Bob Widd, Chair of East Anglia Branch
On 12th August, the East Anglia Branch held its AGM via an online event.
Our outgoing Chair, Graham Underhill, opened the morning session by covering the branch’s activities and achievements during his four-year tenure, after which he introduced John Parker, the CEO, to present an update on the current position of the Association and its future vision and goals.
This was followed by the voting process for the new committee. Proxy voting papers had been previously issued to those EA members who were unable to attend the AGM in person. Following the election of myself as Chair and Oisin Kelly as Vice-Chair we undertook the voting in of members who had volunteered to sit on the committee, and I am pleased to announce that we now have a 17-strong committee for the EA Branch.
As humans, we are all individuals and as such have our own personal reasons for undertaking certain activities in life. Fortunately, Oisin and I share common reasons and motivation for nominating ourselves for the new committee and these can be summed up by stating that we wish to increase the relevance and value of the branch to its members in East Anglia. Between us we have worked for over 75 years in the arboricultural and forestry industries, and in that time we have accrued several years’ experience both in the public sector as local authority tree officers and in private consultancy, as well as running our own businesses.
Bob Widd (fourth from right) and Oisin Kelly (fifth from right) at October’s Branching Out event with colleagues from other branches and Association staff.
During this time we have developed knowledge and skills we hope will be of value to others, particularly those in their early to mid-career paths. We are also fortunate to have an eclectic mix of similar knowledge and experience among our committee members, some of whom have been in the industry for many years, and we intend to use this for the benefit of the Association’s EA members.
Of course, we wish to organise high-profile and in-demand events, with well-known guest speakers that are of interest not only to the membership but also the wider public. It is also our goal to find ways to share knowledge and transfer skills between more experienced and less experienced members by way of small local events on specific subjects of professional interest, so as to help build our regional professional community.
For this to be viable, our vision is to set up regular online meetings. The themes will rotate around areas of professional practice. We intend to have a different panel for each meeting made up of regional members experienced in that subject matter, and perhaps a short, related presentation from a guest speaker.
Another vision we have is to collaborate and engage more with regional organisations to educate and pass on the virtues and benefits of all the wider aspects of the management of trees. Our attitudes to the planet and our daily lives, prompted by issues such as climate change, have changed dramatically during the last couple of decades and the general public is becoming more aware of our natural environment. This was amply demonstrated recently by the international condemnation and public outcry at the felling of the famous Sycamore Gap tree. It soon became clear that many people had their own personal reasons for mourning its demise as it had played such an important part in their lives; however, it is also important to note that people who had no connection to the tree were equally outraged and upset. Surely we should be seeing this as a turning point in public perception of the countryside as a whole and seize on the opportunity to increase our responsibility to assist in educating the public at large?
To this end the EA Branch will be looking to undertake, where possible, event days with similar land-based organisations such as the Ancient Tree Forum, BALI, the Institute of Chartered Foresters, the National Farmers Union and the Forestry Commission, with one of our main goals being to address the skills shortages in the industry through planting the seed of interest in our younger generations by undertaking talks to schools and universities of the region.
We must not lose sight of the fact that the Association primarily operates for the greater benefit of its members, and as such I urge any member of the EA Branch to make contact with the committee to let us know how we can best serve you and if there are any issues you wish us to raise on your behalf.
I am looking forward to serving the EA members as the Branch Chair and hope that, as a group, we can increase awareness of the arboricultural industry among a greater number of people in the region.
From Graham Underhill
At our AGM we welcomed 10 new committee members, which I see as really positive. I feel it shows how much enthusiasm there is in our region for the Association, with so many wanting to be involved at branch level. Bob Widd and Oisin Kelly were voted in unopposed, as Chair and Vice Chair respectively, so congratulations to them both! We have a great committee and many fantastic trees and venues in East Anglia, so I’m confident the branch will now have a bright future. I’d like to express my thanks to the existing committee for the work they all put into the events we did manage to pull off over my four years as Chair, and I hope to continue to work with them, and the new members, as we go forward.
This article was taken from Issue 203 Winter 2023 of the ARB Magazine, which is available to view free to members by simply logging in to the website and viewing your profile area.