Guest Writer – Peter G

“James Bond, the Queen and Mr Bean,” were just some of the names being mentioned around the office this morning, after what was an unforgettable opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympics. Danny Boyle’s production certainly set a high standard for the next couple of weeks; with Team GB gaining their first medals in cycling and swimming, we are hoping for some gold’s to roll in now.

Meanwhile, back on the ‘The Island’ we have our own celebration with Scott’s birthday. Unfortunately he is not here to celebrate with us, but we will keep him some cake.

In 2011 Legal-Island carried out an environmental and a biodiversity audit in partnership with Business in the Community. The audits revealed a number of areas where Legal-Island could make savings in relation to waste reduction inside and outside the organisation. Please see the news item on our website for further details.

Season 2 is moving along nicely in both NI and ROI, with lots of work going into this year’s Annual Reviews. This week’s movements are as follows:

Barry
Our CEO has an easy week ahead by his standards. Today, he has internal meetings pretty much all day. Tomorrow he's out of the office networking. On Wednesday he has a Senior Team meeting whilst on Thursday and Friday he's busy in our R&D department. Sunday and he's off to the Olympics again. Lucky him!

Jayne

Performance Reviews will take up most of Jayne’s week. She has a ST meeting on Wednesday and her final Common Purpose day is on Thursday at the City Hall.

Ainsley
Ainsley is starting the Management and Leadership Development Programme on Friday with John McKee from Linkubator, which will run for the next four Fridays. Apart from that he’s here all week.

Guest Writer - James

Looks like the Sun is making an appearance this week for the Olympics!

That's something else for us in Northern Ireland to enjoy on television...

It's another quiet summer week with a few holidays being taken to the Olympics and other venues.  Scott is on Panda Watch at Edinburgh Zoo and Jacqui will be taking the family off to the Olympic Archery competition.  Let's hope they all return safely...

Barry our CEO has an interesting week ahead. Today, he has internal meetings pretty much all day. Tomorrow, along with Ainsley, he's meeting Sue Holley, Senior Business Manager from Croner. On Thursday he's meeting old friend Peter McBride CEO at Niamh for dinner with Friday kept for a performance review and wrapping up the week. On Saturday he's going with a friend to see the Olympic volleyball at Earls Court.  It's more the weather for beach volleyball I would've thought but that might be just me.

Heather, our chief fundraiser and volunteer, has Vanessa from Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke coming in on Thursday to collect a cheque for £220 which was raised through our Rate2Donate scheme.

Most importantly, on Wednesday we will be celebrating all the July birthdays with cake and buns!  Special mention to Ainsley and Kerry who share a birthday of 26th July.  And of course Scott's BIG birthday on the 30th.  He won't be happy if there's no carrot cake left when he comes back!

Have a great week.

16th July: Guest writer Arnold

Summer is quiet time for Legal-Island. When some staff members are away for holiday others are working hard on Season 2 events and Annual Reviews. Season 2 starts earlier this year with  Section 75 workshop taking place on 10^th August in our Training Centre so don’t miss it.

Networking

Barry, our CEO, fresh back from a weekend away will have to hit the ground running this week. Today he has internal meetings as well as meeting Roger Priestly in the afternoon. On Tuesday he's visiting Employers for Childcare" along with Jayne. On Wednesday he has a business meeting in Dublin. On Thursday he's taking part in a mediation shoot. Friday and he's do the first of two staff performance reviews.

Jayne is out with Barry to Employers for Childcare in the Tuesday morning and on Friday is out to BITC in the morning.

Scott hopes to work from home on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. On Thursday he hopes to shoot a mock mediation film and he has a performance review interview with the Chief Executive on Friday. Scott is on annual leave thereafter until 7^th August.

Heather is meeting this week Roisin from Business in the Community regarding the Marie Curie shop challenge.

Allison is in the office Monday-Thursday then that evening she is  off to White Park Bay to volunteer from 6pm-8am at "Peace Camp”.

"Peace Camp" is a transient coastal installation that is taking place in 6 locations simultaneously throughout the UK and is a celebration of Love, Peace and Landscapes.

