Fifty not out

Jackie Macadam meets John Williams who was this year honoured for his 50-year dedication to the General Assembly.

FIFTY years of anything is quite the achievement – but 50 years working at the General Assembly is pretty exceptional by anyone’s standards.

That’s the milestone reached by John Williams, head of the Audio Visual team at the General Assembly.

Looking back to 1974, he said: “We started in a tiny control room at the side of the Commissioners’ Gallery.”

He adds: “We got by with that until the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year in 1977. I was working for the Home Board at the time and was asked to take over the AV for the Assembly, and as the Queen was due to be Lord High Commissioner, the Church wanted more coverage as the TV companies were interested in covering portions, so we expanded the AV space to a whole 10 feet square!

“The following year more upgrades were made again. For around 20 years I did most of it myself with the help of a small team.”

It was the opening of the Scottish Parliament – which used the Assembly Hall as a temporary home – which started a transformation.

“They installed a comprehensive AV system and I ensured everything we needed was installed properly. Due to being ‘moved out’ by the Parliament, we had two ‘excursions’ and were able to experiment by installing a large screen and, to our delight, it was a very successful addition.”

The following year video screens were installed.

Photos credit: Andrew O’Brien for the Church of Scotland “We wanted to go a bit further, so working with some of the Parliament people we tried some of the things they had done,” he says. “Originally, if you wanted to speak, you’d have to line up down the side of the Commissioners’ Gallery and take your turn at the mic at the front.

“So with the help of the Parliament people, we installed 25 mics around the Hall, and gave everyone a swipe card. That swipe card meant when they put their card into the mic unit, the Moderator knew who wanted to speak.

“We discovered two things from that. We had far more elders speaking and contributing – and many more women used the new system to contribute. It changed the balance of the Assembly – I think for the better.

“The other change was to the voting. Previously it was a head-count and paper. With the electronic system, using 50 handsets passed around by the tellers, we could do a vote in four minutes. No one knew how you voted, and in some of the more fraught debates, that was a bonus.

“We’ve now got little handsets and can do a vote now in around 10 seconds.”

John had planned to join the BBC as a technical operator but developed a spinal tumour aged 16.

“I was lucky though,” he says. “I happened to be in the right place at the right time and I started with the Church instead. I always loved tech stuff so I have learned on the job and now, my son, Nick is working in the field too. We work with a super team of people who have a total of 289 General Assemblies between them and it’s their dedication that drives the whole week.”

The Covid pandemic created some unique challenges for John and the AV team and creative systems were developed to keep everyone taking part safe.

But the pandemic held particular challenges for John who has regular kidney dialysis and was advised to limit contact with others.

“I’ve been on dialysis for seven years now, and am now able to do my own treatment. I have to go for four hours of dialysis three times a week to the hospital.” This included a session on the opening evening of this year’s Assembly.

“Though this was my 50th year working here, I’m looking at going another three years at least, so that I can have 50 years in charge of the General Assembly! It’s always good to have a goal in life!”