Janet Freeman has been a respected and valued Trustee of MAM for five and a half years. For personal reasons Janet has decided to resign as a Trustee of Mary Aikenhead Ministries (MAM) and her term ended at the close of the Mary Aikenhead Ministries Conference on 12 May.
My fellow Trustees and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Janet for her very significant and selfless contribution to MAM during her term as a Trustee.
Janet’s first encounter with the Sisters of Charity was at Bethlehem College where she was educated by the Sisters of Charity. Then Janet’s first encounter with MAM was as a Councillor on the Mary Aikenhead Education Australia Advisory Council. From there Janet was appointed a Trustee of MAM in January 2018 and was also appointed the Board Chair for Mary Aikenhead Education Ltd.
Janet’s passion, contribution, and service to MAM and the ministries has been outstanding and MAM has been very fortunate to have someone of such high calibre to be a part of the MAM journey. Janet was always a very active participant in MAM and in our Trustee meetings. Janet was not reluctant to be the trustee who did not agree with something and would give her cogent reasons for that (often those who dissent are the ones who add much to the discussions). In all of this, she was always courteous and respectful.
Indeed, Janet is a very kind and thoughtful person always aware of the needs of others. She is the one who checks if anyone needs anything, even a coffee. The MAM staff were always very appreciative of her gentle manner and how she demonstrated the four values of MAM. Janet is a big thinker and a great ideas person and her contribution will be sorely missed around the Trustee table.
Janet was very involved with the idea for an annual MAM Oration and the recently completed the Early Years Project. The annual Oration will be an initiative that will be carried into the future and the Early Years Project enabled MAM to capture the recent history of MAM forever, which I know will be a rich resource and will be greatly appreciated by future Trustees.
I should add that Janet does have a particularly soft spot for our Education Ministries. One recognises this when one sees Janet at a stewardship visit to one of our colleges and the easy way she connects with the teachers and in particular the students there.
Whilst we will miss Janet, we wish her all the best for the future and hopefully she will now have more time to spend with her husband Col, especially travelling in Australia.
Thank you, Janet, for your selfless contribution to MAM and we all wish you the very best for the future.
Mr Richard Haddock AO
Chair, Mary Aikenhead Ministries