links area newsletter september 2012

7/31/2019 LINKS Area Newsletter September 2012

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LINKS AreaNewsletter

September 2012 Edition 1

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Welcome to the first area newsletter with relevant information for the area. Im very privileged to bemanaging the LINKS area, and look forward to working with a good mix of committees and membersto help you all achieve the best possible output and enjoyment of your experience with St JohnAmbulance.

2012 is going to be spent re-launching BCU LINKS following an unfortunate drop in numbers, andalso boosting Worcester LINKS who are still a relatively new LINKS unit who I would like to see growand see them get out on more events to cover within the university.

Looking further into the future September 2013 will see the re-launch of Keele LINKS of which I amlooking forward to the challenge of re-launching the unit and watching it grow and thrive once again.

September 2014 will see the launch and opening of Staffordshire LINKS bringing the area to a total ofnine LINKS units.

I look forward to working with you all at some point during the year!

Tim SmithArea Manager - LINKS

Im pleased to announce that Sara Southall has agreed to help with administration, planning and

organising of events with the area.

To begin with Sara will be supporting the training function by coordinating the running of the EssentialFirst Aid courses and ensuring Module one is scheduled to happen before the Induction Weekends.Along with these tasks, she will be organising the LINKS assessment days due to happen inDecember.

In the absence of a LINKS Training Specialist the organisation and co-ordination of the InductionWeekends and Weekend Away currently sit with Tim (Area Manager) and more information on thesecan be found further into the newsletter and from the flyers and booking forms

Sara will also be the main point of contact for any help with the unit training plans until an Area

Training Specialist has been appointed, and will be in touch to discuss these with the relevant trainingco-ordinators, and to share ideas around units!

She will also be helping to plan and co-ordinate the upcoming LINKS socials in 2013

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest LINKS information and news? Then follow us on Twitteror Facebook to make sure you are the first to know of training events, spaces on big operationalevents and LINKS social events. We can be found on;

Facebook: St John LINKS WMidsTwitter: @StJohnLINKS_WM

Make sure you dont miss out on whats going on in the Area!

LINKS Area Admin su ort

LINKS go social networking


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Aston LINKSChair Roger Howell [email protected] Chair James Sculthorp-Wright [email protected] Natalia Bulak [email protected]

Secretary Ieva Kurmyte [email protected] Jake Delaney [email protected] James Sculthorp-Wright [email protected] Secretary Dominic Simkus [email protected] Roger Howell [email protected] Vacant position [email protected] Coordinator Jake Delaney [email protected]

BCU LINKSChair Sean Ruddock [email protected] Vacant position [email protected] Rachel Mustoe [email protected] Vacant position [email protected] Vacant position [email protected] Secretary Vacant position [email protected] Vacant position [email protected]

Birmingham LINKSChair Adam Smith [email protected] Chair Laura Mutch [email protected] Megha Rai [email protected] Lizzie Haining [email protected] Harriet Watkins [email protected] Theresa Schulz [email protected] Secretary Rebecca Joseph [email protected] Coordinator Kelly Drummond [email protected] Neel Radhakrishnan [email protected] Liaison George Leigh [email protected]

Coventry LINKSChair Kelsey Rowsell [email protected] Chair Jordan Davies [email protected] Christine Morgan [email protected] Katie McGee [email protected] Jordan Davies [email protected] Amy Doane [email protected] Secretary Kandy Butt [email protected]

Webmaster Anita Bhudia [email protected]

Warwick LINKSChair Lucienne Otten [email protected] Chair Richard Salter [email protected] Richard Salter [email protected] Heena Yousaf [email protected] Chris Smith [email protected] Thomas Burns [email protected] Secretary Samira Nur [email protected] Coordinator Alice Butcher [email protected] Daniel Neville [email protected]

Equipment Sophie Newgas [email protected] Vicky Daniels [email protected]

LINKS units and contact details


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Wolverhampton LINKSChair Adrian Dickson [email protected] Chair Vacant position [email protected] Vacant position [email protected] Vacant position [email protected]

Training Adrian Dickson [email protected] Tamsin Hewett [email protected] Secretary Jessica Young [email protected] Dan Orton [email protected]

Worcester LINKSChair Megan Collins [email protected] Rachel Clarkson [email protected] Cleo Robbins [email protected] Rachel Clarkson [email protected] Vacant position [email protected] Secretary Vacant position [email protected] Vacant position [email protected]

Area StaffArea Manager Tim Smith [email protected]

07796 965314Area Admin Support Sara Southall [email protected] Training Specialist Vacant

Please contact the relevant person within your unit responsible for your enquiry.

