Changes at the CQI Wessex Branch

News of members

Stephen Feltham steps down as chairman after 12 years in post  Stephen has been a long serving member of the Wessex Branch, in fact he was there in the very beginnings when Col David Squirrel set up the branch in 1974 so after 35 years, it makes him the longest serving branch officer in the South West Region.

Stephen took over as secretary from Ian Wright about 1985 and then became Chairman when David Squirrell retired in 1996. Meanwhile in 1991 he followed David Hoyle as Chair of the South Western Regional Advisory Committee (as it was then known) meeting quarterly at the Helting Rooms in Bath. In this capacity he took on several roles at national level, 5 years as the SW Regional Member of Council, 5 years on the IQA Membership committee when David Squirrell was Chairman and for a short period on the IQA Executive Board and the Centres of Excellence Panel. Stephen also represented the IQA on a couple of BSI Standards committees for medical devices.

Stephen’s passion for golf led him and a few others including Bernard Patmore from the Midlands Region and Peter Bennett (who succeed Steve as Regional Member of Council) to establish an IQA Golf Society. Starting at a Regional level they successfully held several golf tournaments at a national level and were successful in raising many hundreds of pounds for various charities.

Stephen has been a regular contributor to the letters column in Quality World for over 15 years, many times challenging the accepted view, testing its robustness so that we don’t simply accept without question what the establishment want us to believe; a trait that any competent auditor would be proud to possess. He can sometimes be rather candid and blunt on his technical and managerial views about the quality discipline (which often inclines those who know him least to make harsh and unwarranted personal judgements). However he has deeply held beliefs on the need for honesty and integrity at all levels of business life, and a deep respect for the equality of all people. In this respect a discerning observer will detect that his comments are directed towards management systems, and perhaps their political influences, but never at the people who may be associated with them."

In addition to playing golf and writing verse in his spare time, Stephen runs a successful global accreditation business that is placing more demands upon him and so he is less able to devote the time to CQI affairs. He will continue to face many challenges in which we are sure he will succeed and when asked about the most pleasurable experiences of being a CQI branch officer he said “Seeing so many of my past IQA Course students from Bournemouth University enrol as members and still continue to attend Branch meetings. I have known some of these for over twenty-five years now and it’s a treasure to be reminded of how precious relationships can become”.

Jim Kirk

We welcome Jim Kirk as our new chairman.  Jim has been a member since 1992 and is an FCQI and CQP.

Future meetings

Our next meeting will not be until September 2009, to give a rest period between events and following the remit of our CQI Group, and also because many people take holidays during June-August.  A new calendar of events will be started then but we are still open to suggestions for these meetings. We hope that we can rely on our members for continued support and also CQI through all our continued membership.