I’m adding people to lists as they appear in my stream, so if you’re not listed yet don’t be offended.  Not all of my list names are obvious either as this Tweet from @Allix shows.  Depending on how the general feeling about lists goes with my friends I may end up turning them all back to private lists, except perhaps my sponsors list.  I’m not sure if when you follow someone else’s list you automatically end up following everyone in the list.  If that’s the case people may well prefer not to be included so as not to be mass added by spammers…..I need to dig a bit more on that I suppose.

For me the benefit in lists is personal, being able to find someone relevant to a question or a ponderance, or even something work related.  My initial connection with them might be because they’ve appeared in one of my keyword searches or maybe because they shared a conversation with a friend but I like to follow people I’m interested in not just someone who shares a similar interest (not sure that makes sense but what I mean is just because you snowboard doesn’t mean I will find you interesting as a Twitterer).  Therefore, just because someone I follow has categorized everyone they view as being a snowboarder, or a geek doesn’t mean I want to follow all of them.  So I can see lists meaning that your follow list gets out of control and you lose the value.  At this point who knows, it’ll be interesting to see how things go over the next few weeks.

Now the project has cleared this second hurdle I thought I’d take the opportunity to fill you in on what I’m doing.  As you know from my previous post, NHS Employers was going through a process to procure a Management Supplier, a company who we can partner with going forward to deliver our vision and support the work that we are doing.  Since the RFI submissions came in we worked through an intense period of short listing, engagement and cultural fit sessions before making a recommendation for the Management Supplier to the board of Trustees.  Our team has also been working on other exciting side projects (when we could squeeze them in!) such as the provision of electronic CRB checking and consideration of other technology based solutions for the NHS HR community.

At the Trustees’ Board they approved the move for NHS Employers to become a membership organisation by offering subscriptions for NHS organisations to access additional products and services from April 2010. What this means is that in addition to the provision of services to all NHS Trusts under the Department of Health (DH) contract, future members will now have access to new benefits that will help them as employers to deliver added value to the NHS and patients.

As part of the subscription services members will have access to the e-CRB solution that I’ve been working on with Atlantic Data Ltd, this will allow Trusts to save money by reducing not only the time spent sending forms to candidates, completing them and signing them off but also the actual processing time for the check itself (the electronic forms get into the system 48hours ahead of postal forms for a start!), this in turn will reduce costs of interim staff as the new joiner will be able to start work sooner.  Subscribed members will also be able to utilise a new state-of-the-art recruitment management tool enabling them to manage the back office processing of application forms, short listing & interviewing in a more modern manner than they are currently able to.

So over the coming months I’ll be continuing to work on the development of this membership model as we investigate other useful tools and products that we can offer to Trusts to enable them to support their staff and patients in a cost effective and efficient manner while also working with Capita (who were approved by the Trustees as the preferred bidder at this stage).

I have a feeling I’ll be kept quite busy but I really think it’s a good concept that will benefit the HR community within the NHS Trusts and enable them to support the key function if the NHS, patient care.  If I can find time between work and snowboarding then I’ll try and blog about the progress a bit more regularly.  We’re also starting to use Twitter within the organisation, so if you want to follow more work related Tweets then follow me here.

It seemed fitting that we celebrated the anniversary by hitting the slopes and so we headed up to MK again, 7 years on and SNO!zone sponsor me, the enthusiasm I felt at the end of that first day has only grown and I was looking forward to a good session with some friends, Jools was looking forward to taking some photos and a fun evening was made evn better by the official announcement that I am now sponsored by Humanity Snowboards “Official Announcement: Kat Miller Joins Humanity“.  I knew the blog post was coming, but it was great to read it on my trusty N82 as I rode up the Poma.  I’ve come a long way in the last seven years, not just in snowboarding but in work as well and I love the fact that my enthusiasm not only for riding but the day to day stuff I do, the tech and the geeky stuff has led me to my first board sponsor.  I connected with Humanity not through the usual channels of showing up at comps and getting to know the distributors but by casual conversation over the internet.  It was a connection of like-minds, people with similar interests and a mutual love not just of snowboarding but of social tools and interaction as well.

I’m stoked that Humanity Snowboards picked me for their team and I can’t wait to get my first board from them and started shredding indoors & dry on it.  I’m looking forward to getting to know the guys behind Humanity and the other team members so that even though we don’t shred together we can share in our love of the shred!

Last night was also awesome thanks to Ludo Canu of Spazz Clothing & UK Tall Tees.  Not only has he made me up some brilliant die-cut stickers for my sponsor Sputnik Snowboard Shop but he’s made me up a Sputnik hoody as well.  Ludo and his son Lon are both awesome to ride with and have been really encouraging and supportive of me, giving me the confidence to try new stuff.  Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

So as I move into year 8 on a board I just want to say a huge thank you to Jools,  to all my friends, the people I ride with and compete against, the mums and dads who not only support their kids but me as well and most especially to my sponsors SNO!zone, Sputnik Snowboard Shop & Humanity Snowboards……bring on the summer shred!

So it made me laugh at work today when I mentioned (& Tweeted) ….

that that I was feeling somewhat drained, and my colleague piped up that that he felt the same and it was a bit like the aftermath of a dementor attack!  It had been a pretty manic morning of meetings and presentation slide prep coupled with a whirlwind of negativity from life sucking interferences and I really do think that summed up quite nicely how I was feeling.  I may have to use that analogy more often, if only so I can treat myself to a bar of chocolate to aid recovery!