Area Trustee South Wales & Bristol
Gillian is Area Trustee for South Wales & Bristol
I live in Cardiff in South Wales and have recently retired from paid employment! I have been a civil servant for over 40 years working in computing, starting with writing code on punch cards to most recently working as an IT Infrastructure Engineer supporting and developing Microsoft Office 365. During this time I was also involved with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion which included the setting up of a strong network of 25+ groups to support those working in the organisation which worked particularly well during the pandemic. I also enjoy looking after my grandson for a couple of days each week.
I discovered Women’s Network (now MWiB) in about 1992 and have been involved with women in the church since then holding several district and connexional roles including District Younger Women’s Secretary and I was Connexional Women’s Network President in 2009-2010. It really opened my eyes to issues of diversity, inclusion and equality and what we can achieve together through raising awareness and campaigning. I learnt so much through Women’s Network, MWiB and World Federation of Methodist and United Church Women which influenced my professional life particularly as a woman working in an often male dominated profession. It also introduced me to our World Church family and I feel very privileged to have visited Methodist women and projects in other parts of the world starting with a District exchange with women in the Methodist Church in Portugal. At my very first residential Women’s Network conference I was introduced to Circle Dancing, and I still thoroughly enjoy dancing and leading workshops. I am also a Trustee and Registrar for Methodists for World Mission which enables me to keep in touch with and raise awareness of our World Church family which is growing! When I have any spare time I enjoy reading, patchwork and quilting, knitting and crochet and like to learn new skills and techniques!!