April 2003
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ADASTRAL PARK TWINNING ASSOCIATION

 

April 2003

 

SUMMER NEWSLETTER

 

Committee:  

Tony Gould (Chairman),                                 Eileen Willis (Vice Chairman),

Mark Kempton (Treasurer),                            Mark Kempton (Webmaster),

David Cheeseman (Visit organiser)                Jon Nixey (German Consultant)

           

 

Members:  All members and any non-members are welcome to attend any committee meetings, offer suggestions or volunteer to be co-opted for a specific twinning activity.

 

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Twinning with Germany - Saturday 24th May to Wednesday 28th May 2003

The dates for visiting our hosts in Darmstadt are now fixed.  Now is your chance to sense the flavour of twinning through an easy introduction of visiting or just socialising with the events.  Nearly all our hosts speak good English so your German speaking capabilities can be nil.  The Germans are very keen to host us, so if you have never participated before you can be assured of a very friendly warm response.  After the successful visit from Darmstadt last year, we shall be welcomed by our German partners and hopefully some new German hosts will join us this year.  No prior experience is necessary so please make a diary entry now.  Please spend a few days now doing your long term planning, commit to participate and advise me as soon as possible.   Please mail, fax, e-mail or phone me with your participation details.

 

Language courses:  There are formal residential language courses held from time to time organised by BTITF.  Apply to the secretariat, 57 Avenue Lenine, 94112 ARCUEIL Cedex, France. The 2003 courses are:

Location         Dates                          Language       Pax      Cost                Accommodation

Eastbourne      17 - 24 May                 English            40        400E                Hotel  

Southampton    16 - 23 Aug                 English            30        400E                Families

Wurzburg         September                   German            21        400E                Hotel

Romania TBA 4 - 10 Aug                   Romanian        12 min 400E    Centred’hébergement

Ronce-les-Bains  7-14 Sept                French             30        400 Euros        Centre Azureva

Krynica           14 - 21 Sept                 Polish              20        370 Euros        Centre de vacances

Rimini             20 - 27 Sept                 Italian              30        400 Euros        Hôtel

Dublin             1 - 8 Nov                     English            25        400 Euros        Families

 

 

BT International Twinning Federation AGM:  To be held on 21st June 2002 in London.

 

UIJPTT Congress: Details not known at time of publication. (perhaps 3 - 6th October 2003)

 

Holidays:   29th June to 6th July 2003.  Anglet, SW France in Azureva full board accommodation with daily excursions to Biarritz, Bayonne,, Saint Sebastian, Lourdes, Bétharram  caves, La Rhune, Huchet and Landis lake, all for 680Euros.

 

BTITF 20th anniversary event:  30th July to 3rd August 2003.  A celebration in York, organised by Richard Messer (Tel: 01757 249400, Mob: 07850 749815) of the York group for international twinners at the Racecourse Centre.  £180 for 4 days D, B&B.  Wednesday: arrive.  Thursday: Jorvik Viking centre, lunch, sightseeing bus tour of York, dinner.  Friday: National Rail Museum, lunch, pm free exploration, dinner.  Saturday: Coach to Pickering, North Yorkshire moors steam railway to Grosmont, lunch and Whitby fishing port (Captain James Cook), celebration dinner and dance.  Sunday:  breakfast and depart.

 

Rad Oscar cycling event:   To be combined with the above event at York.

 

International  Twinning Week:  Full board plus excursions. Location or dates not yet known.

 

International Young Twinners Seminar:   These are for persons between 18 and 30 years of age generally in the Autumn with YHA accommodation with visits to museums, castles, use of sporting facilities and coach trips. Location or dates not yet known.

 

Azureva Holiday Villages:  Summer/Autumn catalogue is now available and bookings may be made via the PO Fellowship of Remembrance, tel: 01483 424929.

 

Pen Friends:

A request has been made by a number of French, Spanish and Romanian teenagers for English pen friends.

 

Minutes of  ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING   5th March 2003 - Orion 3 meeting room 1

 

2003 AGM agenda:

1          Minutes of 2002 AGM, Constitution rules, no new business identified in advance

2          Chairman's report

3          Secretary's report

4          Treasurer's report

5          Auditor's report

6          Constitution rules

7          Any other business, APs

8                 Election of officers

 

Old committee: 

Tony Gould (Chairman),                                 Eileen Willis (Vice Chairman),

Mark Kempton (Treasurer),                            Jon Nixey (German Consultant)

David Cheeseman (Visit organiser)   

 

Sederunt:  There were seven members present including seven voting members.

Attendees:, Jon Nixey, Mark Kempton, Tony Gould, Chris Hatch, Wilf Ablard, Eileen Willis, Subhash Modasia

 

Apologies for absence:  None

 

1          Minutes of last year's AGM:  The 5th March 2002 minutes were accepted.  There were no actions outstanding.  There were no requests to change the constitution nor any new business identified.

 

2                 Chairman's report for 1st January 2002 to 31st December 2002  

2002 Overview:  Two of us took part in the Ron Gager ski week in early January 2002 at La Tuissuire, France staying in an FT Azureva hotel with full board.  Three of us visited  an Azureva chalet for a week in August 2002 near Poitiers.  There was one major twinning activity this year, that of the visit from Darmstadt by 14 people in early October 2002.  There was also a pioneering visit by three of us to Amiens in France to open up a new link with France telecom.

