Plus News
September 1999
 AMMO
99 - A Golden Weekend
|
|
AMMO 99 - A Golden Weekend |
|
STEPHEN LAMPRELL Redbridge 18 Plus
AMMO 99 GAMES RESULTS 2 West Kent 3 Cheadle 4 Crawley Red Assassins
|
|
Editor's Column |
|
As my term of office ends in October it seems fairly likely that this will be the last issue of Plus News that I edit. As we won't know who the new Editor will be until the October NEC meeting then please send any articles to me in the meantime and I'll pass them on. There are various people I'd like to thank for all their help during my four years as Editor. Firstly anyone who has submitted articles during this time - there wouldn't be a magazine without you. Then there's Christine George, Sue Swan, Sandra Bradshaw, Andy Anson and Corinna Haywood for suggesting that I stand for election in the first place. And special mentions for Jo Woodhead who, in her role as an NEO, has looked after me and the magazine and has always been there in times of crisis, and to my husband Mark for all his help (taking photos of events, general assistance and great patience when I'm up till all hours putting the finishing touches to the magazine). Good luck to the next Editor - please inundate him/her with articles and photos (something sadly lacking in this issue). Katie Hawkins |
|
National News |
|
The following National Officers were elected at the July NEC meeting: Honorary General Secretary - Sandra Bradshaw National Executive Officer - Jo Woodhead National External Public Relations Officer - Liam Wright National Development Officer - John Smith National Activities Officer - Wayne Fenton National Think Tank Member - Wendy Turner Now Get Out Of That 2000 Co-ordinator - Dave Filer ANC 2000 Chairman - Karen Grey ANC 2000 Bookings Officer - Sandra Bradshaw ANC 2000 Publicity Officer - Carolyn Edwards ANC 2000 Treasurer - Rebecca White The Annual National Conference in 2000 will be held at the Britannia
Hotel, Coventry on 8th and 9th April 2000. |
|
National Chairman's Chat |
| It seems quite strange to be writing under this heading. Although I have spent the last two months not so much on a learning curve as a cliff. I still look over my shoulder when anyone mentions "National Chairman"! I am thoroughly enjoying the post though and have gained a lot of insight into the
role, along with learning much about National procedures. As a newcomer to ArT (a terrible yet true admission) I can only say what a fantastic weekend! For anyone who thinks training is a series of boring lectures think again. The trainers - Sandra Cawthra, Sandra Bradshaw, Jo Woodhead and Carolyn Edwards - all deserve a huge pat on the back for the effort that went into the weekend. They all did an excellent job but Sandra Cawthra deserves a special thank you as the co-ordinator of the weekend. It was well organised and went off without a hitch, despite finding a bed and personal belongings in one of the rooms we were using on the Saturday morning! I would urge you all to think about Kickstart, the training weekend in October, and sell it to your members. As I write this I am looking forward to my first NEC meeting, albeit with some apprehension. I hope that the next year will be one of hard work, based on decisions made by the NEC. I was aware at the ANC that the emphasis at the moment is on recruitment, retention and development. The NEC will be addressing these issues and will keep you in touch with am decisions we make. I am looking forward to TAG as the next National event I shall be attending and I hope to see many of you there.
|
|
Think Tank |
|
Andy Bond, Eight Rivers Area Chairman, is to be the NEC representative for the National Think Tank. Following the election of
Wendy Turner as a Think Tank member there are still two positions available. Anyone interested in standing should contact the National Chairman, Viv Squires.
