THE summer has flown past and at the time of writing this, the weather is a mixed bag. Hopefully, you have seen some sunshine, caught some rain drops and are planning for the autumn nights that await us!

But before we start thinking about winter coats and boots, let’s talk summer. You will have seen the articles on our fabulous NHS 75 Community Fayre celebrations that were held in July in Bedford and London.

Both days saw our local Governors chatting and meeting our members. It was the first opportunity for them to meet members face to face since the pandemic, it was lovely to see people re-connecting and sharing stories and making new friends.

Governors from our nearby hospital trusts in Bedford and Milton Keynes joined us in Bedfordshire and we hope to be working together in the future, so look out for our meeting plans.

If you had the opportunity to join us, you may have seen our brand-new Membership Engagement Plan we produced with input from our members, governors, service users and people participation reps. The plan has been approved by our Board and Governors. We are so pleased with the outcomes, it’s a first for us as the plan is on one page instead of 12! Saving trees and making things simpler. The plan can be seen on the next page. We will be working in the next 6 months on upcoming plans for our members meetings and Trusttalk.

We also have our new membership logo - we created it with the three words in mind that are important to our membership: Connecting, Engaging, Listening. Our Governors voted on the final design. Whenever you see this logo you will easily recognise that it is from the membership team.

Nominations for Governor elections were held in July  for the City of London, Hackney, Luton and Staff Governors – the elections were unopposed which means that the number of  nominations did not exceed the number of vacancies so there is no need for a ballot. We will introduce our new governors in the Autumn edition. . Keep an eye on your inbox for emails about our upcoming meetings and our AMM.

Finally, our usual plea - Help us save trees and pennies – let us have your email address. We are trying to make sure that we make the best use of our money, so, if Trusttalk is posted to you please let us have your email address. You will still hear from us, but it will be by email. We would prefer to send you an email version of Trusttalk, not only will we save trees, we will save on postage costs!

So please, if you have an email address - let us know, by emailing us at: elft.membership@nhs.net. Please include your full name and address. ……or if you no longer wish to hear from us (and that’s ok), please let us know using the same email address or give us a call on 0800 032 7297.

You can contact the membership team or your Governors by phone, 0800 032 7297 or email us elft.membership@nhs.net. At ELFT, our members are our local community, service users, staff, stakeholder and the voluntary sector, connecting us to all we serve.