In this issue:

• Chairman’s musings

• Christmas celebrations

• Boules report

• AGM report

• Members’ meetings

• Champtoceaux anniversary

• Lille weekend report

• Reminders

The very warmest of seasonal greetings to you all. The last couple of months have seen a very successful long weekend visit to Lille and Ypres, our Annual General Meeting, our first two members’ meetings of the season in our new “home” in the Methodist Church Hall and continuing work planning for our big anniversary year next year.

Before we all start indulging in the excesses of the Festive Season we have our own Christmas celebration to look forward to. This is at a different venue to that advised on your membership card - we have moved to the Memorial Hall. The date (9^th December) and time (7.30pm) remain unchanged. We have a full evening of entertainment lined up for you, including the return of our friends from Jubilate who sing traditional carols a capella so brilliantly.
We re-commence our members’ evenings in January with Stuart Timbrell entertaining us with the next in his “Discovering Dorset” series of talks. I hope to see you all at one of these fine events - remember it’s YOUR twinning so come along, experience what we do and we’re open to any suggestions for new or improved things we can do. Finally, a reminder that 2009/10 subscriptions are now due. Details of how to pay are in this newsletter. Finally finally, my very best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Race night update. Due to the difficulties in finding sufficient sponsors in these straitened times, we have had to cancel our race night planned for 5^th December. We will try again for this highly entertaining event next year.

Boules. The final league table saw us finishing 6^th in the Dorset Twinning league - our best result for a few years now. In September’s cup tournament played at Manston, Barbara and Brian Bowey finished as losing semi-finalists in the cup competition and Ieuan and Janice Davies were runners-up in the Plate contest. Well done to both couples for a very creditable performance.

This year’s AGM was very well attended, despite a last-minute change of venue due to double-booking of the Methodist Hall. We were moved into the Council Chamber at the Council Offices next door to the Methodist Church, which gave us the opportunity to see some Twinning memorabilia not normally available to us. The formal business of the evening provided some lively discussion on some of the proposed changes to the constitution and afterwards we played Quizgo - a variation on a quiz which means the quickest thinkers aren’t always the ones to win! This proved so popular we will probably have a game or two at the Christmas party.

This year’s season of Members’ Meetings is now well under way. The October meeting saw us settling into our new home and hearing Kate Greenaway tell us about her many (too many for me to count!) occupations. In November, John Smith gave a fascinating talk about the work of the Special Operations Executive.

After the Christmas Party we return to the Methodist Hall on the second Wednesday of each month. January’s speaker is the ever popular (and amusing) Stuart Timbrell who will be continuing his series of “Discovering Dorset” presentations. Why not make a note of 13^th January in your brand new diary and join us for coffee and biscuits, meet friends old and new and hear an interesting speaker.

 2010 celebrations with Champtoceaux. A reminder that the dates for the celebration visit from our friends in Champtoceaux are Thursday 13^th May to Sunday 16^th. Plans for the programme of events are progressing well so watch this space for full information as things firm up.

In the meantime, don’t risk missing out on the opportunity to join in the fun. All the events will be free of charge to hosting members so, if you are willing and able to host some guests please talk to Joyce on 824469 NOW - it is first come first served so ring today.

Our weekend in Lille and Ypres was a great success. 43 people took advantage of the opportunity to visit this fine city in northern France, birthplace of Charles De Gaulle; and an evening excursion over the border into Belgium to Ypres for dinner and the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. The evening we visited saw a large contingent of UK visitors, with 2 pipe bands in addition to the local Fire Brigade, who sound the Last Post there every night. So we returned home on Sunday evening after a memorable weekend.

2009-2010 subscriptions are now due. Rates have been held at £5 per household for the 4^th year running. Many of you have already paid at the Rustic Fayre, at the AGM or to your newsletter distributor, but if you haven’t please get in touch with your distributor or Sandra Groves and let them have your subs. In exchange you will get a pretty pink membership and “fixture” card for the year.

In this issue:

• Chairman’s musings

• Boules Report

• AGM Notice

• Summer Outing report

• Members’ meetings

• Silver Anniversary celebrations - update

• Appeal for Birthday cards

Welcome to the October newsletter.

It has been a busy time recently (so what’s new?), with the Summer Outing and Cafe Rene at the Rustic Fayre both being enormous successes again. We have also been preparing for the two big events coming up in October - the AGM and the restart of our winter season Members’ meetings - both in our new venue of the Methodist Church Hall. A formal notice about the AGM, together with some proposals we are making for changing our constitution are included in this newsletter. Our Members’ meetings have also moved to the Methodist Church Hall as we have rather outgrown our original venue at the Band Hall. Also coming up in October is the long weekend break to Lille and Ypres which promises to be a weekend to remember for all those booked.

