Maggie Rawat of Merseyside AA was recently awarded a Certificate of Recognition for her invaluable contribution to the local CSSC membership in the Merseyside area.
Maggie joined Merseyside Area Association in 2001, following the Area's club closure and their need to get more volunteers and organisers on board.
Maggie had displayed several skills and qualities in her work for her DA (CSA) for over 10 years and throughout this time had run numerous trips, including The Good Food Show and RHS Flower Show in Cheshire on an annual basis. She also instigated the DA's Theatre Club and created a distribution list of members and created a spreadsheet to help manage the bookings and ticket allocation within the DA which initially created work but in the long run proved to be a very efficient and useful tool. For this she underwent computer training to help in the management of the amount of payments going through the system.
Maggie's background in organizing and running events like this were the very skills the new look AA was looking for. Since joining Merseyside AA she has run many trips to the NEC, Garden Shows etc, (probably numbering over 50 events) but her biggest achievement is the work she does for the AA with theatre tickets.
In the early years the AA did few trips but with Maggie's enthusiasm, skills and energy she has gradually increased the offering in relation to day trips and theatre tickets. This year Merseyside has offered its members subsidised tickets to over 100 theatre shows. This is a phenomenal effort on her part. She has pro-actively sourced and increased the theatre offerings from one to seven and therefore given members a vastly increased choice. Maggie still continues to run trips to shows at the NEC, Cheshire Flower Show, Manchester theatre nights, and many other events. An approximate calculation means that approximately 6,000 theatre tickets have been enjoyed by over 230 unique members in Merseyside AA in 2011.
It is without a doubt that when Helen Marsden recruits in the Merseyside AA she always prints off the latest Merseyside Theatre page to take with her, and this definitely helps in recruiting new members.
Maggie has been a key factor in the recent success of Merseyside AA and has positively contributed to the 50% increase in membership in Merseyside over the past decade.
