WISH North Wales - Winter Newsletter 2018

We can’t believe how quickly 2018 is passing by.

So far this year we have hosted some great events to further our mission to support those working in the housing sector, particularly women working in North Wales, to reach their true potential and help positive change in gender equality. 

Events

Professional Development Events have included:

• Managing our ‘inner chimp’ with a workshop hosted by the team led by Dr. Steve Peters, author of the incredibly powerful mind management model, The Chimp Paradox
• Developing Your Career to make sure you are promotion ready delivered by Anthony Taylor
• Good Governance and what this means; hosted by governance guru, Pamela Ball.

And just last week saw an incredible number of you (over 60) attend:

• You Are What You Tweet –all about communicating via social media to help boost your network and your profile and also how best to use this medium to engage with customers. Hosted by Joel Sampson of WeAreResource, the company behind the brilliant CommsHero, feedback to date has been outstanding. Thank you also to our lovely sponsors Greenacre for supporting this event, and your ongoing support of WISH across the regions.

Let’s not forget our Summer Social and the fun we had on the giant inflatable assault course – a great networking icebreaker!!

Christmas Social

On 6^th December we will host our Christmas social, full details will be communicated over the next week or so. We know that networking with your industry peers is very important to you and sometimes our time to do this can be a little short when we are running workshops. The social events are a great opportunity to let your hair down and chat away and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

Feedback and Suggestions

We are grateful for the feedback that our members provide after each event and we are constantly looking at ways that we can provide the very best value for your support and memberships.

Suggestions for topics have included:

• Social Media – building our profiles in the most effective way; engaging with our customers.
• Speaking with confidence in public and at meetings.
• Customer service related event – skills development in this area.

We have listened and included these in our programme going forward.

Please keep the feedback and suggestions coming!

Goodbye

We are very sad to say goodbye to one of our founding board members, Claire Shiland.

Claire is leaving the housing sector to take a role within North Wales Police and will undertake an intensive, two year programme which, when completed, will see her as a Chief Inspector.

The process to be awarded a place on this programme was extremely rigorous to say the least but we are so pleased and in awe of Claire for securing one of only 20 places available across the UK and the only one in Wales. A FANTASTIC achievement. We are very hopeful that Claire will come back and share her experiences and talk about successful transferable skills at a future workshop.

WELCOME!

We are delighted to welcome Amy Garner to the board. I’m sure many of you will already know Amy but for those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting her, here is a short introduction in Amy’s own words:

I’m Amy Garner, and I am the Customer Service Manager for Cartrefi Conwy, where I’ve worked for 10 years.  I joined the Housing sector in 2005 as a business manager trainee and then spent time managing complaints and performance data.  Four years ago the opportunity came for me to follow my passion for customer service and even better share it with everyone else! 

Customer service is something that I’m passionate about and I believe that improving the customer experience makes a real and positive difference to both the customer and the business.  The not for profit sector isn’t traditionally known for focusing on customer service but I’ve been lucky with Cartrefi Conwy; we are people focused and we are always striving to make improvements and develop our approach to customer service. 

I’ve attended quite a few WISH events and it’s been great to see the positivity that comes from the Board and the benefits for members.  WISH offers great opportunities to develop both professionally and personally, and women empowering other women is something I’m excited to be a part of. 

Outside of work my favourite thing to do is spend time with my amazing little girl.  I also like to keep myself fit, through running and I like to relax with a good book...and the occasional spa day!

Please do keep in touch with us, we love to hear from you with any ideas or sharing of your good news.

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