A WORD FROM THE CHAIR - MERYL GROSS

Like most charities, donations and fundraising activities are the life-blood of the organisation and during 2007 we managed to maintain our level of income while the need for assistance increased. We have a strategic plan to lift the level of income in the next 12 months and we should see significant fundraising activities in the two SAL branches in Victoria and South Australia as well as NSW. Our National Branch Coordinator, Brian Cadd, has been busy "spreading the word" and we are hopeful of seeing further interstate branches open over the coming year.

We are also pleased to welcome Jamie Rigg and Glenn Ware to the SAL Events Committee.

We offer sincere thanks to those out there in the community who take it upon themselves to organise events and donate the profits to SAL. Events like Benny's Reunion night provide much needed funds while at the same time everyone attending has a great night. Ways of donating money vary from musicians who leave a jar on the bar of the gig and ask punters for donations to a well known industry veteran who donates a percentage of his annual income to SAL for which we are extremely grateful. Every bit counts and we urge you to help.

We are currently working on plans to set up the Billy Thorpe Foundation to fulfill Billy's dream and details of this will be announced shortly.

Meryl Gross

Lindy Morrison, Support Act's National Welfare Coordinator, tells
of recent travels that included visiting a UK sister organisation:

I visited London for personal reasons in late September and took the opportunity to have a meeting with Rosanna Preston the Chief Executive at the Musicians Benevolent Fund UK and Rosalyn Gray the senior caseworker (who incidentally trained at QLD University). The MBF own a charming three story house near Goodge St with steep narrow staircases and small rooms that operate as the offices.

MBF began just over 75 years ago by the founders concerned with musicians in need who worked in the classical field. These days, the organisation has assets over 25 million pounds and receives 3 million pounds per year in legacies. Each year MBF deals with almost 1500 cases (half of which are classical musicians), spending over 2 million pounds a year on its benevolent work and giving advice and support to others. MBF employs over 20 people to operate the services. The packages of help are generous and every applicant receives home visits from case workers. MBF owns a residential care centre called Ivor Newton House which offers a retirement home and respite care to musicians. The MBF offer all sorts of schemes to support the training of young musicians through a variety of grants, awards and masterclasses. They conduct research to find out about lifestyles of musicians to aid in reducing the level of injury and ill health.

It was truly inspiring to see the extent and breadth of work that is accomplished by an organisation which is so financially viable because of the generous legacies and donations from the UK community who value their musicians