Note from the Chapel Clerk:
Thanks to the few who attended the aforesaid Meeting where we were treated to a display of nostalgic pics brought in by Peter Curley on his laptop. Next time he says he will bring a cable which will connect it to one of the TV screens in the Chapel Office for easier viewing.
The Meeting held the usual silence as a mark of respect for our colleagues Brian Blow and Derek Allen who have recently passed away.
Our venerable FoC, Gerry Dodd, mentioned in his entertaining oration the woeful attendance, but praised Bill Woods for his enthusiasm in arriving at the Meeting a week early. Bill received a much-deserved standing ovation for this remarkable show of commitment.
What Gerry probably didn’t know was that there were two other outstanding examples of the same commitment demonstrated by Peter Cooper and Tony Holt. Because of the weekend rail disruption on the northern lines caused by electrification work (which was scheduled to take six months but will have been two years when completed in November!), and last weekend’s strike, there were no trains from Peter’s abode in Darwen. So he travelled by bus, taking two hours each way. For the same reason Tony had to travel by bus from his abode in Chorley to Bolton, then another bus into Manchester – a journey which took three hours each way and resulted in him drinking a half of bitter and heading off home again after only 30 minutes or so at the Meeting. I only wish we could have the same commendable spirit from more of our Members – which brings me to the more serious side of this email.
Of a possible 90 Members currently on my list we achieved a grand turnout of 29, six Members withdrawing in the two days immediately previous to the Meeting for various unavoidable reasons. You will all be aware that I have for some time now become increasingly disheartened by poor attendances. I accept that none of us is getting any younger and Members do have other commitments from time to time but, even taking that into account, 29 out of 90 is still unacceptable to me, as are the four previous turnouts of 38, 31, 32 and 36. What is also unacceptable is the fact that I have to almost beg some Members to reply to the Notice of Meetings.
Given the fact that the dates are circulated so far in advance, I find it difficult to understand why so many Members are unavailable for Meetings and I, being the eternal optimist, am hoping for a significant improvement next year. Some of you know that I have for some time been sorely tempted to pack it all in as a waste of my time and effort, and the only thing preventing me from doing this is the fact that it would be detrimental to the few who do attend regularly and have no effect on those who don’t. So I am in a very difficult position and would greatly appreciate considerably more support for future Meetings, which would give me some incentive to carry on.
SB, Chapel Clerk (unelected and demoralised)
