60th Jubilee Conference and 61st National Council Meeting

The 61st National Council meeting of the Federation was held at the Brentwood hotel in Wellington during the weekend 23-25 March 2007. This special occasion marked the 60th Jubilee of the Federation. Some highlights of the weekend were:

Official Opening – Friday 23 March at 7.45 p.m.

This took the form of a wine & cheese evening. The president, Dr Smith, welcomed to the meeting their excellencies, the honourable Anand Satyanand and Susan Satyanand. His excellency spoke about the history of the federation over the last 60 years and the valuable role it had played in advocating for and supporting amputees. As patron of the federation, the governor general announced the conference open and wished the meeting well in its deliberations during the 60th jubilee weekend.

The guest speaker, the hon Ruth Dyson, minister for disability issues, then spoke about rehabilitation and participation. ms Dyson concluded by encouraging conference participants to share in discussion and debate. She thanked the federation for the invitation to speak and wished it a happy 60th birthday.

Informal discussions then followed, with their excellencies and ms Dyson mingling with the 50 federation members and guests who were present.

National Council Meeting – Saturday 24 March 9 a.m.

There was good healthy discussion and debate by the delegates and observers representing the nine district amputee societies of the federation. Bob Smith was re-elected as president, as was Noel Dolamore as vice president and Lorraine Peacock as national coordinator/ treasurer. The executive committee positions were filled by Janis Bourne, Lee Cook, Michelle Simpson and Kerry Wilfred-Riley.

Fifty federation members and invited guests took part in the jubilee dinner on Saturday evening. Life member Lorraine Peacock cut the 60th jubilee cake and life membership of the federation was presented to Lee Cook and Jennifer Thompson.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were taken up with seminars by contributors. These educational and information sharing sessions were both thought-provoking and interesting. The jubilee weekend concluded with lunch at 1 p.m. on Sunday 25th March.