Grant Petrie looks back at his presidential year
“Certainly the highlight of my year has been the people that I have encountered.” Grant Petrie said in the BSAVA AGM presidential speech: “To me, BSAVA feels like a large family.”
“I have worked very closely with the teams at Woodrow House this year. What they undertake and achieve for our members is greatly underestimated. As for the Committee Volunteers – I can’t praise them enough. It is truly incredible how many countless hours are given to support the Association’s activities – our members are extremely fortunate. So my first and most heartfelt thank you is to the entire BSAVA Team – Woodrow House Staff and Volunteers, thank you for making my Presidential Year so memorable.”
In his last speech as BSAVA President, Grant Petrie examained the changes that are taking place in the veterinary profession and suggested that the various veterinary associations need to evolve to keep up with these.
“The veterinary marketplace is undergoing radical change – more ladies in the profession, more part-time workers, practices physically amalgamating (or at least developing buying groups), an expanding corporate structure (with businesses acquiring satellite businesses such laboratories, waste contractors, CPD providers etc). Never mind economic slow-down, national debt repayment and individuals with less disposable income in their pockets.
“This provides the BSAVA with new and evolving challenges. I believe how we interact with our membership going forward will look very different. Indeed I think that providing services to individual members will form only part of our activities. The changing veterinary climate will inevitably require us to interact more with groups (practices, groups of practices, commercial companies etc.) and we will need to be more flexible and more business-like in our approach to their demands. For too long the BSAVA has been unchallenged in many areas of activity – there is a danger of complacency. Competitors have seen the opportunities and sometimes we have been too slow to react. The BSAVA needs to up its game and develop a more focussed strategy. And, the Officer team is doing just that. We will protect our members’ interests.”
Exploring what BSAVA can achieve in the future, Grant urges the profession to move onwards and upwards: “we need to be bold and make brave decisions. We must modernise our views and workings to embrace a rapidly changing veterinary profession, an evolving information highway and an unpredictable economic climate. My achievement? Perhaps to start steering the Association along a new path!”
To end, he spoke again about the group of people that makes up the BSAVA team: “It might have been considered rather unkind when I referred to my co-Officers as a motley crew earlier. But actually, is “motley” such a bad description? Whilst colloquially it might infer a certain gist, the dictionary lists “diverse”, “varied” and “contrasting” as possible meanings. And I think the BSAVA Board has just that – a group of highly talented individuals that bring diverse, varied and contrasting attributes to the table. Thank you Team for your support this year and I am confident that the future of BSAVA lies in very safe hands.”
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