Having never blogged before here goes. When you hear that President Obama and others are regular bloggers, I understand that he twitters as well (but I am not yet up to that) it seems only right that we keep our members up to date with what’s happening and who’s doing what.
People outside the sector ask me what is a normal day like working for the Behcets Society, and I quickly answer there is no such thing as a normal day, but I suppose they do have their patterns. I always walk my dog first thing, usually in the dark because it takes him 6 months to adjust to the clock changes by which time they have changed again so it’s out before dawn. We walk in the country away from the roads so that he can run safely and I can think about the plans for the day. I might write a letter in my head remember to send an email to someone who hasn’t yet replied or plan when best to visit the post office to avoid the 20 minute queue that seems to form just before I get there. Back to the office and open the emails. Depending on the day of the week or if I have been out at a meeting it is usually 25 plus messages and has been 80 after a weekend. Some messages are asking for help from around the world, this morning for example, I had a message from a Mexican living in LA, but most in fairness are from the UK. Our website certainly attracts readers from all over and we get lots of thanks for clear and accurate information. I always try to reply to messages of help first as the people concerned can be very distressed, andthose that reply seem very grateful that there is someone out there working to make their life better.
Post arrives before 10 and there is a mad dash to get it before Bertie deposits the mud he collected on his paws on his walk onto the outside of the envelopes. The rest of the day then depends on outstanding work and that varies between writing fundraising letters, working on how we are to present our case to the Prescriptions Charges Review or writing reports and updates for the trustees so that they are kept up to date with what is happening.
The new medical panel has helped me greatly to reply to technical medical queries and the internet is invaluable researching new areas of fundraising or health aspects in general. The celebration of our 25 years of existence is certainly motivating people to help with fundraising and requests for support for fundraising schemes are coming in from all areas.
A lot of time has recently been spent on the production of a new Society leaflet, it has had professional design help (at greatly reduced cost) and we are getting print quotes ready for production as soon as possible.
We aim to have a new blog on this site very regularly so having blogged I will get back to the emails and letters, see you soon. Chris 
