12^th June 2023

Present: John Long, Sean McGhee, Eddie Haughey, Martin Relton, and Stuart Jones

Apologies: Steve Graham, Felix Martin, John Sutton

Meeting started at the Legh Arms 19:30 and finished at 21:30

Outstanding Actions (from previous meetings)

• John Long to ask Nick Johnson to check on Leilo’s intentions about joining the circle. No update on status of Leilo, though he has been seen around town. There is some urgency from Province to resolve the situation. Ongoing.
• Sean to follow up the payment of subs by Mike Diver. Sean has spoken to Mike and offered him to be a country member yesterday, need to check whether Mike has paid. Ongoing.
• John Long to speak to Tony Andrews re options for supporting Alfonso. Ongoing.
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New Actions

• Stuart to send a letter requesting subscriptions from those brothers who do not use email (including Mike Diver)
• Stuart to remind brothers about the raffle and the need to bring cash for the next circle meeting
• Martin Relton to speak to Mike Chidgey about transferring Leilo to our Circle
• Martin Relton to speak to Province about the possibility of a Provincial Zoom account.
• John Long to speak to the Rose and Crown about arrangements for a drinks/meal event on the 30^th June.
• Stuart to ask for volunteers to help at the Tombola stall at the PTA cinema event on 8^th July
• Stuart to print out 20 Catenian flyers for the JDI event on Wednesday.
• Stuart to talk to Tom about not renewing the Zoom account.
• John Long to book the Crazy Golf for President’s Sunday

Completed Actions

• John Long to email Peter Kerr’s family to say that his grandson is in our prayers. Completed
• Stuart/John to send an email to the Circle about the Just Drop In Open evening. Completed
• John to ask Eddie to send out a subs reminder to all brothers. Completed
• Stuart to ask Tom to set up a wine tasting session in October. Completed

Decisions

1. None

Social Events

Upcoming events

• Open evening at Just Drop In on Wednesday, 14th June – 14:00 to 20:00
• Social Meal – 29^th June at the Rose and Crown
• Parish Walk – Saturday, 15^th July
• Gardeners Question Time – Sunday 23^rd July
• Presidents at Home – Sunday, 17^th September
• Wine Tasting (as a joint event with the parish) – TBA in October (probably the 14^th)

Membership

• Membership will be a strong focus in the coming year. Gerard McCreesh is interested and will be invited to our next social event.
• The President is talking to Father David about a parish social event at which we will advocate for membership of the association – this is likely to be part of another meeting.
• We have the opportunity to do a talk from the pulpit at Mass – orobably the weekend of the 8^th July.

Province

 Stuart (with help from Martin Relton) has developed the provincial web-site which is now well under development and is being shared with other Circles. Our own website has been transferred.  The council thaked Stuart for his work in doing this.

Stuart will be attending Brooklands Circle on the 21^st Sep to present the new web-site.

The provincial convention is on the 5^th July – contact Martin if you intend to attend

Welfare

Our sick list is: Damian Grieves, Tony Andrews, James O’Dude, Tony Weir, Joan Shaw (wife of Brother John), Tony Andrews, Also Wendy Hurst, Theresa Dobson, Bro Jim Flood’s niece’s child Finn, Margaret Phillips, and Peter Phillips (former President of the Circle and George Moon (great grandson of former brother Peter Kerr)

Updates on welfare were reviewed and no additional actions were needed

Finance

We have about£5.1k in the bank, after known debts this will be about £3k.

15 people have paid their subs so far

Bill Gore had spoken to Eddie about the possibility of having discretionbary payments for subs for younger brothers.  This was discussed at length and we agreed that we would introduce such an approach due to issues of complexity and potential for real and perceived unfairness from other members.

Other notes

We discussed whether we needed to continue to use Zoom – and if we could save the annual costs.  We felt that firstly we should see if it would be better to have a province wide account (see actions).  We could then see what Circle would like us to do.

