President foreword | PPC91 May 2018

Hopefully, by the time you read this, some better weather has finally arrived. Speaking with many technicians, the terrible weather we’ve endured right through into mid-April has undoubtedly resulted in increased rat activity. A number have been quick to reference that such times of peaked activity remind us, if needed, of the importance in undertaking a full and detailed approach to controlling rodents, if we are to continue to manage public health successfully. Needless to say (I hope!) that, to trained professionals, and their clients, immediately and indiscriminately throwing down ‘bait boxes’ along a perimeter wall should never be a viable option.

Looking back since we last spoke, it’s been a good and productive few months for the Association.

Firstly, PPC Live was a great success, with more exhibitors, more seminars and more visitors than ever before. What’s more, the quality was very good. Having seen several of the seminars and spoken with many exhibitors showcasing new services and products, once again the day demonstrated the excellent quality, integrity and passion that there is within our industry. BPCA events like this remind me of how proud I am to be part of our Association, and the value we give to wider industry and society as a whole. My congratulations and thanks go once again to BPCA’s staff team for organising and running the event, and to those who participated and attended. If you were unable to visit, don’t forget that much of the spirit of PPC Live can be gained from getting along to one of the BPCA Regional Forums – please contact the team or have a look at the website for more details on the remaining forums of 2018.

Just before PPC Live, Ian Andrew joined us as the new BPCA CEO. I know that Ian has already met many of you, and has spent time getting ‘hands-on’ in the field with Servicing companies and consultants, while also spending time with manufacturers, distributors, end-users and legislators. I’ll let Ian talk about this in more detail but I’ve already received good feedback on his time with us so far from members and BPCA staff team alike – but let’s not flatter him too much just yet!

And then there’s the small matter of our three-year strategy which I’m delighted to say we’re sharing with you within these pages, ahead of launch to the sector. As you know, (I’ve talked about it for long enough!), the Executive Board and staff team have spent several months working on this most crucial of documents to ensure we have a highly relevant, aspirational, but realistic strategy for the Association to follow over the next three years. The one-page document we’ve published sets out what we stand for, who we are working for, what we’re planning to do and in what context. The four strategic objectives will give us focus over the next three years and, at a basic level, if the task in hand doesn’t support one of these four strategic thrusts we need to ask if we should be doing it. That’s certainly what I’ll be challenging the Executive Board, committee structure and staff team to be asking.

To help give us all focus and direction, we’ve highlighted four values for us to work by – integrity, value, care and cooperation. These four will mean different things to different people, such as:

• Integrity in our approach to our membership, the needs of the wider industry, and how we go about our business
• The value that we as BPCA members provide to clients and end users, in professionally managing public health pest control
• The care the Association gives to each member, big or small, or that given to understand the cause of a pest infestation, prior to treatment, and finally,
• Cooperation between all of our membership in driving excellence in pest management or lobbying and engaging with legislators to demonstrate our value and defend the tools we have to maintain public health.

What do these values mean to you, as BPCA members?

This leads me to look forward with our new strategy at the heart of everything we do, to continue to best support our members. In these challenging times for our industry let’s work together, to defend the continued safe use of products, provide the highest possible standards of public health pest control, and put learning and continued development at the heart of what we do so we can genuinely shout of the value we bring to customers and beyond. 

Tom Holmes
BPCA President, Head of Durable Product Development, Pelsis Group

1 May 2018  |  PPC91

Source: PPC91