County Chairman’s Report to County Conference 3rd December 2016
Mr President, Distinguished Guests and Delegates
To say it has been a year ‘out of the ordinary’ would certainly be an understatement, prior to last years Conference I had volunteered my services to stand in for Una (our County Secretary/MSO at the time) as she had booked leave to go on holiday over our Conference period, as it coincided with her 50th birthday. Una and Mike, our County Treasurer, had worked hard together and put everything in place for the event with Eddie Dixon in the Chair and myself to perform Una’s duties; however, a short while before Conference was to take place, due to changes at the top, there had been an increase in the number of representatives on the Membership Council and there being no other candidates willing or able to stand to represent Cumbria, the Isle of Man and the North East, Eddie would forego his position as County Chairman and had agreed to be co-opted onto the Membership Council if I was happy to take over as temporary Chairman.
Following the laid down electoral process, I was duly installed as Chairman at Conference this time last year. Not long after this, Una handed in her notice as she did not want to commute to Penrith to fulfil her duties when the Kendal office was relocated. On her departure Linda Johnston, having recently lost her previous job due to the closure of St Bees school, was taken on as temporary MSO and then having gone through the proper selection process was appointed as the next MSO.
We thought we were now more or less back on track. Mike, our County Treasurer and Training Officer had stated that he would like to stand down due to family commitments but would be willing to continue until we could recruit replacements to fill the offices he would vacate having very diligently carried them out for a number of years, but we were not going to be spoiled for choice; unfortunately, at that time we had no volunteers coming forward. We knew it would not be easy to find anyone but eventually, Phyll Boulton put her name forward for the County Treasurer position. The Training Officer’s role was not so vital to fill as there is a National Training Team that will run membership and branch official’s courses providing they can get enough candidates to make it worthwhile.
So, back on course again…, so we thought. In the summer, just before the Grasmere Show we were shocked to hear that Eddie was to resign his position on the Membership Council due to health reasons and then, in the middle of September, as you are all aware, we were hit with the awful news that Linda had passed away in her sleep. Once again we were ‘adrift without a paddle’.
However, Marcus acted quickly and soon had a temporary MSO in place; this young man to my left, Karl, and, although it is a steep learning curve he is coming to
grips with the job. With the loss of a lot of previous files and records from the system it has not been easy for him but he is bossing it. By far the hardest part has been getting this Conference together in the time frame that was left so we apologise for anything that has not happened in line with the previous schedule.
I am pleased to report that we are fulfilling our commitments as a County and meeting the standards laid down by Royal Charter Rules and Regulations and we have been present at a number of gatherings throughout the past year both raising awareness of what we are about and taking part in commemoration events of the centenaries of WW1 significant dates.
I think that’s enough from me as I know you will all want to get home without the complications we had last year. Let’s hope the coming year will be a little easier than the last in all respects.
Thank you.
Tony Crane: County Chairman.
