Community
Twinning Association
NEWSLETTER April 2011
RESOURCES
Ever since the responsibility for organising Town Twinning in Bury was transferred
to our Association, the Council, has contributed an annual grant. Without this support,
BMCTA would not have been able to function as it has. The cost of hosting a single
visit from one of our twin towns has increased over the years and amounts now to
well over £3000. In recent years the grant has met about two thirds of this sum and
the Association has contributed. about a third of this amount.
In the light of the current difficult times, members of the committee and Cllrs. Joan Grimshaw and Dorothy Gunther met recently with the Chief Executive, Mr. Mike Kelly and The Mayor, Councillor John Byrne to explore ways in which the Association might reduce thefinancial demands that we make upon council resources. During the discussion we were assured that the grant for 2010-2011 will be paid. The Association has agreed to seek commercial sponsorship for some of our activities and the Chief Executive will assist us in this task.
We had previously decided that we will apply for a grant from the EU for the visit in 2012, when we hope that groups from Angouleme and Tulle will visit Bury. Our last application was unsuccessful and we did suspect that our average age was a contributory factor in our failure. The year, 2012 has been nominated the European year of Active Ageing. Perhaps this time we will benefit from what might have been a weakness in previous applications.
We have also decided that we will organise five or six fund raising events in a year and Mrs. Bernie Schofield, our Social Secretary has well defined plans in hand to help us meet this target. The profits from four fund raising events raised £850 last year. We hope that we can again relay on our loyal members to support us in these extra events.
The cost of managing the work of the association is minimal; no committee members claim expenses. The running costs essentially cover room hire, postage, stationery and printing. The Town Hall has looked at our printing costs with a view to providing it more cheaply but have decided that our current rates are extremely good and could not be improved upon. Postage could perhaps be reduced if members agreed to receive documents by email. This would hip and £10 family membership. This amount barely covers the require members to keep us up to date with changes in email addresses.
Finally there is the question of the annual subscription - currently at £5 single memberscost of five newsletters per year and the necessary second class postage. We need to consider at our next AGM what a reasonable annual subscription should now be.
STELLA HALL
Sadly, we have to inform
our members that we
learned at the Association
Dinner on 3rd March that
our long term member and
friend, Stella Hall had died.
Her funeral, on Friday,
18th. March at the chapel
at Nazareth House, Scholes
Lane, Prestwich was
attended by many members
of our association.
Words of condolence received
from her manyfriends
here and in Ang
o u l e m e , Tu l l e a n d
Schorndorf were read out
during the service.
Amazingly, Stella was aged
91. Last year she celebrated
her ninetieth birthday
by driving herself to the
Lake district to attend a
residential French course.
She was a good and loyal
friend of BMCTA and we
will all miss her.