11th December 2023

Present: , Sean McGhee, Steve Graham, Martin Relton and Stuart Jones

Apologies: John Long , Eddie Haughey, John Sutton, Felix Martin

The meeting was held at the Legh Arms, started at 19:30 and finished at 20:30

Actions

Those actions starting with a ‘*’ are outstanding from previous meetings. The number of stars indicates how many months

John Long to:
- ***speak to Knutsford Golf Club re the Charter and Clergy Dinner.
- **speak to Tony Andrews about helping with the organisation of the Charter and Clergy Dinner. Waiting for a call back from Tony.
Stuart Jones to:
- ***include an agenda item for next Circle meeting to confirm that as a matter of principle we will not charge for children U12 for events.
- Send out updates about – the beer and curry night, children’s party, and change of date of circle meeting from 1st Jan to the 8th Jan
- Ask brothers to pay their outstanding bills for the Christmas Dinner
- Price the cost of hearing loop system and seek approval from Council to purchase one before the next meeting
- to check with Eddie/Cottons that we can have our next meeting on the 8th Jan (not the 1st)
Felix to
- *approach a number of brothers who could be officers next year
- *contact Chris Jones to see if he has access to something we could auction at the Christmas Party
- *contact Richard Mullen to see if he would be interested in coming along to a meeting
Eddie to review proposal to allow brothers to pay subscriptions monthly (by standing order) and confirm suitability back to council.
Steve to check with Father David on his views about how to best provide an AED for the church.

Completed Actions

Martin to speak with John Ross about: who is best to have a conversation with Mike Diver about how he wants to proceed with membership of the association; doing Carols at the Christmas Dinner; and also ask about possibility of using the Squash Court Room for a St. George’s event in April’. Completed: John is happy to host an event and will speak with Mike Diver
Stuart to send a message about the school Christmas Fair – Completed
Stuart to check whether there is a loop system at Cottons, to get 3 microphones and to be vigorous about their use. We also need to ask for a sign pointing people in the right direction when they arrive at the hotel. Completed – there is no loop system at Cottons and hiring one in will cost £200 a meeting.
John Sutton to organise a ‘mass’ visit to Macclesfield Circle. Completed
Felix to contact our visiting brothers to see if they would like to attend our Christmas Dinner (at the Circle’s cost) – Completed

Decisions

We noted that the following Brothers have agreed to be members of the reconstituted Circle Benevolent Board: John Sutton (Chairman), Nick Johnson, Tony Andrews and John Williams-Rigby.

Matters arising from the last Circle Meeting

None

Welfare

Fran Gore is back at home but is still in need of our prayers.

We noted that Peter Lowe continues to need our support following his recent bereavement. It was good to note that he had started attending the choir.

Our sick list is: Fran Gore, James O’Dude, Tony Weir, Joan Shaw (wife of Brother John). Also Bro Jim Flood’s niece’s child Finn, Margaret and Peter Phillips (former President of the Circle, Michelle Skidmore (wife of David – a good friend of the Circle) and George Moon (great grandson of former brother Peter Kerr)

Social Events

The Christmas Dinner at Cottons went well and was enjoyed by all. 44 people attended, there was one no show (though this brother had not personally confirmed attendance). Payments from 10 people are still outstanding.

The Christmas Crib and School Christmas Fair were also well attended and enjoyed by all.

Upcoming events – the name/s in brackets are the organisers.

Beer and Curry night – Wednesday 20th Dec at 19:00 (John Long)
Carol Service at church (we will provide refreshments) – Thursday 21st December
Children’s New Year Party ‘To Infinity and beyond’ – Sunday 14th Jan (Martin Relton)
Charter and Clergy Dinner at Knutsford Golf Club – Date TBC (John Long)
Beartown Brewery visit – Wednesday 20th or 27th March (Steve Graham)
Book Club first meeting – date TBC (Stuart Jones)
Wine Tasting (as a joint event with the parish) – TBA in 2024 (Tom Hughes)
Avro Heritage Museum visit – Date TBC in 2024 (Sean McGhee)
Peover Hall visit followed by meal at the Dog – Date TBC in 2024 (Martin Relton)
St. George’s Event – April 2024. Could be something like a ‘house party’ with Champagne and Canapes. Note John Ross has confirmed that we can use his clubhouse if we wish to.

We do need to progress the Charter and Clergy dinner and get a confirmed date.

We noted that our usual venue for the Beer and Curry evening looked to be temporarily closed. Stuart will ask who wants to attend and to also seek advice on possible alternative venues.

