Headcode

This newsletter has the been the most difficult one to produce since I became Editor in February 1998 and I am sorry that there has been a delay in sending it out especially as it might well miss the opportunity of publicising our day out at Dunrobin.

The lack of a Secretary would not normally have caused the rest of the Committee too much of an extra workload whilst attempting to keep to our responsibilities to our members, the Highland Rail Partnership and the operators of the Line. But the extra workload created by the demands for information and action created by one member and his support by a Committee member not only caused the retirement of our Chairman, Richard Ardern, on grounds of ill-health but distracted the Committee from its day to day operations, this newsletter included.

We are very grateful for the letters of support and regret that we have received. In fact the letters started to arrive within weeks of the AGM commenting how well Richard had handled the meeting. The latest letter to arrive talks of 'sadness in my heart after reading Richard's resignation letter" and 'impressed with the number of meetings connected with FoFNL he was attending" and concludes that the member conducting the harassment is 'well out of order".

Fortunately Richard has agreed to become a director of Highland Rail Partnership and, by all accounts, gave a first class presentation of FoFNL policies to the meeting of the Rail Passenger Committee held recently in Dingwall, so his services to the Line will continue.

Please give serious consideration to helping us fill our vacancies. A Chairman can only be appointed at the AGM in October / November but we can co-opt a Secretary at any time and the major requirement would be that you are computer literate and can communicate by e-mail as we have found that this transforms the speed with which we can react to situations that require Press Releases etc.