Greetings all,
I am delighted to be able to send this communication to you, boasting the proud title of President and Chair of the Board of the Association of Common Law Notaries (ACLN). I thought that for the occasion, I would feature a picture of me wearing a tie with flags of the nations of the world, and showing you the logo of the newly entitled Association of Common Law Notaries.
Last weekend, in a sun -soaked Leander Club in Henley upon Thames just outside London, England, the Board of the Association met. It was a chance to get to know some people I had not physically met before, and in the course of a very pleasant weekend, I learned
- how one board member has two teenage daughters,
- how another board member once (entirely unbeknownst to him) caused an emergency evacuation of a nuclear plant in France, which later caused him to be arrested and detained temporarily,
- while a third director decided at one point that it was a good idea to fly across an erupting volcano,
- but a fourth enjoys the rather more sedate and less risky task of using a metal stick to drive a small white ball long distances with the objective of getting the ball to drop into 18 small holes scattered around the countryside.
On the Friday evening, we were joined by several colleagues from around the London area, and around the table we had notaries from common law jurisdictions such as British Columbia in Canada, England & Wales, Gambia, Guernsey, Ireland, and civil law jurisdictions such as Italy. There was also a multiplicity of ethnicities, (Canadian, English, Gambian, Indian, Irish, Italian, and “Kiwi”, which made for a great evening of lively and engaging conversation and, what we Irish would call “great craic”.
On Saturday we got down to the serious business of the AGM and the business of the Board, with the board members pictured below enjoying the sunshine before getting down to business. One of the most consequential decisions we took was to change the name of the Association to “Association of Common Law Notaries”, and to adopt a modified logo, as featured in my photograph above.
Left-to-right: Brian O’Brien – Ireland (Treasurer), Stewart Germann – New Zealand, Anthony Northey – UK, Seedy Jallow – Gambia, Russell Clark – Guernsey, Laura Carter – England and Wales (PRO,) Bill Holohan – Ireland (Incoming Chair) and Kate Roome – British Columbia (Outgoing Chair).
We also have plans for the future expansion of the Association, but more on that anon. Watch this space.
I could go on, but I think gone on long enough already. 😊
If any stage you want to reach out to me, please feel free to email me directly at [email protected].
Cheers
Bill
