It's been a busy time for the UK Fire Association
in our first year.
Getting the organisation up and running included:
- Forming a limited company
- Setting up a bank account
- Finding people to run it
- Finding companies who wanted to join it
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Well the first two things were easy enough. A limited company to protect our members
was available off the shelf and the bank (though unwilling at first) agreed to
give us a 'fee free' account providing that we ran the association for little
or no financial gain. Finding people to run it
.. well there's always a few mugs
like us around, working for nothing, listening to endless problems from folk,
etc. etc.
not much different from running any other business really, I'm sure
that you have all been there at some time or other. The last point i.e. 'Finding
companies who wanted to join us' was the one we feared most. If no-one joined
then we would have looked a bit silly. If only a few people had shown any interest
then we probably couldn't have afforded to run it. Let's face it no-one like's
to look like a complete fool and that's what we faced if it all went wrong. We
calculated that we really needed to get around thirty to thirty five member companies
in our first year to make this feasible, were there enough people of principle
who were brave (or foolhardy) enough to put their trust in a completely new organisation
that embraced honest, low running costs and a simple straightforward 'non big
brother' attitude to its members
It seems that there were.
Main events to date:
December 3rd 2008 - A founding meeting was held to determine the basic principles and aims of the association. What did people want from a trade association, could we offer a viable improvement or alternative to what was already out there. What were people complaining about within our industry- were their complaints justified - could we do better?
February 20th 2009 - It all kicked off when the first invoices for membership were sent out. Within a month we had taken on 26 new members, a great success (if we could keep it up). Then it went a bit quiet. The initial thrust looked good but if we had to get through the year with 26 members it was going to be tight. Then in April we had another small but significant surge (partially helped by the fee increases made by another trade organisation).
Around that time we launched our website. uk-fa.org - this is the information hub of the organisation and keeps you in touch with events. The website hosts details of training courses available to members, members articles and industry news. These are further backed up by email bulletins which you all receive from our Secretary 'Alan Palmer' which are both informative and on occasion even amusing.
July 9th 2009 (a Thursday) we had our Inaugural General Meeting. As there was only a fairly slim budget to play with we were a little concerned that by spending several hundred pounds on this event it would look rather bad if only a few people (or no-one) attended, we needn't have worried. Not only did we achieve almost a sixty percent attendance rate (virtually unheard of in trade association circles) but there was a great positive attitude from all parties with many people willing to contribute to the meeting. It seemed that everyone wanted the organisation to succeed and were willing to play their part by contributing to the discussions and letting us know the direction that the industry wanted us to take.
September 2009 - Following talks with BSI (including a discussion over prices) we were eventually able to supply members with lower cost British Standards. The discount we receive from BSI is entirely dependant upon the numbers of standards purchased, this currently puts us at a disadvantage against some of the larger trade organisations however we are determined to improve on this.
December 2009 - Membership drive. One of the topics discussed at the inaugural general meeting was ways of improving the growth of our organisation. The answer given was to get the message out there - but how to do that?. In the end we decided to invest in a mailing list and organise a mass mailing to over 1300 industry members. Will it work ?? well like everything else you never know until you try. As such the following week will see a very large number of invitations going out to other fire protection companies to tell them about the UK-FA. Whether this works - well we'll keep you informed. Incidentally the cost of the mail out has been partially subsidised by both Peter Forster of Cherry Parts Ltd. and our chairman Alan Price who have both contributed towards the cost of the database purchase.
5th February 2009
We intend to hold our Annual General Meeting (this time in the south of England).
Since that time membership has continued to grow. We have welcomed not only members from other trade associations but even people who have never been involved with an association before. It seems that everyone is keen to move forward with the creation of an organisation that actively works for the trade, providing advice, training and real support when it is needed. Remember that we are not here to 'tell' you how to run your business - but we will be there when you need us.
In the last few months there have been a number of assistance enquiries from members. We have helped out over issues such as health and safety matters, pump systems for residential sprinkler systems, training for everything from fire extinguishers through sprinkler systems - how to handle difficult competitors, paperwork and contracts (dare I add a plug for folk needing help with their database systems;-) and dozens of smaller but still important enquiries. Keep them coming.
We are pleased to announce that the UK-Fire Association has just taken on its 65th member so far and we still have several months left before the end of our first financial year.
Tom Law
Treasurer
December 2009
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