Annual Report 2008

Chair's report

I am privileged to present to you my third report as Chair of the Council of Management of the British Epilepsy Association which accompanies our Annual Report on the work of Epilepsy Action. Your elected Council is the voluntary body responsible both to you the members and also to the regulatory authorities as trustees and directors.

Mike Harnor Members will be familiar with the active support we have received from Baroness Gould of Potternewton as our President. Her retirement after ten years in office and latterly as Chair of the Westminster All Party Parliamentary Group on Epilepsy must be acknowledged with our gratitude. Whilst taking a close personal interest in our progress, she has exerted significant influence within the political domain in the interests of people with epilepsy. You are being asked at this AGM to confirm the appointment of a worthy successor, Baroness Ford of Cunninghame. We are very pleased to be able to welcome our new President who has an established close interest in epilepsy.

Emeritus Professor Raymond Tallis joined us as a Vice-President. Ray is highly distinguished in the fields of medicine and philosophy and has been a particularly significant authority in the fields of stroke and epilepsy in older people.

I must again thank my Council of Management colleagues for their continuous support and for the time which they have spent on the affairs of the charity. This has been all the more significant due to the circumstances in which we have been operating with 12 serving members since June 2008. Mr Mark Gibbs, Mrs Jayne Burton and Dr Ingram Wright retired from Council and I thank them for their particular contributions to our work. Mr Richard Chapman has been elected by Council as the Vice-Chair.

In this report I would particularly commend to you the work of a very large spectrum of people who have voluntarily contributed to our achievements this year. These range from trustees, branch officers, advisory panel members, accredited volunteers, fundraisers and head office volunteers. We continued to develop our characteristic services in providing direct information and support through a range of media and a total of 686,531 people used our range of services in 2008. Particularly significant during this year was the local delivery of much of our work across the regions. Members will have noted our range of awareness events, advice and information days, seminars, and conferences.

Effective working towards our goals will always be dependent upon income and I would like to thank the very many people who have supported us, both with their direct gifts to our funds and with their time through fundraising activities. I can assure members that we are very aware of the need to carefully husband our finances and to achieve maximum value from our resources. In this I must compliment my fellow trustees, our senior management and our employee team who have exercised judgement and efficiency in our operations during a challenging period. Epilepsy Action is vital to the interests of all people with epilepsy and it is committed people who have made the charity what it is today.

Mike Harnor
Chair, Council of Management
7 April 2009