By Janene Sadhu – NWB President
Since the last issue of Blind Citizens News, our branch has held two teleconferences. We thank guest speakers Jennifer Parry and Karen Passmore for talking about their experiences when we looked at the impact that blindness and sight loss has on women’s lives.
We also tackled the topic of how to motivate ourselves to stay connected with our community in the cold winter months. Thank you to all who participated. We will be hosting two further Womentalks before the end of the year.
Aspirations Magazine
Unfortunately, we have not been able to produce this magazine for the past year, however I am pleased to report that Aspirations will be back again with a new editor, Carmel Jolley. The next issue, with a travel theme and more, will be out before the end of the year and Carmel is now accepting contributions. For more information or to make a contribution, please contact Carmel using the details provided at the end of this issue.
Peer Support
This is one of our goals which we take very seriously as it can make such a difference to our members’ lives. In recent months, some of our members have been going through difficult times.
Our branch is here to support women through good times and bad. Our thoughts go out to those who have reached out in tough times to make their situations known to women in our branch.
If you are experiencing grief, illness of loved ones, further vision loss, ill health or any other setback, we are here for you. I hope that in some small way, support from fellow NWB members can provide comfort, and in some cases a friendly voice on the other end of the phone.
New NWB Committee Members
At present, we have room for interested women to sit in on our monthly committee meetings on a casual basis. We meet on the first Thursday of the month at 8 PM Melbourne time for about an hour. If you would be interested in attending one of our meetings to see how our committee operates, I would very much like to hear from you.
Annual General Meeting
The date for our AGM has been set for Saturday, November 16 at 1 PM Melbourne time. This meeting will take place via teleconference and RSVPs are being accepted from now on. As well as the usual AGM business, our branch will be holding elections for our branch President and seven committee members to serve for a two-year term.
If you’d like to be more involved in our NWB, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. If you aspire to taking on a leadership role which is not too arduous, you can think about putting your name forward to be our next branch president.
Elections will only be held at the AGM if we do not have enough candidates to fill the eight positions. I would really like women interested in standing for election, or to find out more about what is involved, to make contact with me. We propose to hold voting if required via email or telephone prior to the AGM, with details to be announced in October.
We’d love to have more women involved in our committee, so please consider this as a new activity if you are looking for a worthwhile, not too time consuming, role with which to become involved.