Any posts marked as vacant can be filled with the use of an EGM, if you are interested in a vacantpost in your unit please contact your chair and they can inform you of what is required for the role andstart to set up an EGM.

An up to date LINKS directory will be coming out with the November newsletter with all of the currentnames and contacts following the EGMS that are due to be held.


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Richard Salter, Vice Chair and Treasurer of Warwick LINKS, carried theOlympic Torch on day four of its 70-day journey across the UK, on 22May.

Richard is a student at WarwickUniversity, and lives in Coventry,however he carried the Flamethrough Yeovil in Somerset,near his hometown of Tiverton.He was chosen to be aTorchbearer because of hisconsiderable charitable work. Inaddition to volunteering for SJA,Richard has raised money for

other charities and provided mentoring and support on a

number of Army Cadet programmes, as well as acting as aDuke of Edinburghs Award leader.

'To be so young and so giving is great to see, said the judges. There are many people that for yearsdont think about these kind of things so its great to see Richard starting so early'.

Carrying the flame was awesome, literally one of the best things I have ever done, says Richard. Illnever forget it!

Wolves LINKS has had a rough couple of years, with real problems in recruiting and retaining new

members. However this year, there has been a new bigger and better committee, and new faces thathave really made the society come alive. There are more socials, visits to the pub, and plenty of

training and interest sessions. When the Vollies nominationswere announced, we found out we had been nominated forthe most improved society, and Adrian (the devoted chair ofWolves LINKS) had been nominated for the society chair ofthe year. We were allextremely excited!

The night came, and weall sat anxiously waitingfor the awards to beannounced, there werelots of nominations and

lots of people who deserved the awards. The Most ImprovedSociety of the Year was announced And we won!!! We wereecstatic, and couldnt quite believe it. After the shaking of handsand taking of photos, we sat down again and updated everyonewho couldnt attend through Facebook. A few awards down theline, it was time for Society Chair of the Year. Adrian couldntmake the awards ceremony because he was busy working, but weall had our fingers crossed for him And he won too!!! We wereeven more excited about this award, as Adrian has given so much

to the society over the years, and we all felt he really deserved it.

All in all, we had a great night, and were already thinking of wayswe can improve further. Go Wolves LINKS!!!

Warwick LINKS member carries the Olympic flame

Wolves LINKS hit success at the Vollies!


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St John Ambulance offers lots of different training opportunitiesfrom your first Essential first aid course, all the way to training toform a part of an ambulance crew, you can progress as far asyou like. The first stage in the process is to attend the LINKSInduction weekends at our Regional Headquarters inBirmingham and also at Warwick University where you will begiven lots of opportunities to learn some brand new first aid skillsthat you can then take out to the field to help be the differencebetween a life lost and a life saved! Members are required toattend both Induction weekend one and two to be able to gainthe full training experience and take away the full set of skillsrequired for your role

Following on from the Induction weekends we have the annual LINKSWeekend Away, where we can offer you lots more training opportunities, alongwith lots of interest talks about different first aid and medical topics to help

broaden your knowledge and assist you in getting the most and bestexperiences of St John Ambulance.

Not only do the weekends all provide you with an amazing opportunity to learnthese new skills, but also gives you a chance to mix with people from the otherLINKS units to meet lots of new people and to build new friendships.

Due to the high demand of units versus locations, we have to limit theBirmingham weekends to a set selection of units, though the members fromthese units can attend the Warwick University courses should they wish.

