Heather at Tash Rabat Caravanserai, Kyrgyzstan
Heather James has been serving as the Association’s General Secretary for seventeen years. In that time, she has done an amazing amount of work, organising meetings, writing reports, guiding Trustees with wise counsel and keeping us all in order. It is she who knows better than anyone the Association’s Rules and Statutes, its customs, history and achievements as well as having good ideas about how we could do things better in the future. In addition to the fulfilling the duties of Secretary, she has also organised countless summer and autumn meetings, all carried out with exemplary attention to detail employing her vast knowledge of Welsh sites, buildings and people to ensure that our meetings were inspiring, absorbing and enjoyable.
It’s hard to imagine the Association’s meetings without her there, adding imaginative ideas and sometimes cautionary tales to encourage or moderate our planning of events. She won’t be far away, of course, and we will, I am sure, continue to call upon her for advice. Stepping down from the role of Secretary has not prevented her from organising our next autumn meeting in Malvern, which promises to be absolutely up to standard.
Heather, you have been a magnificent Secretary, and we thank you so much for all your work for the Association through so many years. We know that we will continue to see you at meetings and lectures, but hope you can enjoy them all the more for not having to work quite so hard for us.
Marie Thérèse points out details of the French Romanesque
Marie Thérèse Castay, our stalwart representative from France, is also stepping down as Trustee. She, again, has been with us for many years, and has organised a number of wonderful summer meetings in France. Meticulous planning was a notable feature of her visits, only too familiar a characteristic to participants who peered myopically in search of tiny pieces of early medieval decorated stone in Romanesque churches and examined, flabbergasted, at intricate details within glasswork and pottery at sites and museums. A sight I will never forget is her striding onto some priceless mosaic with sponge and bucket in order to show us the colours of the tesserae that emerged after her judicious wetting of the surface.
Thank you, Marie Thérèse for your knowledge so enthusiastically shared with us. We will, I know, continue to see you at our meetings.