Message from Alastair Whiteside

Dear Member,

Thank you for expressing an interest in the International SIG.

Firstly, if I may introduce myself please. At the recent CILA AGM I was appointed the International representative on CILA Council. With that appointment comes the responsibility for reporting to Council the international issues and developments that are relevant to our profession and affect our members.

For those of you who do not know me, I have been a practicing loss adjuster since 1980. Born in Scotland, I worked in Glasgow until 1997 when I transferred to London and my time is now split mainly between these 2 cities. I have undertaken a significant number of overseas assignments as a home/foreign adjuster and have worked as a CAT response adjuster.

My role on Council is to act as the conduit on international matters for members, many of whom are working overseas. With the wide diversity of skills to be found in our profession and the many different influences that affect the different territories, it is a somewhat daunting prospect for me to fully understand what is important to individual members, but communication is a 2 way street and for me to be an effective point of reference I really do need to hear from members.

Going forward, the only international grouping will be the International SIG. As a start point we require to form a committee to obtain the collective views of a cross section of members and develop an activity plan that will stimulate interest and, importantly, be relevant to the international scene. Please give serious consideration to taking an active role and participating on the International SIG committee – I would be delighted to hear from you and anticipate our first committee meeting will be in late September

As most of you will know CILA are holding their inaugural conference in Birmingham from 29-31 October. At the moment there is no plan to have a session on international but if there is sufficient interest it may be an opportunity for us to have a session. Please therefore let me know ASAP if you are attending the conference and if you are interested in having an International meeting what day(s) would be best for you.

Again, thanks for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Alastair Whiteside,
Chairman, International SIG.