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15th May 2023

Present: John Long, Sean McGhee, John Sutton, Felix Martin, and Stuart Jones

Apologies: Martin Relton, Steve Graham, Eddie Haughey

Meeting started at 19:30 and finished at 21:30

Outstanding Actions (from previous meetings)

• John Long to ask Nick Johnson to check on Leilo’s intentions about joining the circle. No update on status of Leilo, though he has been seen around town. There is some urgency from Province to resolve the situation. Ongoing.
• Sean to follow up the payment of subs by Mike Diver. Sean has spoken to Mike and offered him to be a country member yesterday, need to check whether Mike has paid. Ongoing.
• John Long to speak to Tony Andrews re options for supporting Alfonso. Ongoing.

New Actions

• John Long to email Peter Kerr’s family to say that his grandson is in our prayers.
• Stuart to ask Tom to set up a wine tasting session in October
• Stuart/John to send an email to the Circle about the Just Drop In Open evening
• John to ask Eddie to send out a subs reminder to all brothers.

Completed Actions

• Stuart to migrate Knutsford Circle website to the new province hosted area and communicate this to Circle. Completed
• Stuart to ensure that we do not have auto renewal set up with our current hosting company. Completed
• John to reach out to Damian regarding his recently announced cancer and also to Fran Lowe. Completed
• Stuart to produce a sample PR leaflet for use at events. Completed
• Sean to act as chamberlain at the next meeting. Completed
• Stuart to send out sponsorship details for the Macclesfield Bikeathon. Completed

Decisions

1. We will propose to circle that we donate £50 to GBNC Faith and Youth Work Group to support people attending World Youth Day in Portugal (and allow brothers to consider increasing the amount donated)

Social Events

• The St. George’s Night meal at Giovannis went well with about 25 people attending. All had a good night.  We raised £150 for Just Drop In. The venue was very accommodating.
• We supported the parish coronation event with about 60 people present.  Many thanks to Martin Relton and John Long who did all the work.

A real concern remains our ability to get significant numbers of brothers to attend events.

Upcoming events

• Open evening at Just Drop In on Wednesday, 14th June – 14:00 to 20:00
• Parish Walk – Saturday, 24th June
• Social Meal – TBA (possible outdoor at the Rose and Crown)
• Gardeners Question Time – Sunday 23^rd July
• Presidents at Home – Sunday, 17^th September

Tom Hughes has offered to arrange a wine tasting evening. Will ask him to do one in October, possibly in conjunction with the School PTA.

Membership

We currently have 40 members plus one joint member

Idea to have a parish ‘event’ as a welcome to the parish e.g. a session for all parish organisations or more focused on Catenians. Father David has indicated that he would be happy for us to a ‘pulpit talk’ if we so wish.

We will take advantage of any other opportunities provided by parish events e.g. Fresher’s Fair, mass for people who have joined the parish in the past year..

Some people are in the pipeline – possibly 2.

Province

No report from province – John Sutton gave brief feedback. John Hogan will be president next year. The provincial convention is on July 5th.

Stuart (with help from Martin Relton) has developed the provincial web-site which is now well under development and is being shared with other Circles. Our own website has been transferred.

Welfare

Our sick list is: Damian Grieves, Tony Weir, James O’Dude, Joan Shaw plus Finn (Jim Flood’s grandchild), Peter Philips (former president of the circle).

Updates on welfare were given at the Circle meeting.

Officers

The officers for next year are confirmed as:

• President – John Long
• Vice-President – Felix Martin
• Treasurer – Eddie Haughey
• Secretary – Stuart Jones
• Provincial Councillor – Martin Relton
• Registrar – Steve Graham
• Co-opted members – Sean McGhee and John Sutton
• Membership secretary – John Long
• Entertainments Officer – TBA

Other notes

• Flyer –
• Felix raised a thought about how we attract new younger members from a financial perspective. Firstly what events can we do that attract younger people. Secondly can we potentially offer lower prices to welcome people. Thirdly – how can we make events financially attractive

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17th April 2023

Present: John Long, Sean McGhee, Felix Martin, Martin Relton, Eddie Haughey and Stuart Jones

