Lord Mayor's Blog 7
Last week I had the pleasure of addressing the national AGM of the Townswomen’s Guild. There were about 2,000 delegates in the splendid surroundings of Birmingham’s ICC. This is what I said.
It gives me very great pleasure to welcome all members of the Townswomen’s Guild to Birmingham for your Annual General Meeting today. Thank you for inviting us to share part of this with you. We have an attractive and friendly city and I hope that you will get a chance to see a little of it and come back soon and see more.
It was good to see the National and Federation banners and their historic and significant colours just a few minutes ago. These are important reminders of heritage, purpose and unity.
And you have important purposes today and much business to transact. But equally important are the inspirational speakers and also the inspiration that comes from talking to fellow members and the opportunity to make new friends.
Your guest speaker today, especially in his former manifestation as the anchor on John Craven’s Newsround, has been a familiar figure in our household for many years since the programme was also very much enjoyed by our children. Thank you John for that excellent family viewing!
This was a few years ago now of course and it is a few more years ago than that since I first addressed a local meeting of The Townswomen’s Guild way back when in my own ward of Hall Green. It was a talk on mistakes made by the press, and I think several volumes more could have been written about the ‘fourth estate’ since then – not to mention a few minor and of course entirely innocent financial mistakes and oversights in the second and third estates!
I read with great interest of the origins of the Townswomen’s Guild arising from the sustained endeavours of the suffragists, and I have always shared the view of how much can be achieved through working within the law to secure important social objectives such as real equality of citizenship.
And I know that there is much work still to be done today – so it is as well that you are here. This ranges from the isolation and lack of empowerment of women in some parts of some communities to the still pervasive, if unstated and subtle – and sometimes not so subtle – easing aside of women when it comes to important roles and occasions.
And I’ve also learnt of the guild’s environmental work that is so important with today’s challenges and your work on a broad range of issues further afield as well as your contribution to literacy projects and issues involving women at home and abroad. It is not just women’s lives that are affected, important though that is, society as a whole is diminished if all women do not have a chance to play a full part.
This is one reason why one of the Lord Mayor’s charities for 2009/10 is WAITS - Women Acting In Today’s Society. I believe that this is particularly important charity in a diverse city such as Birmingham and both the Lady Mayoress and I are working to raise as much money as we can.
WAITS is doing outstanding work enabling women to address issues and overcome barriers, combating isolation and providing help to increase the involvement of women in the public life and business of communities throughout the city - from which the whole of society will benefit.
We know that there is a continuing need for the extensive range of activities carried out by WAITS, and that there are many women who are yet to benefit, and that there’s a great deal more work still to be done and in which so many of us can play a role.
President John F Kennedy once said that every individual can make a difference and should try. At a recent conference in Birmingham Dr Jane Goodall said that every individual can make a difference every day by recognising personal responsibility and the ability to affect beneficial change through our conduct as consumers, through lifestyle change, through being active and engaged.
And, I think that the Guild would add, through the extension of friendship. And it doesn’t matter if that difference seems to be just a drop in an ocean of need - remember, no drops no ocean!
This is all very serious business but it is all the better done in an energising environment of mutual support, idea-sharing and of course stimulating friendship. All of which is why the Townswomen’s Guild succeeds so very well in making a critical difference and in being tomorrow’s women today.
I hope that you have a successful and productive AGM and once again, welcome to Birmingham!
It gives me very great pleasure to welcome all members of the Townswomen’s Guild to Birmingham for your Annual General Meeting today. Thank you for inviting us to share part of this with you. We have an attractive and friendly city and I hope that you will get a chance to see a little of it and come back soon and see more.
It was good to see the National and Federation banners and their historic and significant colours just a few minutes ago. These are important reminders of heritage, purpose and unity.
And you have important purposes today and much business to transact. But equally important are the inspirational speakers and also the inspiration that comes from talking to fellow members and the opportunity to make new friends.
Your guest speaker today, especially in his former manifestation as the anchor on John Craven’s Newsround, has been a familiar figure in our household for many years since the programme was also very much enjoyed by our children. Thank you John for that excellent family viewing!
This was a few years ago now of course and it is a few more years ago than that since I first addressed a local meeting of The Townswomen’s Guild way back when in my own ward of Hall Green. It was a talk on mistakes made by the press, and I think several volumes more could have been written about the ‘fourth estate’ since then – not to mention a few minor and of course entirely innocent financial mistakes and oversights in the second and third estates!
I read with great interest of the origins of the Townswomen’s Guild arising from the sustained endeavours of the suffragists, and I have always shared the view of how much can be achieved through working within the law to secure important social objectives such as real equality of citizenship.
And I know that there is much work still to be done today – so it is as well that you are here. This ranges from the isolation and lack of empowerment of women in some parts of some communities to the still pervasive, if unstated and subtle – and sometimes not so subtle – easing aside of women when it comes to important roles and occasions.
And I’ve also learnt of the guild’s environmental work that is so important with today’s challenges and your work on a broad range of issues further afield as well as your contribution to literacy projects and issues involving women at home and abroad. It is not just women’s lives that are affected, important though that is, society as a whole is diminished if all women do not have a chance to play a full part.
This is one reason why one of the Lord Mayor’s charities for 2009/10 is WAITS - Women Acting In Today’s Society. I believe that this is particularly important charity in a diverse city such as Birmingham and both the Lady Mayoress and I are working to raise as much money as we can.
WAITS is doing outstanding work enabling women to address issues and overcome barriers, combating isolation and providing help to increase the involvement of women in the public life and business of communities throughout the city - from which the whole of society will benefit.
We know that there is a continuing need for the extensive range of activities carried out by WAITS, and that there are many women who are yet to benefit, and that there’s a great deal more work still to be done and in which so many of us can play a role.
President John F Kennedy once said that every individual can make a difference and should try. At a recent conference in Birmingham Dr Jane Goodall said that every individual can make a difference every day by recognising personal responsibility and the ability to affect beneficial change through our conduct as consumers, through lifestyle change, through being active and engaged.
And, I think that the Guild would add, through the extension of friendship. And it doesn’t matter if that difference seems to be just a drop in an ocean of need - remember, no drops no ocean!
This is all very serious business but it is all the better done in an energising environment of mutual support, idea-sharing and of course stimulating friendship. All of which is why the Townswomen’s Guild succeeds so very well in making a critical difference and in being tomorrow’s women today.
I hope that you have a successful and productive AGM and once again, welcome to Birmingham!
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