The last of three Charity Steward training and information events has been held at Castlegate,  York on 22 February, offering guidance on services available to support their vital work and a chance to discuss those services in face to face meetings.

Organised by Provincial Charity Steward Des McKenzie, all three events were well supported by Lodge and Chapter Charity Stewards in the respective catchment areas. Lively discussions and 1:1 sessions were a strong feature of all events.

The format for all three events was similar: short presentation sessions followed by 1:1 breakouts, more presentations, a united Q&A before close. All with the added attraction of free coffee!

Speakers included Martin Eggermont, APGM and Chair of Festival 29, Provincial Charity Steward Des McKenzie, who spoke on current developments and the role of the Charity Steward, the role of FCYNER (Bill Fisher and Paul Hillary), Comms support (Chris Ansell), Community Engagement and the CE Toolkit (John Davison) and Festival 29 (John Murphy and the Festival 29 team).

The lively Q&A sessions clearly indicated how useful the delegates found the three events and it is likely they will be repeated in the future. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive as to the value and usefulness of the events.

So that the material presented may be readily accessed in the future, recordings of the presentations and the slides used will be made available in a new Charity Stewards section of the Provincial website to be set up in the coming weeks.