Chairman's's Notes
Firstly, I feel very honoured to have been accepted by your Council as Chairman. I follow a long line of distinguished holders of the post during the thirty six years of the Society's existence. There have been eleven of them and my immediate predecessor, Martin O'Keeffe has served by far the longest term.
During his nine years in office the Society has seen many changes in which Martin has been instrumental and the Society owes him a tremendous debt of gratitude. Not many local canal societies can boast their own workboat and headquaters and his close contacts with a wide range of key people in the canal world, British Waterways and local goverment have maintained the BCNS's high standing. His knowledge of the system and his insight, together with his dedication and enthusiasm, is very special. He will be a very hard act to follow - but I've got his phone number.
For members who don't know me, I joined the Society in 1991 mainly through my interest in local history and particularly the canal network.
I edited BOUNDARY POST for a number of years and feel I've got to know what makes the Society tick. I try to get my boat Marsh Harrier up on the BCN as much as possible and, as a member of other local groups, believe in continuing to develop close cooperation with like minded organistations.
We have a hard working Council who really do go above and beyond on many occasions. We are ambitious and it is sometimes hard to achieve all our ambitions as the work is concentrated on few shoulders. Andy Meek has been combining his role of Press and Publicity Officer with the task of finding speakers for our monthly Social Meetings.
Andy's dedication means that we have a full programme for 2006 but he can no longer combine the roles and so we are actively seeking someone to take on the inportant task of Social Secretary. Andy has been busy raising the Society's profile and is building up contacts in the local press and broadcasting media. Publicity is very important and to further this we are mounting a display in Wolverhampton Library during January. Local members might like to pop into the Central Library and climb the stairs to look at the display which will be just outside the Reference Section.
In the BCN we have a unique heritage which the Society will continue to strive to conserve and improve. Direct action might be harder than it was in the past but we can continue to make improvements where we feel they are necessary and we can continue to ask questions of those who have responsibility for running our system.
The Society has been particularly active in the past couple of months. In November the Galton Valley witnessed another highly successful Bonfire Rally which attracted dozens of boats onto the system. Later in the month Phoenix was entered into Birmingham City Council's Canal Boat Light Parade. This atrracted thousands of spectators and over twenty boats and the crowds showed very good taste by encouraging the judges to award us a valuable prize for Best Towpath Crowd Reaction. (See Gallery Section "All Lit Up article")
At the beginning of December the Christmas Social attracted nearly fifty members to the cabin at Hawne Basin where a light hearted quiz was accompanied by a superb hot buffet.
Phoenix has been taken to Hawne Basin for some care and attention. She is coming out of the water and is having her bottom blacked. She was accompanied on her voyage by a former BW workboat of which we have high hopes for the future - watch this space. (Gallery Section again "Yet another Boat")
I read in my local paper the other night of an initiative in Wednesfield where volunteers are invited to help restore "a stretch of neglected canal and towpath.... to its former glory". I've sent the article to Brenda for inclusion in this Boundary Post as it would be good if some members who live locally could get involved. We'll be discussing in Council what we can do on the wider scale - they might just welcome the use of a workboat for a weekend or two.
If there are any points or issues which you feel the Society ought to be addressing please contact me - after all the BCNS is OUR Society.
Finally I would like to wish everyone connected with the BCN Society a very Happy New Year!
Best Wishes,
Phil Clayton.
