Club Chat

June 2018

This issue of Club Chat is a little bit later than planned, but the last few months have been so busy that there just hasn’t been enough time to put everything down in a news shot. Our two main residential trips run in the springtime, with a very short “turn around” time between them. One day we’re packing thick salopettes and ski boots, then 7 weeks later it’s swimwear and shorts! Here are some brief thoughts on both trips:

Ski Trip – Well, we were absolutely spoiled with the ski conditions this year. It started skiing an hour after we arrived in La Plagne and then every evening nature topped up the snow levels by giving us another few centimetres over night.We could ski all day on beautiful, fresh snow, with barely a trace of ice or slush. Perfect! Our regular skiers spent one day skiing over to an adjacent resort; Les Arcs. It was a full day of skiing for them, but they came back exhilarated by the experience and determined to do it again next year. We took 2 debutant skiers and both of them have come home bitten by the bug. They’re going to be very competent skiers before too long.

Greek Trip – Beautiful weather; yummy food; comfy beds; exciting days out and great company. That pretty much sums up our recent trip to Nea Makri, Athens. The Turtle Rescue Centre was a real highlight for most of the group and a couple of them were interested in the volunteer programme as a possible Gap Year activity later in their lives. On the other days we went to the local zoo, which concentrates on the conservation of endangered species. A day trip into Athens and a morning in the local market gave everyone a chance to spend their money!

The videos and photosfrom both trips are now being edited and hopefully all those involved will gettheir own copy by the end of this month.

Our members are always so well behaved and easy to travel with, and this year was no exception. On both trips we had a happy atmosphere, with no bickering or falling out. Everyone worked as part of a team, supporting one another and just being mature, responsible young people. Everyone of them a

 pleasure to go away with.

Following up on the request for an alternative to the club hoodies; I’ve been to see our supplier and she can get sweatshirts with full-length zips, in the same colour. They will be a little more expensive, but they should last longer as it was the size of the head opening that was the problem with the hoodies. Maybe we’ll keep the hoodies for the very small members as they might struggle with the zips.

In the past we’ve carried large stocks of all the tops and it has tied up a lot of money. In future we will have 1 of each size to use as a size guide. Then we will order tops in on an individual basis. Delivery time is usually less than a week, so there shouldn’t be a problem waiting for tops to come through.

The mini bus – We’re at that stage when we have to think about replacing our bus with anew one. It is 5 years old now and the club policy is to renew every 5 years. The Executive Committee and the Leaders Management Committee are now trying to work out the best way forward for us; do we replace with another 17 seat Ford Transit, or do we consider one of the new mini bus lite buses. I think the 2 committees have very similar opinions on what we should do, but there is a bit more research and thinking to do before we finalise the plan. A major consideration is to protect the financial reserves that the club has, so we are investigating some funding options, as, at the moment, we don’t have an individual sponsor for this project. We hope to have everything in place by the autumn, but things may happen sooner than that. We’ll let you know as soon as we have some news! 

Here comes some boring, but important stuff! – GDPR!

You’re probably all sick to death of the emails and letters telling you about your rights since The General Data Protection Regulation law came into force last month. I won’t add to the “stuff” you’ve already received on this, but the club has a Data Privacy Policy and this will be on our website by the end of the week. It’s an important piece of legislation and any organization that collects personal information on members/associates, must comply with the regulations. Please take a look at our club policy; we collect and retain very little information on anyone connected with the club, and we are taking the protection of this information very seriously.

In the next couple of months we will be asking everyone to renew the membership forms and sign them. Your signature gives us the permission to store the information registered on the form. We will then hold a hard copy of the membership forms in a locked cabinet and an e-copy that will be protected with 2 passwords and will be encrypted. Only two senior members of the Leader’s team will be able to access this electronically stored information.

The Audiology at Home Day was a great success and Paul stayed until well after the club meeting had finished, helping both the deaf parents and the club members to get better use from their hearing aids and equipment. The feedback from the families was so good that we will definitely be running this day again in the spring of 2020. Those of us working in the Specialist Teacher Advisor Team (HI) have recorded his recommendations on hearing aids and integrated system radio aids and we will be talking to the audiology team in the near future.

Facebook and the website – Huge apologies for letting the website lapse a bit. It’s absolutely down to lack of time; we have enough material to keep refreshing it, but I’ve been concentrating more on club procedures and policies recently and also, I’m really keen to get our Facebook page a bit more current and active.

Thank you so much to all of those that followed us on the ski and Greek trips; it meant a lot to us all that you were hitting the like and love buttons and occasionally leaving a comment or two.

Now that we are back from our travels, perhaps we could find ways to get everyone more involved? Obviously there is usually a flurry of activity following one of our outings, but it would be great to hear from families with deaf related comments, queries etc. Do you have something special that you want to celebrate for your child?  Do you have a club hoodie or T-shirt that you want to pass on? An activity or outing that your child has especially enjoyed? Leave us a comment.  Please don’t be shy!

Calbourne Car Boot Sales have made us one of their 2 charities this season, so whatever they raise in their buckets we get 50% share of it. The club has sold from the mini bus at this car boot sale and it’s probably one of the best on the Island. Steph and I are going to attend 3 or 4 sales with the bus and we will be begging for toys, games, clothes and bits and bobs to sell there. Please have a sort out and let one of us know if you have anything you could donate to us. Not only will it boost our club funds, but it will also raise our profile too.

A mistake on the club calendar – the June meeting is on Saturday 30^thJune, not the 23^rd. I’m sorry for any inconvenience that this might have caused.

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If you would like to join our 100 Club, please contact Maggie Hocking 01983 520673 or email her at margarethocking2@btinternet.com