The New Year sees two stalwart members of the committee standing down.
Andrew Steele, our Allotments Secretary for many years, is now passing on the baton to Dennis Flaherty, who has kindly agreed to step up to the plate (if you’ll excuse my American baseball expression) to take over that role in the coming year.
Andrew has worked very hard on behalf of the Society and all allotment holders in liaising with the Council, police and external contractors to resolve a near-infinite range of problems from thefts, to broken locks and fences, through to, in my opinion, his greatest achievement of preserving our water supplies when they were threatened with closure by Thames Water. His dogged persistence invariably won through for us all at the end of the day, and I shall miss his dry, yet occasionally ribald sense of humour.
Everard Whitehouse is also retiring from the committee. Everard was instrumental in helping to organise a wide range of interesting and fun events, as well as in inaugurating the Centenary Plate Competition for our Chiswick Schools Project, which has been a tremendous success. Everard’s hard work in liaising with all the schools in Chiswick to encourage young people to learn how to grow food – and to love doing it – has been truly inspirational, not just for the schools and their pupils, but for me, too.
Everard’s unfailing kindness, generosity of spirit and selfless devotion to others has proven a great asset, not just to our committee, but to the entire community of Chiswick, and he will be sorely missed by us all.
On a happier note, as mentioned earlier, we are now joined by Dennis Flaherty, who has already impressed me with his humour and community spirit and I look forward to getting to know him better in the year ahead. Welcome, Dennis!
This leaves a vacancy on the committee for an Events Secretary – could this be you? It involves coordinating a programme of events for our members – talks, visits and parties – with help from the rest of the committee. We aim for one event a month (not including June & September, when we have the shows), and you won’t be on your own, so it’s not too onerous. Any of the committee would be happy to talk you through what is involved.
Will Dennis please contact me to talk about coffee grounds, please.