Birmingham courses, for: Aston LINKS; BCU LINKS; Birmingham LINKS; Wolverhampton LINKSand Worcester LINKS:Induction part one 20 and 21 OctoberInduction part two 3 and 4 November

Warwick University courses, for: Coventry LINKS andWarwick LINKS. If members from other units are willing totravel to Warwick University to complete the courses they aremore than welcome.Induction part one 27 and 28 OctoberInduction part two 10 and 11 November

LINKS Weekend Away, 16, 17 and 18 NovemberThis weekend is once again being held at Laches WoodOutdoor Education Centre, transport will be provided from aspecified train station on the Friday night and Sunday afternoon

Module 20, Wednesday 21 November 2012, 18:00 21:30Module 20 will not be run as a part of the LINKS Weekend Away due to the times of the modulestaking to train. A separate evening session has been arranged for this module to ensure thatmembers Upskilling to the role of an AFA can complete this before their assessment

Booking forms and further information on all of these weekends can be gained from either your unitchair or training co-ordinator.

We look forward to seeing you all at the training weekends

Training weekends and opportunities


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Morocco! It began with an idea that became a proposition, evolving into a plan and soon enoughbecame a reality. Beginning of stories arent always the easiest of things to explain and ourvolunteering trip is no different. July 1st, the day of our flight, we arrive in drips and drabs over severalhours until all 14 members of Warwick LINKS were at the airport and ready to go, just not all togethersparking a further hour of hunting Where are you?, were at check in, where are you?, By BurgerKing wait there we will be with you soon, the searching rolled on until moments before departure. Anuneventful flight highlighted by the odd French revision andrestless nap flew by until the clouds parted and allowed us abrief view of a golden patchwork of sweeping planes dottedwith green growths and villages before touching down inMarrakesh. Stepping off of the plane into temperature in thelow 30s at late afternoon we rushed through checkout meetour taxis arranged with the company original volunteerswho we volunteered with. A winding journey of the city roadsbrought a mix of memories of past volunteering trips abroadfor the experienced and wonder to the initiates amongst our

group, ending in us being drop off in a lively side street to begreeted by the supervisor of the Moroccan volunteeringscheme. A trip further down the street amongst the bustlingside shops selling bread, repair shops tinkering at brokenbikes and TV sets that looked like they had fallen straight outof the 70s led us to a quieter residential area and to a widebut small set of heavy wooden doors that was the entranceto our riad and home for the 8 days to follow.

Less than 10 minutes was all we had to drop our bags offand grab our money before we were lead out of the riad andthrough twisting streets as twilight gave way to the dark of night, the streets and the city itself didnt

quite seem to sleep but vibrate with a different kind of life. One where children screamed happily whiletheir parents talked to old friends in the open air cafes contrasted with mothers slumped sorrowfullyclutching to an ill looking child begging for money. The night flew by in a whirl of colour, noise and thesheer number of people roaming the streets that would slowly become the norm for us as the weekwore on that we realised though we had come to volunteer our experience would be one of discoveryof a whole new culture and way of life that would leave us with lasting memories.

Our volunteering was split into 2 sessions a day each 2 hours long that Original Volunteers ranthrough the local charity Open Hands, activities ranged from outreach schemes in villagessurrounding Marrakesh where volunteers, including ourselves, go to teach children or simply playgames in or outdoors with them, right through to doing structured activities in boys, girls and babyorphanages. The Girls orphanage in particular was a destination that many of our group often visited

to run activities including a favourite were we got the girls to draw around each other on paper tocreate life size paper dolls they could colour in and stick clothes and accessories cut out ofmagazines. The Boys orphanage was a strange experience in itself, upon arrival we were greeted bya swarm of girls with a couple of boys amongst them, all eager to draw, make towers from jengablocks or skip. We found out that the reason behind the unusual number of girls was that the Boysand Girls orphanage wasnt quite the same as it is in the UK. The children who live at the orphanagesare there only during the school term times, often as the children of poor families most often withsingle working mothers this is one of the few ways that they could get schooling and be looked after,as holidays come about the children would leave to spend time with their families and the orphanageswould play host to children in the local area giving them day activities to get involved with. The Babyorphanage on the other hand was like any other normal orphanage, with children given up by theirparents stayed until they were adopted, fortunately for them this doesnt often take long, but in themean time those members who did not attend the Girls orphanage simply sat and gave the babiesloving attention that didnt have any trouble getting past the language barriers we had previouslyexperienced.

