Welcome to a new edition of The Journal. Autumn/Winter is a busy time in the Ulster Society calendar, including some of our most popular events.
In the last few months we’ve had our Annual Golf Outing, a series of regional events in Omagh, Derry~Londonderry, Ballymena, Belfast and Newry and of course our largest event – the Christmas Charity Lunch.
Add to that the excellent events specifically tailored for members working in the public sector, ACA Professionals, female members, members in business as well as a busy schedule of webinars (all of which are available on the Ulster Society website www.charteredaccountants.ie/Ulster/Webcasts-Webinars).
It’s been a particular highlight to get out to meet members around Northern Ireland for our regional breakfast/ lunch series in partnership with Danske Bank. I’m pleased to report that both attendances and feedback from the series have been really positive. We do plan to run further regional events this Spring.
I know that members have appreciated the Society holding events across Northern Ireland and I have no doubt that a lot of that great feedback has been generated by the range of speakers across the series. We have already lined up some of these speakers for webinars in order to reach a wider audience of members.
One of the key messages that I was particularly keen to convey through the regional series is that the Ulster Society is here to help members and to advocate for you. A key enabler of this is to seek members’ views through our surveys and to act on those findings.
The most recent example of this is our Institute’s response to the consultation on the draft Programme for Government, which was informed by a survey of members’ views. This is available on our website at https://bit.ly/consult2024 and a synopsis is available in this edition on page 12.
We have a particular focus on attracting and retaining talent for the profession in this year, as we know that’s a real challenge. We know how important it is to have people with the training, ability and experience to support local business and we’re keen to showcase the opportunities that Chartered Accountancy can open for young people.
I’m also keen that members are aware of the staff that are there to help and support members. The local team, led by Zara Duffy in our Belfast office, as well as a team of staff in our Dublin headquarters are on hand to support members from all sectors and specialisms.
Our staff in Belfast and Dublin are working hard to support members either by bringing through relevant initiatives with the Society’s committee network, or signposting members to support available from our Institute.
In partnership with our network of volunteer members, they are building the Chartered Accountants brand, demonstrating a strong voice for our profession and working with schools and universities to attract a new generation of Chartered Accountants.
I believe that the Ulster Society does a fabulous job of bringing our community of members together as a really effective network. It’s a network which brings a lot of positivity and does a lot of good for Northern Ireland.
Which brings me to our Christmas Charity Lunch. It’s our most popular event, a sell-out every year, and marks the beginning of the Christmas season for many of us. It’s a valuable chance to reconnect with some friends and acquaintances, and this year we had a record number of 536 attendees.
I’m delighted to count this year’s event on 6 December as a tremendous success. As ever, the lunch collected hundreds of toys and vouchers which helped make Christmas a bit brighter for kids across Northern Ireland through the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal.
We were also honoured to support Action Cancer which provides prevention, detection and support across Northern Ireland, engaging with 20,000 people through its services each year. Thanks to your generosity, we will be making a donation of £15,895 to the charity this year – a fabulous way to end 2024.
As we enter a New Year, we already have a really busy schedule of events lined up for the months ahead. There are loads of opportunities for members to get involved, build your network and be an active part of something really special.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Society throughout 2024 and I’d like to wish all of our members a very happy, prosperous and peaceful New Year.
Thank you.
