ABSLTA's Achievements 2019 - 2020

Emma Iliffe – she has been brilliantly chairing ABSLTA for 5 years, and is coming up to her 6th year. She has modernised ABSLTA and increased member numbers since she took over. She focused on what members want and how ABSLTA can support those members. She came up with the idea for an ABSLTA members group on Facebook while spending a lot of time creating resources and putting important information in this group. This is another way for ABSLTA members to network and share ideas. She has been representing ABSLTA in the U.K., reaching out to Wales and Scotland, engaging with Northern Ireland in the future; and on her travels in Europe and the world, promoting ABSLTA and BSL wherever possible. Without Emma’s skills and strong leadership, ABSLTA would not have celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2019 and continued to be the leading organisation for BSL Teachers and Assessors in the U.K. Thank you Emma, from the bottom of ABSLTA’s heart. 

Jill Hipson – Brilliant minutes taking and watching signed conversations at the same time to translate from BSL into English. A huge job well done. As e-newsletter editor, she has worked hard editing the contributions for the newsletter and contributing to it. Jill accepted the role of Membership secretary, an additional role in which she has made sure everything is smooth for 2020. She set up ABSLTA’s new website DIY marvellous and really exciting as ABSLTA’s old website were like a car breaking down and decided to take it over so to save ABSLTA money and it is a really a massive achievement. 

Gillian Stringer – she has shown amazing commitment to ABSLTA for many years as Treasurer and is still serving on the executive committee longer than all of the executive committee put together. It has been challenging for Gillian with managing our money, the incomings and the outgoings. 

Especially challenging dealing with membership payments without names and then finding the name to match the payment. Gillian established a new membership team with Jill Hipson as Membership Secretary and Ashley Clifford as Technical Membership co-ordinator. They will provide additional support to make sure everything relating to membership becomes smooth in 2020.

Ashley Clifford – our IT person who got involved in working the technical issues ABSLTA has and resolved. It was really difficult and challenging for Ashley as he is not a website designer to tackle and update the old ABSLTA website when it was handed over to him. We all tried to support him despite having technological weaknesses. Luckily Jill had some knowledge of the new website set-up and together, they have flourished. Ashley is now in a good place as it is a good time for him to learn all the new things to do with the website before he becomes a father who will be busy with the new baby in 2020. We are really glad to have you as a member of the team. 

Stuart Parkinson – an amazing man who hails from Cardiff. He joined the executive committee from the Cardiff AGM in 2018, he has given us lots of ideas and was instrumental in recruiting people for ABSLTA. He was successful in asking his local MP Stephen Doughty from Cardiff South and Penarth who agreed to become our Patron. Stephen Doughty was invited to the Cardiff AGM who saw and met BSL Teachers who would support the campaign for BSL in Westminster Government. Clark Denmark became President of ABSLTA, he will be a good role model for BSL teachers to look up to. Both will give more publicity and promotion of ABSLTA. Thank you Stuart for your work in recruiting those men. A big thanks for developing the Business Plan for ABSLTA, organising the trustee training for the executive committee who now have a better idea of what it means to be trustees in that sense. Thank you for going to Scotland with Lesley to get an idea of BSL teachers there. 

Lesley Davidson – Lesley travelled to Scotland with Stuart Parkinson to meet with the Scottish Government and discuss BSL and how ABSLTA may support their aims and objectives. This is a historic achievement. We are very lucky to have Lesley Davidson as our Training and Workshops officer. She has many years of experience, knowledge and qualifications and is a qualified trainer, training other Teachers and Assessors. We have struck gold! She set up a successful workshop in Liverpool at our 30th AGM in 2019 and used one local speaker which was quoted one of the best workshops delivered! Having raised the bar Lesley’s challenge is to use her skills and expertise to make sure our workshops are still one of the best. Big thank you to Lesley for applying to CityLit to become a teacher trainer and deliver STTC. Training the next generation of BSL Teachers in the U.K. is amazing and still have people queuing up to join your course! 

Richard Carter – He is famous for his work with media and using social media. He has promoted ABSLTA’s events and workshops as well as AGMs. He has great presenting and interviewing skills, presenting key and clear information for ABSLTA, and whom he interviewed many people including other professionals including the chair, on the topic of BSL Police. He has used his skills to gather feedback from members on ABSLTA’s AGMs and workshops and shared those with social media. He delivered a workshop in Scotland and promoted ABSLTA, explain to Scottish BSL Teachers about ABSLTA’s vision, and has encouraged them to become members too. 

Judith Kidd – she has settled very well in the executive committee as our newest recruit since joining in 2019 and fit in the team seamlessly. She has been immense in working with other members of the executive committee and is already excelling in her role as Events and Bookings Officer. She has been very practical, sharing ideas about which places best to book for AGMs and upcoming workshops, using her great organising skills and preparing well in advance.