CHAIRMANS MESSAGE

Paul Chinery – Chairman

As 2022 progresses we have seen Covid restrictions lifting which is great but just as we thought normality was about to resume, the Russia/Ukraine conflict began which is now restricting our lives both personally and professionally as we see inflationary pressures taking hold. Personally, we see our finances going less far what with fuel and utility costs rising to record levels, interest rates increasing and essentials of a basics food shop or the necessity of a holiday going up exponentially. Professionally we see widely reported volume softening – which in some ways is good as it gives us a short period to take stock, take a deep breath and allows the market to start to align to the new normal – and uncertainty over what peak in 2022 will look like.

I see everywhere I look tired, demotivated and stressed colleagues from across our industry and, at all levels. I also see a shortage of people resource across our industry, an aging workforce and an industry driven by digitalisation that has taken the fun and camaraderie out of the job making it less appealing to the next generation that should be working their way up.

This is exactly where UKACC steps in and can play a part. The sole purpose of UKACC is to stimulate social connectivity with our industry and to have a bit of fun, in a compliant way. I am finding with my own team that the more we can do face to face, in a social environment just turbo charges their wellbeing and creates the glue that pulls us together as a team. And for our younger colleagues we build engagement and ambition through the social and fun stuff. Therefore, please do look at our calendar of events. Most of us should have reasonable finances right now so this is the time to say thank you to your teams and get them out to an industry social event be that an informal quiz night, right up to our annual Gala Ball were taking a table and bringing along some of your young talent will really motivate them and show them that you see them as the future of what we do.

Finally, there is a charitable element to UKACC in that each year we support, and fund raise for the chairman’s charity. This year my chosen charity is ORBIS (gbr.orbis.org/en). Orbis, an international charity working to make eye care available everywhere, for everyone, so no one has to experience the consequences of avoidable blindness. One-way Orbsi achieves this is by putting an eye hospital on an aircraft which allows them to deliver care to parts of the world that would normally not be reachable. Unfortunately, since the beginning of Covid the aircraft has been grounded and requires £40000 of repairs and maintenance to get it airborne again. As such I though not only was the mission and purpose of the charity a good one but with the link to aviation it was a bit of a no brainer to select for my tenure as chairman.

So, to close thank you to all our supporters and of course to the committee for making what UKACC does, possible. I hope to see our membership and attendance at our events this year grow and look forward to meeting you and having a bit of fun while we raise some much-needed funding for Orbis to help them get airborne again.

Hope to see you at our next event!

All the best

Paul

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