Just before Christmas, the FMB said goodbye to Mary Jones. Mary retired as the FMB Director of Administration last December after an astonishingly long career with the Federation, spanning 44 years. No-one has ever worked for the FMB for as long as that. Mary was the very first recipient of the FMB Ron Brown award in 2003, the award seeks to reward a member of the FMB staff who has demonstrated the characteristics that Ron advocated – tenacity, commitment and respect. Members of staff are nominated by their colleagues, and a small judging panel considers the applications, before choosing a winner. But Mary managed to top that award even, by being presented with a British Empire Medal (BEM) for Services to the Federation in 1991.
At the Managing Board meeting in December, Mary was awarded an Illuminated Address by Derek Bostock on behalf of the National Council, in recognition of her outstanding loyalty and service to the Federation. This is the highest accolade that an Ordinary Member can be presented with by National Council and has never before been awarded to an FMB member of staff. Mary may not have been well known by all FMB members as she tended to stay in the background but those who did know her well had great affection for her and were moved to write a few lines which we reproduce here:
Mr Jack Hitchmough (Past FMB National Treasurer)
I was elected to National Council in 1974 and when I visited the FMB HQ for the first time (33, St John Street in those days) I was greeted by Mary who was the receptionist at the time. She instantly put me at ease, over the years I came to realise that Mary made others better by being caring and generous herself.
Gordon Marjoram (Past National President)
I think Mary had ‘FMB’ running through her like a stick of rock, I always considered her to be an integral part of the FMB team.
ONE MORE THING
I have been very privileged to see pictures of the entries for the Master Builder of the Year awards. The standard of projects – as you would expect – has been incredibly high but as a serial house renovator I have been left feeling decidedly up-skittled by it all. Regular readers of Master Builder may remember that I reported on a very recent ‘Rogers Renovation Project’ where I lived on a building site for almost a year, honed my (ropey) plastering skills and swore never to contemplate another project again (ever), happy to settle in what I thought was my perfect home. Well, here we are again – thoroughly inspired by these stunning entries – so as soon as the ground is soft enough, the ‘for sale’ board will be hammered into the lawn and off we go again with another project.
If I’ve got the energy, I’ll keep you posted…