Warwick LINKS visit Morocco


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Midweek we had a chance to experience life in aBerber village for a day and night, being taught ingroups how to cook a tagine and bake bread fromscratch and how they tended their animals andfetched water in the not too distant past, notforgetting even experiencing a little friendlycompetition with a Mint tea making competition thatwas taken rather seriously by the Berbers, involvingnear enough 8 judges. But it was not all relaxationas we ran a mixed session for the local Berbervillage children that we will never forget with so

many friendship bracelets being made and so many Sponge Bob Squarepants outlines drawn forcolouring games. Our weekends were free and allowed us too experience the country further beforewe left on the Sunday and we took the opportunity to either head to the sahara desert or a set ofwaterfalls during the day while exploring new parts of the city at night and before our flight, meeting afew of the children we had worked with along the way who remembered us and wavedenthusiastically as they went on their way.

The main idea behind this trip was very much to expand the experience that our members within ourdivision at Warwick LINKS could get out of being members, not just of f irst aid work but also ofworking with people, in this case children, in different communities in a different part of the world andhelping them in any way we could. This suited our reasoning behind the trip as we felt it was inkeeping with the original idea behind St John ambulance both at home and aboard. But out of it wereceived much more than we could possibly have put in to the trip; a unique experience few otherswould get of an amazing culture and people who where welcoming to strangers, the understandingand ways of learning to by pass any language barriers we would be confronted with that preventedcommunication and perhaps most importantly for the members of our unit who attended, developingstronger friendships and lasting memories. With the success of our trip this year I hope with the helpof the rest of the Warwick LINKS exec and West midlands staff that we can run a similar trip next year

in the summer of 2013 to both help communities in other countries and to offer great experiences forour members to develop themselves with.

Chris Smith Training Co-ordinator Warwick LINKS


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St John Ambulance covers many different events across the Region including: small school fetes; topflight football matches with Aston Villa, Coventry City, Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers;premiership rugby with Worcester Warriors; International cricket at Edgbaston Cricket Club andWorcestershire Cricket Club; V festival; speedway at Wolverhampton, Coventry, Stoke andBirmingham; shows at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre; tough guy and many other events. Alongwith all of these big events happening in the Region we offer, most units also have lots of smallevents on campus, all giving you the opportunity to put your skills into good use!

Along with the many events happening within the Region, we also get the opportunity to attend othermajor high profile events such as: Creamfields; Wimbledon; the British Formula One race weekend.

So far in 2012 members from LINKS units have had the privilege to support other Regions inproviding essential first aid cover and have been able to attend Creamfields, some of the Olympicevents and the Queens golden jubilee, all giving us the ability to travel the country and showcaseWest Midlands LINKS.

With the new SJA guidelines you are required to undertake two operational events betweencompleting Induction part one and Module 15 (assessment for role day). You can use either the largeRegion events or the smaller unit based events to complete these.

For more information about any of the duties happening in your unit, in the Region or across theCountry please contact either your unit Chair or Operations coordinator!

Some of the big Regional events that are coming up are:- Coventry Half Marathon, Sunday 14 October, 09:00 13:30- BUPA Great Birmingham Run, 21 October, 08:00 17:00- Himley Bonfire, 3 November, 16:00 23:00

We look forward to seeing you out on lots of events in the future!

In 2013 we are going to be organising some LINKS social events. Two events are already in theclosing planning stages, with confirmations just being sought! In March,LINKS will be swinging through the trees at Go Ape! in Cannock, and inMay we will finding the best G-forces and adrenaline rushes at the AltonTowers theme park!!

Unfortunately St John Ambulance will notbe able to provide any funding towards

the social events, so they will have to bepaid for by yourself. But dont worry aboutentry fees or travelling fees! We are actively finding the cheapestpossible way of getting you into the events and transport will beprovided from various central locations, giving easy access to allwithin the Area!

