Page 59 - Microsoft Word - Guiding lights final version 1411 0707 big print.doc

on large detailed international tenders, Tom in the Engineering industry and me in the nuclear industry, and this proved very valuable as we tackled the great amount of work needed to work out the intricate financial considerations and we were also assisted by many members of STGA to provide the very detailed and lengthy tender submission that was required by EU regulations. Mercat Tours’ contribution was invaluable.
‘Finally, in September 2004 we were advised we had been successful and then followed a mad rush to be ready for the opening of the new building in October 2004. We initially committed ourselves to providing five to six guides per day for tours throughout each day that the Parliament was not in session. That meant Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday when Parliament was not sitting and 7 days a week when it was not in session. We had tours from 9am until 4pm each day. Parliament were quite clear about what they wanted included and the route we had to take through the building and they insisted the tours should always have the same content.
‘We had very little time to develop and provide the specialist training needed by our 76 Parliament Guides and to carry out the written and practical examination of the guides.
The sterling efforts made by Ros Newlands and Wilma Kelloe of the STGA and Frances Mann of Mercat and all the trainers paid off and we were ready for the opening in October 2004. Dot in the office, as the programme scheduler, cheerfully put in a superhuman amount of work to provide schedules for the guides each day. I have to say, as the Project Manager, I was so proud of what we achieved. From the very first day our guides provided superb professional tours. The combination of STGA and Mercat worked very well and I believe we learned a lot from each other. ‘Mercat guides’ ability to ‘tell a good story’ was certainly something I found invaluable. Tom and I were invited to a Reception for Parliament suppliers and were so delighted to be drawn aside by the chief executive, Sir Paul Grice, and told that our contract was one of the best they were handling.
‘In the early days we had a lot to contend with. Most of the visitors initially seemed to be locals who were coming in simply to voice their outrage at the building. It often felt as though we were personally responsible for everything they didn’t like. We nearly always managed to send them on their way totally converted to the building and how well it worked.
There was a constant check kept on our tours and we had ‘mystery shoppers’ on a regular basis reporting back to Parliament Visitor Services. There were rarely any issues but all were quickly dealt with at our Monthly Contract Meetings with Parliament. Once established, we
59