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I am happy to welcome you to what we all hope will be the last Rugby Psychotherapy Conference. As you know, our intention this year is to inaugurate the Standing Conference for Psychotherapy and thus bring to an end the ‘Rugby Conference’, closing one chapter in our history and opening a new one. Another closed chapter is the death last month of Paul Seighart who was one of our founding spirits. During this weekend Frank and Eileen Orford will say a few words about this.
Each year the amount of work done between Conferences has increased, and this last year has been no exception. I expect this trend to continue in the future.
Your Working Party had to hold an extra meeting which has not happened before and, in addition, the Sections have held meetings through the year. We will be hearing from them this evening.
Much of the work that has been done has a visible outcome either in working papers, correspondence or agenda. This year some behind the scenes work has appeared like an iceberg where only the end product is seen and most of the content remains hidden. For instance, you will see from the accounts that our finances are now in a healthy state and that they have been looked at by an accountant, very different from the precarious state of financial uncertainty that characterised the life of the Rugby Conference. We are advised that in their present form our accounts should be acceptable to the Charity Commissioners.
Another landmark was the meeting of the chair, secretary and treasurer to settle final details before the last pre-conference mailing went out. This was the first time that your office holders have met and taken executive action without the prior consent of or consultation with the Working Party. I have no doubt that this type of meeting will happen in the future as the content of Conference work escalates.
The other major event has been the securing of the finances to establish a Conference office with equipment and a part-time secretary.
For some time the