monday – White etc. This led me to thinking what colour would months be? From my point of view January would definitely be Grey. No surprise there you may think – certainly in Northern Europe it can be a month of not only grey skies and cold weather, but in the UK certainly a time for paying bills and meeting the demands of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs! Ah Joy! Hence the grey. Once I started thinking about this, I found however that...
And So This Is Christmas…..
“Another year older …” (with acknowledgements to John Lennon), yes it’s that time of the year again, the Christmas trees are in the windows of our neighbours houses (we are lagging a bit behind this year) and Jonathon Ross (a local) has switched on the lights in “the Village” as we who live in NW3 like to call Hampstead. Enough of this nostalgia – just thought I would set the scene for a bit of a review of what has been somewhat of a roller coaster of a year for RDO and its members. Where do we start – with the...
Is It All About To Change?
How many times have we in this industry thought this I wonder? Are we about to experience one such moment next week? What on earth am I going on about (I do wonder myself). Over the last few months, we have watched claims companies here in the UK and also in Spain, as PPI business here in the UK winds down, look for other sources of business and have turned their attention to timeshare as a possible source of income. The Claims Working Group has pulled together remarkably well as Eugene Miskelly said at the conference, reacting rapidly to changing tactics...
RDO5 – Did We Get It Right?
First thing on the second day of the RDO Conference – this is the question that always goes through your mind. RDO5, held this year in London again, after Gran Canaria in 2013, you are always worried if the programme and speakers have been right, the food OK etc. It is not really until the Gala Dinner that you can start to get the feedback on how it went from the delegates themselves – especially after a few drinks! But it did look at the close of day 1 as though delegates were happy with the content of the Conference and the...
RDO – Too Much Enforcement?
Without pre-empting the content of this week’s session at RDO5 “Self Regulation –too tight or too loose?” nor indeed the Breakout Session “Mitigating the Risk”- this topic has been under consideration these last few days as we look at the budget for 2015 – as always, a balancing act for any trade association between what we would like to achieve and what we believe members are prepared to contribute. No-one can pretend the media coverage this year in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia has been particularly good, indeed one could say it has been a bit of an unmitigated disaster, but...
Mea Culpa …..Or OK It’s My Fault
I had an email late last week from our Social Media Czar (aka Nikkie Yeaman), pointing out that I had not written a blog for 2 plus months and I was falling behind in my intention this year to write at least 1 blog a month. I was surprised on 2 fronts – a) I never thought anyone read them (they probably don’t but Nikkie likes to make sure we have something new up there), b) I thought it was longer than that since I last wrote anything! Knowing you have to write a blog is a bit like knowing...
The Long March
In October 1934, it is claimed that Chairman Mao as he was to become, was one of two eventual leaders, who lead what was then the Red Army from the south of China, North and West over some of the most difficult terrain in China to re-group and escape almost certain defeat and destruction at the hands of the nationalists, under General Chiang-khai shek. The journey covered some 9000 kilometres and took 367 days or thereabouts. It became known in Chinese history as “The Long March” and was reputed to be the turning point in the fortunes of the Chinese...
You Win Some, You Lose Some and a Few Rotten Apples
I was reflecting on this phrase early January, as we have been in discussion with two fairly long-standing RDO members in different parts of Europe. One was worried about losing membership through difficulties with its bank that had made payment of levies and fees difficult. The other member had changed its ownership recently and the new owners didn’t want to remain in membership, as they couldn’t see the value of being an RDO member from their point of view. I am pleased to say that we managed to sort out the financial issues relating to the first developer and he will...
Some thoughts from Abroad………
In the last couple of weeks, I have been reviewing the RDO Budget for 2014 along with Nikkie Yeaman, before we present it to our esteemed Treasurer. In the course of this I have been meeting with Klaus Juhl who represents RDO in Germany and of course Maria Rodriguez who looks after our Spanish members and represents RDO in Spain. When I go to Berlin, I am always slightly surprised at how small an airport Berlin Tegel is for the airport of the capital of an economy as important as Germany. There is in fact another airport serving Berlin – Schoenfeld...