Welcoming Claire Martin, our new Chair
09/03/09
At our Brighton Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2009, Claire Martin took over the role of Chair of the CIH South East Committee. After thanking Graham Maunders for the incredible amount of work he did in post, she set out her priorities for the coming year.
Claire feels a key theme is effectively engaging with members in our region to get involved. She cited the good work of the Membership, Education and Training subcommittee which will continue. 'We're keen to encourage our members to become more involved, for example through our new liaison groups and taking part in local events. We'd like you to feel that there are engaging events nearby that you can fit into your busy work lives. We want to try and make the South East as vibrant a community as we can.
'And there is some criticality in engaging students and young people, by contributing to the region and the events that we hold - putting an emphasis on 'growing our own'.'
Claire intends for the South East annual conference and exhibition to retain its profile and status. 'But I'm keen to maintain a sense of localism. It's really important that you feel it's your event.'
As her own work involves her in Supporting People, she is keen to inject these issues into the region's agenda, with a focus on homeless and vulnerable people, and the ageing population. 'And we will continue with our good partnership working with organisations like the National Housing Federation and Shelter, to promote housing and housing-related issues in the South East.'
Finally, she announced her charity for the coming year" a community development project in the highlands of northern Ethiopia which she visited last year. 'It incorporates a community school, a nursery, numerous employment initiatives, in fact anything that there is real need for in the community. The project had a huge impact on me when I was there - seeing and sensing that any money raised would make such a difference and would continue to do so.'