Newsletter – June 2023
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Thanks to:
Helen and Andrew Nicol for the refreshments this month.
We still have a gap for two people on the refreshments rota for November! Please see Monica if you are able to help.
The Club supplies the tea, coffee and sugar. Volunteers are asked to bring milk, biscuits and tea towels.
Thanks also to the members now helping to put out and clear away the chairs for the meeting.
Welcome to:
New members Jane Goldman and Elmien Niblett of Yarpole.
This month’s speaker:
Adam Alexander is speaking on “Meetings with remarkable Vegetables” He is a Board Member of the national charity Garden Organic. His knowledge and expertise growing vegetables for seeds is highly valued by the Heritage Seed Library, for which he is a seed guardian. He will be bringing seeds – although having just spoken with him, not as many as he had hoped – and copies of his books for sale.
EGM – 25th July:
At the July supper evening, we will be holding an EGM to make some slight changes to the way the Club is run in the future.
There is only one slight change to the Rules, the main changes are to the Information Sheet and came about because of a suggestion made at the AGM last December, which was carried unanimously by all those presents.
Details of the alterations will be sent out by email in the next couple of weeks.
42nd ANNUAL SHOW – Saturday 19th August 2023:
The Schedule for the Show is live on our website in an A4 version, and hopefully in the booklet version in the next few days.
When looking at the schedule and thinking of what you can enter, please remember we have all had the same growing conditions this year and remember what our Vegetable judge – David Griffiths – says “don’t prejudge your entries, it is his job to do the judging”.
If every member puts in at least a couple of entries, it will make for a successful show.
However, to make for a successful show we need your help! We need Stewards to organise each section, two on some, three shared between two sections on others. Stewards are an essential part of the Show, to oversee members making sure their entries meet the schedule in the morning, to assist the Judges and write out the winners’ cards and then to supervise each section in the afternoon when the Show is open to the public. For health and safety reasons, we need the Stewards to be in attendance at all times and they must stay until the Show closes to the public and the tidying up is finished.
There is no need to worry about being a Steward, we all garden for enjoyment and our knowledge is probably restricted to the plants, flowers and vegetables we like. We have a Chief Steward, we have the RHS Show Manual, and we have the knowledge of the other members involved.
If you haven’t Stewarded before, it would be helpful if you could come to the Hall for a short briefing on the Friday at 5.00 pm when the Committee sets up the Hall. If you have entries that would be OK in the Hall overnight, you could bring them along with you then.
We already have a few volunteers but are in need of a minimum 10 more. Please see Monica if you are able to Steward for the Show.
There is another important job that needs organising, before Show Day so that the Show runs smoothly, and that is the preparation of the Stewards packs with all the prize cards, marking sheets, coloured dots, etc.
This needs two or three people and takes a couple of hours. It can be done at Monica’s home after all the printing has been organised.
Regrettably, your committee has decided that if we struggle again this year to get sufficient help and stewards, we will have no alternative but to cancel the Show.
If you look at the schedule you will see that we have changed the times for the Show with staging starting at 10.00 am but we will be opening the doors to stewards at 9.30 am in order that they can make their entries before other members arrive.
Please don’t let us down and ensure the future of the Show.
Next month:
Our July meeting has been changed to an EGM and shared supper and, again this started from a suggestion made at the December AGM. A member suggested that we had a meeting whereby members cook and share produce from their garden.
Whilst we are not going as far as cooking in the Hall, this shared supper will give you the opportunity to use your own produce and July is a much better time than December.
2023 Subscription renewals:
There are a few people who still haven’t renewed their subscription and, under our membership rules you will be deemed to have resigned and your details will be removed from our active records.
I will write separately to those concerned by the end of June and confirm that your details have been removed.
You are, of course, very welcome to re-join at any time.
And something from the web master:
Are you aware of a plant identifier app called ‘Leaf Snap’? It’s a must for those of us who can’t remember all the names.
It is free to download (or pay for an ad free version) and is straightforward to use.
(Other apps are available)
Monica
