September 2002

TRIBUTE TO IAN MACWHINNIE
by David Watkins, ACM Honorary Treasurer and Principal Carshalton College

With the untimely death of Ian Macwhinnie, further education has lost one of its great champions. In my view, Ian gave outstanding service and made a major contribution to the further education sector. His passion and determination throughout his career was to give his very best to his students and, in particular, to secure resources to support those who are disadvantaged and in the greatest need.

I have known Ian for more than 20 years. He has been for me, personally, a professional col-league and an excellent boss, an outstanding mentor – someone who has taught me much of what I know about the job I do, a fellow Council Member of ACM and, above all, a great mate.

Ian was a member of the ACM almost since the date of its inception. He was a member of the Association’s National Council for many years and was Vice President in 1994 and President in 1995.

Over the years, Ian played a key role and made a major contribution to the Association’s development, including:

• being instrumental in seeking to professionalise ACM;
• streamlining its approach to its business operation;
• placing an emphasis on the role of ACM as both a professional association as well as a trade union;
• driving through and leading on constitutional changes which have enabled ACM to mature from a small club within the further education world to a force to be reckoned with in the new post-16 sector.

Ian contributed much to the world of further and higher education through his work and his commitment to Kingsway College, to North London College, to the Inner London Education Authority, to Tottenham College and to the College of North East London.

In addition, he made important contributions to regional developments in education and training, particularly in North East London, as well as to national policy development and implementation.

Those of us who were lucky enough to have known Ian will remember a talented man, someone with an enviable intellect, far-reaching vision and boundless energy. I will never forget Ian’s strong sense of commitment to social justice nor the intense discussions we had into the early hours over a drink or few. Nor will I forget Ian’s sparkling sense of humour or his genuine interest in everyone around him.

I am sure that I am like many whose lives have been enriched by knowing Ian. I will miss him a great deal, as I am sure we all will.

Monks Backs Managers in the Public Sector

In a speech to the TUC Conference in Blackpool, TUC General Secretary John Monks had an important message on improving terms and conditions at work. “We won’t do it by organising on an adversarial basis – by turning every problem at work into a crisis, by portraying every manager as though they were always hell bent on screwing the workforce, by saying no to many changes or making change so hard to achieve that it feels like running through treacle. That way lies endless and self defeating conflicts.”

He also made a special plea on behalf of public sector workers. During the debate on promoting trade unions he said, “We must improve public sector pay and raise the self-esteem of public sector workers who have too often been portrayed as having second class status. But we must plan an overall strategy designed to boost pay and performance across the public services. Otherwise we risk a bruising game of leapfrog which would squander the chances of big improvements in service delivery.”