Sherington Historical Society - Home Page

SHS Meeting Minutes 76

Pump  

SHS COMMITTEE MEETING No. 76

Held at Sheila Quinn's, 24 School Lane 27th November 2006

Present: Mark Vale, Pearl Teasdale, Kay Turrell, Caroline Leslie and Sheila Quinn.

Guest: Ian Collinge

Mark Vale was the Chairman for the evening.

The minutes of the previous meeting (No.75) were approved.

MATTERS ARISING:

Welcome Pack - Mark reported that the Church welcomed SHS initiative and would like to be involved. It was decided to return to the matter in the New Year.

Correspondence with School - A letter has been received from the headmistress of Sherington School seeking confirmation that data from the Punishment Book relating to past pupils will not be used by SHS. SAQ is to write to Mrs. Bourne confirming that we will not publish or display any part of the transcribed book. It will only be available to those with a legitimate claim i.e. former pupils mentioned in the book.

It should be mentioned here that we are concerned regarding the whereabouts of the School Log Books. KT and SAQ have searched the office cupboards with no result. It has to be assumed that the Log Books are in the late Norman Arnold’s workshop and efforts will have to be made, tactfully, to locate them. SAQ suggested that all books borrowed from an outside source be registered in the Borrowed Book register; the committee was in agreement.

Memory Sticks - MV has purchased 3 on the internet at a cost of approximately £10 each. MV, KT and SAQ each have one.

MK Heritage Association MV has attended 2 recent meeting, one of which was the AGM held in Grafton Regis Village Hall on Thursday, 22nd November. Topics covered were the HUB project, events to be held to mark the 40th anniversary of Milton Keynes and Heritage Open Days in September, 2007. Both Mark and Sheila have received copies of the first edition of a newsletter issued by MKHA and copies were given to each committee member. Mark spoke about the Heritage Experiment which has replaced the hoped for Museum (which has proved to be non-viable). It will be useful for us to be associated with The Experiment as it will give us a wider circulation and it is possible that our publications could be sold within the unit. I do not propose to minute here Mark’s observations of the meeting as the details are in the newsletter.

I will, however, mention that Mark reported that it is hoped that the Experiment will open in January and will run for about 18 months. If it is a success, progress can then be made; if not, then it will be closed!!

The Heritage Open Days will coincide with our annual Open Day in September and we have yet to decide on a subject. The Committee thought we should also bear in mind that the school will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of the new school building and that Pre school will be celebrating their 35th anniversary. In relation to the Heritage Open Days, KT and SAQ will attend a meeting to be held at the City Discovery Centre on Saturday, 9th December at 10:30am.

End of Matters Arising

CHRISTMAS BAZAAR AND CHRISTMAS CARDS: - Pearl reported that we sold cards to the value of £76.70. A fee of £7.50p was paid for the hire of the table. Alan Sims is to be asked if we can place some cards for sale in the shop and Pearl suggested that cards are also on sale for members to buy at the Christmas meeting on the 12th December.

Caroline has agreed to ask Philip Smith if the card she has painted for him this Christmas can be used as one of our designs for Christmas, 2007.

CHRISTMAS PARTY MEETING: - Wine (6 red and 6 white) is to be ordered from the village shop, together with orange and cranberry juices. Members are to be asked to bring savouries etc and Sheila Line has agreed to organise the food and hot drinks.

Pearl has some quizzes that can be used and members are to be reminded to bring photographs of themselves as children. These are to be handed to SAQ for fixing to the display boards.

Various committee members can provide raffle prizes.

Oliver Powell is to be asked to provide music for the evening.

JANUARY MEAL: - The Landlady (Angi) of the Swan has provided us with a limited choice menu for the 23rd January which was acceptable to all the members of the Committee. Members are to be given one with a newsletter and asked to return it on the 12th December with their choices marked. A final number can then be given to Angi, together with a list of menu choices.

2007 CALENDAR: - This was discussed and several ideas were put forward but not decided upon. These were: Speakers – Neil Louden and Elizabeth Knight; visits – Waddesden Manor and a Grafton Regis Historical Walk; film show – Peter Gardner.

At the moment the calendar looks as follows:

January – General Meeting
February – Open/general ?
March - AGM
April – Open/general
May – Open/general
June – Open/general
July – Open/general
August – CLOSED
September – General meeting to finalize details of Open Day
September – Open Day
October – Open/General
November – Open/General
December – Christmas Party evening

Despite being unable to finalise the calendar at present, it was decided to make the general meetings less formal and to involve members more. Archive files are to be brought down into the hall and members will be encouraged to help with the work necessary to maintain them. Mark suggested that small groups of members be taken upstairs to the office in order that they can see what is there. The committee thought that this was a good idea. It was also decided that minutes of general meetings will not be taken but that a copy of the Committee Meeting minutes will be displayed.

THE WEBSITE: Ian Collinge was present at the meeting as he wished to discuss several aspects of the website. He has altered some of the page layouts – these were agreed with. The SHS logo “the Pump” has been shaded in where Ian considers it appropriate – i.e. on a dark background; more links between pages and subjects would, he considers, be an improvement.

It might be advisable to mention at this point that both Pearl and Caroline had left the meeting (it was late and they both needed to be at home). Kay and Sheila have very basic computer knowledge so it was left to Mark to take in the finer technical points raised by Ian. KT and SAQ did add comments of approval on some layout and design alterations. Mark was very happy with the suggestions made by Ian. Ian requires several back copies of SHS Committee minutes and a copy of the November Newsletter. He also supplied us with a comprehensive list of items he needs more information on and his ideas for altering the webpages – a copy is attached (Note: not on the website).

It was decided that only the email addresses of committee members will be shown on the web site. Ian will remove postal addresses and telephone numbers.

Finally, the SHS website received approximately 18,000 hits last month and we were about 3rd on the league list. Interestingly, many “hits” were from America.

The meeting closed at about 10:30pm. Thanks are due to Pearl for supplying the wine and choc biscuits and to Sheila for the use of her kitchen table!!

SAQ

Back to MEETING MINUTES INDEX

Home Page - About Us - Minutes - Newsletters - Our Needs - Membership - Email Us - Contacts
Latest Revision: 16 June 2007