My dear CADS,

All the best for 2025. I wish you much health, wealth and happiness for the coming year. And warmth….! Isn’t it soooo cold at the moment!

The CADS year started with an intimate lunch (just 11 of us) in the Bestuurskamer of the KIGC on Friday 17th January. The guest speaker was yours truly, and we ended up having a great discussion about my topic of ‘decision making towards retirement.’ Thank you to everyone for their super contributions!

Did you see that I managed to get CADS into online print recently? I was featured in the Dutch News lifestyle feature – 10 questions for expats https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/11/i-absolutely-love-the-outside-eating-and-drinking-culture/ and I took full advantage to get in a mention of CADS.

Leading to some success – I have already had several people who read the article contact me via our website to see about joining!

On a complimentary note, the current UK Ambassador, Joanne Roper, CMG, sent greetings to CADS on the occasion of our 50th birthday gala dinner. I thought you might be interested to see her words: “I am delighted that CADS is celebrating its 50th year in the Netherlands. Over those fifty years, it has been a pillar of support and friendship to those living in the Netherlands. I am hugely grateful for the financial support that CADS has given to the Benevolent Fund in recent years too. My congratulations to Jennie and her team and we wish them all the very best for the next fifty years too.”

Since the AGM in October, we have been recruiting a new Board for CADS. Thank you so much to all those who have come forward to help me out with the running of our society. The new appointments need to be ratified at the next AGM in October. In the meantime, this is the new make-up of the Board:
• Chair – Jennie Monon
• Treasurer – Peter Smethurst
• Secretary – tbc
• Website – Julia Heidstra
• Members without portfolio – Nick Bowers, Annette Roodhart, Vicky Trees (Vicky will assume a role on the Board later in 2025)

I asked the newer members, or those who have taken on new responsibilities, to introduce themselves to you.

Peter Smethurst – Peter lived in the Netherlands for over forty years. He was a Chartered Accountant and worked in professional practice and then in industry (Apple Computer). Computers being a very cyclical business, he was laid off after exactly ten years and moved back into accountancy but this time as a financial translator. He soon decided that being a freelance translator would be more fun and ran his own business for nearly thirty years until he retired at the end of 2023. He is now busier than ever as the new CADS Treasurer, treasurer of another stichting and pottery teacher/assistant the Centrum voor Kunst en Culture in Zoetermeer.

Annette Roodhart – Annette worked in international HR Director roles in the Netherlands, England and Switzerland. She currently works in interim HR roles. She is bilingual Dutch-English and has a strong affiliation with England, English culture and literature. Her son went to The British School of Amsterdam before going to boarding school in Canterbury. Annette was a Supervisory Board member of the British School of Amsterdam for the maximum of 8 years.

Nick Bowers – Nick arrived in the Netherlands with his wife Sophie in 2018 after a 35 year career as an investment banker in the City of London. He was chair of an
African youth charity and a policy think tank. Nick is a founder shareholder of Williams Nicolson, a City communications company and is also President of the Oxford and
Cambridge Society of the Netherlands.

Vicky Trees – Vicky was born and bred in Middlesbrough, then came to the Netherlands as an au pair in Bloemendaal. She moved back to the UK to do a degree in Dutch at the University of Hull including a year in Amsterdam, studying at the UvA and working as a marketing intern. After graduating, she worked as a translator at EY NL, and five years later became a translator at Euronext Amsterdam. After ten years at the exchange she started studying for a degree in psychology with the Open University in the UK. She then decided to become a freelance translator; her areas of specialisation include finance, law and social sciences, She is a member of various professional bodies, including the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) and Nederlands Genootschap voor Tolken en Vertalers (NGTV).

After 30 years, Peter Valentine has stepped down as Treasurer. I cannot thank Peter enough for his wonderful contribution to CADS, and he was especially supportive and helpful to me when I took over the Chair in 2021. We will host a special thank you lunch for Peter later in the year.

Calendar of events – 2025

Many of you are super busy and are often ‘surprised’ with the announcement of events and then cannot make it, so please put ALL these dates in your diary NOW!
Please note that we are always keen to get ideas for speakers and of course welcome our own members sharing their expertise at a CADS event. There are also events outside of the monthly meetings such as battlefield tours, and garden tours – please keep organising these very popular events and know that details can always be shared in this newsletter.

Thank you for your continued support and engagement with CADS. I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.