RDA Raymond Terrace & Lower Hunter Committee

Our Volunteer Management Committee consist of eight position holders including President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and 4 Committee Members.

Election of the Management Committee takes places annually at our March Annual General Meeting with a quorum of our members.

  2023 Management Committee:

President –  This position is currently vacant.

Vice President – This position is currently vacant.

Anne – Treasurer – Anne joined our Centre as a program volunteer in 2017 and joined the Management Committee in the role of Committee Member in 2019.  Anne has been working on our NDIS area and previously spent a lot of years working within the community area with a different charity. In late 2022, Anne took up the role of Treasurer.

Jenny – Secretary – Jenny joined RDA in 2018 and is part of Team Tuesday & the Supa Saturday Squad. In 2020 she became the Volunteer Co-ordinator, a role she totally enjoys. In Jennys’ previous life she worked in the engineering industry in Newcastle for over 40 years.  Her roles included sales and management within different sectors of the company. She has three daughters, 4 grandchildren and enjoys an idyllic ‘life on the farm’ in rural Stroud.

Jane – Committee member – Jane has been around the Centre for a while; her daughter being one of our riders.  Jane joined the committee in the role of Committee Member.  Jane has assisted in a range of ways, especially in imparting her perspective to us as a rider’s parent, to the Management Committee.  In 2020 Jane took on the role of the Centre’s Riders/Parents Representative.

Chris – Committee member – Chris, with his wife Gail, became involved with RDA in early 2014 when their son Lachlan started Hippotherapy, then continued on as a rider on Tuesdays. In mid 2019, Chris retired (from travelling to Newcastle) to spend more time on the farm 20km north of Singleton. At the end of 2021, when Lachlan was not able to continue riding, Lachlan decided to return in 2022 as a volunteer to help out the people who helped him. We wanted to encourage this, so it means travelling to RDA each Tuesday.

Lesley Anne – Fundraising Coordinator – Lesley Anne started volunteering on a Tuesday in 2021 and in 2022 agreed to join the Management Committee at the Centre. She has taken onboard fundraising. She hails from England via South Africa and has two sons and a daughter.

David – Committee Member – David recently joined RDA as a Committee Member and WHS Co-ordinator. David was introduced to RDA by his wife, Kerrie who is a Team Tuesday Volunteer. David acted as the Judge for the ‘Team Tuesday 2022  Mounted Games’ which he really enjoyed. He recently retired after 25 years as Managing Director of HMS Consultants Pty Ltd (HMS), a leading resource and risk management consulting company. HMS has delivered over 2000 successful projects within the Australian and international resource sectors but also in health, local and state government and other industries. Previously, David volunteered for 10 years to the Minerals Council of Australia – National Safety Criteria. David and Kerrie have a son (2 grandchildren) and a daughter who has been riding from a very young age.

Anita Merrington – Committee Member – Anita (another POM) had thought of joining RDA for many years.

First noticing the sign on the Pacific Highway when travelling North on holiday with her family.

She finally became of volunteer and became part of the dynamic Team Tuesday early 2023 and loves it.

She has a long  background in nursing and works part time, helping sick and premature infants graduate home with their families.

One or two of our current riders could well have been nursed by her during their stay in NICU.

Her passion is anything equine and as a child/teenager she would beg, steal or borrow a horse or pony. Any thing to get her hands on them.

Now-a-days, she is very fortunate to enjoy many a trail ride through the Australian bush on one of her trusted steads.

She is the newest committee member and is excited to be helping raise funds to help our rider’s successes continue long into the future.

Her primary role will be to source sponsorship for all our horses and ponies in a ‘Share A Horse’ program.