Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, 

My name is Paul ‘Smudge’ Smith, and I was installed as the County Chairman in February at the County Conference. I felt that it was time to inform you all of what the County Committee are going to try to achieve as we move forward out of the COVID pandemic. I, along with the County Committee, am continuing to work closely with Gary Cocks our MSO, to try to ensure that as we move forward the RBL comes out of the pandemic a stronger more cohesive organisation within the County. 

We are all working on the way forward to achieve this and I would like to just touch on some of the points we consider to be important: 

1. At conference, the president raised two important points for this year, the first one was the Queens 70^th Jubilee. I hope that all branches were involved in the celebrations for this that were held in their areas, also were able to show the community that you are here and still working. How you did this did not matter as long as you were visible to the community at large then this was enough it is understood that with so much going on at the time it would have been almost impossible to put any event on ourselves. The second point was the importance of Branch Community Support, better known as BCS, it is important that all branches have a BCS rep, whose main task is to co-ordinate the branch in delivering BCS to your community, along with the BCS rep a small team of volunteers to deliver to beneficiaries. Training is available via the MSO for all branches and Gary is happy to come and deliver this training to fit in with the branches. Should you have any questions about BCS then please direct them to the CCSC Derek Tomkinson on norfolk.ccsc@rbl.community.

1. This year sees the 100^th anniversary of the County and as we were unable to celebrate the Legions centenary I would like us to mark this huge milestone for the County. To start with on the 9^th October we are going to hold the Annual County Rededication Service in the Catholic Cathedral in Norwich, Gary has sent out the details for this event, it would be really good if we could have as many standards and members in attendance as possible, the Cathedral will hold up to 1000 people let’s try to fill it for this event.

1. Training is important and the County Training Officer has a number of training courses he plans to run throughout the year and we would urge those that have not done any training to take the opportunity to attend the required courses for their role in the Branch. The CTO is also trying to arrange a Branch information Day and once done this date will be sent out to all branches. Should you have any questions on training please direct them to the CTO John Linkin on norfolk.cto@rbl.community .

1. The County Events & Recruiting Officer has put together a programme of events for the year that County will be in attendance at, this programme has been published and many of the events have taken place but if you find yourselves at an event where the County is present please come and say hello. If County is planning to attend an event within a Branches area then every effort will be made to invite the Branch to come and take part. Should you have any questions on events or recruiting please contact the CERO Ann Rogerson on norfolk.cro@rbl.community.  

1. If you have any events that you as a branch will be attending please approach the CERO to see what equipment is available for you to borrow to promote the Legion and your branch. The public perception of the Legion is that we exist for just a few weeks a year when we are conducting the Poppy Appeal, it is up to us as members to educate them that the Legion exists 52 weeks a year. 

1. Due to the Legion wanting to close all County offices a business case was put up to retain our office which was successful as long as the County paid the rent, this is some £15000 for 3 years, County has agreed to take this on, currently we have earmarked just over two thirds of this for the current 3 years. Why is it important to maintain an office in Norfolk, well we are a very rural county and it gives us a fairly central point to be able to meet, also to store a lot of our equipment and records. The most important reason is that when we need to talk to a beneficiary it gives a quite neutral place to meet them and discuss their problem, they tend to open up more under these circumstances than when you meet at their home. We also have somewhere where members can come and see the MSO and/or County Committee members, to this end Gary, who works from home, is happy to come into the office to host such meetings as required and as long as it will not interfere with any other meetings etc that are already programmed in for him. 

1. I am trying to arrange that every branch gets a visit from a member of the County Committee, there are far too many branches for me to visit you all in a year. The main reason that committee members will visit is to bring you up to date on what the county is doing and also to give you a ‘face’ to the committee, they will become your point of contact to the County and I would urge you to use them if you have any questions or issues you wish to pass onto the County.    

Finally, I need to say that to run the County, attend things like the Royal Norfolk Show and put on training courses does cost, currently without the office rent it costs some £17000 pounds per year to run the County. This comes from fundraising and donations made to County. I would urge anyone wishing to make donations to County to do so, but, please make these donations to the General Fund and not the Welfare fund with a letter stating this. Any donations made to County without a covering letter have to go into the Welfare Fund and can only be used for Welfare, monies donated to the General Fund can be used for running the County and also for Welfare if needed. To give you an idea currently the Welfare fund has some £28000 in plus two legacies, the General Fund has some £9000 in it and to continue our work and support of Branches and members we will need to raise the other £8000 plus of course the rent for the office. 

Should you require any help or guidance in any way please do not hesitate to contact any member of the County Committee.  

Paul ‘Smudge’ Smith MBE 

Norfolk County Chairman 

Royal British Legion