NAWRA donation in memory of Terry Patterson.

GMWRAG will never be quite the same without our colleague Terry Patterson.

Some months back, NAWRA, for whom Terry was of course a long-standing and active North West representative and regular participant, asked GMWRAG if we could make a suggestion for an appropriate donation in memory of Terry as well as an offer of NAWRA membership. After some discussion it was agreed that we would propose Safety4Sisters and this was agreed as appropriate with members of Terry’s family.

We thought members would like to know that NAWRA has now made a donation of £250 in memory of Terry and, in return, the following lovely words were received back from Vicky Marsh, the interim director at Safety4Sisters.

“I am quite shocked and so sad to hear this news, as I knew Terry for a long time.

He was, as you said, a very dedicated welfare rights worker, always very kind, approachable and willing to support others and share his knowledge, a real fighter for people’s rights. He will really be missed by us and so many people who knew him through work as well as obviously his family & friends. I hope you can pass on to his family, friends, and colleagues our sympathies and our real appreciation of everything Terry did to make this world a better and more equal place.

We are delighted to have been nominated to receive this donation for our work at Safety4Sisters which I know Terry supported and we send a big thank you for the donation but also, as importantly, your support and solidarity.

Safety4Sisters would definitely like to take up your kind offer of the membership to NAWRA.
With all best wishes and thanks”

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An invitation to attend and contribute to an online tribute to our colleague Terry Patterson.

We know many of you will have already read the GMWRAG tribute to our colleague Terry Patterson as well as the many tributes from NAWRA and others on social media.

GMWRAG members have been shaken to our core by the loss of Terry and so we are immensely pleased to let you know about an online tribute event taking place between 7 and 8pm on Monday the 8th of February 2021. This will offer a brief opportunity for attendees to explain how they knew Terry and express their thoughts on him. It is a free but ticketed event and tickets can be booked via EventBrite.

We hope that all GMWRAG members will be able to free up an hour to be able to pay tribute to the one GMWRAG member of whom it could truly be said we simply wouldn’t have continued to exist without him.

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GMWRAG representation on NAWRA

In light of this particularly sad post and its associated job advert we did of course inevitably forget to post the third part of the equation.

Patrick was the North West representative on NAWRAs committee for many years. It is only right that we should advise GMWRAG members that our new representative is Terry Patterson from Manchester City Council. In the unlikely event you don’t know who Terry is then you can find out more through browsing our minutes; his NAWRA committee nomination form or indeed many other aspects of this site.

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Proposals for the future of GMWRAG – time to have your say!

Hi all,

It’s that time of the decade, perhaps, when we might take stock of past achievements and think through how to move forward in the years ahead.

For me, the last decade for our modest, unfunded group was a good one and well worth celebrating.  I am thinking back to numerous excellent meetings, external speakers, information shared, contributions to policy development, training sessions, outreach events, staff support and all the rest.  It is true that in recent years we have been able to do less than in former times, attendances have been a little down on occasions, training has dropped off and services are under greater strain, but the content of meetings has continued to be first rate, most meetings have good support and we have a stonking website, now re-invigorated, with potential.  We continue to have new members and interest.

Recently some services have struggled to take their usual turn at hosting and arranging meetings and this has lead to uncertainty.  Of course, several of us have been talking about how to proceed.  I suggest that we act as follows:

1.  Affirm that GMWRAG should continue, that it’s useful.

2. Break the founding principle that meetings should rotate around each borough in turn bi-monthly.

3. Ask some of the larger services to agree to act as guarantor to host and arrange a meeting once a year or so – core meetings (Manchester will volunteer for one).

4.  Go to a sequence of meeting every three months, 3rd Friday in, say, January, April, June, October, confirmed well ahead.

5. Invite other services to contribute with arranging, or hosting, core meetings where possible.

6. Note that some meetings can be half day or ‘business only’ if necessary.

So over to you, it’s your group!  Pls share your thoughts…

Thank you.

Terry Patterson.

An online poll has been created below this post to enable members who visit here regularly to express a view. These can be added to any comments submitted below and any views you may wish to express to those people who regularly attend the meetings.

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