Membership

We have three visiting brothers at the moment

Eamonn McManus – sponsored by John Long
Bipin Kuriakosea and Gideon Hayford sponsored by Felix Martin and Alfonso Escaurazia.

We are hopeful that, assuming our visitors stay interested, that they could join us at our February meeting

Felix will also ask Richard Mullen if he is interested in coming along to a meeting

Finance

We have over £7,000 in the bank but this does not take account of any bills from Cottons. There was no other finance update.

Province and national

Martin attended the Provincial Carol Concert.

So far 12 brothers have voted in regard to the proposed increase in capitation fee – 83% in favour of the increase. Stuart will chase for remaining votes and close the vote on the 20th Dec.

Officers for 2024/25

We reviewed the latest list of officers for next year

President – Felix Martin
Vice President(s) – TBA
Treasurer – Eddie Haughey
Secretary – Stuart Jones
Membership Officer – John Long
Registrar – Steve Graham
Provincial Councillor – Martin Relton. Note – this will be Martin’s last year
Entertainments Officer – TBA
Visiting Officer – TBA
Marketing Officer – TBA
Other Council Members – Past Presidents: Sean McGhee, John Sutton

Other notes

We discussed the provision of a hearing aid loop system at Cottons. Cottons have confirmed that they do not have a loop system and that it would cost £200 per meeting to hire one in. Stuart will confirm the costs of providing our own and seek permission to buy them.

Steve Graham raised the point that the Church really needs to have an automated external defibrillator (AED). These cost around £1000 and we discussed how the Catenians could help provide one – the first step is for Steve to check with Father David on his views about how to best provide an AED for the church.

13th November 2023

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

Apologies: , Eddie Haughey

The meeting was held at the Legh Arms, started at 19:30 and finished at 21:15

Actions

Those actions starting with a ‘*’ are outstanding from previous meetings. The number of stars indicates how many months

John Long to:
- **speak to Knutsford Golf Club re the Charter and Clergy Dinner.
- *speak to Tony Andrews about helping with the organisation of the Charter and Clergy Dinner. Waiting for a call back from Tony.
Martin Relton to:
- speak with John Ross about: who is best to have a conversation with Mike Diver about how he wants to proceed with membership of the association; doing Carols at the Christmas Dinner; and also ask about possibility of using the Squash Court Room for a St. George’s event in April
Stuart Jones to:
- **include an agenda item for next Circle meeting to confirm that as a matter of principle we will not charge for children U12 for events.
- *send a message about the school Christmas Fair
- *check whether there is a loop system at Cottons, to get 3 microphones and to be vigorous about their use. We also need to ask for a sign pointing people in the right direction when they arrive at the hotel
John Sutton to organise a ‘mass’ visit to Macclesfield Circle.
Felix to
- approach a number of brothers who could be officers next year
- contact Chris Jones to see if he has access to something we could auction at the Christmas Party
- contact our visiting brothers to see if they would like to attend our Christmas Dinner (at the Circle’s cost)
- contact Richard Mullen to see if he would be interested in coming along to a meeting

Completed Actions

John to confirm with the Angel that we will be coming after the Mass for deceased brothers
John to speak to Sarah Dawson to check if we can provide any more support to Peter. Completed, we need to continue to reach out to Peter.
Stuart to send a message to the Circle about the Christmas dinner at the end of September. Cost is £40 – friends and family are welcome
Stuart to To include topics on the Council agenda for ‘How we ensure the cost of membership does not put off new members’ and ‘Officers for 2023/24’.

Decisions

The vote on increase to capitation fees will be held electronically – not at a Circle meeting.
Subject to approval from the Treasurer we will introduce an option for subscriptions to be payable monthly (by Standing Order) for 2024/25.
We will review with sensitivity (and confidentiality) any support to be given to a brother who is intending to leave the association because of the scale of the subscription.

Matters arising from the last Circle Meeting

We discussed the proposal from head office to hold a vote about whether members support an increase in the capitation fee. Stuart noted that following the circle meeting he had sent around more information about the proposal including a budget and a letter. There were some questions about whether central costs could be reduced even further than they have been but it was recognised that we have no data (other than what has already been presented) on which to form a considered view.

We noted that we did not want the next Circle meeting to end up with a discussion to which we could not add any further detail. We agreed to hold the vote electronically, Stuart will make the necessary arrangements

Welfare

Richard Brown and Damien Grieves can now be taken off the Sick List. It was great to see them at the last Circle meeting.

