Dear Members,
By now you will all have read that Graham Robertson has stepped down as Chairman and as Vice Chairperson I have stepped up and taken over as Acting Chairwoman until the next AGM. Our thanks go to Graham for all he has done for the BRA since he became Chairman 4 years ago especially his hard work in taking us forward and keeping the BRA afloat through the difficult times. He has always kept you the Members up to date with his interesting and informative mails which I know have been very much appreciated. We look forward to seeing Graham and his wife Di at future events.
Taking on a new post is a bit like being in a relay race you take over the baton, run on and hope you are as good as all the previous runners, of course each one us of will run in our own way, but the end result is the same, to succeed.
I would like to thank you all for your messages of support and goodwill. I am extremely lucky to have the support of the Council and hopefully be holding our next Council meeting on the 29 October, this of course all depends on the Covid situation as we do not wish to put anybody at risk or have to travel unnecessarily. This meeting will be the first one for our new Secretary Heidi Bigmore. Heidi will also be writing a personal note to you all to introduce herself. Peter Payne, Deborah Gorsatt and myself have already been to visit Heidi to help with her training.
I know the Regions have still been organizing some of their events adhering to social distancing of course. Please look on the website for any changes. Our next bulletin we will publish for the 1st January and it will cover the first four months of 2021 after which we are changing the publishing dates to the 1 May, 1 August, 1 November and the 1 February. This will make it easier for us to publish events and not have to rush to get the January bulletin out over the Christmas period.
Thanks to Peter Payne our finances are in tip top order. Peter makes sure that the Council have full insight and all details of our accounts at every meeting. Thanks to Deborah Gorsatt we have a very professional website which keeps our members up to date with events and news. Peter and Deborah work relentlessly in the background keeping these two operations smoothly ticking over. Our website is becoming very popular, even my sister in the UK follows our events!
The UK, how sad that those of us with families and friends there, or abroad anywhere, will not be able to visit them or just have a trip home. Our lives have changed considerably since this time last year. I hope that with the help of the BRA we can keep our spirits up. Should you ever feel lonely, distressed or just plain sad please contact your local Chairperson, me or the Secretary, that is also what we are here for.
That is all from me for the moment, so please keep safe and healthy and I am looking forward to seeing you all in the not too distant future.
Kind regards
Angela Meier-Jones
Chairwoman