Annual Update - Clearly our blogging policy needs reviewing

Well, clearly we’ve been neglecting the blog somewhat and as I am going on holiday in less than an hour, I have been given the unenviable task of summarising almost a year of Willmore Iles activity into a couple of paragraphs. It seems sensible to put this summary in chronological order; however as that would involve work on my part (trawling back through project files trying to work out dates), I’ve chosen a slightly different way of analysing the years highs and lows.

Right, here goes.

Staff

Last Christmas, you may remember, we welcomed Robbie to the fold. It turns out that he wasn’t just for Christmas and we’ve kept him.
During the year we’ve also had the additions of Matt Scott and Helen Whateley; both of who served the company very well before departing to pastures new. Matt is now running an Architectural Office in Exeter and Helen was last seen running back to Bath University cursing the day she ever got into a boat with Rob Burge (More about that later).

We’ve got one permanent addition in the shape of Paul Walker Jones. Despite giving George Crosbie-Dawson a run for his money in the “I've got the poshest name” race, Paul is actually very down to earth and has fitted seamlessly into the culture of the office.

In October, Ben completed his Part 3 and is now a fully qualified Architect. Congratulations.

Projects

This has been a great year for completed projects in the office.

In June "Point 4" (formerly The Sports and Complementary Therapy Centre) opened at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford. This was the culmination of four years of hard work and so far has been an unbridled success; hosting amongst other things, international Futsal matches. The sports centre will be a venue for the blind world cup and a training venue for the 2012 Olympics.

The feedback we have received has been superb. Visit their new website if you would like to have a closer look by clicking here

To complement this, Gardner Hall has been completed and now provides the RNC with a purpose-designed assessment suite on three floors, accessible for any prospective learner with physical or sensory impairments, including a reception with waiting area, the offices of the Access Centre, six assessment rooms, ensuite sleeping accommodation for prospective learners and their carers or family, and breakfast / café facilities.

The centre will also be used as accommodation for visiting sports teams and during weekends and vacation periods.

The project that has kept everyone busy in the office this year has been the development of Student accommodation at The University of Exeter. This mixture of new build, redevelopment and refurbishment over three main sites at the Streatham campus will provide over 2000 new build student bedrooms as well as further refurbished rooms, FM offices and ancillary space. Planning for all three main sites was achieved during the year and the main contract was signed in November. Work on the first phase of the project at Birks Hall is on site now.

Parties and Events

2009 has been a particularly good year for those members of staff that enjoy a good social outing

First, in June we had the annual office trip. Generally this normally involves some sort of activity (not too strenuous) coupled with copious amounts of food and alcohol. After the success of last years fishing trip, some bright spark decided that we ought to include water again, so we all paired up and went to sail down the River Wye in canoes. “how many people usually fall in?” asked one of our intrepid sailors. “Hardly any - honestly” replied the instructor as he wished us on our way, completely failing to recognise the unnecessarily competitive nature of many of the people in the office.

In fact, we had barely even got round the first bend before Steve (or Mitch as he’s now known) was diving into the depths like a pale, denim clad kingfisher to save poor old Helen and Rob. A selfless act of bravery one would think; risking his own life in the freezing water and strong currents to ensure the safety of his work colleagues. Well no, actually. More like guilt. We later found out that the reason that Rob and Helen were in the drink was because Steve had tied his boat to theirs in an attempt to avoid rowing and subsequently capsized them.

It wasn’t long before Ben and Tim were in the drink too, as – mid race with Andrew and George – they employed the method of “going as fast as you can and rowing straight through the really thick branches of the tree hanging over the river” rather than the far more sensible “slow down and steer” approach.

Long story short. Everyone got pretty wet except Paula, or “Captain Slow” as she is now known and we missed the food service at the pub. Good times were had by all.

In September, Willmore Iles celebrated their tenth birthday with a spectacular shindig at Jacks Brassierie on Bristols’ harbourside. This was a fantastic success with many old and new clients, consultants and friends coming to party with us to make the most of the free booze and food. We all had a fantastic night and we’d like to offer a massive thank you to all who came, in particular thanks to those that were still partying in whatever random nightclub we could get in on Park Street at three o’clock in the morning (See the pic).

I should point out that only Robbie (the "happy" one in the middle) failed to make it in the next day.

So that’s about it. There’s loads more to tell but you must be getting bored by now. You’ll be pleased to hear that we are changing our blogging policy to include more regular updates over the coming year; although lets be honest, I’ll probably be telling you exactly the same thing next November.Until next time
Tim