Greetings bloggers, from the newest girl in the NRAS family. I say this because as of next week I will no longer be the new girl due to some exciting new additions – it is all change here at HQ!
I joined NRAS as the Membership Manager, taking over from Sally Warwick, at the end of May. I have been immersing myself in learning about RA, pharmaceutical companies, drugs and their side effects, the local group network, the Self Management Program, JIA, requests for surveys , the Annual Review, the Magazine, the forum(s) and the general day to day administration tasks that are involved ever since. I have also managed to complete the 2nd Annual NRAS 10k; my first ever attempt at such a distance, in just about my ideal time of 1hr15mins.
The highlight of my time so far was my trip to the coordinators conference at Ansty Hall where I got to meet many of you in person for the first time. I had the opportunity to formally address the group about the plans for the growth of Membership (which I hope wasn’t too long and tedious for those of you who were there), and more importantly, to hear your thoughts on the subject. I got some great insight in to your priorities which has made such a difference to my approach – specifically to the current Magazine, which will hopefully by hitting your doormats on or around the 5th September...
I do think I have been very lucky in relation to my inauguration in terms of timing as not only did I get to be a part of the conference, I was also able to attend the amazing 10th Birthday party that we held at the Warwickshire Golf & Country Club. It was another chance to meet some more of you in the flesh, as well as a great learning experience. On another note, I will be remembering the name of that cake maker for my future, wedding related, reference!
My 3rd outing, wearing NRAS colours so to speak, was to the rather swanky meeting room on the 34th floor of Guy’s Tower in London. The views were absolutely spectacular as Ailsa and the team from the Expert Patient Program launched the Self Management Program to a room full of Members, Health Care Practitioners, Commissioners and other interested parties. I don’t think there could have been a better way for me to get to grips with the important issues for NRAS without listening to the speeches and meeting all of the people involved in all three of these events.
Unfortunately, we are going to be saying goodbye to Emma Nelson at the end of this month, Emma has been with us as administration assistant and 'girl Friday' for a year now and has been the glue holding the department together fthrough several staff changes, I have lost count of the number of times I have had to “pick her brain” in my short time here! Moving forward, Gail Slobodzian is moving over from the Helpline to become a full time Member of the Membership department. Bearing in mind these changes, we are looking at new and interesting benefits to Membership that will hopefully be easy to manage – to be announced once this magazine has made it out in to your hands.
Next week you will no doubt be hearing about the new additions to the team, so I will allow the next blogger their moment in the sun so to speak and keep schtum.
Happy weekend folks, I am off to Stafford this afternoon to score for the 11th annual charity cricket match in aid of Leukaemia Research, between Staffordshire’s Barmy Army & the Rest of the World’s Barmy Army, I will then be going to Grace Rd, Leicester for Kent’s 2020 quarter final on Saturday night, then on Sunday I will be attending a celebrity packed (if you consider cricketers to be celebrities) charity cricket match in aid of a prostate cancer charity in Melton Mowbray... So now you know my guilty secret, those of you that have met me will have guessed that I had something ‘strange’ up my sleeve, I wonder if any of you had thought that I might be a cricket fan?
Howzat?!
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