1986 - Silver Screw Award

Impact has a special internal award for staff, which is called the "Silver Screw”.

The Silver Screw is awarded for the greatest mistake of the year and is presented during our company celebration lunch before the Christmas break.  The ceremony is hosted by the previous winner and is attended by the whole company, including representatives from our global offices.

The first-ever winner received the award because he “broke the screw of a company boat in shallow water”.  From there the the name and the design of the trophy were established!

Winning nominations for the award include:

-    Somebody questioned by the police because he was dressed as a gorilla (actually he was disguised as a gorilla, waiting in a tree to amaze delegates; technically the gorilla didn’t do anything wrong but the policeman thought he was up to something…)
-    Somebody trapped in a cave by a rock fall (in fact he wasn’t, he just couldn’t see any daylight through the entrance because the sun had gone down…)
-    Somebody locked out of his hotel room, naked, in the middle of the night (he had left through the wrong door of his bedroom and found himself in the corridor, not the bathroom…)

If anyone wins the award three times they get to keep the trophy, some have come close, but nobody yet has that 'honour'. Interestingly throughout the history of the Silver Screw it has only ever been awarded to men!



[Photo shows the 2006 winners, John Maddy and David Milligan receiving the award from the 2005 winner, Phil Poole]