October 11, 2011
The annual Institute of Directors debate sees 500 of Guernsey’s ‘business leaders’ gather to dissect the issues of the island. It’s a prestigious event that attracts a lot of industry and media interest.
This year the topic was how businesses could “share the burden” of running the island. Corporate Social Responsibility was one of the themes.
In his speech, Jurat Stephen Jones – Chair of the Guernsey Cheshire Home – spoke of his concern that there are 364 charities in Guernsey. He encouraged charities to merge or form umbrella groups and cited the Guernsey Disability Alliance as a positive example of charities joining together to get their message across more clearly.
This point was picked up in his interview with BBC Guernsey afterwards and played out as a news headline.
The relevance of the GDA was further emphasised when, to add a touch of theatre to the evening, Stuart Falla called the GDA Chair, Shelaine Green, up on stage to take over the questioning of the panel.