Great Western Coffee Shop

Transport Focus are recruiting board member(s), or rather the DfT are on their behalf.


https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/about/careers/ for links to further details

What they fail to state, 'boat rockers need not apply'.

It seems very good pay - £12k a year for four days a month - so I am surmising it is only really for the "great and the good" - or at least the "very good" who would add value to the board. I'd love that kind of pay for such a low commitment, but alas not for mortals. It would be good to get a real campaigner on there who knows and cares about trains as the name change from "Passenger Focus" might precipitate the road lobby to apply in force.

Many thanks for your comments, Tina - and may I offer you a very warm welcome to the Coffee Shop forum.  ;) :D ;D

If it attracts and they appoint board members who provide just that stated 4 days a month, then the hourly rate does indeed look rather good.   But I suspect that anyone who applies for the job with a true commitment to the role would find - like teachers do - that the background, preparation, paperwork and admin tasks to do it properly double the time needed, and with potentially long days headed for distant meetings, the hourly rate probably seeps down to about twice the 'living wage'.   For that, you want someone who's personal life style is such that they can take a series of irregular days and trips - highly disruptive of personal life in a way that a regular 9 to 5 job, or a shift work routine, would not be.   There's then the perverse request for the person be be highly experienced and motivated, and yet not be involved in anything which could be regarded as a conflict of interest .. other posters have hinted at that by suggesting "boat rockers need not apply" and by liking that comment.

I looked at it and while I meet some of the requirements as Christina says it sounds like they're looking for a 'name'. I think it would be interesting to do but I suspect I'd not get past the shortlisting as I don't have a bunch of other directorships and membership of quangos. I'd also see it as far more than 4 days effort to do the job properly and I suspect my employer might not look too kindly on my being absent although we do have allowances for 'other' activities and my manager is probably fed up with hearing about my train journeys.

I'd encourage you to apply, Sixty3 as I do know they are short of applicants. They will at least want to have demonstrated that they have had a good selection of people to choose from, otherwise they would not have extended the deadline by two weeks.

Christina

112 applicants for 2 positions ... not all that short in the end.  Now down to a shortlist with 15 proceeding to interview. If any member has been shortlisted - congratulations, but check you really are. 


followed 2 hours later by ...


Oh dear - hardly inspires me to confidence in their data handling!

Sounds rather similar to a story around at the weekend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44020235 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44020235)

Well, I still haven't heard anything. But thanks to the application process i have now raised my aspirations to the extent of applying for the position of one of two elected directors of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership which thanks to very few applicants (three applicants for two positions) I have now been elected - my sister in law reckons I am the first "Director" in the family and it has been rather fun so far! Have met the Chairman of the Board, the CEO and next week will meet with the staff team and then there's the board meeting.

Oh the punchline? It is a voluntary role. But at least it means I can bring my daughter along to some of the "Mingles" - but as she is at school, not to the board meetings.

I'm intrigued by what the precise role is and is not - one source (Voscur) says directors are strategic not operational. But I was encouraged by one of the ex-board members who advised me to push all the boundaries and just enjoy it all. It certainly is fun so far and I have many, many ideas!

Does that mean two Graham Ellis’s applied?  :D

I suspect they had several candidates with the same first name, and several candidates with the same last name, and that the candidate who got the erroneous invitation for interview shared first names with another applicant, and perhaps last names with another.   I suspect that the former Conservative MP for Weaver Vale, who ran a campaign to reinstate the Halton Curve might be on the short list ... after all, appointments like these are very much "jobs for the boys" when they get knocked out at an election ;D . Just a suspicion of course - just my personal opinion, and there might be a big co-incidence at play!

Yes - I told Charlotte Leslie about it....