Our plans for 2012

February Update  - Forthcoming Events

Student Teacher Visit - Social Evening
A party of 11 student teachers will be visiting Winchester in February 2012 and will be spending a week gaining valuable experience in local schools.  As usual, we are organising a social evening for them, and hope that as many members as possible will be able to come along and meet the students.

We have booked St Lawrence Parish Hall in Colebrook Street for the evening of Friday 24 February and will have a Bring and Share supper.  There will be a raffle and some entertainment including a quiz.  Please bring enough food (main course and dessert for your group, although all will be shared).  The committee will provide bread and cheese; also wine and soft drinks.

Members will be charged £6 per person to cover the cost of hiring the hall.  French guests will not be charged.

If you wish to join us please send your cheque for £6 per person, payable to Winchester-Laon Twinning Association, to Thierry as soon as possible.

Twinning Visit to Laon:   1 - 4 June 2012
As previously announced, the dates for our regular visit to Laon have now been confirmed as Friday 1 June to Monday 4 June, 2012.  This is the weekend of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, thus it may not suit everyone, but there are two distinct advantages of choosing this weekend for the visit.  Firstly, it is the weekend of the Fête Euromediévale in Laon, which is a really spectacular event with processions, street entertainment and market stalls, and it's great fun.  Secondly, those of us who still work will have an additional Bank Holiday on the Tuesday to recover from the excesses of the weekend!

We don't now think we will have enough participants this year to justify the cost of hiring a coach. This would work out at about £2700 and we really would need at least 40 paying people to justify the cost; however we will still consider this option if there is sufficient interest.  At the moment we are considering taking two minibuses which would work out much cheaper.  We know that some people will wish to travel independently in their own car.

We really do need confirmation of your intention to participate in the weekend as soon as possible.  If you haven't already done so, please contact Thierry as soon as you can and, if you have a preferred host in Laon let Thierry know who that is.  If you haven't already contacted your friends in Laon we suggest you do so as soon as possible.

As soon as we know who is coming we will be able to provide more details of the weekend.

We won't be issuing a Newsletter for the time being but will be contacting members by email.  John Poupart has retired from editing the Newsletter and we thank him for his hard work over many years.

The 18th Annual General Meeting

The 18th Annual General Meeting was held on the 28th October 2011 and was attended by 20 members. The Mayor, Councillor Barry Lipscomb, chaired the meeting.

Chairman’s Report

Another busy and successful year for the Twinning? Well, Yes and No is the answer.

On the positive side, we held three very successful events:

La Fête des Rois dinner on a thankfully snow free evening in January, saw the annual mix of delicious hot food, silly games and a chance to recycle your unwanted Christmas presents in the raffle!
The May/June Half-term holiday saw an invasion of residents from Laon to Winchester when we welcomed two Twinning parties during the week.

The first was a party from La Providence School with 26 school pupils and their teachers who came for a cultural, educational and linguistic experience in and around Winchester. We had hoped to link La Providence with a local school but they ended up coming independently and so we had to find host families for the group. Not an easy task to find beds for all but many thanks to Twinners who hosted the young people and their teachers. Some new contacts were made with Winchester families and we hope they will continue to be involved in the Twinning association in the future.

Hot on the heels of the first coach came the second with the real Twinners on board. It was a wonderful weekend and I know that you all made a great impression on our new French Chairman Roger Malhomme and his wife in this their first visit to Winchester.

As I was still recovering from my operation at that time I was unable to join you for all activities, but it seems that all went well especially the outing to Windsor.

On a more negative point 2011 has seen us lose three key members of our association and we continue to miss Robin, Pam and Harry as the time goes on. We were all shocked to hear of Kate Morgan’s sudden illness and are pleased to hear that she is making a slow and steady recovery. We wish her and Philip all the best.
From an organisational standpoint this year saw another crisis as it seemed that there was a huge amount to do and not enough people to take on the roles. Since I expressed my concerns in our Easter newsletter, I have been very encouraged by offers of support and practical help from you the members of our Association. With a special team in place we were able to organise the complicated visit to Windsor and Savill garden plus the bring and share meal at Littleton hall. As a result of an exhausting evening for some at Littleton we have set up a Food Committee to review how we organise future catering events to avoid over catering and any confusion over who is to do what. Although Gill Foster is stepping down as Membership Secretary she has offered to run the Food Committee with Bodil. I am sure they would welcome more volunteers to assist them!

Elspeth Brown is going to take over as Treasurer of the Association which is a great relief for Celia and I.
Overall things feel much more positive with five future events in the pipeline: Our pre-Christmas Dinner on 20/11 at La Place - money to me by 5/11 and food orders to Richard Osmond ASAP. La Fête des Rois dinner is on Epiphany itself next year 6/01/12. Cheques to us please.

Negotiations are in place for a return of the Teacher training Students from Laon for a visit to Winchester in the Spring - details to be announced as soon as we know them. I am also busy organising an exchange visit to Laon with South Winchester Golf Club in March next year.

The Big news is the date for our visit to Laon on Friday June 1 until Monday 4. This is the same weekend as their Medieval festival so that should be great fun! We hope as many as you as possible can join us.

Thank you to all the committee members for all their hard work and support this year, Phil, Mike, Richard, Gill, Bodil and Celia and to all our other faithful assistants, John Poupart for the newsletters, Chris Slattery and all her family for tireless work at events and Lis Moll for her guidance at Windsor.
Thank you for listening and Vive le Jumelage!

Thierry De Nitto Chairman

Treasurer’s Report
Celia and Thierry had been carrying out Treasurer’s duties since the time of Harry’s illness in January. It was announced that Elspeth Brown would take over with immediate effect. Our thanks go to Elspeth for this. No Accounts were available at the meeting, But Celia reported a healthy balance of £2474.

Membership Secretary’s Report
We currently have 36 memberships:
14 individual members
22 couple or family members.

Sadly, for the third year running this represents a decrease in membership.

We would be grateful for any ideas about how we can increase membership – and it would be really good to have more families with children.

We have also reluctantly decided we need to increase the membership fees next year, but I think this will probably be discussed at this meeting.

This is the bad news!! BUT:

On the other hand members have paid their membership dues very promptly this year, which has made this job much easier.

We now have e-mail addresses for most members, and this makes communication quicker, easier, and cheaper for the Association.

I have been membership secretary for 6 years now, and feel it is a right time to hand over to someone else.

I will remain a committee member, though, and will continue to help in the work of the committee in whatever way I can.

Gill Foster Membership Secretary

Election of Officers
The following were duly elected/re-elected:

Chairman: Thierry De Nitto; Treasurer: Elspeth Brown; Secretary: Phil Waterton; other committee members: Bodil Cowan, Gill Foster, Mike Smith, and Richard Osmond. Sandra Savage volunteered to serve on the committee and was duly elected. The meeting was informed that additional committee members would be welcomed and that in particular a Membership Secretary was needed.

At the close of the meeting a glass of wine was offered to members.

Send email to Phil Waterton (phil@waterton.org.uk) with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2011 Winchester-Laon Twinning Association
Last modified :  3rd February 2012