CREATIVE EXCELLENCE - Fellowship for British Hairdressing

Kevin Arkell
I have thoroughly enjoyed being your
Chairman for a second term and I am a little
sad at the thought of leaving, but it is
important for younger people to take the
reins and move the Fellowship forward.
What an unhappy time of it we had last year, sadly losing
several of our key friends and members – some of the major
architects of the current Fellowship in fact. 2011 was a year
spent attending a constant stream of funerals – a very sad year
indeed.
Happily though, once our new President, Mark Creed, was
officially installed, the year began to steadily improve, thanks to
the many successful activities which Mark has covered in his
report. I truly commend Mark for his hard work and diligence in
his first year of Presidency which has set the pace for an even
more successful second year.
Other good things also happened by carefully thinking through
and debating strategies to make the Fellowship a more business
like and stronger organisation. For example, to manage our
finances more effectively, our finance committee spent the best
part of the year setting up systems so we can monitor the costs
and revenues for all our activities and compare them year-on-year.
So big thanks to the current finance committee – Alan Richardson,
David Drew and Phillip Rogers – for their wisdom, advice and
help with this. The same committee is due to be elected again at
the next Council meeting and we have put forward two proposals
to vote on to ensure the finances are managed as effectively
ongoing. Building our fabulous brands has also been a focus:
The F.A.M.E. Team 2011 managed by Bruno Giamattei and
Errol Douglas M.B.E., Project X managed by Karine Jackson,
ClubStar managed by Simon Shaw, the Colour Project managed
by Tanya Hennessy and Jo O’Neil. These great individuals have
given us the benefit of their professionalism which is as valuable
as it is valued – thank you so much. Another very positive aspect
to 2011 has been all the PR activity, in particular the quality of our
magazine. FM really is a superb publication which portrays the
image of the Fellowship in a very creative and positive way in
each of the 11 editions per year. So congratulations and thanks to
our PR angels and in particular to our own PR manager and
magazine editor, Julie B.
So all in all, 2011 turned out to be very successful year for us and
it’s with a heavy heart that I retire from my Chairmanship at the
next Council meeting. And it would be remiss of me not to thank
all those people who have supported me in this role.
Firstly our secretary Carol Spencer; extremely supportive, efficient,
always ensuring our policies are adhered to. Ably supported by
her colleagues Denise Simkins and Pam Haynes, we are lucky in
having a very trusted team running the office.
Thank you to all the project leaders for putting on and organising
our events and activities, particularly our Events Co-ordinator Ann
Herman, without whom half of the events just wouldn’t happen.
Thank you to Vice Presidents, Gary France and Bruno Giamattei
and of course my Vice Chairman Edward Hemmings. They have
the onerous responsibility of supporting all activities, often without
receiving the recognition they deserve.
To our current Chancellor David Drew, who always works for the
greater good of the Fellowship and brought us two memorable
Luncheons and Awards.
To our sponsors, who have stood up to the plate yet again,
delivering total support not just financially, but with liberal access
to their academies and offices for events and meetings. Without
this additional support our lives would be much more difficult and
I must particularly thank the L’Oréal group, Wella, Schwarzkopf
and Goldwell for their unstinting generosity.
So what of the future? Well, it’s looking good! We have the
strongest, highest quality membership ever, great relationships
with our sponsors and the trade press and the organisers of the
two UK exhibitions, enabling us to showcase Fellowship talent to
huge audiences from both home and abroad.
We have a very sound financial base to build upon, all the right
organisational tools to support our activities and a succession plan
in place to ensure The Fellowship continues to remain the UK’s
premier hairdressing organisation. I have thoroughly enjoyed being
your Chairman for a second term and I am a little sad at the
thought of leaving; but it is important for younger people to take the
reins and move the Fellowship forward, and I am confident of
leaving the organisation in good shape to achieve this.
I thank you all – each and every one of you – for making my
second spell as Chairman to be both rewarding and successful
(I trust!) and I wish you all much health, wealth and happiness for
the future.
Kevin Arkell
Chairman
FM 04