|
|
NGOOT Returns to the National Diary |
|
At the July NEC meeting I volunteered for the role of "Now Get Out Of That
2O00" Co-ordinator. Having now been duly elected (well that's what the National Chairman called it) by the NEC to run NGOOT over the first May bank holiday weekend of the
millennium, I hope to entice all members of the Federation to enter a team. I will then be in the unenviable position of turning down those that book late. What is NGOOT? you all cry. (Well I hope you
do). It is a weekend of physical and mental challenges for mixed teams of four. Over the weekend we will determine who is worthy of joining the illustrious list of former winners that include groups from most areas of the Federation. How do you win? Firstly you have to enter. Further information
will become available between now and next April Booking forms will be distributed to the usual group contacts. However as a "thank you" for reading this, I am
willing to send booking forms to any member that writes to me. Secondly it will help to have members who work well as a team. Why not prove you qualify and show that you are simply the best? Do you think that you group or area committee
will cope? What do you have to provide? A working car with at least 4 seats. Four 18 Plus members, including at least one of each sex. A map - I will let you know which one sometime before you start. Etc. What will you have to do? Ensure that you plan nothing else for the weekend of Friday 29th April to Monday 1st May 2000. Ensure
your bookings are received before the event is fully sold out. Meet at the pre-arranged starting point; from there just
follow the instructions and use your initiative. Have fun. Where is it? In true NGOOT style this varies each year, but I can tell you that it will be somewhere in England (or Scotland, or Wales, or somewhere else easily accessible) probably! We will, however, divulge this information before you arrive.
|
|
What A Weekend! - ART 99 |
| When I decided to go to ArT 99 it was for several reasons, but the main one was to learn more about the Administrator's duties within group and area. I was also curious about what actually happens at the training weekend as I had heard several stories about previous training weekends. My first thought was that it was going to be a weekend of lectures!! but I found that it was totally the opposite. It included a team exercise in which we managed to out manoeuver the NEC party (with the help of Mike). As the saying goes "It pays to know your enemy". We also thrashed to oblivion the Midland party. Saturday night in the pub never ended as many stories were told at the bar of previous events which members had been to. There was also time available over the weekend to see where the previous headquarters Nicholson House was, and the surrounding area. I thought the weekend was very useful to me personally both outside and also within Plus. I also learned that it was not as daunting as I first thought. It turned out to be a fun filled weekend where I learned a lot and met members from other groups and areas. I would recommend the training weekend to anyone. I had heard a lot of things said about the ArT weekend such as it was boring and "What do I need training for?". I think training is for everyone in one form or another. To sum up I enjoyed the ArT weekend thoroughly and I am definitely going to go to Kickstart in October. If it is anything like ArT it will be worthwhile going to and money well spent. For those who didn't go you missed out on a really enjoyable weekend.
ArT 99 took place over the weekend of the 12th
- 13th of June. Normally aimed at area and regional officers, it was decided to cover training to group officers and members so that all members could benefit.
|
|
Cheadle Win Inter Group Quiz |
|
Despite being three team members down at the start Cheadle managed to win the inter group quiz held at The
Falcon, Chester (a great time was had by all). Thanks go to Steve, the newly elected Chairman, for staging the event and to the members who turned out to take part. Chester's venue was described by one visitor as the best she had ever been to. Various rounds including general knowledge, pop music, sport and geography brought much whirring of the old cogs. Cheadle's win was a total team effort with team members surprised at other team members' obscure knowledge.
|
|
Gone To The Dogs |
|
No, this is not an article about the state of 18
Plus, but one to say thank you to Havering and Romford for a great night out at Romford Dogs on 30th June. VIVIENNE BATTEN Thurrock 18 Plus
|
|
10 Things You Never New About...Viv Squires, National Chairman |
|
|
The 18 Plus Email Discussion List - Find Out More! |
|
The 18 Plus Discussion List was set up in February this year. Since then it has grown to 60
members, including one ex-Plusser as far away as Brisbane, Australia. If vou have access to email then this development is worth trying out! Read on for more information. Any topic of debate relevant to 18 Plus is welcome, including the exchange of information and ideas. Use this forum as a means to keep in touch with distant Plussers, forward promote your events to the list and just say hello, see you at AMMO, or whatever. 18 Plus is all about friendship, fun and personal development. It's a voluntary organisation, run by its members. In order to keep it open and functioning well, we need to keep in touch and be active within our groups, areas and the Federation. The idea behind the discussion list is to encourage and develop this through communication and healthy debate. Or use the following email addresses to try out the list and choose vow form of membership:- There are a whole host of features available to subscribers of this list - from bookmarks through to
calendars, surveys archives, a shared files zone and a personal message facility.
