At a recent meeting of the Trustees it was agreed to honour both Roz and David’s individual contributions to the VCN by Lifetime Membership awards.
Roz was recognized for her extraordinary contribution to the founding of the VCN and her immense commitment in both personal time and resources – both monetary and office space.
David was recognized for his extraordinary contribution to the legal setting up of the VCN as both a Charity and Limited Company, together with his single handed control of the financial and corporate affairs of the VCN for 15 years.
They individually now have Honorary Membership and are invited to attend all VCN Study Days and weekends as our guests. They were presented with Certificates and an enscribed vase at the Gala Dinner during the ASM this year, held at Kingston University, London. This letter was received shortly afterwards:
Dear All
Your wonderful presentation on the Gala evening at the ASM was so unexpected it put us into a state of amazement! Your honouring of us, and honouring us jointly, not only with spoken words but with carefully chosen written words on framed certificates made it very deeply moving. These tangible gifts, the words you have chosen and the occasion itself have led us to feel differently and happily open about what we have all achieved together.
May we be somewhat nostalgic? You may not have known it, but 2009 is a special anniversary for us. It is just twenty five years since Roz, working at the Centre for Performing Arts, ran her first voice workshop for local teachers at Coventry’s Elmbank Teachers’ Centre. It was heavily over-subscribed, was repeated in the next few weeks, and twice each term for the next seventeen or eighteen years. But it also involved Linda Wilson, a senior SLT in Coventry.
Linda explained that more than a third of her voice patients were teachers, "who wouldn’t be in clinic if they knew how their voices worked." And that began our experience of the inter-disciplinary collaboration which informs the VCN.
We both gave many many hours – but the chance to do this came at an appropriate time in our lives. We had retired from our day jobs so could use our time as we wished. We were very lucky to be able to work together with our different knowledge and experience. Roz looks back to a time of looking out for opportunities and seeking more. There were inevitable setbacks, but she thrived on the sequence of smaller and sometimes bigger successes she could report to the growing number of enthusiastic supporters. David recalls being aware that a collaborative organisation of voice therapists and voice teachers was an innovation, needing to be carefully structured and built up with no precedents to guide the project. The whole experience turned into a lively shared adventure.
We have been lucky, too, at our time of life, to meet and work with so many capable people involved with the VCN and whom we are able to count as friends.
Finally may we add that the freedom of VCN membership and meetings is wonderful and also deeply affecting. We need you to know how very surprised and pleased we are to be honoured this way for such an exciting enterprise. The vase gives us added satisfaction, so thank you, thank you all, for a reward that we will always treasure.
Yours very gratefully,
Roz and David