2011-12

Chairman’s Report 2011-12

I am delighted to be able to report another successful year for the Society due, in the main, to another outstanding programme arranged by Kath McCarthy which, as usual, has provided us with a wide variety of visiting speakers as well as talks by two of our own members—Keith Louis and Roy Eaton—and talks by the Rev David Skitt and Chris Bruce-Jones of the United Reformed Church. We continue to be greatly indebted to the Minister and Elders of the Church for allowing us to meet in the congenial surroundings of the Church.

We have enjoyed an excellent attendance at all meetings—even the one threatened by snow and ice—and our membership currently stands at 85. This is undoubtedly due to the quality of Kath McCarthy’s pro- gramme and of the meeting room.

The efficiency of our technology has improved and our thanks are due to John Fogg-Elliott, our Equipment Officer, and his occasional assistants; the only hiccups that have occurred have been when a visiting speaker has brought a laptop which has not been compatible with our projector.

Publicity continues to be a very important aspect of our success and our thanks are due to Keith Louis, our President, for producing the series of eye-catching posters for our meetings, which are posted fortnightly in nine different locations in the Oxted area, and to Stuart Paterson, our Publicity Officer, for his very prompt press reports for local newspapers and magazines. But, in addition, our publicity is now well and truly in the 21st century with our own website for which we are greatly indebted to Chris Pendred, our Vice Chairman, for his hard work on designing and regularly updating the site. Visit: oxtedanddistricthistorysociety.org

Our Summer Outing to Bletchley Park was a great success with a full coach and an exceptionally interesting guided tour of the different areas; our thanks again to Chris Pendred for organising this visit.

This annual publication continues to attain new peaks of quality of content and presentation due to the hard work of Betty and Brian Shear- ing and we thank them both for this and printing the membership cards and visitor receipts.

As Chairman, I am fortunate to be supported and guided by the hard work and wise counsel of a strong committee and I must express my sincere thanks to all those already mentioned and to Moyna Bridge, our Hon Secretary, and Anna Burrage, our Hon Treasurer, who carry out the unsung but very important work of keeping the administration of the Society under such good control.

Trevor Burrage