Mike Garwood Award for Most Outstanding Committee Member.

Nominated by: Our people

Selected by: LR Leisure Principal Officers

An award for someone who in the last 12 months

Is innovative and has ideas for new/different local events
Organises and supports local events
Encourages members to participate in local and national LR Leisure events
Actively promotes the benefits of LR Leisure both local and national

Introduced in 2015

Mike Garwood was a real gentle giant - likened to the honey monster. He just smiled all the time and laughed.

Mike was Chair of the Sports Council for many years. The role was made for him as he was a highly regarded lawyer who eventually held the role of head of contentious business dealing with all of the big law cases the department had - probably with a smile.

He started his career at Nottingham - a lifetime Notts County supporter from where he headed to Head Office in Lincolns Inn via Harrow

He ended his career in Birkenhead living in beautiful Chester, which is sadly where he passed away.

His partnership with Mike Crawshaw (the Mikes) was instrumental in defining and paving the way to where we are today.

Shortlisted nominees:

Alan Cook (Croydon) :

The Christmas escape room set in the CR museum was his brainchild, everyone loved it! This got staff to come into the office, engage in a fun activity, learn about the history as they escaped the LR museum, and generally connect socially!
He updates TH communications and keeps the posters advertising events up-to-date. He is a ready volunteer for pretty much anything no one else wants to do.
He has also organised brewery tours and game nights at the local board game cafe which have gone down well.
Aside from the local events, he is vocal about the national events, involved in the football team, and always encouraging people to go to events such as the Awards Night to connect with other offices.

Megan McAllister (Birkenhead):

In the last 12 months Meg has gone from new committee member to the Chair of the Committee.
She has organised the extremely popular food truck, ice-cream van, ice lolly distributions on hot days, quizzes and many other events.
She has encouraged committee members new and old to create and host their own events and Birkenhead staff to participate in National LR Leisure events.
She is the committee's liaison to the Birkenhead Charity committee and organised several events such as bake sale, coffee morning and quizzes.
She has created a new modernised web page, promoting Birkenhead Land Registry and LR Leisure through social media and improving office communication channels.
She makes sure the events planned are inclusive and open to everyone and that people feel involved.
She comes up with ideas and plans to improve people's time both in and out of the office, improve communications between people whether its organising art classes or having a chat or setting up a movie club.

Sarah Duke-Parker (Nottingham):

Sarah keeps the local committee going!
She tirelessly arranges the committee meetings, promotes the events, keeps the books, encourages new joiners and comes up with ideas for new events.
This year she's supported the national photography and LR challenge on top of everything else.
She also supports charity events such as cake sales and similar recognising it is important to get people together in the office.
The Nottingham office would not have a community feel or a social network if it wasn't for her hard work.

WINNER 2024 - Megan McAllister (Birkenhead)

Previous recipients of the Mike Garwood Award:

2023 - Donna Swarbrick (Fylde)
2022 - Helen Jackson (Plymouth)
2021 - Hollie Fuszard (Gloucester) and Mark Harvey (Peterborough)
2020 - Paul Caston (Peterborough)
2019 - Kelly Browne (Weymouth)

Awards page.