Thanks Buddy, SCoM and It's New Members

If you want to know from someone what they think of the club or group they have just joined, you will probably ask them at least two questions. "Does it do what it says on the label?" and "Is it friendly?"

SCoM has over the last few years increased its membership considerably and we are pleased this last month to have hit the 300 mark. Are we sure though that these new members gain a good idea of what the club offers and get a friendly reception? First impressions count a lot.

The Committee spent some time thinking about this issue and decided we needed to set up a system to support new members. The old ways were too haphazard. After a fair bit of thought, we decided that we needed an arrangement, which would involve recruiting existing SCoM members to befriend every new member who joined.

SCoM relies on the energy and commitment of volunteers for everything that it does, so we had to find a team of buddies willing to do the work of contacting each new joiner, explaining about club activities and offering to meet up and talk more. Usually the first contact is made by phone or email.

This is a key task and we particularly want to thank all those listed below, who have taken on this important work for the club. It is much appreciated. Wendy Barlow and Lindsay Harford have been responsible for recruiting the buddies and distributing information so that the buddy and the new member can make contact with each other.

The buddies who have been acting as the 'human face' of the club are Liz Beattie, Ian Cartwright, Lindsay Harford, David Hodgkinson, Jonquil Lewis, Vanessa Miller, Helen Richardson and Tom Russell. They have been in touch with all of the new joiners and with their help we hope to be enrolling the next 100 members!

Ian Harford