A thank you
20/09/2008
GERRY ARMES
Gerry has shown an overwhelming commitment over a number of years to the work of the Journalists' Charity in a voluntary capacity. This has involved an active participation with the welfare of members of his former profession (photo-journalism) with personal involvement in cases of hardship and in significant long-term fundraising to meet their needs.
He has taken the responsibility for ensuring that journalists living in the West Midlands conurbation are supported in the flowing ways:
Making them aware of the help the charity can provide:
**By supporting any application for help that is submitted to the charity, often by initial contact with the applicant and subsequent submission of their request to the Trustees.
**Raising significant amounts of money by arranging fund-raising events - usually between £15,000 and £20,000 each year.
**Arranging visits to the charity's homes to enable potential residents view these facilities.
Gerry has a drive and energy allied with a tenacity that ensures that the needs of those he comes into contact are met. Those same qualities are exhibited when he organises fund raising-lunches and events. These have become firmly established in the local calendar.
His commitment to the work is such that he has ensured that the work will continue when he stands down as Chairman of the West Midlands' Committee in 2008, having reached his 80th birthday, by gathering a group of volunteers to take over the roles he has performed.
His commitment has been longstanding:
Became a member in 1960 and commenced his task in making the charity known and persuading colleagues to join and subscribe. One significant example was persuading a colleague to run in the London Marathon to support the charity.
He became a Trustee of the charity in 1995, representing the West Midlands and continues in that role to date. He is viewed by the Trustees as an example to follow and is always willing to pass on his experience and knowledge to others and he was made an honorary Life President as a result upon his election to the Trustee board in 1995.
LAURIE UPSHON
Laurie Upshon was Controller of News & Operations at ITV Central from 1990 to September 2005. He was appointed to the board of Central Independent Television in 1993.
He began as a print journalist in London and his ITV career started at Southern Television in 1976. He was part of the launch team of TVS in 1981 and at Central, he was responsible for creating Britain's first automated newsroom at Abingdon in 1988 for which he won the national Royal Television Society Award for technological innovation.
Laurie has also won RTS national awards for Daily News programming, and the gold award at the Worldfest Flagstaff International Film Festival for coverage of Breaking News Stories. In October 2005 he was awarded the Royal Television Society's top honour, the Baird Medal, for an outstanding contribution to the Television industry (Recent previous recipients have included Chris Tarrant, Jasper Carrott, Bob Monkhouse and Lenny Henry). He co-ordinated the ITV Heads of News group for 11 years