Bill first joined the Breakfast team as a reporter, covering the Lockerbie disaster and the revolution in Romania. Later, as a roving correspondent, he had a front row seat at everything from presidential elections to street riots in more than thirty countries.

He also spent four years as BBC Washington Correspondent. This coincided with the OJ Simpson trial and the Lewinsky scandal – although what sticks more in Bill’s mind is a rain drenched broadcast live from the middle of a Florida hurricane.

To book your places at the lunch contact Julie Pizzey jp@fsdf.org.uk or Tel 0118 988 4468

Hope to see you there

Julie

When I joined the ranks of the FSDF as Membership Manager it seemed that here was a role that would be challenging yet achievable within the three days a week that I was employed for – after all what could be difficult about servicing existing members and finding a few new ones?

The time has, literally, flown and it has been both challenging and surprising.  The ‘Federation’ as it is generally known has a product offer that is conceptual rather than tangible and thereby hangs the challenge – getting what we do for whom is surprising challenging as I have been used to marketing services and products that have a modicum of tangibility.  Yet the offer is substantial in that the companies and corporations that join really do benefit from membership, not the least from being a part of a ‘club’ where they all face similar commercial challenges. Surprising too, was the apparent lack of competition between similar businesses in similar sectors some of whom are directly combative in the ‘outside world’.  Within the cloisters of the Federation they are happy to cooperate and to help.

So what has the intervening 12 months brought?  A flurry of new members – Full and Associate ranging from large scale 3PL through regional retail, food distribution, energy consultants, affinity consultants and many more besides – lets hope the forthcoming year will be as good.

The second edition is due to be published in January.

The Technical and Safety Committee (TASC) provides a confidential forum that enables key issues relevant to the food and drink logistics industry to be discussed and reviewed and it also enables pertinent information to be circulated to all the Federation’s members.
Membership of TASC is open to all member companies whose representatives can demonstrate:

*      a sound technical knowledge and overall knowledge of at least one of the main focus groups of the committee

*      have substantial experience at a senior level within the food and drink logistics industry

*      are committed to being an active participant and contributor to the work undertaken by the committee

Each of the four main focus groups is led by a committee member with both experience and knowledge of the appropriate field of expertise:

*      Health and Safety

*      Environmental and Sustainability issues

*      Food Safety and Hygiene

TASC regularly produces technical bulletins and guides on a variety of relevant subjects including changes to legislation that is of interest to member companies working in the food and drink logistics sector.  Copies of all publications produced by TASC can be downloaded from the Members’ section of the FSDF website.

Recent Technical Bulletins include:

*         Bulletin 2012_003 – Legionnaire’s Disease – A brief guide for members following the recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh

*         Bulletin 2012_004 – General guidelines regarding the design, construction & maintenance of insulated envelopes

*         Bulletin 2012_005 – HSE introduces Fees For Intervention (FFI)

The members of TASC also publish a newsletter In-Focus each quarter.

Click here to download a copy of the first edition that has been recently published.  Future editions will only be available for members to download from the members’ section of the FSDF website