Maybe it’s because the nutloaf and carrot sandwiches are out at Pret, maybe it’s because I watched Die Hard the other night, but something has got me feeling festive ahead of time.
As such, I think the most appropriate thing to do is use this space to talk about charity – specifically, what we are doing as an industry to promote it.
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If you were to read the news lately, apparently giving to charities has dropped by a fifth year-on-year. Which is a shame, but understandable when most citizens of Willesden – for example – are grumbling into their trouser pockets for lack of change, or anything but a safety pin from last year’s poppy.
The car finance industry, however, so often maligned in the public eye alongside other money-lenders, has been quietly administering largesse and downright good-heartedness. In the last few years, Sarah Sillars from the Institute of the Motor Industry went up Kilimanjaro, and presumably down again, for auto industry charity BEN, while staff members at Inchcape followed on with a Three Peaks Challenge, raising £32,000.
Now, Richard Hoggart, managing director of DSG Financial Services, is putting together a five-night trek over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco at the end of June 2013, and is calling on all brokers and lenders to join in and show that motor finance professionals are as much behind BEN as the rest of the automotive industry.
Excuse the 14-point font, but I would like to urge subscribers to put themselves forward for this.
For those brokers wishing to get involved, contact Richard on richard.hoggart@dgfs.com and he will let you have all the details. The arrangements will be made by an independent agency – all you need is to turn up ready for the challenge and with plenty of sponsors. Cost will be £200 per person, plus £1600 minimum sponsorship.
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By GlobalDataMark Gow and Kurt Bradbury from DSG have signed up already, as has Andrew Marsh of Marsh Finance, so it looks like the worst you’ll have to enjoy from the company is some heavily involved industry chat. We’re laying bets right now that several casual funding agreements with North African car dealerships starting rolling across the news desk in Autumn 2013.
Meanwhile, another broker from the north west doing its best to raise awareness and money is Car Loan 4U, which has funded a calendar of local Cheshire women posing in the style of Calendar Girls on behalf of the Prader Willi Syndrome Association.
Finally, I’d like to once again raise some major applause for what the industry has done for Childflight.
Last month, attendees at Frontline Solutions’ 3rd Annual F&I Conference and Awards Dinner came up with £11,085 in old-fashioned folding money during the evening’s auction for Childflight, the Manchester-based charity which provides flights and holidays for sick and deserving children. I know how much the team at Frontline value the work of Childflight, and we’re hugely proud to hear they have raised such a generous sum for them – particularly since 99p in every pound raised will go to the charity.
Also, if you can still remember the day: Kurt, I apologise; Steve, I apologise; Alan, I apologise; Darren, I don’t care, I like my shoes.
Power 50 poll almost closed
There are, literally and obviously, only days left to cast your votes for the most powerful individuals in UK car finance.
We at Motor Finance are asking for your top 10 nominations for those in the industry with the most clout, gumption or pull to get things changed, for better or worse.
The results will be totalled and adjudicated by myself and editor Fred Crawley and published as a top 50 in the December issue of the magazine.
All you need to do to ensure your vote counts is send a list of your 10 nominations to my e-mail address (below) or send them to me in a private message on the Motor Finance LinkedIn group by 10 December.
All votes will be treated anonymously, so feel free to vote for yourself or colleagues or your admirable competitors, we won’t tell.
If however, you’d like your commendation of an individual printed in the magazine, do send a comment or two with your list.
The top 50 is already taking shape, with some obvious and less-obvious names in the top spots. Now is your last chance to make the difference.
And, so far, nobody has voted for me.
richard.brown@timetric.com
