The Friendly Group — Resumee March 09

Suffolk Healers Association, Sussex Healers Association, Redbridge Centre, International Healing Fellowship and Yorkshire Healers Association. We were delighted to have some visitors from the Redbridge Healing Centre; I do hope they found the day informative and enjoyable.

Devon and Cornwall Healers Association, Teresa, Paula and John.

Bristol and District Healing Association have made enquiries about joining us and are hoping to join us at the next meeting.

Terry, Diane and June are all retiring this year after a very dedicated and committed term of office. They will notify us in due course of all the changes that are going to take place. We wish them all of the very best in their retirement.

Teresa has closed the her School for a variety of reasons, and her members have now joined either Yorkshire Healers or Strathclyde Healing Fellowship. We wish her much happiness in the future and we look forward to seeing her at future meetings.

There are continuing problems for Michael and Viv regarding their PC and currently their daughter is receiving emails on their behalf. However, if you wish to email them then please email to: enquiries@redbridgehealingcentre.org.uk with REDBRDIGE HEALING CENTRE in the Subject Box otherwise they will not be opened. Their website is: www.redbridgehealingcentre.org.uk

Glennis has queried the current situation regarding the SWA (see last Résumé) and has also asked for information on Prince Charles' Quango.

Even though the Friendly Group is no longer a member of the SWA, because of the way they began to conduct their business last year, they continue to list us, and other organisations, on their website.

The Insurance they offered to both Spiritual and Reiki healers, in the beginning, was conducted as any insurance would, with healers verifying their training, etc.. However, it seems that this is no longer the case and 'healing insurance' is provided without any proof at all. Apparently, the insurance company has learned of this practice and is not prepared to continue under the circumstances.

There are many other issues concerning their dealings with people from all over the world, apart from insurance, that are not satisfactory. The Office of Fair Trading has now been advised and is looking into it.

There are new laws governing the registration of churches as charities with the Commission; however, they do not apply to Healer associations (Charities Act 2006). Having made enquiries, the current requirement for applying to become a registered charity is having an annual income of Ł5,000, or more, per annum and not Ł1,000 as before.

All charities must comply with these requirements for accounting periods starting on or after April 2008. For further information, I suggest you go to their website for their new guide, 'Help with Public Benefit Reporting'.
Web: www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publicbenefit/pbreport.asp

Bill explained that their accountant has advised him that their constitution concerning the wording such as 'annual audit of your accounts' may have to be amended. The words now change from 'auditors' and 'audit' to 'professional auditors' or to 'accountants who will make an annual independent investigation' (this change has been implemented by the FSA). I understand that this applies to our constitutions as well.

Strathclyde have been experiencing problems as a number of their members did not receive renewal forms — bearing in mind that this is a small group, it really shouldn't happen.

Suffolk Healers have had three ex-members given healer insurance at Ł10 which shouldn't happen as we understood that the condition for healer insurance at that rate was being a member of a healer association.

Some of us thought that we had signed a disclaimer for our association with wording to that effect and sent it to Balens.

Obtaining lists of those who have insurance appears to be a problem at the present for some reason.

Willie has been looking at the idea of making a 3-minute film/video of healing and putting it on the website; he is asking for volunteers who have a relatively good video camera and are interested in photography to try and make a film. Ideally, it is to be no more than 3 minutes long; preferably with a woman giving healing and with an explanatory commentary to accompany it.

If you wish to update the website in any way, please get in touch with Willie; the Healing FAQ page is available for scrutiny and, of course, you can add more Questions and Answers.

If you send a newsletter, to Willie, please indicate what item or section you would like on the website otherwise Willie will not be able to do anything.

For those who have a PC, and if you haven't and can access one in your local library, please find time to look at your website. Willie has done a marvellous job for us and, for all the hours he has given to create it, he deserves our appreciation by taking a few minutes of our time to look at it.

Thank you so much Paula for all your hard work; we think it looks great. We have proofread it and have made small changes in your absence. I will send each association a copy, with the minutes, and for those who have email, I will also email it. The idea now is that each association can print and/or photocopy it so that they can distribute them to their members and the public for information about us.

The Marie Curie Hospital in Glasgow refuse to have Spiritual healers working there but will accept Reiki healers; apparently, this is not uncommon in the UK at the moment.

Email: beckyjdew@aol.com
Web: www.sussexhealers.co.uk

This is neither regulated by Balens nor is it a requirement for healer insurance. It is voluntary and is something that we can encourage and foster as part of being a healer. It is entirely up to the associations to support and foster in any way, shape or form, this idea with their members.

We all forgot to bring information, apart from Viv, regarding training methods and programmes and we all agreed that we would share our ideas, etc. at the next meeting.

Don't forget, if there is anything else you would like to discuss that may need some preparation on our part then let me know before hand.

The Fish & Chip lunch was a great success and enjoyed by all; in fact, it was so good we have all agreed to repeat it at the next meeting. For those who wish a change, the restaurant also cooks Chinese food; unfortunately, the Indian restaurant has closed down.

For those with a SatNav, the post code for the Whomerley Church is SG2 8AY; I will add it to our letters and the address list.

The next meeting will be held on October 3 2009 at the Whomerley Centre at 10.30am
The meeting was closed at 3.00pm

Have a wonderful summer, keep well and be happy;
it was really good to see you all again
and look forward to October's meeting
Wishing you all Love and Blessings, Margaret