Spaces are limited on each event, however, should there be a bigenough demand, we can look at organising extra dates and/or extra spaces. To avoid too muchdisappointment, and to allow for early payment and bookings, we are now accepting booking for eachevent now! Attached is the flyer for each event to give you some more information, the booking formcan be sought from your Social Secretary or Chair, or can be gained from Tim, Area Manager

([email protected]), who can also give you more information should you require it. We will acceptpayments in instalments, as long as the full amount is paid in full one month before the event.

We look forward to being able to get to know you better at these amazing social events!!

Upcoming operational events

2013 Social events


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In August 2012 some of our LINKS members had the privilege toattend some of the biggest festivals in the UK to help provide firstaid cover to any festival goers who needed our help. We spent theweekend at V festival in Staffordshire and also Creamfields in

Merseyside!

A big thank you and well done goes outto all those who attended the weekendsfor helping to make them such a bigsuccess and for their continuingsupport of St John Ambulance.

It was a great experience with some amazing faces all workingtogether

It was great to work alongside HCPS from WMAS and NWAS at theevents to help build my experience and knowledge

It was very busy at times, but we all worked well together, and had agreat weekend

If you are interested in attending V festival or Creamfields in 2013, here arethe dates for your diary:V Festival: 16, 17, 18 and 19 AugustCreamfields: 23, 24, 25 and 26 August

Details will be out closer to the events of how to register and book on to them, ensure to followLINKS on Twitter and/or Facebook to get all the details as they come out!

LINKS attend V festival and Creamfields!

Rachel Mustoe from BCULINKS at V Fest

Jordan Davies fromCoventry LINKS at V Fest

Roger Howell fromAston LINKS atCreamfields

Tom Burns fromWarwick LINKS atCreamfields

Lucienne Otten fromWarwick LINKS atCreamfields

Corinne Boulnois from Aston LINKSsurveying the rain damage at Creamfields

Chris Smith, Tom Burns andLucienne Otten from WarwickLINKS at Creamfields withmembers of Maghull divisionfrom Merseyside


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Late January and most of February is the time where we hold all of our elections for newcommittees! St John Ambulance offers a wonderful experience for all of the new committeemembers from across all seven units to get together where there is a chance to socialise butwhere we will also give all members of the committee the information they need to then carry out

their new role within the committee along with lots of fun workshops and activities to help youbuild as a successful committee.

Along with welcoming in the new committee members and providing training for them to get allthe skills they require we also invite all retiring committee members for a shorter period of theweekend to allow them time to reflect on their year in committee and to also pass on their wisdomat various points of the weekend.

Committee Training 2013 will once again be free for all attendees and will this year be held atLaches Wood OEC.

The weekend is 15, 16 and 17 March 2013. So please get these dates in your diary if you are acurrent committee member, or if you are thinking of running for a position within your unit. Moreinformation about the weekend will be available at the time of your AGM.

On Thursday 27 September 2012 we will be holding an interviewing skills workshop for anybodyto attend that will be helping to conduct interviews for new members looking to join St JohnAmbulance, the session will be from 19:00 21:00 and will cover some theory and some practicalelements into the best way of carrying out the interviews.

If you would like to attend this session, please email Sara on [email protected] so we

can get an accurate number of people who wish to attend.

The next LINKS Area meeting will be on Thursday 18 October 2012 starting at 19:00. It isrecommended that all chairs attend this meeting, along with any other members of the unit thatare free to attend, though the meeting is open to any member from the unit to attend.

We also ask that all chairs bring along a small report on the unit and how they are doing so thatany good practises or things that are working well can then passed around to the other units tohelp each other grow and thrive!

The next Area newsletter will be out in November 2012. If you have any interesting stories orarticles that you would like to put into the Newsletter then please send to Tim by Wednesday 31October 2012.

Coming up in the next newsletter:- SJA volunteers lend a helping hand at the Olympics- The new games page

We look forward to reading all your exciting stories. Good luck and hope you enjoy your freshersevents.

Committee Training 2013

Interviewing Skills workshop

LINKS Area meeting

Next newsletter

links area newsletter september 2012

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