We had a good attendance for lunch and to mark the start of winter, we had a hearty lamb hot pot followed by jam sponge and custard, guaranteed to keep us all warm on the way home! It was a busy lunch time as our Chairman David May welcomed new member Bill Scott with the traditional 'brown envelope' and chaired the Club AGM.
Thanks were given to the outgoing Committee for all their hard work but in particular to Roger Holmes for his long service, most recently as Catering Secretary. Thanks also to Roger Mills our Accounts Examiner for the last seven years who will be finally standing down after scrutinising the books for 2019.
The Committee for 2020 was unanimously voted in as follows
Chairman: John Gilbert
Vice Chairman: Graham Churchill
Immediate Past Chairman: David May
Secretary: Michael Fisk
Treasurer: Philip Wilkins
Assistant Treasurer and Web Site: David Griffiths
Catering Secretary: Gerald Bridge
Social Secretary: Norman Rodda
Speakers' Secretary: Geoff Pope
Committee Member: John Pembrey
Accounts Examiner (2019): Roger Mills
Our Treasurer Philip Wilkins explained that he was recommending increases to both the annual subscription and the dining fee for the coming year. A steady decline in membership numbers and increased costs of marketing/publicising the club means that the Annual Subscription will be £25.00 for 2020. The rising cost of food, room hire and the increased costs of the speakers means that we will charge £21.00 for normal lunches. April and December ladies lunches to confirmed later. These proposals were accepted by all members present.
After lunch the three members of the Royal Navy Presentation Team kept us wide awake and shipshape with some excellent videos, slides and narrative about the "The Royal Navy, Today and into the Future”.
We learnt about the variety of roles the Navy has around the globe protecting our shipping and commercial interests on and below the sea, affording aid to victims of natural disasters, keeping a watch on the Russian Navy (which is everywhere!), supporting NATO and our commercial partners and even mapping the sea and river beds around the UK and elsewhere.
For the future the Navy is looking to its new aircraft carriers with their F-35 Lightnings to provide a powerful central force well offshore and the new Littoral Combats ships to get close in-shore with marines, helicopters and missiles.
Our thanks to Commander Mark Hammon and his colleagues for a most interesting talk and for not trying to recruit anyone present! For more information please visit the Royal Navy website at www.royalnavy.mod.uk where you can find some excellent photos and links to the Presentation Team.
Two days after the lunch, on Friday evening, we sent ten intrepid quizzers to take part in the Ewell Probus Club Quiz Night. We were split into two teams Cheam 1 and Cheam 2, with Cheam 1 incorporating a couple from Ewell. We both performed well finishing equal fourth, with fifty correct answers a piece out of a total of eighty. A most enjoyable evening with some great questions, the answers to some being obvious once they were given, and isn't it strange that when we found two answers to a question, we always chose the wrong one! It was a very well organised evening with some excellent fish and chips, and good company. Our thanks to Ewell Probus Club for the invitation, we look forward to next year.
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