Urgent Message from the Chairman
An Urgent Message from Jim Wilson, Chairman BBPS.
Hello Fellow Members of the Brecon Beacons Park Society.
I am contacting you today to give you an update on the seriousness of the crisis that the Society is facing.
A number of Members who are actively involved in making our Society as successful as it is will be stepping down at the AGM in a few weeks. As matters stand, we do not have enough replacement volunteers to be able to continue our current level of activity. Indeed, there may not be enough to allow the Society to continue to exist in its current form. So referring to this problem as a crisis for the Society is no exaggeration.
In particular, if we do not have “Officers” – namely a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer – then it is very likely that the Society will not continue to function – and certainly not supporting all the current activities.
This would mean that all the good work the Society does for our Park, and the provision of benefits such as the Walks and Events programmes to our Members would have to cease. Currently only the Treasurer role definitely has a candidate willing to stand for election at the AGM on the 24th June 2017.
On a personal level, after a six year term as Chair of the Society, I will be standing down at this AGM.
To help ease the transition to a new Chair, I would be willing to either:-
a) Stay on as Chair for one more year but only if someone was willing to shadow me with the commitment to take over as Chair in 2018,
or,
b) I would be willing to act as Vice Chair to support a new Chair if one could be found in time for the 2017 AGM.
I have currently put my name forward as Vice Chair in the hope that a new Chair can be found (optimistically assuming option a) above).
If neither a new Chair nor a “Chair apparent”, so to speak, can be found then sadly I will have to withdraw my name as a candidate for the Vice Chair role because not to do so would effectively mean continuing as Chair. In this circumstance, I would put my name forward as an ordinary Member of the Executive and to continue to act as the lead for the Society on specific activities e.g. Dark Skies and the Gunpowder Works projects.
My apologies if the above is a little convoluted but I am trying to do my best to help the Society continue as successfully as it has been in the past.
For your information here is a summary of the positions in the Society in urgent need of volunteers:-
Officers
(These roles need to be filled in order for the Society to exist.)
Chair
• Act as the face of the Brecon Beacons Park Society
• Chair the (6 weekly approximately) Executive Committee meetings and the AGM
• Liaison and collaboration with other organisations such as the BBNPA and the Alliance for National Parks Cymru
• Input: About 3 days/month
Note: I currently do considerably more than this but I would retain duties not clearly aligned with the Chair role, such as Dark Skies etc.
Vice Chair
• Deputy/Alternative to the Chair
• Input: About 2 days/month
Secretary
• Organisation of the AGM
• Input: About 1 – 2 days/month. More in April to June to prepare for AGM
Other Roles
(The vacancies below need to be filled for the Society to work effectively. Those with incumbents require volunteers to fill the roles in the near future.)
Membership Secretary (vacancy)
• Manage membership records and subscription payments
Note: Membership activities are currently carried out by the Treasurer but could be split out as a separate Membership Secretary role
• Input: About 1 -2 days/month – more at renewal time around year end to Feb.
Publicity Officer (vacancy)
• Co-ordinate internal communication with the membership
• External communications to help raise the profile of the Society
• Input: About 1 – 2 days/month
Events Secretary (currently Roger White)
• Organise and manage the delivery of the Events Programme
• Input: About 1 – 2 days/month, plus attendance at talks (approx. 6 weekly)
Minutes Secretary (currently Richard Chandler)
• Take notes at the executive committee meetings (approximately every six weeks) and at the AGM
• Input: About 1- 2 days/month
I would like to thank those Members who completed our recent survey which has provided very helpful insight into how we all feel about the Society. I am glad to say that the results strongly indicate that the Membership is in support of the Society’s current activities. But we need more volunteers to continue this work.
To conclude, my request to all fellow Members of that Society is to please consider helping in our work, and in particular volunteering to become an Officer of the Society.
If you would like to help or need more information just get in touch with myself or any Members of our current Executive Committee.
Jim
Chair
Brecon Beacons Park Society
PS Please remember the AGM which takes place on 24th June at Canofan Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydfil, where the new Officers and Executive Committee are due to be elected.