Category: Business Meetings

It really is fascinating to read the minutes again, some many years after the event! It’s especially intriguing to read the looking-forward entries, and then to compare those with minutes ex post facto, when the proposed events have, or haven’t, actually happened.

It seems, for example, that the Mystery Trip, aka Grab-a-Granny, did in fact venture around Rothbury, Seahouses and Morpeth. In the absent minutes of November, 2011 (which I can’t find), we must have decided to purchase the cherry-picker, which proved very beneficial indeed to consolidate the lights on eight trees. Indeed, the ancient machine was actually reported to be working well!

The book stall at the November Mini-Market had elicited more funds, as had the various trips around the houses with Santa’s sleigh, which was newly reported at this meeting to have been £475. Apparently, after the Mini-Market, Trevor and Prue had offered space in their garage for the book storage, which was noted with grateful thanks from the Village Hall Committee.

Looking ahead, plans for the Burns Night near enough to the 25th January were well consolidated already. As I recall, it was thought that if these plans were not in place before New Year’s Eve, it would be a challenging job to arrange everything thereafter from scratch.

Not only the Burns Night, but Margaret Stonehouse had already organised the first Fair meeting for 2012 in mid-November!

As the time came for Any Other Business, on behalf of all the club, Margaret congratulated Stephanie Atkinson for her recent honour in the Queen’s Birthday List, the MBE, for services rendered to Higher Education.

To be honest, I don’t know where the old cherry-picker had ever ended up, after its use over a couple of years in the installation of festive lights in the trees around the square. So this photo of a similar sort of ancient contraption will have to suffice.

The first mention I can find of the investment that the Allendale Lions would make, of an ancient cherry-picker, is in the minutes of our 88th meeting in October, 2011. As usual, the matter was opened, and there it would rest for weeks or even months, until we decided that we’d come to some decision. But Peter Aldcroft was already getting antsy about time constraints, with only another six weeks left before the lights needed to be up.

Meanwhile, along with funding requests that went forward to the next Board Meeting for careful consideration, the date for the Mystery Trip was mooted for the 25th of October, which was suggested to involve coffee at Rothbury, lunch at Seahouses, and a shopping exploration around Morpeth on the way home.

After the Charity Auction’s profits recorded at £2,755, and the purchase of fireworks for Bonfire Night, the charity account balance was £4,338. Peter wondered if we could be aiming for a fund-raising ambition of £100,000, cumulatively, with which we could celebrate our tenth anniversary in a couple of years time.

Meanwhile, plans were afoot for the Carols in the Square event (22nd December), and Fergus Sandison was organising for the Backworth Colliery Band to play again, but the logistics of chairs and the printing of the carol sheet would have to be developed more smoothly this year.

Apparently the books in bread crates stored in the far corner of the committee room at the village hall were taking up rather a lot of space! Perhaps they might be stored in the dry basement, after the Mini-Market event in November?

Finally, business and reports concluded, it was time once again to toast Elsie-Aye, aka Lions Club International.

There had been some consternation in the club, over the previous months, as to when appropriate elections might occur, whether the President might have to have been elected as Vice-President before they assumed the leadership role, and when the actual hand-over might happen. In the event, however, it seems from Irene Ness’s minutes that the actual election went ahead without further hiccough, and the new officers were in place before the Fair.

That must have been something of a relief, to outgoing President Carrie Winger, as the duties down at Allendale Bakery & Café were becoming overwhelming. Clearly, the end of her stint was at hand.

Everyone was delighted that Richard Snowdon was elected as President for the forthcoming year! Sylvia Milburn graciously accepted the role of Vice-President as well. The rest of the officers, as noted in the copy above of part of the minutes, were re-elected in place.

But the election, though it was held at the beginning of the meeting, was not the entire business of the session, not at all. Along with the regular matters arising, like the final arrangements for the Fair (for which Peter Aldcroft indicated that the Courant had really ‘gone to town’ on the pre-publicity), the Handover/Charter evening (at the Cowshill on 11th June), the prospective activities of the Golf Classic (scheduled for 30th July), the Grab-a-Granny trip, and the Beer and Bands Festival, the Charity Auction (booked for the 24th September), a major point of discussion was the matter of the foundering Village Hall and Recreation Ground.

Apparently the charity was losing user groups, and bookings for functions were also decreasing; hence revenue streams were compromised, and the institution was in danger of becoming insolvent. This was becoming a serious concern to the trustees, and worthy of the Lions Club’s attention. The Lions agreed to enhance their representation on the management committee, and to help where feasible with the ongoing maintenance of the facility.

And then, with the Allendale Fair less than a month away, the toast was raised to LCI.

Somehow, though it’s difficult to remember quite how, we staggered together into 2011. I do remember that winter as one of the hardest we’d experienced at Allen Mill, running the Allendale Bakery & Café, and we were nearly on the floor. Perhaps that explains why we didn’t make it to the 81st Business Meeting of the Allendale Lions Club.

Graham Girvan kindly stepped in for President Carrie, however, and the recording secretary (perhaps Irene Ness?) later distributed the minutes for the night. I’m intrigued to note that the club had indeed presented the annual Burns Night Supper, eliciting a return to our charitable coffers of £756. So work was still going on amongst the intrepid caterers.

Although there’s a gap in the available minutes before this March ’11 meeting, it seems that our activities were moving onward according to the events schedule we’d established. The Backworth Colliery Brass Band were yet to be paid for their contribution at the annual Carols in the Square, but plans were already afoot to develop the Allendale Fair as normal.

Business conducted at this meeting included a club donation to the New Zealand Earthquake Appeal of £250. We heard from Graham about his anticipated participation with Marc Adams in the Mongolian Rally in July. The Lions sponsored renewed wood chips in the play areas of the Recreation Ground to the tune of £250. Some further charitable contributions were held back until the Allendale Fair had been completed, though we reduced the entertainment budget for that event to £1000 in light of the funding requests which were on deck.

We were still considering the best possible venue for this year’s Charter Evening, and the Cowshill in Weardale was high on the list. But we decided to amalgamate the Charter Evening celebration with the Handover Party into the target date of 11th June.

It seems that this business meeting was not dissimilar from many of those previous, and indeed, many of those coming on in the future. It was, you might say, business as usual, and the monthly toast to Elsie Eye (Lions Club International) closed out the formal meeting, after the regular card draw brought £19 into the club’s organisational account.