As you know, the AGM will be coming up on 8th April. It seems a long way off, but organising these things takes time and one thing we need to think about are new committee members.
The Committee consists of 7 members. (Our magazine editor is also included, so that she is kept in touch with what is going on, in case notifications are required in the magazine, but generally doesn't get involved with decisions beyond that); Robin Blain is still running the library and junk shop, but otherwise isn't involved in the day-to-day running of the Association. Some of the Committee have been serving the JRA for several years now.
We have, at present, 697 members in the JRA. (Admittedly, some of those are duplicates because committee members are shown twice - once in each persona.) This means that this great Association is essentially being run by about 1% if the membership.
In addition, we have some wonderful members supporting the website fora with information, specific assistance and input, particularly, Arne Kverneland, David Tyler and Graham Cox.
The magazine is run by two people: Lynda Chidell and myself and without the reliable cohort of writers who can always be relied upon to contribute interesting articles (particularly Graham Cox and Alan Martienssen), it would be a much poorer magazine.
The JRA is in great shape and has a heap of happy members. However, looking ahead, I want it to get even better. So, I want to ask you a few questions:
Do you like being in the JRA?
Do you appreciate the website?
Do you enjoy the magazine?
Do you think that you could take some of the load of the rest of us - about a dozen in all - who are doing all the work to keep these resources available for you?
If you have answered yes, to the first three questions, maybe you should answer yes to the fourth.
Now, this year, the seven Committee members have all indicated that they are willing to stand for office again. This doesn't necessarily mean that given the chance they'd refuse to step down, if someone else really wants to take on one of the roles. We also have the ability to add another member or two 'without portfolio', who can take on particular projects.
But even more to the point, we can also easily accommodate any volunteers who have particular skills they'd like to contribute. I'm sure Barbara would appreciate enthusiastic members who would like to get together with other junkies and help her organise a junket. For that matter, she'd appreciate a little bit of response from members when she goes to the trouble to suggest a possible venue.
Andrew could do with someone else help him with the day-to-day housekeeping on the website (really, we do need someone to go through every page, now and then, to check that it's up to date, that links work, etc.)
It would be great to have more contributions to the magazine. It's 64 pages long: if everyone chipped in 1/10th of a page, Lynda and I could concentrate on getting it together, rather than chasing up articles. I should love someone else who can spell, understands punctuation and grammar and can see discrepancies in layout style, to help with proofreading every word, comma and line break in every one of those pages of the magazine. I can't guarantee to pick up everything myself, especially after 8 hours spent in a hot, dusty shed, building a boat.
So please, people: even if you don't want the formal commitment of standing for the committee - can't you put your hand up to help us keep the JRA as good as it is - or make it even better?