Fran Gore is back at home but is still in need of our prayers.

We noted that Peter Lowe continues to need our support following his recent bereavement.

There were no more updates to those received at the Circle meeting.

Our sick list is: Richard Brown, Damian Grieves, Fran Gore, James O’Dude, Tony Weir, Joan Shaw (wife of Brother John). Also Bro Jim Flood’s niece’s child Finn, Margaret and Peter Phillips (former President of the Circle, Michelle Skidmore (wife of David – a good friend of the Circle) and George Moon (great grandson of former brother Peter Kerr)

Social Events

Upcoming events – the name/s in brackets are the organisers.

Parish Meal, Tuesday 28th November at Knutsford Golf Club (John Long)
Christmas Dinner at Cottons – Monday 4th December (John Long/Eddie Haughey)
School Christmas Fair – Friday 8th Decfrom 18:30. We will be supporting the bottle stall
Christmas Crib – Saturday 9th Dec at 16:00 (John Long)
Beer and Curry night – Wednesday 20th Dec at 19:00 (John Long)
Carol Service at church (we will provide refreshments) – Date Thursday 21st December
Children’s New Year Party ‘To Infinity and beyond’ – Sunday 14th Jan (Martin Relton)
Charter and Clergy Dinner at Knutsford Golf Club – Date TBC (John Long)
Beartown Brewery visit – A Thursday in March 2024 (Steve Graham)
Book Club first meeting – date TBC (Stuart Jones)
Wine Tasting (as a joint event with the parish) – TBA in 2024 (Tom Hughes)
Avro Heritage Museum visit – Date TBC in 2024 (Sean McGhee)
Peover Hall visit followed by meal at the Dog – Date TBC in 2024 (Martin Relton)
St. George’s Event – April 2024. Could be something like a ‘house party’ with Champagne and Canapes

30 people have booked for the Christmas Dinner so far. There will be a raffle in support of Just Drop In as well as, hopefully, a silent auction. Donations for the auction are needed.

Membership

We have three visiting brothers at the moment

Eamonn McManus – sponsored by John Long
Bipin Kuriakosea and Gideon Hayford sponsored by Felix Martin and Alfonso Escaurazia.

Felix will also ask Richard Mullen if he is interested in coming along to a meeting

We discussed how to ensure people saw membership as value for money.

Sean proposed that we offer a monthly as well as annual subscription to help spread the cost.
We agreed that the key value items were:
- Our monthly meeting – a chance to meet and make friends and contribute to all we do.
- Our social events – build your network and friends, with your family as well as having fun.
- Contribute to a worthwhile charity
- Support – we help each other when needed

Finance

There was no finance update

Province

There was no news from Province.

Officers for 2024/25

We reviewed the latest list of officers for next year

President – Felix Martin
Vice President(s) – TBA
Treasurer – Eddie Haughey
Secretary – Stuart Jones
Membership Officer – John Long
Registrar – Steve Graham
Provincial Councillor – Martin Relton. Note – this will be Martn’s last year
Entertainments Officer – TBA
Visiting Officer – TBA
Other Council Members – Past Presidents: Sean McGhee, John Sutton

Other notes

We discussed Officers for next year. Stuart is happy to continue as secretary (and we think Eddie is OK to continue as Treasurer). Felix has some thoughts on who could be his VP (or VPs) next year as well as Membership Officer and will approach them. This will be a discussion topic at our next Council meeting.

We also discussed how to use our wider Whats App networks – principally by encouraging brothers to use their own networks for invitations they felt appropriate to share.

9th October 2023

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

Apologies: Steve Graham, Martin Relton, Eddie Haughey

The meeting was held at the Legh Arms, started at 19:30 and finished at 21:15

Actions

Those actions starting with a ‘*’ are outstanding from previous meetings. The number of stars indicates how many months

John Long to:
- *speak to Knutsford Golf Club re the Charter and Clergy Dinner.
- speak to Tony Andrews about helping with the organisation of the Charter and Clergy Dinner
- *confirm with the Angel that we will be coming after the Mass for deceased brothers
- speak to Sarah Dawson to check if we can provide any more support to Peter
- speak with John Ross and/or Tony Andrews about who is best to have a conversation with Mike Diver about how he wants to proceed with membership of the association
Stuart Jones to:
- *include an agenda item for next Circle meeting to confirm that as a matter of principle we will not charge for children U12 for events.
- *send a message to the Circle about the Christmas dinner at the end of September. Cost is £40 – friends and family are welcome
- send a message about the school Christmas Fair
- *check whether there is a loop system at Cottons, to get 3 microphones and to be vigorous about their use. We also need to ask for a sign pointing people in the right direction when they arrive at the hotel
- send a note about doing the vote for the change in capitation fee by email.
*John Sutton to organise a ‘mass’ visit to Wilsmlsow Circle.

