CHAIRPERSON'S ADDRESS

This has been an unusual year for Waterford Teachers' Centre. It has been a year in which some of the scope and range of the services have had to be curtailed and yet we are looking forward in the near future to being in a position where we can offer teachers an exciting New Teachers' Centre building. 

In 1999 Waterford Teachers Centre finally acquired a permanent home when the building which we had occupied since 1990 was purchased on our behalf from De La Salle College, but almost simultaneously we had to vacate the building in order to facilitate the major renovation programme which will make it a Teachers' Centre building which teachers can be proud of. Since Summer 1999 therefore, Waterford Teachers' Centre has been in temporary exile, back on the Quay again. While these developments are very exciting it has been a difficult year for the staff of the centre. The very busy summer course season was followed by the evacuation of the building and safe storage of most of its contents as well as the more temporary offices on the Quay. It has not been possible in these premises to offer the usual range of services that teachers have enjoyed in the past including, most importantly, an open door to all callers Harry, Breda and Karen have had to work behind closed doors and yet keep up communication with teachers and schools by post, phone, fax and e-mail and find a variety of venues in which to run courses and meetings. They have still managed to continue to run a programme of local activities and implement national programmes of Inservice in I.T., Revised Primary Curriculum, L.C Physics and Chemistry amongst others. It is a tribute to their hard work, organisational skills and adaptability that they have been so successful in keeping contact and activities running during this time. 

We are all looking forward to moving into the new Teachers' Centre and believe that teachers in the Waterford area will be delighted with the renovations that are taking place. This project which has been ongoing throughout the year has obviously placed additional burdens, particularly on our Director, Harry, of keeping us informed of developments allowing us to discuss what we wanted in the building and liasing with both the Architects and with the Department of Education. He can feel justly proud when we open the doors of our new centre to be the Director in place when Waterford Teachers' Centre finally acquired its own building and one which is worthy of all the energy and enthusiasm of teachers in this area that have participated in its activities over a quarter of a century. 

Our secretary Breda Halley has worked extra hard thus to keep lines of communication open to teachers and schools despite our temporary exile and we are looking forward to seeing her installed too in the newly renovated building in a working environment which is worthy of her commitment to the centre. During this year we have recruited a young Assistant Karen Ronayne and she and Breda have quickly established very good working relationships and formed themselves into an excellent team. 

We hope that in the future the staff will grow further so that we can provide an even better service to teachers and schools in the area. 

This has been an unusual year too for the Committee. Since we vacated our building we have not been in a position to open at night-times and so have been relieved of our duty to do our rota of evening work but we have had to work long and hard at committee meetings as important issues needed to be discussed and decisions reached. I would like to pay tribute to our Committee members who have attended meetings diligently and worried over these issues late into the night. In particular, our Treasurer Paula Hewison, has worried as usual over the money and worked closely with Harry and Breda in preparing our financial reports and also in taking the notes of the Committee Meetings. The Committee who represent the teachers who use the centre are really looking forward to seeing the realisation of the dreams of teachers when we return to our "new" Teachers' Centre and we know that all the hard work will have been worth it.

Signed: Niamh Crowley
(Chairperson)