The Chairman’s Foreword

Chair's foreword

With a new year comes new optimism – but with the backdrop of sobering reality we’re now accustomed to. This is business in times of Covid.

Reflecting on what was a positive 2021 for the NAJ, my three highlights were our continued support of members through the pandemic, the

NAJ Summit finally coming to fruition and seeing students receive due appreciation and recognition at the Education Awards at

Goldsmiths’ Hall in November.

We have great expectations for 2022, especially in the realisation of our new strategy. We’re proud to be the Association for the entire sector, championing businesses that show the key values of Honesty, Integrity and Professionalism. But now, as we set our sights on evolving the Association, I know there’s a lot for the membership community to be positive about looking ahead.

The new strategy is intent on realising professional excellence and excellent professionals. To do this, we will use the key pillars of compliance, profit and responsibility for all to understand what’s needed, what’s wanted and what should be in place.

Our compliance work starts with our membership documents. We will issue a major update to the Association’s disciplinary procedure and work through a priority set of NAJ documents representing Codes of Practice, starting with pricing and other queries that most commonly arrive on the NAJ compliance desk.

With profit imperative for members’ businesses to be viable, the Better Business area of the website will undergo a major update to be a better reference for all segments wanting to make commercial improvements. As a tool, it will be more accessible. We will also review the benefits and services available to members, again to help all segments save money. We will continue to invest in the Find a Jeweller and Find a Valuer directories, as well as stretch the benefit and coverage of The Jeweller, which I feel is now reflecting the NAJ membership community better than ever.

Finally, we cannot overlook responsibility. The activities and behaviours businesses should adopt to prove their responsibility to customers, employees and supporters are more important than ever. Many of us live and breathe this industry, so it’s vital we all look at things through a different lens from time to time.

To note, this is just a small flavour of the practical inroads we are making; more introductions and improvements are also incoming. A large part of the strategy is inward looking, so the Association can build on its recent developments under the stewardship of a passionate executive and staff team. I must again congratulate the three trade charities: The Goldsmiths’ Company Charity, the Silversmiths and Jewellers Charity and The Benevolent Society – they were all given the inaugural NAJ Chair’s Award at The Benevolent Society Ball in December (plenty of party pictures later in this issue). The rapid mobilisation and collaboration between each when it was really needed was heart-warming and lives long in the memory.

I would also like to congratulate Kassandra Lauren Gordon, who received special recognition for her actions in the Black Lives Matter movement and its relevance to the trade. We recognise we have a way to go for true equality and diversity, but the NAJ National Committee is extremely supportive. For those that did attend the event at the Grand Hotel Birmingham, it was a joyous evening, and I suggest you mark your diary for this year’s ball, confirmed for Thursday 8th December, once again at the sumptuous Grand Hotel.

Gary Wroe NAJ Chair