Just on my way back from our Annual
Strategy meeting held at the RVC, Hawkshead Campus. We were in the Conference Rooms above the
main restaurant. The campus looked
stunning, probably helped by bright sunshine, clear blue skies and over 20
degrees. There were students relaxing on
the lawned areas “studying”, just as we used to! I did have a text conversation with Prof.
Josh Slater who said, “The sun always shines on Potters Bar”!
In keeping with tradition, our incoming
President, Mark Bowen chaired the meeting.
There were a few absentees due to other commitments and unforeseen
problems, which is understandable but we were lucky to have Paul Jepson and
Michael Sadlier who were both attending their last Council meeting. Michael Crane from the Donkey Sanctuary who
couldn’t be there is also approaching the end of his term on Council, which
means there’ll be places for some “new blood” to join in September.
Joining
BEVA Council
Nominations to join Council in September
are now open. Last year the number of
nominations exceeded the number of places and therefore an election took place
for the first time in several years. A
common accusation we (Council) hear is that BEVA Council is considered by some
to be “an old boys club” (beer drinking, rugby playing, sexist etc.). My shoulders are broad enough to weather that
kind of stereotyping but I think that Vicki, Lucy, Gayle and Hannah (see photo
of Council Members) were particularly affronted about being referred to in that
way! If you really think it’s like that,
which I agree isn’t representative of the profession in 2015, then please step
up to the plate and make a difference.
BEVA is a truly democratic organisation, which strives to provide what its
members want…it’s your choice.
One of the main topics for discussion and
review at the meeting was the results of the recent member survey. Over 550 people completed the survey, which I
understand is an excellent response rate.
Those who didn’t respond missed out on the chance to win free Congress
registration. The feedback we get is
vitally important to improve the services to our members. It is really re-assuring to know that over
90% of our members are either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the
Association – we must be doing something right!
But could we always do better – “the enemy of good is better”?
One of the funniest responses we had was to
the final question, “Is there anything you’d like to tell us about?”. The answer was, “I think that I may have Superhuman
powers but I haven’t been able to tell anybody until now….”. Great to see that the profession still has a
sense of humour…. I assume!
During the meeting I was also chastened
about the lack of my Blog over the last few weeks and months…. I really have been
up to my eyes in it recently both with BEVA and the practice. This included a difficult foaling in the
middle of last week, (legs back and a small colon prolapse / intussusception),
which resulted in a (very strong) orphan
foal L…with attitude. What was also
amazing was the response to our posting on Facebook for a foster mare; within
48 hours we’d had 120,000 hits. We found
a mare quite promptly and after lots of seriously hard work by the nursing team
over 4 days they bonded and are due to go home soon. I believe the foal has now got her own
Twitter account!
