Dear Members,
Our next meeting will be our Christmas Party evening, may I take this opportunity to invite you all to this evening and to bring your partner if you so wish. We will be having a glass of wine or two and some nibbles. Enid has promised to think up some entertainment, probably to tax our overburdened brains. Kay has also promised to hang the Christmas decorations in the village hall by that date, so it should be a great evening, again.
The Christmas bazaar at the village hall on the 25th November will see our 2005 Christmas cards go on sale for the first time. There will be several different designs, some the same as last year, but also some new designs from the palette of Caroline and we think they are quite spectacular.
As yet the committee has not formulated a programme for next year, with the failure of the latest film show to attract anyone from the village, I feel we should give this form of entertainment a rest for a while, we know that lack of publicity was possibly a contributory factor, but enough posters were put around the village to surely awaken some interest. The 'Open Day' was a success and that will be held as usual around the 1st of October. We also plan a day (or half day) with a visit to Stockwood Park museum, probably in the Spring, to see the dioramas displayed there from the fertile imagination of Tom Ivester-Lloyd. (More of this later).
We have 500 raffle tickets for the 50/50 raffle run by the Community Trust for the V.W. Beetle and it would be good if you all would take a book (or more) to sell, for the benefit of the Society and also the great charity that is the Community Trust. We will not be selling at MK Centre again this year due to the fact that we cannot fmd enough volunteers to do this chore.
You will all be aware that the January 'Christmas Dinner' will be on January 24th at The Chester Arms at Chicheley. The menu is super and Kay will need to know by the 13th of December (party Night) your choice of menu. The committee thought quite hard about where to hold this celebration and the 'Chester' has always provided a superbly cooked meal, for all who have been there so it won our custom. The meal is booked so all it will need is your presence.
As most of you will know that the fete committee has at last gathered in all the monies due, from its sponsors. And has somehow decided how to divide up the spoils. The final total of money taken was £13,762 and the largest sum given, was to Willen Hospice, this was £2,670. Our total was a magnificent £612, for which a letter of thanks was sent to the Fete Committee. To use the money this time, after some deliberation, the committee asked the members at the last meeting, if they thought that the purchase of a central computer to store ALL the files that are now scattered between the five computers owned by your committee, in one central place, would be a good idea. This would facilitate the use of such a PC at the point where the physical files are stored, would enable printouts to be obtained at that place, for anyone doing their research there. Would cut down the to-ing and fro-ing of the committee members doing the sorting and filing etc. etc. We would also be able to back up all of the centralised files there, on a piece of portable equipment (hard Drive) so that all of the data would be removed to another area, in case of a disaster at the village hall. The members thought this an excellent idea. So we will go ahead and purchase this PC soon. Mark and Norman will make this decision, but your committee will be kept informed at each step.
There is also a previously owned A3 sized scanner available to us, if this proves successful it may take the pressure off trying to fmd a suitable photo copying machine, but more of this later.
Re-the Fete, some of the members stated a desire to contact the Fete Committee to politely request more information on their thinking behind the allocation of monies. But it was thought generally that this could not be done without raising some antagonism to the request. So the matter was left, but the feeling is still there, that, although we feel that the Fete Committee has nothing to hide, that they should be more open handed about the fete accounts. Etc. Etc..
The next meeting will be the Party on 13th Dec do all please come and join us. 8pm at Sherington Village hall.
N.A.