Meetings

RANSOMES SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB

 MEETING 19

 22 May 2007

 In attendance:  24 members.  Apologies: Ray and Mike.

 Firstly an apology for the delay in producing the minutes this month; however, when the Secretary lives in Claydon and his meeting notes are with his computer in Stu’s car in Bury and there’s a Bank holiday involved and…  Well, you get the picture.  There were 3 new faces to welcome to the Club: Aaron Spilling, known to some already through Dave’s shop and John and John Turner, not a typographical error, but a father and son duo, who were most welcome – especially if John Jnr. brings that SR-71 of his along and then the old blokes can bore him about how they used to watch the Blackbirds at Mildenhall before he was born blah, blah, blah…

THE TABLE

 Pictures of the models can be seen at http://www.ipms-ipswich.org.uk/meetings.htm

 EAMC 

 The Secretary requested that as many members as possible make themselves available at their earliest convenience on the evening of Friday 1 Jun 07 to help to arrange the hall and to prepare for the event generally for a 19:30 start.  Furthermore, it was requested that as many hands as possible help to tally the results at the end of the evening as this was the most time-consuming part of the competition.  Otherwise, the evening was on track although we had received the usual muted response for pre-registration and intentions to attend!

 Regrettably, although not unsurprisingly, the Secretary had to report that Wattisham had written to him denying permission to hold the visit to the Airfield on the Saturday.  As a contingency, the mini-bus had still been booked and it was decided that a visit to the East of England Military Museum in Thetford was a viable alternative.  The Secretary undertook to negotiate a concessionary rate for entry.

  SHOWS ‘N’ STUFF

 RAF Marham. The visit to RAF Marham that had been arranged for Thursday 3 May 07 was a great success.  Dom was again like a canine in possession of a choice of which diminutive of Richard to use when he got a sniff of the ‘Tonka’, much as he had been around the Apache by all accounts.  However, prior to this display of unbridled lust, there was the visit to the Arms Collection in Beyton, which was unexpectedly breath-taking in its expansiveness according to Ian.  When confronted by a pair of pistols that only the Queen has the like of, it put into perspective just how special a man’s shed can be!

 The RAF Marham part of the day also featured multiple methods of killing and disfigurement, to which the Boys warmed to immensely and also the intricate methods employed by which to set them all off – the armaments, not the Boys (it would appear that Dom had ‘gone off’ quite some time before this.)  Altogether a great day out and Mark Bloomfield of Bury was voted a large dollop of thanks for arranging it.

 Club Talk – Stan Hodgekins.  The talk by the former Martin Baker test pilot and Lightning jockey, Stan Hodgekins has been arranged for Thursday 24 May 2007 at 20:00 and a full report of the evening will be issued in the next set of minutes.

 Beltring.          The Chairman asked for names for Beltring who wished to stay overnight.  After his abysmal performance trying to stay awake in the pub last year, the Chairman was sad to note that no-one wished to join him again after they realised how hard it was to get a round out of him.  Several members indicated that they would like to attend for just a day.

 The ‘N’ Word.            The time had again come to mention the Nationals or Scale Model World (SMW 07) to the younger members.  The accommodation has been pre-booked already; however, a list of Witches, Warlocks and Wizards related ephemera is required to see what we have already to fill the tables and what people might wish to add to their collections after the event in November.  A tentative start to the list has been made at Annex A.

 AOB

 Kit Swap.        The Hinckley Branch Secretary has written to inform us about a kit-swap that has been arranged for Sunday 5 August 2007.  Any members wishing to divest themselves of some unwanted plastic are requested to contact the Secretary for further details.

 COMPETITION RESULTS

 Model of the Year - April

* Grand Finalist.

 Modeller of the Year – Monthly Total 

 NEXT MEETING

 The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 26th June 07.

 Kev Baxter

Secretary

IPMS Ipswich

 Annex A to May 07

 IPSWITCHES WARLOCKS AND WIZARDS