| MONEW's New Chair, Helen Atton writes |
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| About MONEW - MONEW The Organisation | |
| Written by Helen Atton | |
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MONEW's New Chair, Helen Atton writes: I didn't think, when my marriage broke up and I moved into a rented house in Monmouth, that one of the most positive phases of my life so far was about to begin.  It didn't feel too promising! I was facing a long bitter divorce case, had no emotional or financial support, three children to care for and had just been made redundant. Three months later I was made redundant again and realised I had to get a grip on my life or it would break me. The flexibility and freedom of choice of working for myself and the hugely positive impact of learning about the benefits of coaching made me decide to re train as a professional coach, a career which draws together my experiences of life through graduation from Oxford university through IT sales management into teaching, motherhood and law. This was the first of the two most positive things I have done since moving into the centre of town. The second was that, through MONEW Member Rosalind Lines, I found MONEW, and the initial thing I realised was that I'd come across a whole group of new friends, who were there when I needed to be with people and who shared their own experiences with me, giving me their time and support when and if I needed it. This was just what I did need and for a while it was enough to help to encourage me to complete my studies and launch my business. It was then I started to see that MONEW was able to offer me a whole lot more. They run training courses to help new businesses, courses to move on to the next stage in business and courses for personal development like having the confidence to speak out in public, (which are invaluable to all of us whether we run a business, a home or work for someone else). The wide network of local people in the group means that there's always someone who can offer a recommendation for services or craftsmen, advice on where to go for information and guidance or invaluable experience to help solve a problem. The organisation links to and supports other businesses in the area and it's good to feel that we're helping the local economy where we can. I've now established my business but am looking forward to growing it year by year and I've been on the committee of MONEW for the past 12 months. I was tempted to say that I'm giving something back but actually I'm still gaining far more than I've given and I'm sure that'll continue to be the case. Now that I've allowed myself to be persuaded to be the Chair I'd like as many women as possible to benefit from MONEW as I have. We're all volunteers in the organisation and as a result we sometimes run out of time to do things properly and make mistakes, but I'd like to think we're offering our members something worthwhile. MONEW is after all a cooperative, which means that it's up to us all as members to say what we want from it and hopefully to do a little every now and then to help achieve it. MONEW offers friendship and support both personally and for business and we want to continue to make it work for all of us. So if you've any thoughts, positive or negative, about how you'd like to see MONEW develop, please contact me here and let me know so we can move the organisation forward for us all. Better still, come and tell me what you think at the next coffee morning at Coffee #1 on Friday 8 January and at our monthly Talk in the Town, the first of 2010 is on Tuesday 19th January and declutter your life at the same time. Happy New Year to you all and your loved ones.
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