Chairman's Report, 2002 - 2003

Welcome everyone. On behalf of the committee I would like to thank you for attending this meeting tonight. At the last meeting Trudy retired from office as Chairman - a post she had held for two years. Sadly she retired from the committee after serving for ten years. Thank you Trudy for all your hard work.

According to the programme card for the last 12 months I have been known as TBA but most of you know me as Elaine. We did not have a chairman when the programme card was printed and as nobody else came forward I agreed to do the job for one year only.

Anyway, I would like to begin this report by thanking all the committee members who work very hard on your behalf to keep the club running. When I agreed to be Chairman last year I was rather worried that I would not be able to attend the committee meetings because I have an evening job on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday's. Other members have commitments on Wednesday's, and so extra special thanks must go to all the members who rearranged these commitments to attend the Wednesday meetings.

There is a great deal of help given from non-committee members who organise events throughout the year or who volunteer to be a guest speaker at the Friday meetings. Special thanks go to all of these members.

We have a very flourishing club with a wide variety of events. Almost all the events that are organised are well attended which is encouraging for the organiser. Numbers attending the ski fitness classes have gone down and the numbers who booked for the Gerald Harrison personal performance course at Rossendale were very disappointing. So much so that Sunday had to be cancelled. As a result only one day has been organised for this year.

Club ski holidays are just as popular as ever and despite the desperately cold temperatures in Cervinia, a good time was had by all. Thanks go to Paul for his efforts in not only organising the holidays, but also for sorting out all the insurance claims for people who get their ankle broken and the like, those who are not able to go, and for finding other skiers to take their place - sometimes at the last minute. Also for organising a new venue at the agreed price when the tour company double books the chosen hotel!

We would like to know your views of the club and so several committee members have spent hours, in fact more hours than we care to think about, on designing a self-completion questionnaire. I will explain more about this later but many thanks to Bryce for doing most of the donkey work.

There has been very little of that 'white stuff' locally this winter but as the trees are laden with berries which is supposed to forecast a severe winter, here's hoping!

Up to date information about the club and events can be obtained from the newsletter, the web site and through the Yahoo group. Thanks go to Norma and Steve for doing an excellent job here. Volunteers who will do write ups for events are more than welcome so if you have particularly enjoyed one, please put pen to paper or in this new technological age, switch on that magic machine and e-mail your report to Norma.

The new season has started particularly well with the pre-season meal being a very substantial Sunday lunch in China Town and was excellent value for money. This was a change from the traditional Friday night meal. We would appreciate your views.

Thank you for listening to me tonight. My thanks go to everyone who has supported me throughout my one year in office.

Elaine Donnelly 03.10.2003