Lorraine Dale MVO stands down after nine years as UKHA National Chair

A message from Lorraine.

“It is with great sadness that I wish to inform you that I intend to stand down as National Chair from March 2023. I have held this position for nearly a decade, and as my responsibilities within the Royal Household are ever increasing, I feel that the time has come to allow a new Chair-person to take the organisation into its next exciting phase.”

In 2014 I took over as National Chair, after being London Chair, a committee member and a UKHA member since 1998. Over the last 25 years I have built strong friendships with my fellow housekeepers and hotel general managers and great partnerships with our associate members, as well as industry partnerships with the AA, Institute of Hospitality, GM forums and networking groups and the TSA.

During this time, we have:

• Rebranded the UKHA
• Launched a new UKHA website where members can apply online
• Membership are now managed online making us more efficient 
• Provided members with a login to connect with other housekeepers or promote their products and services
• London introduced electronic memberships cards
• Delivered four successful Shared Knowledge days
• Hosted London Business Lunches with amazing speakers
• Hosted a Summer Ball every year (excepting Covid years)
• Delivered Covid toolkits – an amazing collaboration which delivered a service to all sectors, not just large 5* hotels
• Maintained meetings through zoom meetings throughout Covid, supporting all our members online

We are now all working hard to build back up to pre-pandemic membership numbers and meeting attendance, in the case of London in excess of 120 members per meeting.
 
The future holds great things and we have recently been working on reviewing the constitution, our aims and objectives, data base and our membership numbers which will be  a great project for the new Chair.
 
I would also like to extend personal and special thanks to Liana Sparks, who stands down as acting London Chair this year, handing over to Fernanda Lewis from The Goring. Liana has been the most amazing support to me, as National Chair, I don’t think I could have done it without her. Liana’s tireless dedication to the UKHA and passion for the housekeeping profession has been an inspiration and we are both looking forward to enjoying our UKHA membership from a more relaxed standpoint over the coming years.
 
And lastly, a massive thank you to all the incredible UKHA Chairs, their wonderful committees and of course, our UKHA membership across the UK.
 
With fondest regards,

Lorraine Dale