ABP News
Newsletter Summer 2011
Posted: 01/08/11You can download the Winter newsletter in pdf format here
IN THIS ISSUE
1 Remembering Kevin Kingsland
2 News from the Management Board
3 The ABP conference supporting Shaw Trust
4 The 2011 AGM
5 The 2012 Conference dates and Deans
1 Remembering Kevin Kingsland
Kevin Kingsland, a Founding Principal Member who served three years as Chairman of the Association of Business Psychologists, died on May 11th, 2011. In remembering Kevin, we share below reflections on his life and work by ABP member, David Royston-Lee.
One example of Kevin freely giving of his time to help increase others’ understanding was filmed by Nigel Marlow’s student team at London Metropolitan University late last year. Kevin talked to them about “Kinds of Self”.
You can watch him in action on youtube here
“He was his own man, and totally committed to lifelong learning at a very deep and intellectual level. His knowledge was vast in areas such as physics, mathematics, medicine, complexity, and his first love, Psychology.
“His creativity and ability to pull together what was a grand theory of Psychology did not make him an easy person to be with; he had an answer to every question which often would make you feel inadequate!
“He was never arrogant and always prepared to discuss, normally at length, giving freely of his time, on any subject to help increase your understanding.
“He offered spectrum theory as a tool for human communication. For him it was about how we construct our experience of reality and as such underpinned all our endeavours. He developed a profound view of the whole person.
“Kevin’s used his seven level colour model to expand understanding of interpersonal communication and the nature of social organisation. From these flowed insight into how our mind emerges from a distinction and how its multilevel structure unfolds.
“He used spectrum theory to integrate knowledge on many different levels particularly he illuminated ancient yoga practices, demonstrating how chakras are strange attractors which form a complex, self organising system. He was delighted when the new science of complexity emerged in the eighties and nineties - validating much of what he had written in the seventies.
“He saw that personal and social interactions lead to what we call business. He advocated the natural organisation as the creative alternative to corporate command and control structures - elucidating the real nature of value addition, wealth and happiness in the process.
“Whether attending to people, organisations or business Kevin’s genius impelled him to create and share tools, programmes and methodologies for understanding and development. Along the way he taught and wrote books, in addition to creating Centres for Human Communication and several businesses in Europe and America.
“He leaves his beloved supportive wife Venika and beloved son Kris.”
2. News from the Management Board
2.1 The current Finance and Administration Director (“Treasurer”) of the ABP has indicated a wish to step down in 2012.
Members are asked to consider proposing themselves or suggesting others for the role. This is a key position in a growing professional institution, and will give weight to a CV in the world of the Big Society. The Treasurer is a member of the ABP Board and one of its four Officers. S/he is responsible for chairing the Finance and Administration Committee, advising the Board on finance and administration, preparing budgets and approving accounts, supervising any administrative staff or contractors, and generally arranging the smooth running of all aspects of the ABP’s administrative support, including initiating changes required by new circumstances.
For this role, the Board is looking for a business psychologist with sound experience of general and financial management, and of risk and contracts issues, together with an awareness of procurement, IT, propriety, regularity and audit matters. Like other Board roles, this is unpaid, but travel and out-of-pocket expenses are met by the ABP.
The successful candidate will in the first place be co-opted to the Board, but will probably wish to stand in the 2012 election. Those wishing to know more are asked to contact the Chair, Steve Whiddett, on .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
2.2 The conference session on the future of the Association was attended by over 50 members who contributed ideas on the activities of the Management Board’s various work-streams.
You’ll hear updates from the respective stream leads over the coming months. In the meantime, if you’d like to contribute to the activity of a work-stream, please contact the stream leader:
2.3 At the 13th June Management Board meeting investment in two activities was prioritised to ensure the sustainability of a number of the workstreams’ activities. They agreed that the functionality of the Association’s website and the database for storage of membership information – to interface with the website. Members will be encouraged to visit the site to experience the improved functionality as soon as it is available.
3. The ABP conference supporting Shaw Trust
Shaw Trust was the official charity for the 2011 Association of Business Psychologists Conference. Shaw Trust helps people with disabilities and health conditions find employment. We chose to support Shaw Trust this
year as we felt that it is a charity related to our field and we were delighted to raise £1,111.55 through donations and the raffle held at the conference in May.
We’d like to thank our sponsors who donated the raffle prizes: Appreciating Change, Apter Development, Criterion Partnership, Hogrefe, Oxygen Insurance, Pearson, Persona Partnership, Roffey Park, Saville Consulting, WHE Ltd and Zircon. You can continue to support Shaw Trust at www.shawtrust.org.uk/support_us
The presentation of this payment was made at a recent London event with various members in attendance.
4. The 2011 AGM
A notice is on its way to members about this year’s elections to the ABP Management Board, for which nominations will soon be due. The results of the election will be announced at the AGM, which will be held in
London on the evening of Monday 10 October 2011. Get the date into your diary now!
5. The 2012 conference dates and Deans
Alison France and Jessica Baker have been selected as Deans of the Association’s twelfth annual conference and they are inviting volunteers to support them on the conference committee. Each year the conference is run by volunteers who learn and develop from the experience. If you’d like to be part of the committee for this conference, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and/or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Book the conference dates in your diary: 10th to 12th May 2012 and remember, early bookings enjoy a discounted rate.
The Management Board:
Chair: Steve Whiddett
Vice Chair: Carol Cole
Board members: Alison France, Christine Miller, Clodagh O’Reilly, Debbie Hance, Jessica Baker, Mark O’Sullivan; Peter Burton, Richard Plenty, Stephen Benton, Trisha Cochrane.