Business, Professions & Government Division
About Us | News/Reports | Events | Management Committee
About us
The strength of the Business, Professions and Government Division (BPG) lies in its diversity, which in itself represents a strategic challenge to the committee behind it!
The members of the Division may use their languages as a primary or secondary function, regularly or intermittently, with specialised or general terminology, but largely in support of, or complementary to, another discipline within the sphere of commerce and industry.
For instance, the current divisional management committee includes a marine biologist, a business development manager for a steel company, translators and small business advisors – but none of the committee could perform these functions with the same degree of professionalism without the language skills which give them the ‘edge’.
Mission statements may now be considered ‘old hat’, but the BPG Division considers its objectives to be the following:
To provide networking opportunities for its members supported by informative and stimulating events.
To promote the value of language skills and to enhance the respect accorded to linguists within the context of industry and commerce.
To create and maintain awareness within the industrial/commercial world of the benefits of cross-cultural communication.
One of our new initiatives is to welcome and inform new divisional members, and to seek their views about events or information which would benefit them.
This is done by means of a welcome pack and questionnaire, to be followed up by a programme of ‘regional socials’ for new and existing divisional members to provide a networking platform in a pleasant and sociable atmosphere.
A recent survey of new divisional members indicated that the main motivation for joining the division was ‘business/industry-related events’, followed by ‘networking with colleagues’ and ‘language-related events’. The majority of new members who responded worked in the areas designated ‘industry / services sector: support role’ and ‘translation / interpreting’, which for the majority of Business, Professions and Government Division members represents part of their varied duties to a greater or lesser extent. English was listed as the most frequently used language at work, followed by German, French – no surprises there – but then a little further down the list came Chinese, Russian and more specifically Cantonese and Mandarin.
We welcome new ideas and will do our utmost to fulfil them within the constraints of our budget and human resources – why not let us know what you would like to see on the agenda?
The committee details can be found on the website – we would like nothing more than to hear from you.
Judith Ridgway
News/Reports
Download your copy of the BPG Division's newsletter "The Network":
September 2006 copy
- The Network (PDF, 300kb)
- Registration Form (PDF, 350kb)
Events
Regular Meetings
You are invited to join us at our regular social evenings on the 1st Thursday of every alternate month. The purpose of these evenings, as well as being social, is to provide networking opportunities and find areas of common intrerest. Members from all groups and all parts of the country are very welcome.
Visit to the St George's Chapel archive in Windsor
On Saturday 31 May Lucy Eratt, Events Organiser of BPG, organised a fascinating visit to the St George's Chapel archive in Windsor. After being royally fed and watered at St George's, James Farmer, BPG Membership Secretary, led a party of 30 over historic Windsor Bridge across the Thames to Eton. James was a pupil at Eton College from 1966 to 1971 and was able to show the party a number of sights not normally seen by visitors. The College was founded by King Henry VI in 1440 and the existing chapel was started at that time, intended to be an enormous church to rival the great cathedrals. But political developments in the shape of the Wars of the Roses brought an end to these plans and the chapel was somewhat hastily finished off as a much smaller affair by 1482. Nonetheless it is an extremely fine perpendicular building with remarkable Medieval wall paintings and some impressive stained glass. The east window was largely destroyed in WWII, but a beautiful new window was designed and made by Evie Hone after the war. James told the party an anecdote about this. When the original window was bombed, the Provost of Eton asked the organist to play as loudly as possible so as to dislodge the glass which remained in situ and a posse of staff, wives etc proceeded to collect as much as possible of the original glass. Evie Hone was subsequently able to incorporate this into the new window!
The party also visited Lower School, the oldest continuously used schoolroom in the country, which was built in 1443! College evening prayers were sung here while James was a pupil and he sometimes played the organ for this.
There followed a visit to the Headmaster's schoolroom and Upper School, both dating from William and Mary's reign. Thence a walk around the cloisters, followed by an inspection of the Museum of Eton Life. James finished the tour by leading the party on a walk around the town of Eton, viewing for example schoolrooms, boys' boarding houses and the centralised restaurant where most of the pupils now eat. James would like to record here his thanks on behalf of all to the Eton visits organiser, who kindly stretched a point and exceptionally allowed a visit by 30 people instead of the usual maximum of 15.
Other Events
Please go to the Events Calendar to check for other events organised by the Business, Professions and Government Division or contact Judith Ridgway or call her on +44 (0)121 3606152 for information about the Division's events.
If you wish to attend similar events to the visitto St Georges' Chapel, please contact Stephen Eden for information on upcoming events.
The division also offers an e-group facility, which provides the opportunity to raise queries and contribute to topics for discussion. Further details are available from Paul Shipman.
Management Committee
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