Comment / Ten years gone

Everyone who has been involved in the celebrations of the HFMA’s 60th anniversary has, I am sure, gained a sense of how this organisation has grown and developed over the past 60 years. What is clear is that, as we face the tightest year for a long time in 2011/12, we need to keep ‘associating’ more than ever.  I would also like to thank our president, Paul Assinder, for his leadership over the past year. His dedication, drive and determination, matched by his incredible good humour, have made this year very tolerable. We all owe him a debt of thanks for his service and for his 15 years of service on the board.

A quick look at the calendar reminds me that I officially started work with the HFMA on 1 December 2000, days before our 50th anniversary conference. Back then I was employed to oversee the separation from CIPFA and develop a new path for the association. It is fair to say that we were not in the best of health.

CIPFA had been a faithful friend to the association for more than 20 years. And when I worked for the institute back in 1993, I knew that the HFMA was a strong part of CIPFA’s  health offering. But by 1997 the organisations were beginning to realise that their futures lay apart. The problem was that in 2000, the HFMA had literally no real physical assets.  We had a few chairs and a couple of cupboards – oh, and 167 boxes of paper and other stuff that we could pack into a van.

An early decision we had to take was on where to relocate our office. We looked at space in London with colleague health bodies, but I knew we needed well in excess of 500 sq ft, not just a shared corner. I knew we would take control of the various conferences that other people were organising and that we would need people to do that. In addition we needed a sales team that could develop and sell the brand. 

Eventually we decided to relocate out of London and despite the council being a bit nervous at the time, it was one of the best decisions we could have made. We took 950 sq ft in Albert House, Bristol, and have been in that building ever since – we now take up more than 5,000 sq ft. The decision to move to Bristol was partly thanks to Graham Nix and his team at United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, who gave me tremendous early support.  Short of cash, the South West Branch loaned us £15,000, which helped enormously to stabilise our position.

From there, we started to develop the brand by selling sponsorship. I always remember the reaction of supporters to our plans when Martin Walsh first phoned them – they were very positive.

I knew that if we had a team of committed people, we would be able to create something special and I think we have done that. This has been done with the help of more than 100 people who have worked for us at some point, the help of our members, enormous numbers of people who have served on national and branch committees, and of course our board members and past chairs.

The HFMA is a special organisation and one we should all treasure. You make it special with your contribution and as I approach my own anniversary I would like to thank every single one of you for what has been a great 10 years for me.