YES people make
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own decisions • by Mary Frayne
SINCE its inaugural meeting in November 1977, the RHA's Young Executive Section has built up a membership of 200 and established six active regional groups. It held its first Annual General Meeting in April at which a National Committee was elected, and has won the right to an observer on the RHA National Council.
The original idea for a separate group within the RHA for those between 18 and 35 was canvassed at the RHA conference in 1976.
The general agreement resulted in a separate group. YES, with its own set of rules and Terms of Reference within the RHA structure.
Such formalities, however, do not necessarily reflect the success of a scheme. YES reckons that about 75 per cent of its members have already renewed their subscriptions, and new members are still corning in.
Alicia Gains, national chairman of YES, was one of the first to become involved. She recognises the importance of this first subscription renewal, but is confident that the scheme will flourish. She told me, that in time the YES could grow to become the road haulage equivalent of the Young Farmers. "We are making our own history as we go", she said, -it's like cutting a path through the jungle".
Although the YES objectives allow for the provision of representation for younger people in the RHA and state that it should promote members' opinions, recomendations and suggestions to the National Council, the path leads towards education at present.
Four residential study weekends are held at colleges each year. These are designed and run by Ealing Technical College, whose lecturers already work closely with the RHA. Miss Gains said that YES had taken every day problems in the haulage business's problems and made a study of them in search of practical and permanent solutions. -We ask those attending to analyse the structural parts of a decision, and to arrive at a solution."'
Subjects covered by the study weekends range from warehousing and transport management to office procedures and industrial relations.
The YES depends on its members' employers for support if the study weekends are to remain successful. Delegates have to leave work early on Friday in order to arrive at the college in time, and a fee of £59 is charged to cover expenses. Last year an average of 15 people attended each course, representing in all about a quarter of the membership.
The other type of regular activity run by YES is both cheaper and less academic although still broadly educational. Each of the six branches organises regular evening meetings with a transport theme. Individual committees differ in their approach to these; in Yorkshire, each of the weekly meetings takes the form of a tutorial, whereas in London members prefer to invite a guest speaker who will stimulate an informal discussion.
London branch meetings this year include a river boat disco, a talk on own-account road transport from Courage Breweries, and a film showing how oil rigs are constructed in the North Sea, and pipelines are laid to bring the oil ashore.
CM was invited to attend the latter meeting where speakers from Phillips Petroleum explained the problems they face in the North Sea and answered a barrage of questions from the floor. The discussion turned to road transport when one YES 'member asked how much of the price of a gallon of diesel actually goes to the oil company and learnt that it was less than one penny.
The vexed problem of pollution also proved common to both the speakers and the floor though perhaps not to the same degree. ''You are praised for finding oil, but we're blamed for using it," commented one frustrated.YES member.
The atmosphere at the
meeting was friendly an relaxed. Conversation before tF presentation and exchang€ during the discussion flowe easily. -There is enough fo maility in the RHA,Miss Gair said. -Our aim is to build self-confidence among young executives in the road haulac industry. Our meetings are 'getting-to-know-you' exerci: to stimulate a deeper interest the RNA.
In fact Miss Gains stress, the informal nature of all YE activities, without giving ti impression that its members a flippant. She believes that th, are hard-working and interesti in their jobs. As a your executive in a family firm 11( self, she speaks with first-har knowledge, and it is for ttreason that she is convinced th a relaxed approach will increa younger executives' contrib tions to the Association.
A common response fro those approached to atter weekend study courses is "ha I got to take an exam?'' In orc to allay these fears, Miss Gai gives equal billing to the lavi catering arrangements Churchill College, Cambrid where the weekend courses t8 place.
This keenness to capture t young executive's interest is monstrated in the YES's qui response to an invitation frc their French counterparts to vi