Governor Profile - Alison Page
Meet Alison
Hi, my name is Alison Page and I became a Governor of Lancaster and Morecambe College in September 2004. My first twelve months of governorship has coincided with a bumpy time for the college and its team of hard-working staff, and it has been an education in itself to get to grips with all the internal and external audits that have taken place in the last year in order to help get the college on the road to recovery!
I was appointed onto the Board of Corporation as a Community Member, largely because of my current role as paid Chief Executive of Furniture Matters, a local recycling, re-use and training charity, based in Morecambe and covering the whole of the Lancaster District. Furniture Matters has now been established for five years, and offers low-cost second-hand domestic goods (furniture, electrical items, bicycles and paint) to local disadvantaged people for a nominal charge - thus saving thousands of unwanted items from needlessly ending up in landfill. We operate with a team of paid staff, along with over 60 volunteers. We also run our own Training Unit, offering practical work-based training to local disadvantaged people in areas such as domestic appliance repair, furniture restoration, cycle maintenance, health and safety, first aid, and lots more. Furniture Matters has worked closely with Lancaster and Morecambe College on a number of training initiatives in the district, and we are currently partners in a Grundtvig Transnational project, which focuses on Basic Skills and Social Enterprise.
I have a first-class BA (Hons) degree and an MA, although my most recent foray into training has been related to my current post, e.g. C&G In-Service Inspection & Testing of Electrical & Electronic Equipment and IOSH Managing Safely qualifications.
I am a Mancunian by birth, although after commuting to Morecambe for the first 3 years in my current job, I took the decision to move to the semi-rural delights of Bolton-le-Sands two years ago. I have had a varied work background, most notably in the area of worker and stakeholder co-operatives. I have also worked as a practice manager for a firm of solicitors, as a subtitler for the National Subtitling Library for Deaf People, and for the Ministry of Defence!! In addition I have been involved in many social enterprises, charities and not-for-profit initiatives, including acting as chair for a busy national women's heritage centre, and vice chair on the board of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM), the national umbrella body for worker and stakeholder co-operatives.
As well as acting as a college governor, I currently play a strategic role in a variety of other local initiatives, including acting as chair of the Recycling Forum for the Lancaster District; steering group member of Lancaster District Sustainability Partnership; steering committee member of Morecambe Healthy Living Centre; and Company Secretary of local charity Morecambe Bay Young Homemakers.
In my spare time - and I don't have much - I enjoy walking my two dogs, reading voraciously, and arguing about politics!