I hope to see you all at one of these fine events - remember it’s YOUR twinning so come along, experience what we do and we’re open to any suggestions for new or improved things we can do.

At the time of writing we are still awaiting news of our final position in the Boules league. In fact some teams have not yet completed their fixtures. So it looks as if we will have to wait a little longer to see how we got on, but it does look like our efforts this year should earn us a finish in mid-table respectability.

This year’s Summer Outing was another great success. 67 of us boarded the coaches at Morrison’s Car Park for the short drive to Poole Quay, where our boat was waiting for us. An interesting cruise around (and very close to) Old Harry Rocks, with fish and chips laid on for us, found us in Swanage Bay in time to watch the splendid firework display from a different angle. After the display, with the night air chilling down noticeably, it was full speed ahead back to Poole, entertained by a 50s and 60s disco in the boat’s saloon.

This year’s season of Members’ Meetings starts this month, again in our new venue of the Methodist Church Hall. The October meeting will be on the 14^th, starting at 7.30pm. Join us for coffee and biscuits, meet friends old and new, and hear our guest speaker Kate Greenaway talk on “My Many Occupations”. For the November meeting, on the 11^th, we will have a new speaker, Mr John Smith, telling us about the Special Operations Executive.

The December meeting on the 9^th will of course be our pre-Christmas celebration and will be at St Michaels Parish Room as in previous years.

 2010 celebrations with Champtoceaux. The dates for our 25^th anniversary celebration visit from our friends in Champtoceaux have now been finalised. They will be arriving on Thursday 13^th May and leaving on Sunday 16^th. We have a full programme of celebrations being planned, including a big day out on the Friday for guests and hosts together, and a rather special “soirée” on the Saturday afternoon and evening - so make a note for your 2010 diary now!

A reminder that Catharina needs your old Birthday Cards to make new ones from. She sells these cards in support of the Twinning so if you have any to offer, please let her have them or call her on 813564.

Your Officers are:

In this issue:

• Chairman’s musings

• Boules Report

• Liederbach visit

• Summer Outing

• Autumn Weekend Break

• Appeal for Birthday cards

Welcome to the August newsletter.

I have been thinking about how to get the best out of the four-times per year newsletters and I have decided that issues in March, June, October and December would be the best timed to give you all news of forthcoming attractions and reports of our activities. So this August edition is a bit of a one-off. It is also being written a bit in advance as I shall be off on holiday shortly and need to get it to the printers’ before I go.

The BIG event has, of course, been our visit to Liederbach and a full report follows. There is also a progress report on plans for this year’s Summer Outing and a report on our performance in the boules league.

The other event of note is that Bill Eggleston, our Membership Secretary, moved out of Verwood in June and surrendered his duties. I would like to record our sincere thanks to him for all his work in the past. For the future, Sandra will be combining Membership records with her Treasurer’s post, which will make it much simpler to reconcile accounts at renewal time.

On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone for their good wishes during my recent illness - it was a great comfort to Anjie and myself to know we have such good friends in the Twinning.

Our Boules results this season have been a bit varied. At the half-way stage of the season we have won 2 games, drawn 2 and lost 3. We do not yet have an official league table but I reckon that should put us about half-way. Don’t forget that everyone is welcome to come along to the boules pitch on the Memorial Recreation Ground any dry Thursday evening from about 6pm for a friendly practice or instruction for newcomers. If you show any sort of promise you could well be in the team for the following Saturday!

At the time of writing we are just back from our visit to Liederbach. Our German friends pulled out all the stops as usual and laid on an interesting and exhausting programme for us. We arrived at the Liederbachhalle at 7.30pm on Thursday evening to be greeted with goody bags and a glass of cold beer. United or re-united with our hosts everyone then adjourned to renew old friendships or to forge new ones. On Friday morning a coach had been arranged to take us for a day in the ancient University city of Heidelberg. A morning walking tour was followed by lunch arranged for us in a local brewhouse. The afternoon was at leisure and opinion was split as to what to do. Some decided to climb (by funicular in most cases) to the castle overlooking the town, others opted for a boat trip along the River Neckar, with the chance of coffee and cake being a major attraction.

Saturday was the International Street Festival in Liederbach and we took the opportunity to have a stall in the market offering such English delights as Marmite and Daddies Sauce. This proved to be very popular and by 6pm we were virtually sold out, so we shut up shop and spent the rest of the evening enjoying the entertainment and refreshments that were on offer.

On Sunday we were treated to lunch at the official reception, where I was honoured to present the new Bürgermeisterin with three beautiful framed limited-edition watercolours of houses featuring in Thomas Hardy’s novels. On Monday we had more free time with our hosts before leaving for the flight home.

