Winter Report 2009

"Can you help????"

During the twelve or so years I have been involved with Broken Rites I have been amazed at the strength, determination and compassion of our members and also of the variety and quality of amazing talent amongst us all. 

When I first joined Broken Rites, Wendy  held the role of Chair and was doing a fantastic job forming links with Scotland, Wales and N Ireland.  Other Chairs have over the past 26 years, all forged new ground in different areas.  As an organisation, we have achieved so much and should be justly proud of our first 26 years!  Likewise other roles on the committee have been held by a variety of people, all making fantastic contributions in different ways and often gaining a huge amount of self confidence from undertaking the different roles and often learning new skills. 

All our committees, current and past, have been made up of a combination of members who stay on the committee for fairly long periods of time, others who stay for one term of office and then return several years later (often in a different role) and new members who come forward for the first time.   In my experience a good committee needs this combination of the continuity of longer serving members and also new members with fresh ideas and perspectives.   Any membership organisation that leaves the same few members to run the committee over many, many years, in my opinion, is in danger of becoming stagnant with the result that it will struggle to survive. 

So it is vital that we encourage each other to join the committee particularly members who have not served on the committee before, to take up roles such as regional representatives, treasurer and other roles.  Ideally the position of Chair needs to be filled by someone who has previously sat on, or is currently on the committee, or someone who has experience of fulfilling the role of Chair with another capacity. 

Roles to fill .You will all probably have gathered where this is leading, in that we are looking for a new Chair, Treasurer and Regional Representatives for three areas. Please, please think about whether you could take on any of these roles.  The term of office for Chair and Treasurer is two years with an option for two further one year periods.  Is there a member of Broken Rites who you would like to see as Chair, Treasurer or your Regional Representative (if your area does not have one) – if so please encourage them to think about coming forward.    We all need encouragement to take on new things and encouragement and supporting each other is something, I think, Broken Rites as an organisation excels at. 

Our committee meetings are friendly and informal; we have a laugh although we take our work and roles seriously.  We support each other when assistance or help is required in all the different aspects of our work.  Importantly the expectation of the role of Chair is very much determined by the individual holding the office and what direction they and the Committee feel is right at that time.  This is YOUR organisation and we are all responsible for ensuring its continued development and existence.  If anyone would like to have an informal chat about taking on one of these roles please give me a ring on 01257 423893 or drop me an e-mail  -  secretary@brokenrites.org. 

I would like to leave you with some words spoken by a member of the committee who ‘reluctantly’ took on a role several years ago. “Taking on this role has helped in giving back to me the confidence which I had lost when my life ‘fell apart’, and I have learnt new skills which I never imagined were possible!”