NCASS | Northern Chartered Accountant Students' Society

NCASS tour of Wylam Brewery

Wylam Brewery has come a fairly long way since their inception, with founding fathers John Boyle and Robin Leighton pawing over their first malt bills and recipes in a potting shed in the village of Wylam. Their brews are now enjoyed in quality pubs and bottle shops across the land, and in July NCASS had the chance to go and join them for a tour at their new home in the Palace of Arts in Exhibition Park, Newcastle, to find out what all the fuss was about.

The Palace of Arts is an impressive structure as is, but upon entering it became apparent that what Wylam Brewery had done with the place was even more impressive than the building itself. High domed ceilings and an understated colour scheme of greys housed a new bar, an events and music venue and the brewery itself. Upon being led through to the brewery and whilst stood under kettles and mashers at least three times our height, we received an introduction to the brewing process from head brewer Ben. Heads suitably reeling from the deceivingly complicated and scientific methods involved in the art of brewing the perfect beer, people headed back to the bar with a new found appreciation for the work involved in making a good pint.

But of course, no tour would be complete without a chance to sample the finished produce! Once back in The Tap we finally got our chance to try some of their finest brews. Jakehead, Collingwood and Angel were all on the menu as we sampled five of the best the brewery had to offer and certainly weren’t disappointed – with each brew so different from the last, we all had a hard job picking our favourite! The fifth taster marked the end of our guided tour but we were then invited to stay in the bar as long as we wanted, and two or three pints later we were more than convinced we had made the right decision in hanging back. It would have been rude not to have taken them up on their offer, after all…

About NCASS
NCASS (Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society) is the official body that represents ACA students under ICAEW training contracts in the Northern Society area in the North East of England and Cumbria. We have been supporting student chartered accountants across northern England since 1896.

The society is run by ACA student volunteers for ACA students and, space permitting, new committee members are always welcome.

CABA returning to the Northern Region

Following on from the hugely successful CABA seminar that was held in Newcastle in December 2015, CABA will once again be returning to the region on 27 July 2016. Lucy Whitehall will present a seminar on “An Introduction to Mindfulness”

What is the course about?

Mindfulness is everywhere at the moment but is it as good as its positive press?

During this session you’ll explore the concept of mindfulness and how using it can enable you to become more aware of your thoughts and feelings so that instead of being overwhelmed by them, you’re better able to manage them. You’ll examine the foundations of mindfulness, the empirical evidence behind it and its many applications in everyday life. You’ll also have the opportunity to try out a number of mindfulness strategies and with regular practice you’ll be able to:

Improve your mental and physical health
Manage stress
Enhance wellbeing
Reduce anxiety
Increase emotional intelligence
Improve mental clarity and focus
Reduce emotional reactivity
Improve relationships at home and at work

What will you get out of it?

This course will enable you to understand how mindfulness techniques can improve your ability to cope with stress in the workplace or at home, manage anxiety or depression or improve your concentration, energy levels and enjoyment of life.

After completing this course you will be able to

Identify and define what mindfulness is and isn’t
Recognise how practicing mindfulness can make positive changes to the way our brain works
Identify the empirically supported benefits of mindfulness
Utilise mindfulness to reduce stress, increase wellbeing , manage emotions and enhance performance
Recognise how mindfulness can be incorporated into everyday simple activities
Identify mindfulness practices for personal issues that you’d like to work on
Create a mindfulness action plan

About the speaker

Lucy is an expert HR Consultant, combining a wealth of experience in employee wellbeing, HR projects, HR business partnering and employee engagement environments. With extensive knowledge of PMI, Occupational Health and employee assistance programmes, Lucy provides advice and consultation to HR Directors, CEOs and Boards on best practice employee wellbeing and engagement methodologies and techniques. Lucy delivers inspiring training and specialises in Mindfulness, Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and other aspects of personal effectiveness, her coaching style of delivery encourages confidence and creates an animated, open and honest training environment that delegates feel secure in. Lucy has a special interest in business psychology and neuroscience and is dedicated to a holistic approach to personal wellbeing.

Booking

To book your place, visit our events page. Places are limited and allocated on a first come first served basis. There is no charge for this event.

About CABA

Chartered Accountants’ Benevolent Association (CABA) provides advice and practical support to current and former ICAEW chartered accountants and their families.

For further information about CABA, visit caba.org.uk For more information about courses, visit caba.org.uk/courses

For advice and information call 01788 556 366 or chat to an advisor online 24 hours a day. CABA provides a 24 hour UK helpline for counselling and legal advice. Should you require this, please call 0800 107 6163.

About NCASS

NCASS (Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society) is the official body that represents ACA students under ICAEW training contracts in the Northern Society area in the North East of England and Cumbria. We have been supporting student chartered accountants across northern England since 1896.
The society is run by ACA student volunteers for ACA students and, space permitting, new committee members are always welcome.

