Meeting report from the BAR New Met Area
The BAR New Met Area meeting took place at the Novotel Hotel close to London’s Heathrow airport on 15 March, 2011. As usual it was well attended by around 50 members who came to hear the latest from the UK trade association and guest speakers. The keynote speaker for the day was Lou Reid of SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) who gave an intriguing insight into the operations of her organisation and showed how movers can help fight organised crime.
The day-long mini conference was introduced by Ian Studd, the BAR Vice President. Ian will take over the BAR presidency at the annual conference in Manchester this month. He welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained a little about his company, Harrow Green, and his long career in the moving industry.
Ian Palmer, who has now been chairman of the BAR Overseas Group for two years, also had the opportunity to introduce himself and explain something of the workings of the organisation. He said that the Overseas Group currently had around 60 members in the UK and 160 overseas affiliates.
Neil Rogers, from Business Moves Group, and the current vice chairman of the BAR Commercial Moving Group, also had an opportunity to address the meeting. Neil explained the role of the CMG. He said that the organisation had 50 members in the UK all of whom had achieved the BS8522 Standard for commercial moving. He said that making the BS 8522 Standard compulsory was, “The best thing that ever happened to us.” Neil acknowledged that there was a need for the CMG to engage with its clients and, to that end, it had formed partnerships with the FMA (Facilities Management Association) and BIFM (British Institute of Facilities Managers). The CMG was also attending trade shows, “Where members of the CMG take off their company badges and sell the Group.” In closing Neil referred to the COMTY (Commercial Mover of the Year) competition and said that it was a valuable marketing opportunity for all those who took part.
Bob Tree from Basil Fry made an appeal on behalf of the RBA (Removers Benevolent Fund) that exists to help employees of the moving industry who have fallen upon hard times. A raffle held during the meeting raised £200 for the fund.
The Young Movers were represented by Colin Craib and Darren House who encouraged the younger members of the industry (the under 40s) to take part in the events and their employers to give them leave of absence to do so. “Every young mover gets something from the events,” they said, “and it’s our job to help you nurture them.”
Peter Doman from Basil Fry became the cabaret act for the day with his impressive ‘memory man’ show. In a 30-minute presentation he showed the group a foolproof technique for remembering up to 20 items in any order. It was an impressive display with a very practical purpose allowing people to store ideas and actions in their heads until they had a chance to do something about them. Very effective – but you had to be there.
Before Lou Reid took to the stage Ian Studd returned to explain a little of the BAR’s plans. Regarding the recent referendum on compulsory standards, which had been rejected by the membership, Ian said: “Most people are in favour of higher standards but BAR hasn’t yet hit on the best way of introducing them.” He added that the matter would be discussed again at the next BAR Board meeting (due last month) and that BAR would be reconsidering its membership criteria. Other matters included: the use of the CMOTY and DMOTY (Domestic Mover of the Year) as marketing tools; the aim for BAR to increase its membership; BAR’s lobbying work on matters such as VAT thresholds, fuel prices and OFT reorganisation; and a surprise announcement that BAR was considering the re-introduction of Regional Training Centres.
Lou Reid – SOCA
SOCA was formed five years ago with a mission to: “Reduce the harm caused to UK individuals, businesses and communities by serious organised crime.” Serious organised crime can be described as: “Any group having a corporate structure whose primary objective is to obtain money from illegal activities surviving on fear and corruption.”
Lou Reid, a Principal Officer in Prevention for SOCA, explained SOCA’s aim to combat money laundering, drugs interdiction, organised immigration crime, fraud and fire arms. She said that the harm caused came in many forms: Some people suffered direct harm; there was the cost of catching and imprisoning offenders; the damage caused by corrupt employees; damage to corporate branding; and commercial undercutting through criminal activities. She said that it was part of the agency’s job to deny opportunities to criminals to do harm. The agency does this by working out how crime is committed and supporting target hardening opportunities to stop criminals doing it again.
SOCA is seeking new ways of enforcing the law and new ways to intervene and prevent criminal activity. It wants to maximise existing facilities and opportunities with other organisations. By working closely with the private sector in trusted partnership, SOCA can learn more about how crime affects business. She said that e-crime (crime that takes place largely through the Internet) is a particular current and future problem. Criminal activity in this area has developed so that cyber attacks on individuals and businesses can be executed from anywhere in the world, which makes investigation of these offences all the more difficult.
Lou explained some of the projects that the agency was working on. One, for example, was the control of uniform availability. She said it was possible for criminals to buy uniforms (such as those for security guards) on the open market and, by controlling these sales, the agency could significantly inhibit the opportunity for criminals to obtain these aids to crime. Companies might consider reviewing their policies on uniforms to secure the audit trail of products, particularly at disposal.
SOCA is helping businesses by providing information on false identities to help employers check the bona fides of potential and current employees. This information is now available to industry at large and further details can be found at www.soca.gov.uk.
In closing Lou encouraged business people to talk to SOCA. SOCA wants to know where companies are vulnerable to attack by organised crime. It wants to listen to threats raised by business. All information was valuable to help build a general picture of criminal activity and to highlight ways in which this can be curtailed.
Lou Reid may be contacted at: index@soca.x.gsi.gov.uk.
Q & A session
The New Met meeting closed with a question and answer session between the attendees and a panel chaired by Ian Studd. Understandably perhaps, in view of the closeness of the recent referendum, the main topic for discussion was Standards-based membership of BAR.
The general message from the panel was that the principle of a Standards-based association has not gone away. Ian said that the Board is committed to raising standards but there has to be a return on investment for everyone. Ian Palmer added that members generally wanted the policing of the Association to be stricter but the problem was the issue of compulsion.
Ian Studd said that during the Standards debate the number of applications for BAR membership had increased and nobody had written to BAR to say they would resign if compulsory Standards were introduced. “The debate around having standards was properly aired within BAR and arrived at in a democratic way. What the process has demonstrated is that the lines of communication [to the members] are not necessarily as robust as we would have hoped.”
Ian was also concerned that standards could be imposed from outside if BAR did not take a lead. “At some point in the future it is almost inevitable that Brussels will impose upon us the necessity of having a standard.”
John Mitchell from Pluscrates said: “It is refreshing to know that it is part of BAR’s strategy for growth to raise standards rather than creating an elite organisation.”
There was some discussion about the cost of acquiring and maintaining standards however Ian Studd said he did not believe that this was a major issue, commenting that it represented only £1.19p a day for his company.
Robert Syers, who was until recently the general secretary of BAR and is now a committee member for the New Met Area commented: “If there is no compulsion the current BAR [membership] criteria needs to closer mirror the requirements of the Standard making BAR the standard itself.”
The debate will, no doubt, continue.