Jeremy's Blog 18th December 2020: 2020 and Forward
This article by Jeremy Moody first appeared in the CAAV e-Briefing of 17th December 2020
A local pub has expressed the bizarreness of 2020 as this nightmare examination question:
“If you are going down a river at 2mph and a wheel falls off your canoe, how much pancake mix do you need to re-shingle your shed?”
In a year of “learning by doing”, the CAAV’s themes in answering are challenge, resilience and adaption. Change is accelerated as society and the economy have been challenged in ways no one envisaged last New Year’s Day with resilience (“bouncing back better”) as a strength and adaptation as a virtue.
From the start, we have worked to ensure business continuity and support for members. With committees, Council and local AGMs meeting by Zoom, the on-line development of the AGM, conferences, webinars and podcasts, the continued production of the News Letter, new publications and this new e-Briefing, we have acted to keep members informed.
Looking ahead, the Future Skills work, preparing the profession for the needs clients will have, has continued as we understand more of the scale of what climate change commitments will require.
Having left the EU, the Agriculture Act 2020 is the first post-Brexit policy statute. England and Wales have now made major agricultural policy statements. Waiting to know our trading and regulatory relationship with the EU but leaving the CAP behind, we are now printing Beyond Brexit: The UK’s New Agricultural Policies for members.
The Act gives the CAAV President statutory authority to appoint arbitrators for tenancy disputes in England and Wales. The CAAV is proud of the honour, accepts the duty and seized the opportunity for a comprehensive, UK-wide service, Facilitating Dispute Resolution. With the CAAV Dispute Resolution Charter and Appropriate Arbitration published, members will receive a new text: Rural Arbitration in the United Kingdom. Works moves to mediators, training and promotion.
Qualification lies at the heart of a profession. Since March, we have planned for the examinations to be held as normally as possible. Adapting to the year with remote and physical methods, candidates were examined in centres from Bristol to Aberdeen. We pay tribute to the examiners, convenors, tutors and those behind the scenes who made this happen as well as the candidates themselves. That is the Fellowship of the CAAV.
We now look ahead to another year of uncertainty, an economy with a post-War shock but also the change and opportunities that will bring work.
We wish all our readers the best of Christmases and a good New Year.