Weekly Meeting

9 January 2020 Discussion Evening

Joint Presidents Jane and Maggie wanted to open up discussion on our forthcoming Big Birthday 30^th Charter celebration evening on the 30^th April following some suggestions made by members. Do we produce some form of historical brochure or simply a ‘continuously rolling PowerPoint Presentation’; after considerable healthy discussion a vote was taken and the PowerPoint presentation would be prepared. Various initiatives and events were identified and in particular invitation to former members (any names to be channelled through President Elect Chris Henley). The speaker for the evening was announced as Gary Bell (he was born the son of a Nottinghamshire coalminer. He left school at the age of 16 without sitting any exams and did a variety of jobs including coalminer, apprentice mechanic, fork lift truck driver, fireman, bricklayer and pork pie factory production line worker. During the 1970s he was a football hooligan and general reprobate and ended up going to prison in 1979. He then spent the next two years living rough and travelling around Europe before going back into education aged 21. Seven years later he graduated with a degree in Law from Bristol University and became a criminal barrister. He has been at the Bar for 30 years and became a QC in 2012. Ever restless he has continued to try and add new strings to his bow. He tried stand-up comedy and was Midlands Comedian of the Year in 2008. He also qualified as a pilot, presented his own show (The Legalizer) on BBC1, writes for a number of newspapers and magazines and has written two books, Animal QC (an autobiography) and Beyond Reasonable Doubt (a legal thriller which has been optioned by the BBC.) The Spectator described him, very unfairly in his view, as the rudest man in Britain.)

The question of whether we should invite the winners of VGT, Harriet and Tilly, to sing at the beginning of the evening, which was enthusiastically agreed.  Jenny suggested we should produce a brief A5 Flyer about the event that members could take with them on our ‘Scatter Evening’, programmed for the 30^th January, or for use generally to promote the event as widely as possible. They mentioned the Social Event planned for 2 April and were looking for ideas (Great Central Railway trip, Theatre Evening…?)

Mary then brought us up to date with the plans for the Art and Craft Fair at the Blue Diamond Garden centre on 4/5^th July.  A number of emails had been exchanged with Bingham & R RC without much progress.  So a communication was to be made to arrange for our President/s to meet the Bingham Club to finalise arrangements.  Discussion took place as to how we could thank The Blue Diamond for all the help they have given us: a donation to their own Charity (believed to be Notts/Lincs Air Ambulance) or a framed certificate for them to display showing our appreciation and how much money we had been able to raise at their premises over the Christmas period.

Chris H then talked about the Murder Mystery event on the 8th February at Whatton Village Hall (£10 per ticket including Lasagne supper), which is a fund raising initiative to pay for our new Rudolph.

Rob G then asked if future ‘Social’ events could involve more ‘mingling’, a suggestion was to move tables after each course.

Allen R, Stuart, Duncan and Mike M agreed to try and put a suitable PowerPoint Presentation together ASAP                                                                    AR