This year’s Summer Outing will be another attempt to see the Swanage fireworks - let’s hope August this year brings us better weather than last year. The date is 15^th August with our coach leaving Morrison’s car park at 6.45pm. We drive to Poole where our boat, complete with fish and chip supper, will take us to Swanage for the fireworks which we will watch from the boat, then returning to Poole and back in Verwood at approx 11.45pm. The cost will be £21 per head including the fish and chip supper. Bookings and full details are available from Brian on 822299.

There is now a face-lifted version of our “introduction to twinning” leaflet. They are available from the Heritage Centre and at the Council Offices but if anyone would like a copy to entice a friend or neighbour to join us, you could also please give me a call.

A few places are left on the autumn weekend break. This is staying in Lille with a Saturday evening trip to the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

When? 9^th - 11^th October 2009

How much? Just £140 per person. Supplements apply for single room occupancy and insurance.

How do I book or find out more? Email or speak to Terry - details below. Or download a booking form from our website.  (For a booking form select Lille booking form .doc)

Catharina needs your old Birthday Cards to make new ones from. She sells these cards in support of the Twinning so if you have any to offer, please let her have them or call her on 813564.

That’s it for this issue. The next newsletter will be the October edition with news of the AGM and our new season of monthly meetings.

Your Officers are:

In this issue:

Chairman’s musings

Members’ meetings

Visit to Liederbach

Reminders

Christmas Party photos

I in the company of those nearest and dearest to you. I had a very restful time - there was even a period of 2 days when I didn’t so much as think about checking my emails! Now it’s back to normal and as usual it’s all go with the Twinning. The Christmas Party went very well and a number of people have told me how much they enjoyed it. We certainly got a bit more atmosphere in the hall with our Christmas lights and decorations, and the festive food and drink seemed to go down well. There are some photos from the evening in this edition.

 Other members’ meetings continue to be well attended, although the experimental November meeting of slides and videos didn’t work out quite as we’d planned. - Still, that’s how we learn what we can do and what we can’t, so that’s a formula that won’t be repeated. Again in this Newsletter are details of forthcoming attractions at members’ meetings, giving a bit more information than your membership cards.

 The big news to start the year is that arrangements are now in hand for our visit to Liederbach in June. Read on for full details, but let’s hope the pound recovers a bit against the Euro before then!

Forthcoming Members’ Meetings. The February meeting (11^th) promises to be especially entertaining with a talk on “The Human Side of Being a Traffic Warden”. Do join us at these meetings - they are becoming more and more popular and they’re a great way to keep in touch with your Twinning friends.  

Peter will probably have been in touch with you all by now with details of the arrangements that are in place for June’s visit to Liederbach. A coach will be leaving Verwood on the 18^th in tim e for us to check-in for the 1535 FlyBe flight from Southampton to Frankfurt, arriving at 1820. The return flight will be the 1900 from Frankfurt, arriving in Southampton at 1955. A coach will bring us all back to Verwood, so allowing for bagage reclaim we should get home by about 2100 on the 22nd. Cost will be £150 per person for the complete trip, but only £50pp deposit is needed with your booking, with the balance payable by the end of April. So, if you haven’t got your name down yet, better do it now as places on the plane are limited.

 Whilst we are there, we have been invited to run a stall at Liederbach’s International Street Market, giving away some samples and selling a selection of typically English (and preferably local) goods. I am working on this and I will make arrangements for our goodies to find their way to Germany.

REMINDERS:

 Firstly, there may be some misprints on your membership card. The date of the October 2009 Members’ meeting should be 14^th, not the 7^th as shown.

You may also wish to note on the front cover that our new vice-Chairman is John Blackwell, tel 868763.

Also, Peter Aisthorpe-Buckley’s telephone number is 824313, not as printed. You will need to have this correct in order to book in for June’s trip to Liederbach.

Secondly, if you would like to join Ferndown Twinning Association on their visit to Segré in July would you please let their chairman, Douglas Lock, know as soon as possible. His number is 896984. Segré is only 40 miles from Champtoceaux, so if your friends there are willing to collect you, this is an ideal opportunity to visit them at a reasonable cost.

Finally, there are two opportunities for you to brush up your French and/or German. I have had some positive response to the offer from one of our friends from Champtoceaux to come to Verwood to run courses, either during daytimes or evenings, to teach beginners or improvers sufficient to “get by” for tourism, leisure and daily life in France. But to make this viable we need more. Most likely dates would be in the autumn. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would be interested in joining in.

Catharina Green is also still offering the opportunity for French or German conversation sessions. Call her on 813564 for details.   

  Your Officers are:

Pictures from the Christmas Party

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