New year update from the Chair, John Austin

This is the first newsletter in 2019 and on behalf of all the Board I wish you a very happy and healthy new year. I hope you all had a good break over the festive season.

I see 2019 as being a very important year for ADSO. We will have been in existence for 10 years and the time is now right to review, revise and refresh our purpose, aims and ways of working. I have said many times that we are a totally different organisation to the one we started back in 2009. We have to keep progressing and not rest on our laurels. This work is already underway and we will be consulting you as members over the coming months.

It was great to see so many members at conference in November and the feedback was very positive. The ADSO awards were the most competitive to date and congratulations again to our winners Sutton and to Brent for being highly commended. Both submissions are now on the ADSO website.

We welcome some new regional representatives to the ADSO Board. Firstly, Trudy Bedford from the Merseyside Combined Authority will partner Alex Murphy as the joint regional representative in the North West. Secondly, Debbie Janes (Luton) and Emma Tombs (Basildon) will look after the Eastern region whilst Joanna Boaler is on maternity leave. My thanks to all three for taking on the role and I look forward to working with them in the future. Best wishes also to Joanna and we look forward to seeing her back with us later in the year.

Despite a number of requests, there is still a vacancy in the West Midlands. I shall therefore be arranging a regional meeting in that area in the coming months to discuss how we can resolve the situation.

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