This is my first letter as Chair. I have some large shoes to fill and the two things that have really played on my mind since I agreed to be Vice Chair, and subsequently Chair, were – this my first Chair’s letter and conference 2011.
First, I must thank Manda. She has been an incredible Chair of the Association for the last 4 years and I am in awe of what she and the committee have achieved with BARNA. The organisation continues to run on the dedication and passion of the Committee and members. Manda continues to stay with us as an IFNA (International Federation of Nurse Anaesthetists) Representative and has been elected to the Board again as the UK representative. The second person to be acknowledged and thanked is Gaye Ward. She left the committee after several years as BARNA Secretary; she has worked hard to ensure that BARNAs’ affairs are kept up to date.
BARNA welcomes 3 new committee members this year: Vanessa Hunt in the Companies Liaison role, Pauline Guyan as our new BARNA Secretary and Mike Ashcroft to work in the conference planning and education remit. It is an exciting time for BARNA and I hope you will continue to support and promote BARNA.
Over the next 2 years, we want to continue to grow and expand the BARNA membership, to continue to work within and outside BARNA to promote Anaesthetic and Recovery Nursing practice and to continue with the current projects and start developing new projects. We need the involvement of the BARNA membership to undertake this work. We are currently working with our designers to develop a BARNA poster, which was requested at the last Annual General Meeting as a method for you the membership to promote BARNA within the workplace.
We are already starting to plan the speakers for the next conference. If you know of a speaker who would be willing to speak on a topic relating to anaesthetics or recovery, we would like to hear from you. I want to hear your ideas for BARNA; we need your input to enhance and improve the organisation. This is your organisation and we are elected into our roles to run this on your behalf. If you have an idea, please email me: Natalie.quine@barna.co.uk
I want us all to be involved in the future development of BARNA.
Conference 2011 will be BARNAs 25th and we want to make it a celebration of the past, present and future. Do any of you remember the first conferences? Any recollections would be great. We want conference 2011 to be our best yet.
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
