Merry Christmas from Geoff and all at IRRV!

East Midlands Association

Marianne and I were delighted to attend the Association Dinner Dance hosted by President Alan Lemmon at the East Midlands Airport Hilton Hotel.

A champagne reception was followed by a splendid dinner, speeches and raffle and then a disco till late.

It was good to see several Council Members support the occasion.

Thank you Alan and Committee for a warm welcome and great evening. Well done East Midlands!

Above : Geoff and Marianne

Above : Geoff, Alan Lemmon and David Magor

Above : Presidents with Chains!

For more photos see East Midlands Association website - http://tinyurl.com/irrveastmids.

Visit to Scottish Association

30th November: It's St. Andrew's Day so it was great to visit Dumfries and be welcomed by the Scottish Association last week.

The Forum Day was an interactive session on Revenues Benefits and Fraud plus a bit on Reval 2010 where the large increases on LA properties valued on Contractors Method were noted.

Organised by Fraser Macpherson and led by Scottish President Brian Jeffrey, Forum delegates came from all over Scotland, and discussed manly issues including the Future of Local Taxation in Scotland.

A presentation was made to Alistair McNair who recently retired from Aberdeenshire Council but remains an active member of the IRRV Scottish Association Executive.

You may recall that Dumfries and Galloway Council won the Excellence in Social Inclusion Performance Award this year and was highly commended for the Revenues Team of the Year Award. Glasgow City Council won Most Improved Team of the Year Performance Award. I hope to see plenty of Scottish entries for next year's Performance Awards in Harrogate.

The day was rounded off by the traditional Scottish Chinese Karaoke where I was able to lead the singing of "Maybe its because I'm a Londoner" and Lambeth Walk before departing for the Sleeper train back to London for the Rating Diploma's lunch and the London Association Quiz the following day ... more on that later ...

This coming week is the IRRV Scottish Benefits and Benefits Fraud Conference in Crieff to be opened by Senior Vice President Kerry Macdermott as I have the Valuers' Faculty Board Meeting in London.

But I will be up in Edinburgh next week for the Scottish Association President's Christmas Reception on the 9th December at the Royal Scots Club.

For more about the Scottish Association have a look at their excellent web site http://www.irrvscotland.org.uk

Above : Geoff at the wine reception after the Forum meeting
Above : Geoff (left) and Scottish Association President Brian Jeffrey (right) made retiral presentation to Alistair McNair
Above : Geoff addresses the Forum and Association joint meeting
Above : Geoff with Liz and David Magor at the Chinese Karaoke!

London Association

I was delighted to join the Annual Quiz at the Red Herring in the City and present the prizes to the winning team and runners. A great evening on 27th November.

Above : My team at the London Association quiz

Above : London Association quiz team

Above : The winning team

Above : The runners up team

Swiss Church and Embassy

Saturday 14th November saw Marianne and I at the Swiss Embassy for lunch and then the opening of the newly renovated Swiss Church in London (Covent Garden); a great occasion with review of the project, art photography and music including Alp Horn.

See more at http://www.swisschurchlondon.org.uk/pub/home.

Above : IRRV President with Swiss Ambassador Alexis P. Lautenberg
Above : The renovated Swiss Church in London (Covent Garden)
Above : Swiss Church Minister Nathalie Dürmüller, Geoff and Marianne and youngest daughter Sonja
Above : Alp Horn at Swiss Church

PRESIDENT FOR SALE BY AUCTION!

Working on the Contracts desk last week at STRETTONS' regular national wide property auction, I was interested to see what happened on Lot 84 offered with no guide price or reserve (priceless?)

Strettons Auctions Director, Philip Waterfield, whose motto is 'Auctions Speak Louder than Words' said,

"We had a lot of interest for Lot 84 but it was sold 'prior to auction' ; our next auction is on 16th December so we should have some Christmas bargains." www.strettons.co.uk

I am off to Cardiff today for the ACES* annual lunch at the Wales Millennium Centre and plan to call in at Cardiff Valuation Office to talk about the IRRV.

*(Association of Chief Estates Surveyors and Property Managers in the Public Sector)

Big day tomorrow with the reopening of the manificently renovated Swiss Church in London's Covent Garden, following a lunch with the Swiss Ambassador.

