North West & North Wales

The North West Regional Group was started in 2001 by Martin Anderson, and has now been expanded to include North Wales. The aims of the Group are to provide informal opportunities for networking, discussion, exchange of ideas and socialising for people with an interest in ergonomics/human factors. Meetings are held at locations around the North West and include a mix of external speakers, industrial visits and social activities. Members and non-members are welcome to attend, from anywhere in the UK.

The group co-ordinator is Bill Gall of Kingsley Management. Bill is an independent Human Factors Consultant specialising in human reliability in various sectors such as nuclear, rail, oil and gas. The steering committee comprises:

• Trevor Shaw from the Corporate Human Factors, Ergonomics and Psychology Group at the HSE. Trevor, a human factors psychologist, is responsible for the technical lead on a range of HF topics within the HSE.
• Louise Pode of UCD Ergonomics, specialising in occupational ergonomics.
• Clare Pollard, HF Team Leader at Areva RMC, with a background in applying HF in the nuclear industry.

Since its inception events have included speakers on a range of topics from rail through nuclear to occupational health, site visits to simulators, a museum and research labs, and several social gatherings. Recent meetings have included presentations on accident and incident investigation and analysis, research into fatal accidents in the construction industry and motorcycle mail delivery work. There was also a well attended social event, the group’s Christmas meal that took place in December 2009.

We are currently drawing up a programme consisting of a variety of speakers, visits and socials. Hopefully this will ensure that our 2010/11 programme has something of interest for all our members in the North West, North Wales and surrounding areas. We are also planning to use a variety of venues to increase the ease with which people can attend our events. Our aim for this year is to hold at least four events, plus a social or two.

We need ideas and suggestions for events and venues across our region, but perhaps most importantly, we need support from our members. We want to provide activities that you don’t want to miss, so let us know what interests you.