THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

COLSTON BASSETT, OWTHORPE AND COTGRAVE BRANCH

www.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/colston-bassett

Chairman, Trowell Stud, Owthorpe Road, Cotgrave, Nottingham, NG12 3PU.    0115 9899094

2012 SPRING NEWSLETTER

Dear Member,

A very Happy New Year to you. This is my Spring newsletter which I hope will bring you up to date with what is going on in the Branch and what the future holds. I won’t duplicate what is in the ‘Legion’ magazine, although much of it is of great interest as the RBL moves forward at a busy time.

Membership.    In the last calendar year we have recruited 34 new members against our target of 20! We are now 101 strong! Those joining us since my last newsletter are, in Cotgrave: Linda Blowers, Ina Chapman, Margaret Goulding, Don Gregory, Philip Holmes, Tina-Louise Jefferies-Cockburn, Jodie McCabe, Lillian Neely, Jacky Shaw. In Owthorpe: Mike and Helen Hutson, Brad Poulson, and Mike Rust.  Elsewhere in the area: Doug Billcliffe, Andrew Cockayne, Geoff Hannibal, John Reason, Trevor and Joy Sharpe and Lucy Silver.

AGM.               In early October 2011 we held the AGM in Colston Bassett Village Hall where we decided that our 2011 donations should go to the Nottinghamshire RBL Welfare Fund (£250) and the RBL 90^th Appeal to support and build Battleback Challenge Centres (£500). We agreed our Strategy and our activity plan for 2012 which is on the next page. We re-elected all the members of the committee with the exception of Roy Evley. As Treasurer Roy had kept our finances in order for the last 18 years for which we are all most grateful. We elected a new Treasurer, Josie McGuirk from Colston Bassett.

Remembrance.          On 29 October for the very first time we held a Poppy Launch in partnership with Sharpes of Nottingham. It was an excellent event at the War Memorial on the embankment and was attended by the Mayors of Nottingham and Rushcliffe and the BBC. We are grateful to our President and Trevor Sharpe for creating another ‘first’ for the Branch. After the launch we set about collecting in earnest and found a few new ways to separate people from their money. We partnered with the Seniors of the Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club who generously donated the proceeds from their Golf competition which started at 11 am on 11 November, over £800. On Remembrance Sunday we supported Remembrance services at all 3 churches and paraded with the other uniformed services through Cotgrave. 71 members and friends, joined by Ken and Gillian Clarke and Charles and Rebecca Hanson, sat down to eat a very good lunch at the Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club, well done Gilly Cross for organising it. The raffle raised over £300. After the 2010 Poppy appeal raised more money than ever before the Branch had bought an electronic money counting machine. It was just as well as in 2011 we collected an incredible £5376! Well done everyone who helped and in particular Sheila Gray and Bryan Tansley.

Cotgrave Gatherings.           Our Gatherings on the last Thursday of each month have been a success and we will continue to develop them in 2012. The last Gathering of 2011 was at the Lime Kiln pub between Colson Bassett and Cropwell Butler where 41 members and friends sat down to sample the best Fish and Chips in Nottinghamshire. The Christmas quiz on that evening produced some teasing questions like “how many reindeer did Santa have and what were their names?” In 2012 we will charge £1 per head to cover quiz prizes and raise a little money.

Web Sites.      For those of you on the Internet David Myles continues to develop our Branch web site. www.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/colston-bassett . He has uploaded photos from our events and we now have quite a collection. Another web site that we will be concentrating on in 2012 is www.cotgravecommunity.com which offers the Branch an opportunity to broaden awareness of our activity and recruit new members. One must register to join the community site and if not on the Cotgrave electoral role one needs to mention that you are a Branch member. Well worth a visit to find out lots of useful information. www.forcesdiscounts.mod.co.uk is another web site that is worth visiting as Legion Members are entitled to the discounts on the site.

2012                  In 2012,as well as continuing to recruit andraise as much money as possible for our cause we will be running a good program of activities in which I hope you will take part. We start with a quiz at the Welfare on 26 January and move on to our Spring supper on 9 March, a Friday to allow maximum attendance. The full events list, as it currently stands is below:

Feedback.         Lastly all of the committee would welcome your feedback on our program. What do you want? Please e mail us, telephone us or grab us at one of the events. We are always open to new ideas and particularly open to offers of help. Our aim is to support those serving in the Armed Forces, those who have served, their dependants and their families through Representation, Remembrance, Welfare and Comradeship. So let us increase our membership and have some fun while doing so.