Greetings fellow Alumnae, I am Margery Richards-Campbell your President for the year 2023/2024.

I am from the class of 1973, and completed sixth form in 1975. I am a country girl at heart hailingfrom the yam parish of Trelawny. I completed one year of Youth Service in 1975/1976, I taught atthe Duncans Primary School. I graduated from UWI Mona with BSc degree in Management Studies. I am a Chartered Accountant by profession since 1990.

I am a sports enthusiast, love to watch track and field, cricket, lawn tennis, I was on the lawn tennis team at Westwood. I still play, I just adore the game. I am a lover of orchids I grow them as a hobby. My garden is always in bloom. I find pottering about in my garden a great way to release stress. I am passionate about service, a Distinguished President of the Kiwanis Club of South St. Catherine, President of the Pleasant Valley Citizens’ Association, Neighborhood Watch member, member of the Action Group (group responsible for flower decoration) and Chairperson of the Hill Group at Church of the Transfiguration and a natural progression to being elected as President of this august Association.

My tag line/goal for WOGA for 2023/2024 is “Build Relationships”. What this means, is that as President, I would like to see WOGA membership grow astronomically. I would like us to build on the momentum built under President Doreen and team, when there was the great enthusiasm for the 140th celebrations in 2022. Energy was high and the camaraderie was electric. We need to connect with our sisters, we need to support each other through networking and most importantly we need to see our alma mater succeed on all fronts. We need to ensure that Westwood maintains the standards instilled in us, the continued excellence by the students and improve the physical plant. We can only achieve this in numbers, by each one of us who passed through those gates giving of our time, our support and our resources no matter how small.

We need to grow our membership to survive. At the last AGM (March 2023) the financial report stated that dues collected for the year was just over $JMD45,000. This is not enough to cover the administrative costs of running WOGA and we cannot use funds raised for a specific purpose to do this. Westwood is now 141 years old, and although we have just over 200 persons engaged on Whatsapp groups, 1,1130 on Instagram and Facebook, a few additional older members on email, but based on membership dues payment  - less than FIFTY members.

Let us begin a tsunami, let us all rise up with a renewed faith in our alma mater using WOGA as the vehicle to begin the change. Let each of us begin with me. Each one, reach one and ensure that by the end of 2024 we are more than 2,000 strong!

 

There is strength in numbers. WOGA sisters rise up and be counted: “Build Relationships”.

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Regards,
President Margery