About NEYCAG and Northern Society

NEYCAG is the North East Young Chartered Accountants’ Group part of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants (NorSCA) which represents 4,000 ICAEW members and ACA students working in business and the finance profession across the North East of England, Teesside, northern Yorkshire and Cumbria. We have been assisting businesses in the north of England and producing chartered accountants for over 130 years. Our members are part of a worldwide network of 144,000 ICAEW Chartered Accountants who help people do business with confidence.

NCASS hand over £3,000 to Parkinson’s UK

The Northern Chartered Accountant’ Students’ Society (NCASS) handed over a remarkable £3,056 to Parkinson’s UK.

NCASS – Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society

Throughout 2015/16 NCASS have been supporting and fundraising for Parkinson’s UK. During the Newcastle and Teesside dinner, we hosted a game of “Heads or Tails” and a raffle, with prizes kindly donated by a number of local businesses. As a result of both the heads and tails game and the raffle, NCASS managed to raise a remarkable £2,000 and £1,000 respectively for Parkinson’s UK. With thanks to a generous contribution from NorSCA. The total raised for Parkinson’s UK was an amazing £3,056 for the year!

Abby Robinson from Parkinson’s UK congratulated NCASS on raising such a remarkable amount saying that both dinners were successful evenings where such a significant amount of money was able to be raised.

About Parkinson’ UK
As well as providing expert information on every aspect of Parkinson’s so that people affected by the condition can stay in control of their lives, Parkinson’s UK also influence and fund ground breaking research and offer support to ensure people can live life to the full.
To find out more about the work of Parkinson’s UK visit their website: http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/content/about-parkinsons

To Infiniti and beyond – 30 years of Nissan in Sunderland (and we were there)

In its thirtieth year and currently producing more than 500,000 cars per year, the Nissan manufacturing facility in Sunderland is an impressive site. The plant is built on the former Sunderland Airfield, with vehicle production taking place on two lines, allowing a car to roll off the production line every 59 seconds. 80% of all vehicles are exported worldwide from the River Tyne.

NCASS students and other ICAEW colleagues had the golden opportunity of visiting the ‘Trim & Chassis’ part of the production process for Line 1 where the Qashqai and Leaf models are born. Seeing a shop floor, the heart of any manufacturing business, helps to tangibly understand an entity and seeing the ‘just in time’, ‘Kaizen’ and ‘job rotation’ philosophies in action certainly aided that.

The factory has come a long way since an assembly line for the Nissan Bluebird in 1986 evolved into the current two production lines, taking raw materials, even from the point of pressing the steel, through to a finished product in about 25 hours. That evolution continues with the new Infiniti Q30 model which started production last year on Line 2.

NCASS would like to thanks NM(UK) for hosting this superb event, for which proceeds will be donated to St Oswald’s Hospice.

NCASS Night at The Dogs

NCASS held a night at the Newcastle dogs on Thursday 5th May, allowing students to network in an informal environment. It was a free event which included entry, a drink, pie and peas.

This year’s ever-popular NCASS visit to Newcastle Dogs, with a healthy attendance of 70 ICAEW registered students, was on 5 May. As ever, the evening commenced with the customary, and alliterative, pie, peas and a pint, providing the perfect precursor to the evening ahead. With tactics discussed, forms studied and bets placed, winners cheered and losers, well, tried again. The winner of the NCASS trophy, race 8, was number 5 Emotional Dream. Congratulations to the winning dog, the success it hopefully brought to those who had a stake and to Newcastle Greyhound Stadium for hosting us. It was an excellent, warm evening, with fun and healthy competition. Another great event.

Madeleine Harmens of Newcastle University said “By the end of the night I was £6 up, so classed it as a success! Overall, it was a great evening, filled with fun and a healthy bit of competition. I look forward to next years and hope to build upon my success, as do many others.”

About NCASS

NCASS (Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society) is the official body that represents ACA students under ICAEW training contracts in the Northern Society area in the North East of England and Cumbria. We have been supporting student chartered accountants across northern England since 1896.

The society is run by ACA student volunteers for ACA students and, space permitting, new committee members are always welcome.

NCASS Teesside dinner raises £1,000 for Parkinson’s UK

NCASS hosted their annual Teesside Dinner on Friday 6th May 2016 at The Jury’s Inn (formerly the Thistle Hotel, Middlesbrough).

The night commenced with a drinks reception followed by a welcome speech from the Chair, Sai-Seema Rehan.

Rob Tindle and Chris Soan, Presidents of NorSCA and NCASS respectively, followed the evening on by awarding the CU Peat Prize to three students in the Teesside area for their hard work and commitment during their studies. The winners were Jessica Smith (Evolution LLP), Ashleigh Smith (Baines Jewitt LLP) and Gary Wallace (Clive Owen & Co LLP).

