Page 4 - Spring 19

While in reflective mood, I would like to thank the entire Committee for their untiring work behind the scenes. We have had a gruelling schedule of Committee Meetings over the past two years, shepherded charmingly and capably by our wonderful and unshakeable Hon. Sec.
Your Committee will be meeting at some point over the weekend and the Working Party will also have its inaugural meeting. Having shared initial ideas for a way forward, it seems that a face-to-face meeting will serve us best to enable the next phase. It has to be said that, while we have not thus far achieved a better status for our medical art within our professional establishment, we have ‘played on’ for two years and little has changed in the way many of us operate.
Talking about the RCVS, Barbara and Peter visited the RCVS President in their official Faculty capacities on 6th March. It is difficult to say whether this meeting revealed any change in tone or position since the November 2017 Position Statement and the meeting with Ilse and me last November. It is probably safest to say that the RCVS is not budging from its entrenched anti-homeopathy stance. One thing stood out for me in the notes of their meeting and it was when Peter stated that we (veterinary homeopaths) felt ‘singled out’. The President replied that we ‘had singled ourselves out by having a qualification in it’. This remark seems strange and anomalous, when the RCVS requests that vets should be trained in any speciality they use! It also ignores the fact that the then RCVS Registrar was part of the consultation process in setting up the veterinary training programmes and examinations in the 1980s.
The fantastic support we have received over the last two years from the CAM4Animals consumer group has been invaluable and I urge all of you to seize every opportunity you can to help them in their work. They want us to be able to continue to provide excellent veterinary homeopathic treatment for their animal charges, both now and into the future. Let’s help them to secure that objective.
On March 25th, a number of us met up at Geoff’s place, for another in the series of regional meetings that I proposed at the AGM in 2017.
https://www.bahvs.com/regional-meeting-march-25/
From my standpoint it was a great success and I am grateful to Geoff and Mandy for hosting it so charmingly. We had a live case that was challenging and seriously ill.
Early reports of response were positive but I have heard no update since. All those present brought contributions to a great lunch, which we enjoyed al fresco on the terrace. It was all very civilised, congenial, enjoyable and instructive. We were even joined by Malene, all the way from France(!), who will no doubt be sharing news of the occasion elsewhere in this issue. These meetings have provided a great opportunity for folk to come and share time with like-minded people and to share knowledge and ideas. I hope we can hold more and I look forward to receiving offers from would-be hosts.
I’m sure you will all agree with me that the website goes from strength to strength and is an amazing achievement. The digital magazine is also a tour-de- force. We cannot offer enough thanks to the incredible Malene/Phil team
Spring is now so well under way that we can be looking forward to Summer and it is highly possible that we’re in for a good one again. Traditional country signs predict a dry summer. For those of us who feed off our gardens, germination of seeds and keeping plants alive during lengthy drought periods can be a challenge and we’ve had a very dry Winter and Spring already. Nonetheless, I look forward to the challenge and the growing season is thankfully well on its journey already. I wish all gardeners among us a good season in 2019.
I hope you have all enjoyed good health since our last President’s letter and, if so, that that happy condition will persist. My own health has been slightly suspect during this time around the Equinox, which appears to be an annual challenge for me. My biggest health challenge of all was in April 2015. The transition from hibernation to Spring activity is always tricky and not made easier by the intervention of the 6-Nations Rugby Championship, occupying as it does five key weekends when things should be getting under way! What a cliff-hanger it was this year, with so many memorable match surprises, and congratulations to Wales for their massive achievement. I really don’t watch TV but the rugby is compelling and compulsory. If any outstanding lesson can be taken home from this year’s championship it is this, in my opinion:
However grim the score line looks, play on at full throttle until the final whistle.
In my opinion, that is both an important general life lesson and a salutary message to us in our current situation. We may be facing a massive challenge just now but we’re still ‘ALIVE AND KICKING’. Play on...
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