A bit of bully

The passing of Jim Bowen last month reminded me of the night he saved our 2004 spring conference in Blackpool. When we were informed our after-dinner speaker had missed the plane, we thought we’d lost our evening’s entertainment, but Jim stepped up to the oche. He changed course from the golf club, where he’d been heading, to perform at our dinner.

I’ve sat through dozens of comedians over the years and there is no doubt he was the funniest – I thought I’d have to go to hospital, I laughed so much.  He judged the audience perfectly and, for those like me whose formative years were spent watching Bullseye, it was an absolute treat.

The reason for sharing that story is not only to recognise an unlikely contribution to our efforts, but also to remind ourselves of the multi-faceted nature of the association. One role of our network is to provide opportunities to spend time together. Building informal relationships is important in developing support networks and experience. Sharing together at events is all part of the process of learning new skills. 

I know that many branches are currently working away to organise their annual conferences. It’s worth taking a look at what your branch is doing over the coming months.

As usual, the HFMA is busy creating new opportunities for you to learn and share. We have launched our annual conference booking for December and are close to agreeing our first motivational speaker – look out for that announcement soon.

We have commitment from the main statutory organisations and are working hard to plan the rest of the programme. We’re focusing on short interactive sessions for the event, as well as our rich variety of workshops.

We are also going to be enhancing our graduation celebration on the Wednesday night, as many more students receive their certificates.  Please join us to celebrate their achievements.

Well before this is our Convergence 2.0 event in July, with a clear focus on getting different organisations together. Once again, the event combines the provider and commissioning faculties’ annual conferences and will focus on how organisations are looking to work as systems to deliver more integrated care. Please book your place, we are selling fast. 

As part of our president Alex Gild’s Brighter together theme, we are now in the final throes of developing our NHS at 100 roundtables.  These are taking place soon and will focus on the important issues for society to consider over the next 30 years. What, for example, will be the role of the state and the citizen in healthcare? And how will technology impact on its delivery? 

We are hoping to publish our thoughts on these issues in the week of the 70th NHS celebration, launching them at the convergence event. We believe it will be a good contribution to an essential debate.

So, as usual, there’s plenty going on and there is much for members to get involved with.

The footnote to the Jim Bowen story is that later in 2004, flushed with success, we booked another comedian to be our after-dinner speaker for the annual conference – who turned out to be one of the worst we’ve ever had!

So, it doesn’t always go alright on the night – but that’s ultimately part of the fun.