At the AGM last October our President, Bryan Braithwaite-Exley, stepped down after 11 years at the helm of the Trust. Bryan was only the second President the Trust has had since 1968, and we have been very fortunate to have him for so long. His wide knowledge of the countryside and stature in the local and wider communities have been of great value to the Trust. We thank him for all his years of service. At the AGM Bill Mitchell, known I am sure to all our members, was elected to follow Bryan as President. We are delighted to welcome Bill to his new role. A brief biography of him is included in this Journal.
Also at last year's AGM Hilary Baker, who had been our Membership Secretary for many years, decided to retire from the committee. Hilary brought a really personal touch to the job, and played a vital part in maintaining our membership numbers. We are very grateful to Mary Slater for taking over from Hilary as Membership Secretary. There remained one vacancy on the committee, which has been filled by co-opting John Geale, with a general brief on marketing and public relations.
We are working to raise the profile of the Trust with the public and with heritage bodies. I wrote an article about the Trust in the second number of the publication Dales Heritage, which appeared last December (a free magazine which is well worth reading), and we now have representatives on groups and committees working on heritage projects in Craven and the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
I am glad to report that the Trust has had another full year of activities and we welcome our new members. To all those members who organise and make it possible for us to continue our programme of activities: lectures, walks, the Summer Outing, the Christmas Party and the New Year Recital, I give my thanks on behalf of all those who enjoy them. This list must also include our journal, which continues to be an excellent read on many different topics. Enjoy this one!