reports:
On Wednesday, December 11th 2013, the annual Association Christmas
Lunch was held in the YMCA Hawker Centre, the usual venue. It was
attended by 63 members and guests, a significant increase on recent
years' numbers, well up with those attending prior to 2008 when numbers
started to drop.
This had been worrying to the Committee which had been
wondering what was going wrong, since attendance at the Summer BBQ was
also dropping. However, both events have attracted increasing numbers
since 2012. The price of the Lunch for 2013 rose, for the first time in
four years, by 50p to £16.50 which the Committee considered still very
good value, particularly in the current financial situation.
With the large number of attendees, we were somewhat cramped in the
cafeteria area of the Hawker Centre, so the Committee will try to
ensure that we are seated next Christmas in the "Studio", the much
larger room next door which we used before the changes in the layout of
the Centre. However, apart from slightly slowing the arrival of the
courses due to the closeness of the tables, this did not affect the
enjoyment of the meal, the speeches and the general convivial
surroundings.
The lunch consisted of a glass of wine and the traditional three
courses of soup, roast turkey with trimmings and Christmas pudding,
followed by coffee and mince pies. There were alternative starters and
main courses, including a vegetarian option, but their availability was
a little unclear.
Lunch was preceded by Grace, given by the Reverend
Vernon Lidstone, and followed by short speeches from the Chairman,
Ambrose Barber and our President, Sir Colin Chandler. It was noted that
five ex-directors of the company and three people over the age of
ninety were present! It was generally agreed that the enjoyable food
was up to the usual high standard.
After the meal our appreciation and thanks were
expressed to the YMCA staff both verbally and more tangibly. The YMCA
was also thanked for its generous contribution of two bottles of wine
for raffle prizes.