Summer Report 2008

 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.