AGM: Report of the Membership Secretary for 2007

Report of the Membership Secretary for 2007


Over the course of the year our total membership grew from 3,964 to 4,065 which represents 2.5% growth. This is very encouraging after the 2006 figure of 1.6% growth and compares very favourably with a national figure of +0.5%. The increase of 101 members is nearly all in-service members, the figure for retired and left profession members having remained virtually static.


I have again submitted an application on behalf of WSTA for a National Union membership Development Award (NUMDA) reporting on the outcome of our 4,000th member recruitment initiative which was launched in Autumn ’06. In Autumn ’07 Linda Kavanagh, an NQT at Oriel High School (Maidenbower, Crawley) was identified as the
lucky person and I visited her at school to present her with a cheque. I included a photo of Linda and the School Rep in our submission for the NUMDA; also included was a copy of the colourful flyer advertising the Salsa Evening which Dave (Thomas) organised in the Autumn.

The Union is now able to take direct debit instructions over the phone or internet, whereas previously, although bank account details were taken down over the phone, a
paper mandate had to be sent out for the new member to sign and return (which, unfortunately, they sometimes failed to do). I think we need to urge School Reps to
promote this method of joining the Union and suggest that at our Secretariat Planning
Day we give some thought to how this might best be done.


Veronica Peppiatt