Great news! East Kent branch is still in existence! Even though we haven’t had any volunteers for the roles of Treasurer or Comms, we have been assured by WEP central that we can carry on with just a Branch Leader (Cathy Westbrook) and a Data Manager (shared between Laure Meloy and Helen Howard) – so here we are, for now.

However, we’ve been looking at whether the way we’ve been doing things is really suitable for this large and diverse area. We wanted your views on whether it might be more convenient and easier if we have two informal hubs, probably in Canterbury and Margate? And if so, would there be any volunteers for helping self-organise meet-ups? We’re thinking something as informal as “meet me in Costa at 11am on Friday” for example. There would be no need to keep notes, or organize speakers, it would just be a chance for people to meet more regularly, get to know each other better and have a good chat. Once we’ve established a stronger network, we can look again at finding committee members and organizing a membership drive, fundraising events, campaigning and even (come the day) some electioneering.

Please email [email protected] if you would like to help get the ball rolling. Please confirm in your email that you don’t mind your contact details being shared with other East Kent members who live in the vicinity – that way we can put you in touch with each other and you can take if from there. Once you’ve got a small core group, you might want to start a closed Facebook or Whatsapp group.

NB There are some changes to the branch email address coming very soon, but don’t worry, you can still use the [email protected] for now

Please join the East Kent group on Facebook - www.facebook.com/WEPEASTKENT/ - and feel free to start or join any conversations.

Look forward to hearing from you all, best wishes,

Cathy

Branch Leader