
For
my first letter as your new secretary, I
thought I would give you a bit of background information about myself.
However before I do that I would like to say congratulations to all those
involved in the planning and running of the AGM held on 5 April 2008. The
whole day was excellent and for me very special as I had not attended an
AGM for a few years and it was so good to meet up with old friends and
meet meet new ones.
I joined
Broken Rites over 11 years ago during a very stressful and distressing
time. I found the friendship, support and practical help from both local
and national members invaluable. My son, daughter and myself received the
benefits of all the hard work of past members in the way of grants, help
from the Bishop’s Visitor, etc. which made our lives slightly easier. At
the time I was also working for the local diocese, helping with the
children’s work in parishes. This was a blessing and a problem and
although I saw the work as ‘my ministry’ due to financial problems I had
to give this up and move onto better paid employment, which again at the
time I found extremely difficult.
I offered
to become membership secretary about 10 years ago as I had some knowledge
and understanding of databases and am confident with a computer. I hoped
that this would be a way of giving something back to the organisation that
I had gained so much from. I also (with the help of my son) set up the
first Broken Rites web site and maintained this for a few years until Mary
and Margaret took this over. I am delighted to see how this has
grown and been built upon over the years. I enjoyed my four years on the
national committee, serving first under Wendy , followed by Christine
and was very proud of the work the committee achieved during this four
year period.
Since
completing my term as membership secretary I have always remained a member
and kept up with events via the web site and Rite Lines, although I have
not played an active role either nationally or regionally. However
having read Johann’s article in the annual report and the organisation’s
difficulty in finding someone to take on the role of secretary, I decided
to put myself forward.
I am very
honoured to take on this role for and become actively involved with the
organisation again. I use a computer daily and have undertaken
secretarial roles for other organisations in the past, so I felt I had the
skills required for this role. Johann has undertaken this role, over the
past years, in an extremely efficient and professional manner and I would
like to thank her for her support during the hand over period. I will
sincerely try to undertake this role to the best of my ability and look
forward to working with Rosie and the other members of the committee
over the coming months and years.
For the
past eight years I have been employed by the RNIB (Royal National
Institute for the Blind) and my current role is Business Development
Manager for the North West Regional Centre based in Liverpool. My role is
very diverse and the work of the regional centres includes supporting
blind and partially sighted people in education and employment as well as
providing services for professionals and organisations. I am based in
the centre of Liverpool where we have a resource centre. I very much
enjoy my work and I am proud of the work of the organisation in it’s work
in trying to ensure blind and partially sighted people have the same
opportunities throughout life as those who are sighted.