Welcome
Welcome to the second newsletter of the year. I am afraid to say it is not all good news.
As you would expect, your committee wish to follow the latest UK Government guidelines on the Covid-19 crisis (as at 17th March 2020) and we have therefore agreed to cancel all meetings and events for the next four months. That will take us through to late July 2020.
At that point we will review the situation and hopefully resume a programme of events from August. Ideally, we are thinking then of a Sidmouth Theatre outing, a September free cream tea afternoon and a November coffee morning to fit in between our pre-planned lunches in October and December. The Tiverton Hotel lunch is booked for Thursday, 15th October and the Christmas lunch at The Victoria Hotel, Sidmouth is set for Thursday, 3rd December.
We think that would be a good rescue programme of five events in the latter part of the year, providing we are allowed to gather together again by that time.
It would then have given us seven events across the year despite the coronavirus disruption. I do feel at the moment that it is all a bit bizarre and as if it were from a science fiction script.
To all of you, please stay safe and healthy
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Garry Adams, Chairman
From the Chair with the AGM Review
Our 45th AGM took place on 10th March at the Exeter Golf and Country Club where following our regular business, 53 members were treated to a wonderfully entertaining musical performance, with several amusing anecdotes, by the Rev‟d Alan Dodds. You could feel the nostalgia of the late 1950‟s and early 1960‟s permeating the room as Alan took up his guitar and had us joining in a number of songs. I think you could safely say that he was “putting on the style”! (See also under Recent Events in the column on the right))
This is now the 5th consecutive year that we have had a speaker at our AGM and so far all have gone down extremely well with members. We will be repeating this exercise next March.
Our activities, including photographs, are all recorded on this website and on our Facebook page. The website also covers our Wellbeing Team and a lot of other information which may be of interest to you.
In summary, we ran four subsidised lunches, two free cream tea afternoons (one included the Seaton tramway), a free coffee morning and two theatre visits: A full programme. Our numbers have stayed steady at 278 active and inactive members on 182 addresses, although a number of people have switched from active to inactive for a variety of reasons. Finances are on an even keel, we have a settled Committee to set up and run the Club and events, as well as an excellent Wellbeing team should you need help or advice. I thank all the team for their efforts in 2019, continuing into this new year.
Andrew Green decided to stand down as our Secretary and main point of contact after a stint of six years in the role and was warmly thanked by all for his sterling service with a bottle of single malt whisky to help him on his way. In fact, he is staying on our committee where his sage advice will continue to be appreciated.
A willing volunteer, Barbara Johnson, was elected as Andrew‟s successor. She has been on our committee with husband Peter since they moved down here from the Manchester area some four years ago. They are a delightful addition to our team.
If there is anyone out there who would like to join us on the committee, we do have a vacancy. Just get in touch.
Do please continue to support this wonderful Club when we are able to meet again.
With best wishes for the year ahead despite all the current disruption.
Garry Adams, Chairman
Financial Matters
With my other hat on, I am pleased to report that once again we had a busy year with (at last) a small deficit achieved of £397. This still leaves us with funds to carry forward into 2020 of £3,593. With our lunch subsidies running at 52% of true cost, we can afford to run a deficit each year of up to say £500 for at least another three or four years.
For 2020, I originally budgeted for a £450 deficit to continue using up some of our surplus funds and we did have a full programme of ten
events, but this will now change with the enforced reduced programme. I now expect to break-even this year, whilst giving larger subsidies on our two remaining planned lunches.
Our Head Office grant is £4,251 this year, similar to last year, but subscriptions are down as our active numbers sadly reduce for a variety of reasons. On the positive side, our total income will be £5,090 and your subscription remains at £5 per active member. If you were able to attend all the events we had originally planned this year (ten rather than seven), the value will still be around £70 per person of support from the Club. Wonderful value for your £5!
With our general admin and wellbeing costs under tight control, we continue to spend the majority of our income on events (last year it was 82%).
Finally, I hope you will enjoy our remaining planned events and support us when you can.
Pre-planned dates for your diaries, providing we are allowed to run them:-
Thursday, 15th October Lunch at the Tiverton Hotel
Thursday, 3rd December The ‘not to be missed’ Christmas Lunch at the Victoria Hotel, Sidmouth
IN ADDITON, we hope to resume events from August with a Theatre visit; a September free cream tea and a November free coffee morning.
IN THE MEANTIME, we attach to this newsletter a QUIZ from Les Rendell to keep your brain active whilst we cannot meet. There will be a first prize of £30 and a second prize of £15. PLEASE HAVE-A-GO (click here)
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Thanks. I would like to formally thank Eric Watts for Examining and signing off the final accounts for 2019, and can confirm that he is continuing in this capacity for another year.
Garry Adams, Chairman and Treasurer
Wellbeing
For those of you present at the AGM, you will know that the thrust of my thoughts were based on Communication. This had been reflected in recent months with excellent use being made of technology, in the form of our excellent Website, as well as the traditional medium of the infamous “Jungle Drums”.
We now find ourselves in unprecedented times, with much of Europe in “Lockdown”. We seem to be a few weeks behind this, but nevertheless, we
find ourselves in increasing isolation. Barbara and I were due to fly out to Australia next week, but are now prevented from seeing our grandchildren, with no idea when we shall be able to travel again. Thank heavens for technology, and the ability to use FaceTime or Skype. There is of course the telephone as well!
You will find the list of all our Officers in this Website. I am delighted to be able to confirm that the Wellbeing “Line Up” has been unchanged for several years now. As ever, we would urge you to speak with one of us, or any Committee member. We shall also be contacting some of you to try and ease the burden of dealing with this set of peculiar circumstances. We regret that we cannot provide a solution to the lack of Panadol or Toilet Rolls, but shall hopefully leave you with a smile. Remember that Spring is in the air!
Stay safe.
Ray Cavill, Wellbeing Co-ordinator
What now?
All of us will have been worried and concerned about these strange times that we are living through. But we humans are more resilient and enterprising than we sometimes give ourselves credit for. We shall come through this.
In the meantime, I was heartened by a quote Lyn spotted on Facebook:
Getting outdoors Not cancelled
Music Not cancelled
Family Not cancelled
Reading Not cancelled
Singing Not cancelled
Laughing Not cancelled
Hope Not cancelled
Let‟s embrace what we have.
Andrew Green, Committee Member
CLUB QUIZ (click here)