Your weekly update from the Berkshire MS Therapy Centre
Did you know there are around 50 Therapy Centres across the UK? Whilst all Centres are independent and we make our own decisions, we regularly share ideas, information and other things of interest. Usually it is things like the best type of paint for the Oxygen Chamber or insurance providers – it is wonderful to have ‘sister-organisations’ to discuss things with. Since this crisis has hit, our information sharing has stepped up a gear. It is nice to know we are not facing this alone. Next week is World MS Day when the global MS community joins together with a theme to, for want of a better word, ‘celebrate’. This year the theme is ‘MS Connections’ – we are not celebrating MS itself but the connections we as individuals and organisation make to help manage the impact of MS.
We know the importance of these connections and we know how much more difficult this situation is without physically attending the Centre. With the ‘war’ outside still raging, we are not in a position to change this at the moment but to continue to adapt the best we can.
Every year we as a charity come together for our AGM. This includes 2020 except this year we are going online. For those of you who have been to one let me explain….
Every charity has an independent panel of volunteers called Trustees. The Board of Trustees steer the strategic direction of the charity and look after the ‘big picture’ stuff such as budgets, insurance and policies leaving us free to take care of the day to day activities. They are always working hard behind the scenes. Since March, our trustees have been working even harder to keep our charity on track. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the trustees for their continued hard work, support and assistance.
Every year we have an AGM where our members will approve our accounts, nominate trustees and celebrate the previous year’s achievements. This year we are also asking our members to consider amendments to our constitution. These will update some language and will allow us to forgo an AGM if we find ourselves in a position where we are unable to hold one. We plan to always have a face to face AGM but in exceptional circumstances where we can’t, this change will allow us to focus on providing the best possible support for our members. It sounds more complex than it is and I ask you to spend a few minutes reading our AGM page for more information. I hope you can join us on the 18 June and you can find more details here.
