Perkins Long Service Club

5^th January 2022

Greetings to all our Members

Dear Member,

The Committee hope that you have had an enjoyable Christmas, and send all Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. Let us hope that some degree of “normality” will return to our lives in 2022, and in particular that we will be able to meet and renew our friendships, which have been restricted by the pandemic.

The past two years have been very busy ones for the Committee, as we have tried to hold the Long Service Club together. At the long-delayed AGM, in October 2021, Adrian Talbot handed the Presidency over to me, after having extended his term to provide continuity through 2020 & 2021, Jill Afford retired after many years of organising our events & trips programme, and Martin Thompson retired after an equally long period as Treasurer. I am sure that you would like to join me in thanking them for their service to our Club. Nigel Burroughs has taken up the position of Treasurer, and we are pleased to welcome Bill Guest onto the Committee.

The pandemic has made, and is continuing to make, keeping in contact with our members very difficult. We are not able to access the Perkins mail system, and so our main means of communication are email, and the Club website which David Foster has worked very hard to maintain and improve (https://sites.google.com/view/perkinslongserviceclub/home)We also have a Club Facebook private group https://www.facebook.com/groups/504905323250684 which we invite you to join

Two opportunities to meet friends face-to-face in 2022 have been booked – our AGM, which will revert to normal timing in April, and our Annual Dinner on May 13th.

At the moment we cannot hold any events on the Perkins site. The leisure industries, despite their complaints of lack of customers and support, are proving very reluctant to commit to anything in 2022, and if they do so they are demanding very early deposits. This means that we are unable to issue a firm programme of events for 2022 but will instead be asking you to confirm your interest in the events on our provisional programme, so that we can contact you as and when these events become firm.

Please note two events on the website now, which require an urgent response:

a) Lunch / cabaret performance by the tribute band, ABBA Chique, afloat in London’s Royal Docks, on 24th February, for which we need full payment of £70 pp by 14th January 2022 (trip in conjunction with Shaws Coaches).

b) A 5-day holiday to Warner’s Corton Coastal Village (26th–30th September 2022). The cost will be £330 pp and we need a deposit of £20 pp by 31st January 2022.

The time consumed by such planning as we have been able to do, and the inability to identify and communicate with people who are still working at Perkins who qualify to join the Long Service Club, especially now that the service requirement has been lowered to 15 years, has meant that we have made little progress in our attempts at recruitment. Neither have we had time to follow up on the points raised at the October 2021 AGM. Both of these items will be pursued as soon as circumstances allow.

I hope that we can count on your understanding, patience, and support, as we continue to do what we can to keep the Long Service Club functioning. We hope that 2022 will see us all emerging from the current difficult situation.

Best wishes,

signed Garth Perry

President, Perkins Long Service Club