Completed Actions

Stuart to invite widows to the Mass for deceased brothers and afterwards at the Angel. Completed
John Long to contact Peter Lowe to check all is OK and if we can do anything to help. Completed
John Long to talk to Father David about having a wine tasting parish event rather than a meal at the Golf Club. Completed
Stuart to print out leaflets for use at the masses on Sunday 17th September. Completed
Stuart to write to Mike Diver to ask if he wishes to be kept notified of circle business. Sean to follow up with a phone call. See new actions
Stuart to confirm date of Mass for deceased Brothers with Father David (and invite him to the Angel). Completed

Decisions

The vote on increase to capitation fees will be held electronically – not at a Circle meeting.
Subject to approval from the Treasurer we will introduce an option for subscriptions to be payable monthly (by Standing Order) for 2024/25.
We will review with sensitivity (and confidentiality) any support to be given to a brother who is intending to leave the association because of the scale of the subscription.

Matters arising from the last Circle Meeting

Welfare

Richard Brown is out of hospital and recuperating

Damian’s surgery was successful we understand that the latest news is positive.

Fran Gore is not well and we understand she is back in hospital.

We noted that Peter Lowe continues to need our support following his bereavement.

There were no more updates to those received at the Circle meeting.

Social Events

Upcoming events – the name/s in brackets are the organisers.

Mass for deceased brothers – Saturday Nov 4th at noon (John Long/Stuart Jones)
Parish Meal, Tuesday 21st November at Knutsford Golf Club (John Long)
Christmas Dinner at Cottons – Monday 4th December (John Long/Eddie Haughey)
School Christmas Fair – Friday 8th Dec. We will be supporting the bottle stall
Christmas Crib – Saturday 9th Dec (John Long)
Carol Service at church (we will provide refreshments) – Date TBC
Beer and Curry night – Thursday 17th Dec (John Long)
Children’s New Year Party ‘To Infinity and beyond’ – Sunday 14th Jan (Martin Relton)
Charter and Clergy Dinner at Knutsford Golf Club – Date TBC (John Long plus ?)
Book Club first meeting – date TBC (Stuart Jones)
Wine Tasting (as a joint event with the parish) – TBA in 2024 (Tom Hughes)
Avro Heritage Museum visit – Date TBC in 2024 (Sean McGhee)
Peover Hall visit followed by meal at the Dog – Date TBC in 2024 (Martin Relton)
Beartown Brewery visit – Date TBC in 2024 (Steve Graham)

We agreed to plan for a ‘Ladies After’ possibly inviting a lady from Cheshire East who helps people manage charitable donations. No progress on this yet.

Christmas dinner dress code will be Formal with option of Black Tie

Membership

The pulpit presentation took place on Sunday 17th September and was well received. Eamonn McManus attended our October meeting.
The drinks session at the end of September went well with Alfonso taking a very helpful lead. There is a good chance of getting a few more candidates.
Mike Diver remains a member of the circle (his resignation reported last month has been reversed). His future with the Circle remains uncertain and will be discussed with him in an appropriate manner.

We had a lengthy discussion about how to make joining the Circle more attractive for ‘younger’ men. This was stimulated by feedback that the subscription cost of £170 felt onerous and did not look as if it gave value for money.Some of the points made were:

Offer lower subscription rates for U30s and U40s. It was noted that offering one group of brothers cheaper fees may cause some other brothers to object.
Make subs payable monthly rather than one large sum
Be pro-active about reducing the total cost of membership by introducing more low-cost or free events and looking at how we can minimise the costs that drive up the subs.
Emphasise more the benefits of membership – access to a wider social network, our charity work and what we do for the church, support for fellow brothers etc.

We agreed that this topic needed further discussion and that the treasurer’s input was important. It will be discussed at the next council meeting

Finance

The Circle’s finances are healthy with over £6K in the bank. One brother has not yet paid their subs..

Province

There was no news from Province. .

Other notes

We also discussed how to use our wider Whats App networks – principally by encouraging brothers to use their own networks for invitations they felt appropriate to share.