Chair's Update Winter 2016

All change on BSA council (with some familiar faces retained!)

At the Annual General Meeting of BSA in September 2016 several people who have worked hard to support the BSA over many years finished their terms of office and on behalf of the council and all the membership of BSA I want to extend a huge thank you to all of them.   They are:-

Huw Cooper as Chair but who returns as Immediate Past Chair

Kevin Munro who has now finished his term as Immediate Past Chair but who continues to represent BSA on the International Journal of Audiology ( IJA) council

Dave Furness who has served as Secretary to BSA for the past 6 years

Peter West who is stepping down as an IJA advisor in December at the end of his term

Michael Akeroyd,  Helen Pryce (who did an enormous amount of work on the National Commissioning Framework on behalf of BSA) and Chris Cartwright have stepped down as trustees.

I wish everyone all the very best in your future ventures.  Please keep in touch.

 Also at the AGM the new officers took up their posts and I thank those who have volunteered to steer the BSA through the next few years.  You can see our photos in glorious technicolour on the website.  Please contact any one of us if you have anything to say about the BSA and particularly if you wish to be involved in our mission in improving the lives of children and adults with balance and hearing problems.

The new officers are:-

Secretary      Gareth Smith

Treasurer     Barry Downes

Immediate past chair  Huw Cooper

Vice chair      Ted Killan

Chair            Liz Midgley

We also welcome 5 new trustees: Yvonne Noon, Imran Mulla, Sudhira Ratnayake, Carmel Capewell & Peyman Adjamian. If you want to learn more about your Council please click here http://www.www.thebsa.org.uk/people/

We are supported by Laura Turton the Operations Manager ,  Fitwise, the management company and the rest of the BSA council comprising 16 Trustees and there are also  10 advisors.

Together we will take the work of BSA forward by following our four year strategy and action plan and by reacting to issues as they arise.  This work is vital if we are to influence clinical practice and facilitate research to keep our members up to date in their continuing professional development and education.   We will be holding a Strategy away day in Nottingham on 3^rd February 2017 to review our current action plan and formulate the next.  Watch this space for an update on our plans.

The BSA is a very important organisation to support by your membership.  There is no other organisation in the UK where all the different professionals involved in the wider field of audiology, both clinical practice and research can come together to share knowledge.  Our recommended procedures are used and quoted as best practice worldwide.  The benefits of being a member of the BSA are, receiving the International Journal of Audiology and the Audacity magazine;  cut price attendance at our Annual Conference  and other learning events; being able to join a special interest group to join with others interested in your particular specialism; clinicians and researchers being able to come together to influence each other’s work and practice and influencing world wide practice by the production of recommended procedures or joining the global outreach Special interest group.    Please could all members consider encouraging their colleagues to join the BSA so we have a strong society of committed and engaged members to take our work forward.

One of the benefits of being a member of the BSA is to receive the Audacity magazine which for several years has been edited by the team led by Martin O’Driscoll in Manchester.  They deserve a huge thank you for all their hard work in producing a very professional, informative and extremely interesting magazine.  They will be a hard act to follow but the mantle has been taken up by Jane Wild and her team in North Wales.  We thank Jane and her team for agreeing to edit the Audacity magazine and wish them every success.  If you feel  that you have something to share with members via Audacity please contact Jane.

Planning for our Annual Conference to be held in the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate on 29^th and 30^th June 2017 is well advanced.    The title is “Audiology and the Greater Good”.  The format will be the same as the very successful format trialled at last year’s conference with each special interest group having sessions, dedicated time for poster presentations and a large exhibition.   There will also be a celebration  (with bubbly!) as the BSA turns 50 later in the year.  Please give this conference your top priority; you won’t be disappointed!  Don’t forget the generous early bird rate which runs until the beginning of February.   I look forward to meeting you all there.

I hope that you all have a happy and successful 2017

With best wishes

Liz Midgley