Dear Consortium Member,
This comes to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and a prosperous and creative New Year!
It is also an opportunity to let you have three pieces of good news.
The first is that we have now appointed our first Conservation Research Officer. Following a recruitment process which brought in 26 applications for the post, a short list of 6 potential candidates was interviewed, and the selection panel unanimously determined to offer the job to Dr Katie Harrison (pictured). She has now accepted the job, and will start in mid January. This is a paid post and is for 3 days per week for 18 months. Katie will be based at King’s Manor, kindly arranged by trustee Gill Chitty. We plan a brief profile of her in the January Newsletter. It is a very exciting moment, and we wish her well in the post!
The second is to welcome Jonathan Bryant as a new trustee to the Foundation following the resignation of David Fraser. Jonathan is CEO of York Conservation Trust, and so brings a wealth of experience and expertise to YFCC. He attended his first meeting earlier this week.
The third is that James Grierson, trustee and secretary to YFCC, has been appointed the new Chair of ICON – the national Institute of Conservation. This is really good news in several ways: he will undoubtedly bring a great deal of experience and enthusiasm to the benefit of ICON; he will be in a key position to build bridges within the sector; he will be well placed to cement links between YCCC and ICON; and this will inevitably bring YCCC and its work to view in a wider than regional context. The downside is that because of the potential for conflicts of interest, James feels he must stand down from running the Bursary Scheme, which he has done with such dedication for several years. But committee member Tracey Wilcockson has nobly stepped forward to take his place, at least for this year. James will remain a committee member of the Consortium and trustee and secretary of the Foundation.
Happy Christmas!
Martin Stancliffe
Chairman