Onwards!!!

Guest Writer Jacqui

Well done to everyone who took part in the Inaugral Family Fun Day held here on the Island last Friday. Thankfully the weather held for the event, which was in aid of Tiny Life and a total of £1056.00 was raised for the charity on the day.

Everyone appeared to have an enjoyable day, which ended with some of the Islanders getting a go on the bouncy castles (which were here for the benefit of the children, what ever their age!!)

Now that the event is over, Debbie (main organiser of the day) is feeling a bit deflated, much like the bouncy castles and now needs to find some other cause to get her teeth into!!!! Roll on the Annual Reviews.

Unlike Debbie, alot of the Islanders are working a short week as they need to recharge their batteries, even though they had the weekend to recover.

Our CEO, Barry, has an easy enough week by his standards. Today he has meetings in the office all day with much the same planned until Friday when he meets old friend of Legal-Island Stanley Wallace from the IMI. On Friday afternoon he has a business meeting at the Radisson Dublin airport before flying away for a weekend break

Scott, Barry, Jayne, Ainsley and James are all attending a Strategy meeting on Tuesday, followed by a Senior Team planning meeting on the 2012 annual reviews on Wednesday.

Several of the team are planning to take holiday leave on Friday, and extend their weekends.

I will sign off for now and wish you all a busy, but happy week ahead.....

Guest Writer Jayne Finlay

Congratulations Kerry and Simon!

Despite the awful weather on Saturday Kerry shone on her wedding day and looked a picture of beauty - what a gorgeous bride! We hope she and her hubby now enjoy the amazing honeymoon the couple have planned and we all look forward to spending many a coffee break looking through all the wedding photos on their return!

While the happy couple are off sunning themselves we however are all back in the real world... so here goes with the week ahead...  

A common thread is weaving its way through the week for all staff in this first week of July. On Tuesday we are being interviewed for our Re-accreditation of Investors in People, the ST are going meeting crazy and on Friday we are having a Family Fun Day at our premises - an event open to all so please come along and join us!

On an indiviudal basis here's what some of the team are up to:

Our CEO, Barry, has a busy week. Today he's leading a strategy meeting. Tomorrow he is meeting our Investors in People assessor. Wednesday and he's meetings with Peter Bauer from Pahris software. On Thursday he's in a business meeting with John McKee and other Legal-Island staff. On Friday he's going in to see Adam Brett at Pinsent Masons before returning to the office for our fun day.

Heather is also being interviewed for IiP and will be lending a helping hand on Friday too.

Scott is in Antrim all week attending strategy and IiP meetings and, on Friday, the Family Fun Day. In Scott's words "let’s hope the kids are as cute as the Spanish players’ from the Euro 2012 final".

Ainsley is in Strategy today, IiP Interview tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon strategy, Thursday am strategy, Thursday pm joining Barry for his meeting with pahris software and on Friday helping out at the fun day. Someone will be looking forward to the weekend I'd say!

My week is fairly similar to Ainsleys and I too will be looking forward to the weekend!

Let's all hope for a sunny day on Friday and a bright week ahead!

 

Guest writer - Heather

 Well we started our week off with a bit of Bruno Mars - Marry You in the morning meeting this morning as this is Kerry's last week before her wedding! She will go off as Miss Taggart and return as Mrs Murphy. Every member of staff would like to wish her luck on her wedding day and of course her life together with Simon as I'm sure you do too.


So while Kerry is off at hair appointments, make-up trials and mixing in a few glasses of celebratory champagne we will be keeping the island afloat! Here is what we are up to:


I will be working hard with Kerry before our meeting tomorrow about Annual Review, we will be looking at how to make it even bigger and better than last year (if that's possible!).

The rest of my week will be spent working on our season 2 events which begin again in September - no rest for the wicked.

Scott

In relation to work, Scott is meeting Tom Evans from DEL this week to see how we might further help promote the DEL discussion paper on employment reforms. Scott will also be carrying out in-house training with FOLD Housing.

