Thanks and goodbye

As I have now stood down as your NEC Representative, I wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for putting up with me over the past two and a half years. So thanks one and all.

Keeping NUJ members linked up and informed on a patch as huge as ours was never going to be an easy task, but I think that thanks to the great team of committed activists we have in continental Europe we're doing a pretty good job and we're of course always striving to do better.

Special thanks from me to the chairs of the three NUJ branches in continental Europe - Jim Pollard in Paris, Ruth Milligan in Brussels and Guy Thornton in the Netherlands - for all the help, support and advice they've given me during my time on the NEC.

Thanks too to John Chapman, chair of the Continental European Council (CEC) for most of my NEC term - he's now our representative on the Freelance Industrial Council - and to all of the council's other delegates and officers for their invaluable input and adice.

And of course thanks too to Teresa Robins, our outgoing representative on the Freelance Industrial Council, whos detailed reports and willingness to be on hand with a sympathetic ear have done so much to help freelancers on our patch - often the most isolated members of what is an already isolated group of NUJers.

I also want to assure all of you that you couldn't be in better hands when it comes to making sure the NEC knows what we on the continent are thinking.

My successors on the council are two of the most experienced and committed NUJ activists we have in continental Europe - Jeff Apter from Paris branch and Phil Hunt from Brussels.

Jeff and Phil hold the NEC position as a job share and will undoubtedly be in touch very with you all shortly.

It's great for me to know that I'm being replaced by such a top notch team.

So that's it. Thanks to all of you for your help and goodbye.

Simon Read more...