Happy New Year!

I hope that it’s not too late to wish you a Happy New Year.

As I write it’s 3rd January and I’m looking forward to a year of opportunities to develop our services and extend our joint working with all of our partners and supporters.

I’m also looking forward to continuing to witness the wonderful efforts and achievements of our many volunteers. Back in November last year, Ana, our Volunteer Coordinator held a get-together for our Oxford Home Visitors.

It was great to hear from the volunteers about the individual help that they are providing, on a regular basis, to blind and partially sighted people. The volunteers bring companionship and practical assistance which enables people to live their lives a little more easily and independently. For example, some help with reading newspapers or periodicals, whilst others assist the person to get out and about. In each case, the role is quite individual and Ana is available to advise and support the partnership which has been formed.

Up in Banbury, Janet, our Banbury Coordinator, has also set up a volunteer network, including volunteers who offer advice at the Horton hospital eye clinics and others who assist with events.

We are also indebted to many other people who volunteer their time and expertise for us. For example the several people who provide administrative support in our office, both on a regular and an occasional basis, and the people who represent us on local access groups. There are also people who use their DIY skills to help with maintenance jobs around the building; all tasks that we would otherwise have to pay for out of the generous donations which we so gratefully receive.

So far, I’ve not mentioned volunteers by name, as there are so many who are so helpful that this article would take up the whole newsletter! I hope I can be forgiven though, if I briefly mention, Irene Priestly, who has become our new Access Officer, and Red and Kath Lawson, who assist us in so many ways, including gathering up most of our collecting boxes around the county and organising the distribution of this newsletter and other mailouts.

I’d also like to mention our Trustees, who as the Governing Body of the charity, all give their valuable time and expertise, free of charge, and have guided the organisation carefully forward to our present position as an important provider of support to visually impaired people in Oxfordshire.

There are also many other volunteers around the county, who are working for the benefit of blind and partially sighted people. I’m thinking, for example, of the organisers of the various clubs, societies and groups for blind and partially sighted people. Most of the major towns in Oxfordshire have such a group, providing a regular meeting place and a sharing of thoughts and ideas with likeminded people. There is a list of these on the back page of the newsletter. They are all very welcoming and would be pleased to hear from you if you’d like to join them.

May I also take this opportunity to invite you, if you have not already done so, to join or renew your membership of OAB, if you wish to do so? Just to clarify, all of our services are free of charge to all visually impaired people, whether members or not, but we do invite you to become a member or renew. That way, as a representative body with a large membership, you strengthen our hand when we try to influence local policies and initiatives. You also have the right to vote on matters at our Annual General Meeting and have the satisfaction of knowing that you are a part of an organisation which is actively working to improve the lives of local blind and partially sighted people.

I do hope that 2010 is a good one for you. I’d like to sign off by thanking all of our volunteers, who make such a huge contribution to our work, and also, all of the generous folk, whose donations and help enables us to continue our much requested support to blind and partially sighted people.

Best Wishes.

Colin Cure