Blog | New Vice President elected to committee of Wakefield Civic Society

New Vice President elected to committee of Wakefield Civic Society

Posted on 12 May 2015 by

Over 100 members and guests attended the Society's 50th AGM and Awards Evening on 16th April 2015. The event was held in County Hall, Wakefield courtesy of the Mayor of Wakefield, Councillor Sandra Picking who acted as host.

One of the items on the agenda for the AGM was the election of committee members. Kevin Trickett was re-elected as President for a 14th year, while Mike O'Donnell and Jean Broadbent were re-elected as Secretary and Vice President respectively. However, after a gap of over a year when the post was left unfilled, Kevin Trickett was delighted to announce that committee member Nicki Embleton had agreed to stand for election to the role of Vice President and members were very happy to elect Nicki unopposed.

Nicki has been a member of Wakefield Civic Society since January 2014 and has lived in Ossett for most of her life.

She studied at Wakefield College and worked at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park back in the 80’s. She is a marketing, communications and PR specialist and is currently senior regional press manager for Cancer Research UK. 

Nicki has always been proud of her Wakefield roots and is keen to celebrate and champion the city. A keen supporter of arts and culture, she is a Friend of both the Hepworth and YSP, as well as a founding shareholder at Unity Works.

Said Nicki “As the daughter of a builder, I grew up looking at and talking about buildings. One of my biggest regrets is not choosing to study architecture at university. When you’re 17, seven years of study seems like a lifetime. However I’ve never lost my appreciation of architecture and joining Wakefield Civic Society has given me the chance to put that to some good”.

The AGM also some other changes being made to the make up of the Society's committee. Three new members were elected: Darren Byford (a former committee member and former Vice President who returns to the committee), John Ramsden and Pete Taylor, while four members retired: Jean Rhodes, Carole Jones, Jayne Hammond and Lesley Harrison. Jean will be known to many members of the Society having served on the committee for something in the region of 30 years (no one can actually remember when she first joined the committee, not even Jean!) and she was presented her with a gift token and certificate of Honorary Life Membership in recognition of her services to the Society over so many years. Although Carole and Jayne have stepped down from the Executive Committee, both have agreed to continue their work on two of the Society's Sub-Committees – Carole will continue to support the work of the Excursions Sub-Committee and Jayne the Planning Sub-Committee.