After the AGM on the 24th September, we have a new Trustee board in place. We held our first meeting on 10th October, so I thought it a good time to introduce members to our new board and share some of our plans for the year just started.

We welcomed four new trustees elected at the AGM: Edward Martin, Alan Smithers, Nick Baxter, and David Fowler. Diana Ricketts-Tanner was also re-elected to the team. All of these introduced themselves to members with their statements which were sent out with the AGM papers. They join the existing trustees: Barrie Childs, Denise Parker, Jeff Price and myself – Geoff Garfield.  The contact details of all trustees are available at https://wsra.org.uk/about/#team

I was elected as chair of trustees, in succession to Mike Sherwood, who ably led us over the last few years: we are very grateful to Mike, and to John Glover. Both stood down as trustees at the end of their allowable term of office. Both remain active supporters of the Association.

I thought that I should introduce myself. I have been a WSRA volunteer for almost 10 years, as a member of the Rally team, first as trade marshal and more recently as Chair. I have been a trustee for 5 years. On the railway, I volunteer as a signalman at Minehead and Blue Anchor and take turns as Responsible Officer.

We have some exciting new plans for the future, which we will be developing over the next few weeks. I will share the plans with members very soon, via the journal and website. In the meantime, I am very keen to hear from members about anything you would like to discuss. You can e mail me at geoff.garfield@wsra.org.uk, or via the contact form on the website.

I hope to see as many members as I can on the railway and look forward to a new chapter in supporting the heritage of the West Somerset Railway.

Geoff Garfield
WSRA Chair of Trustees