London and Home Counties Association

Delighted to join my own Association meeting on Reval 2010 in October.

Montagu Evans hosted the well attended meeting in their offices in Clarges Street W1, and Association Chairman Peter Scrafton introduced speakers Patrick Bond (VOA), Blake Penford (GL Hearn), and Tony Masella (VTS) followed by lively question time.

See the London & Home Counties Association website for the slide presentation (http://www.irrvassociations.org.uk/index.asp?AId=4).

Greatly enjoyed the Rating Surveyors Association Guest Dinner on 21st October, at the RAF Club Piccadilly, chaired by RSA President Mark Higgin who contributed to our Valuer Day at Bournemouth. It was good to meet Penny Ciniewicz the new VOA Chief Executive, as well as
so many friends and Rating colleagues.

IRRV President with Allen Evans Rating Diploma Holders chairman (left)

"These guys need buttering up.."

David Magor IRRV, Nic Cooper CLG and Tony Masella VTS at RSA Guest Dinner 21 October 2009.

Photos courtesy of Mr Richard Guy.

Attended for STRETTONS, the latest North London Business Forum in the City when the focus was on Waltham Forest London Borough my local Council. Presentations from the Council Leader, Chief Executive and Head of Planning were well received – Waltham Forest had THREE teams shortlisted for Performance Awards at Bournemouth Conference in September.

STRETTONS features an unusual LOT 84 at their national auction on 2nd November –
The IRRV President Geoff Fisher complete with chain of office – no guide price or reserve!
Next auction close to Christmas 16th December!

Busy time ahead at the end of November with Scottish FORUM meeting in Dumfries on Thursday 26th then back on the night sleeper for Friday’s Rating Diploma Holders Professional Meeting and Lunch at RAF Club Piccadilly, followed by London Association Quiz in the Evening.

Hope to hear soon about my application for the TEGOVA Recognised European Valuer (REV) qualification being considered by The European Group of Valuers Association at Brussels. Watch this space....

RICS London NE Association Meeting

Wednesday 14th saw a further Reval 2010 meeting at Chingford, with presentations from the VO (GVO Karen Kendrick and Reval Lead Paul Phillips) on the Reval itself, and me on Business Rates effects including transition and supplementary rates.

Many questions!

South Wales Association

On 12th October, it was off to Cardiff City Hall for the day to the South Wales Association Meeting organised by Association Secretary Helen Stokes.

My first Association event as President and, as it was chaired by Kerry McDermott, it was a chance to present him with the Senior Vice President's chain of office – see photograph below. Revaluation 2010 was the subject and Brian Jones South Wales VO Reval Leader gave a resume of the Reval process Notices and some early indication of changes of rateable value by giving peak values for shops offices and industrials for 2010 Lists compared to the 2005 List values.

I then gave a Business Rates review of the difficulties of this list in Recession Date and other matters including use of the VOA web site and supplementary and empty rates (see photo below). The Welsh assembly has not yet decided whether to have Transition (None for the last 2 lists).

Photo below : South Wales Association Secretary Helen Stokes, Kerry McDermott and Geoff Fisher

Power point slides on both talks will be available on the Association web site.

Welcome bloggers! ....

IRRV President Geoff reporting for 2009/10 making the 4th year of the blog.

I am looking forward to a busy year of official duties including opening conferences, visiting Associations, giving presentations and of course chairing the quarterly meeting of IRRV Council.

2nd October at Bournemouth saw Julie Holden hand over the Presidency after a great year and I am proud and honoured to be your President. Please visit this blog regularly to share in my journeys with photographs and stories - it could include you – with hopefully fun on the way.

See you there.

Best regards

from Geoff

Photos from the Presidential Handover!

Geoff becomes IRRV President

Geoff became IRRV President on Thursday 1st October, following the IRRV Awards Evening 2009 in Bournmouth, during the Institute's Annual Conference.

Geoff will be using this blog to update IRRV members on his numerous activities throughout his Presidential Year - come back soon to read more!

Geoff at Conference

Above : Geoff speaks at IRRV Conference 2009
Above : Geoff pictured at the Bournemouth Annual Conference 2009