Following my previous post I’ve tidied up the workbook that I used to record my CPD activities and made it available here. I know it’s not much, but I was quite pleased with its simplicity and with actually getting those SUMPRODUCT arrays to work as intended. Let me know if you’ve any comments.
Monthly Archive for December, 2006
Over the past few weeks my concern over “continuing professional development” had been growing – this being the first year that I am required formally to complete 40 hours-worth with a deadline of the 1st of January. I reasoned that over the next few days I could find some on-line courses or spend time reading about the more recent FRS’s – not something that I would actually relish but at least my CPD requirements could be met.
I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to come across the following concept:
Having finished the online ‘CPD Starter Course’ from the ACCA website, I chose to take the test at the end – but annoyingly got one answer wrong. To the question that asks whether playing golf could be counted towards time spent doing CPD I said “no”. It seemed natural to me, obvious even, but the surprising truth is that the answer is “yes”!
Just think about that… if playing golf can be counted as continuing professional development then not much is ruled out. I guess their line of reasoning is that not all qualified accountants work as actual accountants. Qualified accountants should be professional in whatever they do and CPD needs to be relevant to the individual’s career.
Needless to say, I completed my CPD without too much further difficulty and filed the return well within the deadline. Hooray for the ACCA.
In the near future MoVerve will begin sending out newsletters by email – an action that for some people is inextricably related to spam! Nonetheless, spam mail and newsletters are clearly distinguishable from each other* and, to a business such as MoVerve, sending newsletters to all who subscribe is a useful activity.
I choose that MoVerve is trustworthy as an organisation and operates with integrity. These principles have clear implications for newsletter distribution, such as being sure that all recipients have chosen to receive the newsletter and providing easy means of unsubscribing at any time. Good practices on newsletter distribution are not hard to follow, but do I have other obligations?
My first step in newsletter preparation has been to look into the UK Data Protection Act and the website of the Information Commissioner provided what I needed to know. I found out that, although I will use computers to process personal data, I am exempt from notifying the Information Commissioner of this since the data is only for MoVerve’s own business processes. Nonetheless, I am required to meet certain standards in processing any personal information and also must provide a copy of the information that I hold about an individual on their request.
The good news is that the principles for personal data protection required by law coincide closely with good newsletter distribution practice. I need no changes to my plans in order to comply with the law. As examples:
- the requirement to keep only relevant and not excessive personal data is very much in line with presenting as few barriers as possible to people wanting to subscribe. If I ask potential recipients for all sorts of addresses, telephone numbers, preferences, etc. merely to send them a newsletter then I wouldn’t be surprised if very few bother to subscribe
- the requirement to keep personal data accurate and up to date is precisely what is necessary to ensure I treat subscribers’ wishes with respect. If someone requests to unsubscribe but my data is out of date or inaccurate then I might continue to send a newsletter to that person in error. Subjecting correspondents to such a poor level of service would break a lot of trust
- the requirement to keep personal data secure is, again, a major factor in the trust that I would like correspondents to place in me. If email addresses entrusted to me are passed on or otherwise leak out of my systems then I deserve no trust from potential customers and shouldn’t be surprised if they look elsewhere.
It seems that UK Data Protection Act is positively business-friendly – it encourages practices that are actually good for business!
* – apart from by spam filtering software, of course
Just a quick note on a mini-milestone. After much wrinkling of brows and a couple of false starts, I think I finally have a name for my new business that might stick – “MoVerve”.
Does it strike the right tone? Does it avoid sounding unduly staid or unduly casual? Can it carry a marketed brand? Is it memorable? Is it easy to say? Does it look good on paper? Is it available as a .com? (NB, although these questions have been horribly practical to me over the last month, they are rhetorical to you!)
Honestly, I found choosing a good name really hard. In fact, I’m not going to claim for myself that I have succeeded, but I’m reasonably content. I found the notes provided by Igor fascinating. I also see why an industry exists to serve the problem of finding names.
More business items looming on my task list include logo and website designs, which should spruce up these pages nicely over the next few weeks…