Held Monday 18th February 2013

Present: Anne McMillan, Pam Bridgeman, Angela Ruck, Lucy Hayward, Patrick Williams

Absent: Sue Rush & Nitin Shinde

Events:

HG Social – Jan 26th 2013

Anne/Pam reported that the first Home Groups Social Eve held on January 26th 2013 was a great success – despite freezing weather, almost 70 people attended and the ‘bring & share’ approach worked very well

We were also under budget for the social – and it was agreed that we would submit receipts and make donations in lieu – so that an accurate record can be kept of costs.

Anne will arrange for photos from the event to go on the website and in the next issue of the magazine with a few accompanying words to describe the evening.

The request for ideas & suggestions on how we could improve similar events in the future yielded the following:

  • Some sort of activity to encourage people to ‘mix & match’ more – we had in fact planned this – but the number of people and room layout made it difficult to implement – but definitely something to bear in mind for next time.  Taking a number to determine a table seems a simple way to accomplish this.
  • A planned ‘in situ’ exchange of HG members/ideas – the opportunity to attend other house groups on a one-off basis and see what they are doing.  Clearly, this could get out of hand if not managed well – but maybe an idea to arrange a single representative from each HG to visit others in turn – need to give this more thought.
  • ‘More of the same’ – the event was enjoyable and people want more opportunities to meet and socialise in an informal way.  We are already planning our next event!

Summer Social – possibly July 14th 2013

  • After some discussion – it was agreed that a ‘late afternoon/early evening’ event would be good – based on a ‘bring & share’ picnic and followed by some music.
  • Pam suggested the grounds of Holy Rood in the Lawns and the team agreed this sounded lovely.  Lucy offered to make some enquiries about feasibility with Ailsa at the CC Office, (done).
  • There is no electricity or water at the site – so we may need to arrange for Portaloos as a minimum – Patrick will look into costs.
  • Pam suggested a string quartet as this wouldn’t require speakers/electricity.

Parish Weekend Away – possibly Sep 2014

  • There was a great deal of discussion about this event, the potential location/programme and the ‘lessons learned’ from the last one in 2012.
  • In a nutshell, it was agreed that Lea Abbey offered a stunning location, ready made programme for both adults and children and was well like by most.  Only ‘cons’ were seating arrangements at meal times, (picking numbers again????) and travel time.  Lucy has agreed to investigate possibility of coaches and various other aspects of the weekend to put together some suggestions.
  • Pam & Anne provided details of two other potential locations – Hebron hall and Lindors.  Lucy will contact these and others and draw up some comparisons for discussion at the next meeting

AOB

Pam raised the matter of lifts to church, (and potentially other functions) for less able parishioners.  Following the disbandment of the ‘100 Club’ there will no longer be automatic funding for ‘access taxis’ or normal taxis.

  • A number of ideas were discussed: repaying taxi receipts for the more able, (or 50%) or other sum TBD
  • Any issues to do with insurance – Patrick believes that ‘volunteer’ drivers would just need to declare this fact to their insurance companies – but we need to check.
  • It seems that there are 6 main CC events that this applies to: 4 x Choral Evensong; Carol Service; ‘St James at 4’, (usually held in the summer).
  • There may also be some demand for the Weds 10.30am service.
  • Anne agreed to contact Daniel Pitt for a list of those who may require the service & Pam suggested that we ought to contact people directly to ask what  they would like – for example, outings for shopping, garden centres may be welcome.
  • It was agreed to re-visit at next meeting

 

NEXT MEETING DATE – Monday April 29th 2013 at Pam’s house.

Written by Lucy Hayward

February 19th 2013