I joined Perkins in 1962, straight from school, as a Student Apprentice, intending to complete my Apprenticeship, get a couple of years of work experience, then move on.  43 years later I retired - from Perkins!  The whole of my working life was spent in Engineering, initially following my chosen career as a Metallurgist, before managing the Engineering Project Office, followed by various Engineering Standards, Logistics, and Total Quality positions.

Joining the Long Service Club Committee (by virtue of taking over the Conservation Group) soon made me realise what a closed and sheltered community Engineering was!  Presiding over a Committee that consist mainly of Past Presidents, who not only know the ropes, but moved in much broader and higher circles in the Company, and so have an encyclopaedic  knowledge of the structures, and a lot contacts, is proving a rather daunting task, at a very challenging time!

The challenge that the Committee is facing is - what do we need to do to ensure that the Club survives and flourishes well into the future?

(As you have heard), we have lost, by deaths, 39 of our Members over the past couple of years, and now have 440 Members on the books. 200 Members are over 80 and are Lifetime Members, and there are a further 110 Lifetime Members who are under 80.  This means that only 130 Members are currently paying “subs” – less than one third of our Membership, and shrinking.  So although we currently have a comfortable surplus of funds, we have to think carefully about how we spend it in a sustainable way.

If we consider the Annual Dinner only, then we appear to have about 100 “Active” Members.  However the other events and trips indicate that the true figure is less than 30 – none of the events would be viable were it not for the support from non-member guests. So are we expending a lot of time and effort providing something that the vast majority of Members aren’t interested in?

The question that we are finding so hard to answer is – what do members consider to be the reason for belonging to the Club, what do they get out of it, or what would they like to get out of it?  I suspect that many of our older and longer serving Members see it as a “badge of honour” and recognition of their 25+ years of service, and that is all that they want out of the Club.

We have to find and understand the answers to these questions, in order to retain and satisfy our existing Membership, and attract new Members.  In particular we have to attract people who are in employment at Peterborough, who have exceeded the 15 year service requirement – currently we only have 37 employed Members (8.4%).

The Pandemic has meant that we have been unable to talk to any employees on site, and to conduct any form of recruitment drive.  We will pursue this rigorously when we can get suitable access to the site.

Other troubles caused by the Pandemic are that a lot of Members have grown used to being at home a lot more, and don’t want to go out as much, particularly if they are wary of mixing.  This in turn has aggravated the age related decline in mobility.  All-in-all, these factors have made getting people involved in activities time and energy consuming.

However, I and the Committee are committed to getting answers to these questions, and devising actions to ensure that the Long Service Club endures well past its 60th Anniversary.

Thank you.

Garth Perry

President