From Your Secretary's Desk

First and Foremost - Greetings to all members and colleagues as we enter the twenty-first century! My desk, at times only barely resisting deflection under 'pending backlog', needs recovery time: the dark green eyeshade has been a great help. . . Adapting a popular Radio 4 form of words - "As the rose-tinted cauldron of defectively recalled nostalgia spills inexorably into the yawning onset of an uncharted third millennium" what paths do we think the Friends should be exploring? I think we can safely identify at least two ways ahead.

Building closer two-way contacts with regional authorities and Holyrood, and with local communities and the railway companies, acting as a focus for constructive liaison - to provide a useful point of reference in relation to all matters affecting the Far North Line. Only by being seen to serve the best interests of the railway and the communities among which it passes can our stated aims be achieved.

Alongside this, seeking to develop activities for our members. To date, all we have offered members in return for their loyalty are the Newsletters and our, inevitably rather formal, AGM. We should do better! We are planning one or two Open Meetings, to which you are cordially invited, where we can exchange ideas in relaxed surroundings and hear your views and ideas. Please support them.