On a more personal note, he is Best Man at the wedding of friends Peter and Paula on Friday and will be attending the reception of Kerry and Simon’s wedding on Saturday. Kerry is the events manager for Northern Ireland and a very lucky lady. Let’s hope the bruises don’t show from where she’s been pinching herself. 

Jayne

Will be attending the Annual Review meeting tomorrow. On Wednesday she will be meeting Anne Dargan at the Ramada and then on Thursday she will be out all day for Common Purpose Intensive Day in Derry/ Londonderry.

Barry

Our CEO, Barry, has quite an easy week this week by his standards. Today he has internal meetings pretty much all day. Tomorrow he's attending a leadership seminar at the Titanic. On Thursday he's meeting Stephen Brown who is in the business of arranging import opportunities from China. On Friday he's back in the office working on events for the second season.

Donna

Has a busy week delivering flyers and posters to local schools and businesses for our Family Fun Day. Tomorrow she will be attending Ballycraigy Primary's P7 Leavers assembly along with Kerri. Then she will be organising our birthday/wedding celebrations tea break tomorrow.

All this and I haven't even mentioned the Queen's visit or the Irish Open. Enjoy your week whatever you're doing....

Guest Writer - Donna

Hands up who loves a bouncy castle! Hands up who loves a bouncy castle and a BBQ, though not simultaneously as that would just be messy and a nightmare to clean up!

 Legal-Island is having a Family Fun day here Station Rd, Antrim on 6th July from 12-3pm. Not only will there be bouncy castles but we will be having a BBQ, stalls, face painting, balloon modelling and all proceeds will be in aid of Tiny Life. Come along and bring your friends and family, it is going to be brilliant!



It is not all about bouncing around on the Island we actually do some work as well.

Jayne

On Monday Jayne has internal meetings all day. Tuesday, she will be hosting with Kerry at All About Absence in the morning. Wednesday, Jayne is launching Legal-Island's Health and Well Being programme with Jane McClenaghan and in the afternoon she is involved in a Strategy session. On Thursday, she will be attending Common Purpose sessions “Playing Different Roles” and “Who do you need to be”. Finally on Friday she has another Strategy day.

Scott

Scott is chairing the ‘All about Absence from Work’ event tomorrow (Tuesday). As well as chairing, Scott will be acting out a role play, where he plays a passive-aggressive employee with a secret to hide in a return to work interview. Is that Hollywood on the phone? Thought not.

Scott will be doing SWOT analysis and focussing on sales on Wednesday and Friday at the Senior Team away days. Scott hopes to work from home on Thursday.

Ainsley

Ainsley has the usual meetings on Monday.  On Wednesday morning he will be at the launch of the Health and Wellbeing programme and in the afternoon it is more strategy. Thursday lunchtime he will be at a BITC event on Corporate Values in Belfast and finishing the week on Friday with another strategy day

Kerry

Kerry will be hosting the final NI season 1 event All About  Absence from Work in the Hilton Hotel, Belfast on Tuesday. She has a number of internal meetings scheduled for the rest of the week. This is Kerry's last full week before she heads up the aisle. Dah dah te da...

Barry

On Monday Barry is meeting David Braziel at Kilbegs Business Park in Antrim. On Tuesday he is going to a half day awards ceremony at the Titanic followed by a finance meeting. In the evening he is heading off to a BBQ at Malone Golf club, lets hope it is a dry night. On Wednesday Barry will be attending a mediation meeting at Triangle Housing in Ballymena followed by a meeting at the Association of Coaching in Belfast. Into Thursday with an early start at the launch of the Haiti concert in Belfast, the rest of the day will be filled with meetings with Helen O'Brien, Mags Millar and an Annual review meeting in the afternoon. Friday will involve a strategy day in-house and Friday night is race night. I am exhausted and I am not involved in any of these meetings, he will need a lie-in on Saturday morning.

All in all that is the week for us here at Legal-Island, dont forget about the Family Fun day on the 6th July from 12-3pm. If you want anymore information, give the office a ring on 028 9446 3888.