Chair's Update July 2022

Dear Members,

Each month I write the Chairs message for the e-bulletin providing an overview and highlighting a selection of just some of the BSA activity. This last month has been particularly busy with the March council meeting collating and reporting upon all the great work of the groups and SIGs, and the 2021-22 AGM where we reviewed the last 12 months activity to March 31st, celebrated achievements and looked to the future! Thank you to everyone that took the time to attend the AGM, the full annual report and financial statements will be made available on the BSA AGM page of the members area of the website. Congratulations go to the award winners for 2021:

• Thomas Simm Littler Prize was awarded to Chris Plack
• Ruth Spencer prize was awarded to Dr Veronica Kennedy
• Jos Miller Shield was awarded to Tamsin Holland Brown
• Honorary Lifetime membership was awarded to Professor Adrian Davis

I also announced that the David Baguley Mentorship Award will be awarded in future in memory of David who sadly passed away last month. This new award along with updated information about all the awards will be announced very soon.

Financially the BSA are in a strong position which means that we can fund the update to the website (the first website focus group also took place this month), and future activities and projects for SIGs and Groups. We welcomed Siobhan Brennan at the AGM as she took up the post of BSA Vice Chair and she will be in touch with all the SIGs imminently with more information about this financial support. We sadly had to say thank you and goodbye to Sudhira Ratnayake as he had reached his end of term as Membership communications lead. As a result, we are now recruiting for a new trustee to join the Council team with an oversight role for BSA communications (please see the advert further down this ebulletin and apply!).

During the Covid pandemic our Groups and Council continued activity and growth where possible whilst under immense clinical and work pressures brought about by the pandemic. Only in recent months have those pressures started to ease (for some, not all) and as Chair I have seen a huge surge of activity as our volunteers once again find the time and renewed energy for delivering our strategic aims of building knowledge, learning, practice and impact. The Professional Guidance Group is one of the BSA’s most utilised functions and they need your help; do you have a flare for documentation and a keen eye for detail? Again, please see the advert further down this bulletin and consider joining the group to help manage, review and develop documentation used both nationally and internationally.