TOUR DIRECTORS COURSE

Nothing like a bit of nepotism - got a job doing a London Eye and walking tour from my brother who can put my modest fee on corporate expenses. He works for Tyco whose previous CEO had gold shower rails inserted in his house and charged it to the company - so they can afford it!
The other news is that I have finally decided to revive the BRITISH ISLES STUDY PROGRAMME which was orginally run by Jim Lindsay who died last year. He had asked me to take over the course but Henry and Julia were young and I did not want to give up my weekends to run BISP, as we knew it.
I still don't- so I have decided to run a short fairly intensive two week course in a year's time - one week of talks followed by a one week tour of Britain. There will be big emphasis on practicality and even psychology involved in running a successful tour - how to keep a diverse group of people happy, organise seat rotation fairly, deal with difficult passengers, treat people fairly but individually, etc. I have been directing tours of Britain for twenty five years (God!) so I should know about it but I hope to learn some more and, like those who sign up for the course, have some fun.
It cannot be much fun for Lucy McMurdo at the moment. She is the 'guilty party' according to quite a few guides who has had the temerity to start a Westminster Course, which some see as a rival to the Blue Badge. We were told not to discus this matter at the AGM of the Association of Professional Tourist Guides as it is effectively 'sub judice' while a harassment case is under review. As stated before, I am not worried about this course, but I hope not to go through what she has, so am planning to do this by the book in consultation with the Institute, APTG, the Guild, not forgetting IATM (the tour directors' outfit) and all the other guiding bureaucracies.
Plenty of those...