The Annual Meeting, Exhibition, AGM and Dinner in Poole are now behind us.  We had a very successful event thanks to all the hard work put in by Tessa and "her girls" (Unity and Sue) and of course members: especially Events Committee (EComm) led by John Broughton.  Most noteworthy were the Honorary Fellowships awarded to Wendy Bines, Bernard James, Eddie Goldfinch and Tony Richards.  And who could forget the wonderful Inaugural John Dunster Memorial Lecture delivered by the incomparable Jack Valentin?

Suddenly, I am in the President's seat, trying to follow Richard Wilkins. I think it was him who reassured me that SRP works despite the President not because of them and I can certainly believe that, having seen wonderful team working.

Take the SRP Benevolent Fund for example.  I launched it as part of my Forward Look on the Wednesday morning, but it was RGG and John Hunt who got a grip of actually selling raffle tickets in aid of it.  That raised over £170.  The night before that we raised about £600 each for Help for Heroes (in memory of our member Will Blanchard who was killed on active service in Afghanistan recently) and for the SRP Benevolent Fund.  It is worth mentioning that Will's colleagues at DSTL are trying to raise £10 000 in his memory, and our contribution will help towards that.

As ever, the quality of presentations was high, and our exhibitors supported us strongly.  We also had donations of prizes for the evening's entertainment from Lab Impex (the quiz and prizes) and Landauer (the casino evening). 

In case you don't know the Rising Generations Group are soaring! Their own one day event before the main one was excellent.  Special congratulations to Kirstie Eden and Izzy Styles for winning the Best Presentation and Best Poster competitions respectively.

Sources close to the President have suggested he could lose some weight and raise funds for the SRP Benevolent Fund at the same time.  Look out soon for a sponsor form!

Working in Vienna this week I was pleased that the IAEA Secretariat gave me the chance to promote IRPA13. Renate Czarwinski of IAEA (and IRPA Vice-President) also helped by providing flyers to hand out.  Between us, we promoted it to 82 countries and 160 people!

These days I know less about protons, neutrons and electrons than I do croutons, but I think I can still help build our Society to make it even stronger than it is.  The Society will serve you, as members.  What can you do for SRP – your professional society?

Chris