NCASS have been supporting Parkinson’s UK this year and through the game of Heads or Tails hosted by Sam Hutson, a raffle and a donation from NorSCA, we were able to raise £1,000. This was a remarkable achievement! From the Newcastle dinner and fundraising events during the year, we have been able to raise a total £3,056 for Parkinson’s UK.

Photos will be available online soon.

About NCASS

The society is run by ACA student volunteers for ACA students and, space permitting, new committee members are always welcome.

NEYCAG and NCASS Bowling Evening

NEYCAG and NCASS held a joint bowling evening at Lane 7 on 9th March.

Bowling1

The event allowed students and recently qualified chartered accountants to network in an informal environment.

Dawn O’Neill of E&Y Newcastle said “I had a lovely evening at the NCASS/NEYCAG bowling event. Though my team may have been disappointed by my bowling ability, it was a great opportunity to do some informal networking and it would be brilliant to see even more new faces at similar events in the future.”

NEYCAG and NCASS would like to thank Michael Page for supporting the event.

NEYCAG is the North East Young Chartered Accountants’ Group part of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants (NorSCA) which represents 4,000 ICAEW members and ACA students working in business and the finance profession across the North East of England, Teesside, northern Yorkshire and Cumbria. We have been assisting businesses in the north of England and producing chartered accountants for over 130 years. Our members are part of a worldwide network of 144,000 ICAEW Chartered Accountants who help people do business with confidence.

NCASS student dinner raises £2,000 for Parkinson’s UK

NCASS hosted its Annual Black Tie Dinner at The Assembly Rooms, Newcastle on Friday 18th March and raised a sensational £2,000 for Parkinson’s UK, a national charity who will be using the funds locally.

282 young professionals from the North East region enjoyed an evening of entertainment, food and dancing. Attendees were from a variety of firms including Robson Laidler, Ryecroft Glenton, UNW, Tait Walker, Deloitte, PwC, KMPG, NAO and Bond Dickinson.

The evening had a drinks reception followed by introductions from Sai-Seema Rehan, current chairman of NCASS who then passed onto Abby Robinson, a representative from Parkinson’s UK. Sam Hutson then lead the evening into the legendary “heads and tails” game which was won by a student from Robson Laidler!

After dinner, the raffle commenced which included a range of prizes such as two tickets to the Tyneside Cinema, a bottle of champagne from Ernst Young and a £50 John Lewis voucher from NoRSCA (Northern Society of Chartered Accountants). As a result of both the heads and tails game and the raffle, NCASS managed to raise a remarkable £2,000 on the evening for Parkinson’s UK, thanks in no small part to a generous donation by NoRSCA. Parkinson’s UK are a charity NCASS has been supporting throughout the year. A formal hand over of the funds will be organised in due course and the pictures will follow on the website.

Sai-Seema Rehan, Chairman of NCASS commented “The evening was a great success and this was not only due to the committee’s effort but also due to local firm involvement and participation. The amount raised for Parkinson’s UK is a phenomenal amount which I am sure will help those suffering with Parkinson’s as well as their close family and friends in the North East. It is such a good feeling knowing that you are giving back to a local charity. On behalf of the NCASS Committee, I would like to thank our magician Josh Smith (sponsored by Badenoch and Clark) for providing the entertainment on the night, as well as those from The Assembly Rooms for providing remarkable service”.

Photographs from the evening will soon be available in the Gallery section of our website and the winning selfie will feature in the next issue of NorSCA news.
NCASS are holding their annual Teesside Dinner on Friday 6th May at The Jury’s Inn (formerly The Thistle Hotel) where they will be also supporting Parkinson’s UK.

About NCASS
NCASS (Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society) is the official body that represents ACA students under ICAEW training contracts in the Northern Society area in the North East of England and Cumbria. We have been supporting student chartered accountants across northern England since 1896.

The society is run by ACA student volunteers for ACA students and, space permitting, new committee members are always welcome.

NCASS – Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society

On Saturday 24 October 2015, NCASS sent three teams to compete in a ‘Le Mans Grand Prix’ held at F1K Newcastle.

While none of our teams won on the day, it was a thrilling race with a great turnout!

We hope to host another race in the New Year, so stay tuned or follow NCASS on twitter to keep up to speed!

You can follow us on Twitter @followNCASS or twitter.com/followncass

About NCASS

NCASS (Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society) is the official body that represents ACA students under ICAEW training contracts in the Northern Society area in the North East of England, Teesside, northern Yorkshire and Cumbria. We have been supporting student chartered accountants across northern England since 1896.

The society is run by ACA student volunteers for ACA students and, space permitting, new committee members are always welcome.

NCASS Annual General Meeting

Notice is given that the AGM of NCASS will be held at Newcastle University Business School, 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle.

The Annual General Meeting is open to all members. Items to be discussed:

Approve the previous AGM minutes
Approve the NCASS Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015
Elect committee members
Elect an independent reporting accountant
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