 

Although the following gives a broader range of activities, the Martlesham group is narrowly focused on Germany, although there is now great hope of expanding interest in the new link with France.  No other links are currently envisaged.

 

3                 Secretary's report for 1st January 2002 to 31st December 2002

BT International Twinning Federation:  This exists to provide a cohesive link amongst the local groups to provide a unified national approach.  There is a publication called "Eurotwin" that is copied and distributed upon receipt.  It contains information on language courses, holiday villages, ski holidays and international conferences, events in which some of our members have taken part.  On account of rising costs nobody represented us at the BTITF AGM on 21st June 2002.

 

Twinning with Germany:  From  Wednesday 2nd October 2002 to Sunday 6th October 2002 we hosted our counterparts from Darmstadt.  There were fourteen of them in all with quite a few new faces.   The programme comprised: Wednesday: arrival to hosts;  Thursday: trip to Sutton Hoo by day, a 'Ghost walk' in Ipswich in the evening and an optional visit to the 'Owl and Pussycat' in Felixstowe; Friday: technical visit with a barbecue in the evening chez Tony; Saturday: guided tour of the Museum of east Anglian Life at Stowmarket followed by a Murder Mystery evening at the 13th Ipswich Sea Scouts;  Sunday 3rd  June:  guests depart.  Relations with the Germans are good, well organised and with a sense of firm commitment. 

 

Twinning with France:  In early December 2002 three members made a pilot trip to Amiens to open negotiations for future twinning.  Three sets of dates were suggested for their visit to the UK.  It is proposed to nurture this link carefully and encourage it to grow.  They have now confirmed there visit to us from 27th to 29th June 2003.

 

Twinning with other European countries:  No new links were established or explored. 

 

International Twinning Skiing Events:  These are run under the auspices of Ron Gager of the London group to combined locations in the French Alps.  Members have participated in these skiing events and can thoroughly recommend them.

 

International Young Twinners Seminar: This event is for twinners in the age group eighteen to thirty.

 

Rad Oscar cycling event:  This is open to all and held annually.

 

Language courses:  There are formal residential language courses held from time to time organised by BTITF under the auspices of Nigel Eyres.   The 2002 courses were:

Location         Dates                          Language       Pax      Cost                Accommodation

Eastbourne      27 Apr- 4 May            English            40        £260                Hotel  

Eastbourne      27 Apr- 4 May            French             40        £260                Hotel

Madrid                        Mid April                    Spanish            30        400 Euros        Hôtel

Wurzburg         25 May - 1 June           German            40        380 Euros        Centre de formation

Krynica           26 May - 2 June           Polish              15 min 440 Euros        Centre de vacances

St Petersbourg End June                      Russian            25        496 Euros        Hôtel

Sinaia              5 - 11 Aug                   Romanian        12 min 360 Euros             Centred’hébergement

Southampton    17 - 24 Aug                 English            ?          £250                Families

Narbonne         221 - 28 Sept               French             40        400 Euros        Hôtel

Italy                 October                       Italian              30        375 Euros        Hôtel

Dublin             2 - 9 Nov                     English            25        375 Euros        Families         

 

 

Student Temporary Employment:  Grants are available to help British BTITF students working abroad.   No one availed themselves of this opportunity in 2002.

 

Student exchanges:  There have been no requests this year.

 

Eurotwin:  Normally a submission of our twinning exchange activities is submitted.

 

Pen Pals:  There have been 12 requests this year from France and 4 requests from Spain.

 

Socials:  There have been no socials this year.  It was noted that greater local publicity may be achieved in 2003 by the organisation of local social events.

 

Publicity:  B80 site restaurant has posters, latest newsletter and latest copy of Eurotwin.

 

French PTT Holiday Villages:  There are individual and group availabilities at forty locations in France.  Visitor rates available from John Brucass, Serendipity, Higher Ritherdens, Langford Budville, Wellington, Somerset TA21 0RL, telephone 01823 401062. 

 

BT intranet “Twinning” web site:   We now have several pages allocated for the above giving the background, aims, and activities and the names and contact details for each EC member  and each group.

 

4                 Treasurer's report for 1st January 2002 to 31st December 2002.

Accounts:

During 2002 the club assets decreased slightly.  There was a contribution from Atlas.

Membership:  This currently stands at eight life members and nine paid up ordinary members plus seventeen interested persons.  Newsletters to existing membership plus spares on the Twinning notice board were all aimed at encouraging new younger membership.

Fees:   The life membership remains at £15.00

            Event participation remains at £5.00

            A mailing list member was created at £1.00

 

5          Auditor's report.

Our current honorary auditor, Jon Nixey, has since audited and confirmed the 2002 accounts.

 

6          Constitution Rules:

None identified.

 

7          Any other business, APs:

There was no progress to report from Catherine Nelson in relation to Arras twinning for 2002.

There was no progress to report from Tony Gould in relation to Grenoble twinning for 2002.

 

8          Election of officers:

The chairman thanked the five outgoing officers for their help during the year.  The nominations for the new committee were re-elected unopposed.

New committee: 

Tony Gould (Chairman),                                 Eileen Willis (Vice Chairman),

Mark Kempton (Treasurer),                            Mark Kempton (Webmaster),

David Cheeseman (Visit organiser)                Jon Nixey (German Consultant)

 

The AGM closed at 13:25

The meeting then continued with the logistics of organising the impending visit from the Germans changed at their request from the usual May/June to 2nd- 6th October 2002.