Apologies: Martin Roberts, John Sutton, Steve Graham

Not Present: Chris Jones

Meeting started at 19:30 and finished at 21:30

Outstanding Actions (from previous meetings)

• John Long to ask Nick Johnson to check on Leilo’s intentions about joining the circle. No update on status of Leilo, though he has been seen around town. Ongoing.
• Stuart to migrate Knutsford Circle website to the new province hosted area and communicate this to Circle. Ongoing – intent communicated to circle.
• Sean to follow up the payment of subs by Mike Diver. Ongoing.
• Stuart to ensure that we do not have auto renewal set up with our current hosting company. Ongoing

New Actions

• John Long to speak to Tony Andrews re options for supporting Alfonso.
• John to reach out to Damian regarding his recently announced cancer and also to Fran Lowe.
• Stuart to produce a sample PR leaflet for use at events
• Sean to act as chamberlain at the next meeting
• Stuart to send out sponsorship details for the Macclesfield Bikeathon

Completed Actions

• Felix to arrange for a photo of Simeon and Alfonso – our new members – to be included in the newsletter and a short article to be sent to Catena via James Power. Completed.
• John to organise a buffet meal at the Sessions House for the 30th March. Completed.
• Stuart to set up a WhatsApp ‘social’ group for the Circle and to communicate to the Circle re permissions to be added to the new group. Completed.
• Eddie to contact Paul O’Brien and suggest they meet up at the next Circle meeting to have a chat about him taking over as Treasurer and Paul’s role as auditor. Completed

Decisions

1. We will propose to circle that we donate £50 to GBNC Faith and Youth Work Group to support people attending World Youth Day in Portugal (and allow brothers to consider increasing the amount donated)

Social Events

The Recollection at Thorneycroft and the Informal meal at the Sessions both went well, though no prospective members attended

Upcoming events are

• St George’s Night – Saturday 22nd April.
• Support to the Ladies Group for the Parish Event for the coronation weekend. Possibly a choir
• Parish Walk – probably June (to be confirmed)
• Gardener’s Question Time – 16th July, date to be confirmed

St. George’s night event will be at Giovannis, 22 people attending at the moment.

Membership

We currently have 40 members plus one joint member

Idea to have a parish ‘event’ as a welcome to the parish e.g. a session for all parish organisations or more focused on Catenians. John Long will have a chat with Father David about opportunities

Some people are in the pipeline – possibly 2.

Province

No report from province (other than that provided at the circle meeting).

Stuart (with help from Martin Relton) has developed the provincial web-site which is now well under development and is being demonstrated at the next provincial meeting. Stuart has looked at whether we can keep our domain name when we move hosting to the province web-site and the answer is no (certainly not without incurring costs). Our own website will be transferred shortly.

Welfare

Our sick list is: Damian Grieves, Fran Lowe, Tony Weir, James O’Dude, Joan Shaw plus Finn (Jim Flood’s grandchild), Peter Philips (former president of the circle).

Updates on welfare were given at the Circle meeting.

Officers

The officers for next year are:

• President – John Long
• Vice-President – Felix Martin
• Treasurer – Eddie Haughey
• Secretary – Stuart Jones
• Provincial Councillor – Martin Relton
• Registrar – Steve Graham
• Co-opted members – Sean McGhee and John Sutton
• Membership secretary – TBA
• Entertainments Officer – TBA

It was noted that we need to get the next VP lined up early to avoid difficulties in 12 months time.

Other notes

• Paul O’Brien has signed off the accounts
• Confirm subscription proposals – “Council will recommend that subscriptions increase by £10 and that the deficit is covered by reserves. We will also recommend 4 raffles a year to contribute to circle funds and the Children’s Christmas Party and that subs are increased each year to avoid future bill shock”
  • Full members – £160
  • Country Members – £105
  • Joint Member – £95
  • 50% discount for 12 months for new brothers
• Felix has had positive feedback after his presentation on his proposed presidency for 23/24.