The Insurance Institute of Bolton
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President's Message

It has been a true honour to represent the Insurance Institute of Bolton in the capacity of President over the last 12 months and I am humbled to be elected for a second term.

Being honest, the impacts of the wider world dictated that the previous 12 months were not as I had envisaged, or ever could have envisaged. We are all too aware of the personal and professional challenges which have been presented by Covid and the local institute and supporting council situation was no different. The vast majority of our annual programme has historically been of a face to face nature, from round table council meetings to welcoming guests to regional conferences. All of this, and everything in between had to be adapted and was presented in a virtual nature.

Given the circumstances, I am absolutely delighted as to how we have adapted to the challenges faced and how readily we were able to take our proposition ‘online.’ I believe I am accurate in saying that our CPD programme has been the most well attended on record and the virtual nature of this is something which we will embrace as we move forward. We of course wish to reengage with our members in person, as and when it is safe to do so, however we will continue to provide virtual learning which has been so popular and easily accessible to our member community. We were fortunate enough to be able to run our annual Golf Day between lockdowns and this is an event which we wish to build on and further extend this year. The 3rd September is a date for you diary if you wish to take part. In partnership with Horwich Farrelly, we hosted a virtual quiz night, which was not only exceedingly enjoyable and incredibly well attended, but we were also able to raise a sizeable financial sum for CALM mental health charity, which is of course particularly poignant at present. From a careers perspective, we have significantly increased our reach and breadth of awareness raising in relation careers to our industry. Our council have worked closely with the CII and their Education Partnerships Manager, aligned to their objective of promoting careers in Insurance. We have provided webinar presentations and professional career discussions to educational institutions across the North-West of the country and this will continue as we move through 2021.

Over the coming 12 months, we will of course have to remain flexible to the challenges of the outside world, however we plan to build on the already great work which is undertaken year on year by the voluntary council members.  Please do contact myself or any of our members should you wish to learn more about the workings of the council and we very much welcome any prospective new members.

https://www.localinstitutes.cii.co.uk/bolton/home/about-us/contacts/

Areas of particular focus for us during 2021 and beyond are the creation of a meaningful young member’s society (which we had to put on hold over the last 12 months) and we are also looking to provide and host a regional CPD day event for our members, taking learnings from a similar event which was so well delivered, received and attended 3 years ago.

All being well, I very much look forward to welcoming you to our annual dinner in February 2022.

Andy Dakin