National Office Update 

Dear RDA UK staff and volunteers,

I know. Another week has gone by. I can barely believe it myself.

 
 

Watch the RDA AGM & Awards live on You Tube

The RDA AGM & Awards will be broadcast live on YouTube from 10:30 on Friday 6 November. Simply head to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/rdanational . I will be in charge of IT and ‘button pressing’ so hopefully there will be no technical hitches. You might want to tune in just to see if it works ok! Those attending and taking part in the meeting on Zoom (including all Regional Chairs) will be sent the link and instructions separately.

 
 

Report into activity levels

The report following the survey into current activity levels is now complete and can be downloaded or viewed at www.myrda.org.uk/assets/RDA-Activity-Levels-Report.pdf. By the end of this week I will be issuing a press release about the report and it will be on the main RDA website in our news section. The report makes several recommendations about how we, as RDA UK volunteers and staff, might respond to the challenge of helping groups increase activity levels, and we will be following up with our plans to do this in the coming weeks.

 
 

Vacancy: Great London Regional Chair

Mike Locke has done a fantastic job as Regional Chair for Greater London (thank you Mike), and he is now stepping down. We are looking within our RDA community for his replacement, so please do get in touch with Faye McKenning in the office (fmckenning@rda.org.uk) if you would like to find out more about the role – or any other RDA UK volunteer positions currently vacant.

 
 

Clare Balding’s new book – an opportunity for groups and regions

Clare Balding’s new book, Heroic Animals, is now out, and she is keen to support RDA groups through the book if possible. We have come up with a plan which I will be sharing with groups tomorrow – but if regions want to get involved as well please let me know.

The idea is that groups buy the books they want (currently on Amazon for £13.60 and in Sainsbury’s for £10 – rrp £20), then they can request a bookplate, signed by Clare to add to the book. The signed books can then be used for fundraising, raffles etc (depending on how popular this is, we should be able to arrange personal dedications).

At the moment, I’m just asking for an initial show of interest from groups so I can work out how to coordinate it. If regions want to get involved too, a single point of contact to coordinate would be helpful.

 

Best wishes,

Caroline

Caroline Ward
Head of Communication & Insight, RDA UK
01926 405968
cward@rda.org.uk