For many years the Union Directors have insisted to their staff that trips to the annual Worldwide Partners world conferences are necessary for international business development and are extremely hard work. Given that the destinations for such conferences have included places like San Francisco, Costa Rica, Cape Town and Milan, such assertions have naturally been met with a considerable degree of cynicism and suspicion. However photographic evidence from a recent trip may have changed this.

This year’s conference was held in New Orleans – the network had decided to support the city and its partner agency in the city, Trumpet Advertising, after the Katrina disaster. As part of the programme the visiting agency attendees were whisked off to help rebuild a nursery school in one of the worst hit areas of the city. Union Directors Lindsay and McAteer were part of this team and spent a day with 60 other volunteers building benches, shelves, gardening and painting. (Being ad men they agreed to design and paint the sign for the school.) All this was done in 90 degree heat and typical Louisiana humidity. Lindsay and McAteer are hoping that evidence of this hard labour will go some way to convincing Union staff that serious effort work is involved in such trips.