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ILEX, Bournemouth & District Branch Newsletter
Rather belatedly, a Happy New Year to you all and welcome to the first newsletter of 2007 and the last of the current branch membership year.
Membership
For most of you, your membership expires in about a month’s time so I hope you will be renewing. Personalised renewal emails have already been sent to all of you on the mailing list and 'real' membership forms will also be sent to you directly as well as being available from this website by clicking here.
If you do not want to renew, I would appreciate it if you could let me know why as if there is something we can do to improve things for you then we will do our best to achieve that.
Thank you to all who came to the Annual Dinner for your support. As I was playing 'host' to our sponsors, I did not get the chance to visit each table as I normally try to do so I am sorry about that. The pros and cons of external sponsorship is just one of the many things the committee will be debating as we start (already!) to plan this year’s Dinner.
In that context, your feedback is essential. Many of you have already been kind enough to say how much you enjoyed the evening and some of you have expressed disappointment with some aspects. As organisers, we want to know all of your views, whether good or bad.
There are lots of different things which go into the Dinner such as its organisation, ticket prices, the location, the layout of the tables, the food, the table service, the bar service, the bar prices and the timing and nature of the speeches to name some of them. What about the magicians, the decorations and the table 'gifts' to name some more?
Your feedback on all aspects of the Dinner and your input as to how anything could be improved is absolutely essential so do please let me have any comments (but please don't be offended if I do not reply to them all; I will try to collate all the feedback into a piece for a future newsletter.)
For anybody already looking forward to this year’s Dinner, I can exclusively reveal that, all being well, it will take place on Friday 7 December so make sure you keep your diaries free for that night!
AGM and Quiz
Much more imminently, as old-timers will know, February means Annual General Meeting and, in keeping with more recent tradition, the Annual Quiz. Yours truly is already beavering away preparing questions which will delight, flummox, enthral and amuse you all in equal measure. Well, writing questions you will have to answer anyway.
As usual, the evening is dedicated to raising funds for a local charity and this year, as was the case last year, all funds raised will be donated to Julia’s House. Those funds will include not only any donations you make on the night but also the entry fee which is charged. As ever, a finger buffet will be available without further charge.
Besides inviting as many as possible to come along for what (I am told) is a fun evening, please could I ask for donations for prizes. As those of you who have been before will know, every team in the quiz wins a prize (some prizes being rather more sought after than others . . . ) which means trying to collect around 20 prizes capable of being divided between up to 4 people which is not an easy task and we rely on your continued generosity.
As part of the fun is that some of the prizes are exceptionally absurd, donations of any sort will be greatly appreciated and if there is something you are able to offer then please could you let me know. Incidentally, any donations which, for one reason or another, do not end up being awarded as prizes will either be given to Julia’s House for disposal through their outlets or kept to be awarded at future badIlex events.
Please show your support for the branch and for Julia’s House by coming along. Click here for the official flyer with more details.
The Year Ahead
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, the Committee has been scratching its collective head for some ideas for other activities. In no particular order, these include:
- revision days (including examination technique)
- ten pin bowling
- cheese and wine tasting evening
- a work shop in advocacy techniques
- a talk by a representative of the probate registry
- a talk by a local district judge
- a visit to the Land Registry
- a talk by Trading Standards
- presentations on mediation and/or stress at work
- Italian, Indian or other meals
- the summer barbeque
- music and fireworks in the Park
- the annual American Supper.
Given the length of that list, I am pretty sure we won't manage them all this year but if any of them sound especially attractive please let us know so we can give them priority. If there is something else we can try to arrange for you then please let us know.
More immediately:
Probably the most pressing is likely to be revision days for those of you working towards exams over the next few months. If these would be welcome (possibly at a nominal cost although we will do our best to minimise this or avoid any charge at all) please let us know. In particular, we would need to know in what sort of areas of work these would be most useful alongside more generalised topics such as exam technique etc.
I am guiltily aware of the fact I had half promised a ten pin bowling evening during January but time has flown by far too quickly for that to come about. Instead, I will do my best to fix this up for March but if people could let me know now that they would be interested in coming to this (subject, of course, to dates) that would be helpful especially as we have to pay a deposit to Bowlplex. Subject to any vociferous objections, I will aim to fix it for a Friday night (starting around 7pm) to make it easier for children to come along too. The cost is usually around £12 per person for 2 games and a 'basket meal'.
Work Shadowing
As some of you will know, in the last day or so I have arranged a new session of work shadowing placements. For those of you still waiting for a placement, please be patient as your turn will come. Unfortunately however, at the moment we only have 6 people able to take shadows and about 30 people looking for placements.
I try very hard to make sure that nobody gets a second placement as a shadow until everybody has had at least one but the slight flaw in my system is that it works alphabetically rather than by date of joining. When I have a little more time, I am going to try to do something about that but I am afraid it will only work for future new members because, until now, I have not recorded the date on which people join.
That about rounds things up for the moment unless of course there is something very important that I have forgotten (which is usually the case) in which case you can expect a panicky follow up email.
As ever, if you have any comments, complaints or criticisms (preferably constructive) please, please let me or anybody else on the Committee know.
Thank you for your continuing support and hope to see you soon
Nick
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c/o RWPS LLP, 48/50 Parkstone Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 2PG