Another good club night - September 2007

Another good club night, that's the understatement of the year, it was brilliant, and it was an AGM, our previous AGM saw 42 members attend, this year 60 plus, personally I think the attendance was high because Bill was chair and I was going to throw confusion in the ring every now and then and do my bit, joking aside it went very smoothly, many thanks to Ted who knew what he was doing and helped Bill through it step by step, I did my bit after and I have to say I was pleased with how it went, I'm very conscious of the fact that when anybody gets the opportunity to address the members you know you have to get all the information across, you have to encourage them to act on that information, and you have to motivate, your probably only going to get that one window of opportunity to do all that. So what usually happens is I prepare my notes on the table, have my props ready and after I've had my few minutes chat I sit down and realise I hadn't used any of it and I haven't said half of what I was going to and its to late, but not last night, it went very well and the members responded encouragingly so hence the statement it was brilliant.

No Don our chairman tonight so I'm keeper of the keys and arrive about 6.30pm, Colin is already there. The kettle is on and were off, Brian arrives very soon after and the tables and chairs are set out, Angy appears and the tea and coffee starts to flow. Bill arrives and sets to sorting through his paperwork with Ted and the hall fills with members busy chatting. Kim helped me set up a couple of cloths as backgrounds for the photo shoot later after the judging had been done, and the usual leg pulling when I put my entry on the table.

So with the raffle prizes out and tickets selling, the library set up, Dave collected money for the November Master class and the gallery table looking good Bill called all to order. Now I'm sure you don't want to read about the detail of the meeting so Ill pass on that, but just to say it went very well, it was a first for Bill and if he had any nerves it didn't show so well done Bill, it was all over by the predicted time of 8.30pm and it was time for refreshments, Angy and Dave attended to that while the members chatted.

Back to order and the other serious business was done with and Bill got a round of applause and quite right to. Then it was over to me, I chose the subject for tonight and we had an in depth discussion on dust in the workshop with a number of extractors, fan boxes and masks for members to look at and try. We are now going to mass produce for some dozen or more members the fan box filter, a number of members came to the front and explained how they attend to the dust, this was a fresh idea for a meeting which again just adds that little bit of change to a club night, I've had some feed back already saying how informative it was so that proves there was a need for discussion.

With all the business done with it was over to Trevor for the raffle, I had two numbers up tonight and just took the set of brushes as they are useful for cleaning the end of the pyrography tip, the members cleared the hall, the kitchen was done immediately after the break and I explained the details for the following junior club meeting. And with the hall back to normal I said goodnight to the last few helpers, checked the building out and locked the doors, and there goes another brilliant club night.

Boots - September2007