Secretary's SoapboxFirstly I must apologise to my many readers for the confusion over my last two articles. Due to a misunderstanding between Kevin and myself my last article, as printed, was actually written for the previous issue of Despatch, hence a couple of omissions and the rather late and irrelevant news. What was crucially omitted was the list of new members and address changes, so please do look at the end of my article for the relevant information. The bigger news is that we have a new venue for our Autumn convention. We have decided to go a little bit more upmarket this year and I have made a booking at the Palms Hotel in Hornchurch, Essex on the 11th to 13th October. With the dearth of good and affordable venues around the south of England over the last couple of years, we have had to look at other options. The Palms does pride itself on being a good conference venue and armed with a couple of recommendations from local companies I approached them directly to see if they could handle 20 or 30 hard-nosed wargamers. Obviously they can do it, but it will cost us a little more than previous years or what we pay at the Swan. I would not want people to miss this one simply because it costs a tad more because we will be getting better attention and facilities in a number of areas. The gaming room is purpose-built and has a cloakroom/bathroom attached for our exclusive use. The bedrooms are also superior to our usual fare (I'm particularly looking forward to trying out the additional satellite channels) and the bar and restaurant both look to be just what we need. Murray and I have both been around the hotel and we were both impressed with what they can offer us. The restaurant does a set-price carvery which we will sort out when we get there. It is a new venue and I really hope everyone will give it a chance this year and if all goes well we may have a set southern venue for a further year or two. One note of warning - they have a big disco on the Friday, but they are at the other end of the hotel so shouldn't trouble us. However, if Murray et all want to bring their glad rags I do understand that there is no upper age limit to the disco. All bookings to me please. |