|
|
Some Camping Tips |
|
These could prove useful for the next 18 Plus camping event you go to. When using a public camp ground a tuba placed on your picnic table will keep the campsites on either side vacant. Lint from your navel makes a handy fire starter. Warning - remove lint from navel before applying the match. Take this simple test to see if you qualify for solo camping. Shine a flashlight into one ear. If the beam shines out the other ear it is OK to go into the woods alone. You can start a fire without matches by eating Mexican food then breathing on a pile of dry sticks. In an emergency, a drawstring from a parka hood can be used to strangle a snoring tent mate. |
|
Top Publicity Tip Number 1 |
|
Fonts, printed labels and the post office. A font (or typeface) is the name given to a particular style of character set in the publishing industry. It defines the look of each character and how the are spaced from each other. Most mechanical typewriters and early computers had a very limited range of characters, therefore only one or two fonts were available to the user. With modern desktop publishing and printers, the user is no longer restricted by the fonts included in the printer, as additional fonts can be used in the computer software which are then used to create the printout. A typical modern word publisher such as Word, comes with over 100 fonts as standard. However, different fonts are used for different purposes. This is especially true if you are using printed labels and envelopes through the post. The Post Office now use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) in most of their main sorting offices in order to sort mail. Unfortunately many printed fonts do not work reliably with this system, producing errors. Script and condensed font are particularly bad at this, which may cause your letter to end up going to the wrong destination, causing delays. Even Sans Serif fonts like Times New Roman are not much better, as the older sorting machines tend to get confused with the tails on many of the letters. The best and most reliable font for printing mail labels is a serif font. Arial is recognised as the best font to use, which is recommended by the post office. So next time you are printing labels for your press releases, use the Arial font: it may get to its destination that little bit quicker.
|
|
Meet The New EPRO |
|
Hello everybody As you may be aware by now, I have been elected as the new National External PRO. I am looking forward to serving you (the members of 18 Plus) over the next two years, assisting in group and area publicity, as well as co-ordinating the National publicity of 18 Plus. So I thought I'd better write something in Plus News to give you a little hint on what I have planned for my first 12 months of office, and to give you a bit of background about myself. I have been an 18 Plus member since joining Malvern 18 Plus in April 1994. At the first group Bi-AGM I attended I was asked if I would like to stand as a group publicity officer and I agreed. During the next few months I began enjoying designing publicity posters and writing press releases, and got a bit of a buzz from publicising 18 Plus. Since those beginnings I have been a development publicity officer for Bromsgrove and Worcester group, as well as Mid West Area External Publicity Officer. The position of group publicity officer is one of the easiest yet most rewarding positions in 18 Plus, you don't need high powered home computers and fancy printers to produce results (Although they can help). What you do need is a little imagination and planning in what you wish to achieve. My plans for the next 12 months are as follows. Firstly I intend to continue the good work carried out by my predecessor Judi Horsburgh in sending regular press releases to the national media, in particular newspapers. A large number of enquiries were made at headquarters over a very minor mention in an agony aunt section in the Mail on Sunday "you" magazine in the last few weeks, reminding us that the press release is the most powerful and cheapest form of publicity that an 18 Plus PRO can use. As you will know, the current group publicity guide is about 8 years old, and requires a considerable update. I am currently working on this with a planned release date in time for Kickstart in October. I am also intending to produce an accompanying CD-Rom, full of clip-art, press release templates and poster designs as well as other useful information. If you want to be the first to get hold of these materials, you'd better book your place at Kickstart 99 now. If your group requires any assistance with publicity in the meantime, I will be happy to give you some advice. Like every National officer my time is limited, so I cannot do the complete job for you, but I can provide sample press releases and posters to assist in your group publicity. Just give me a call (my telephone number is in the national directory). Although I have a preference for contact by email. My email address is liam@plusser.freeserve.co.uk. Please put '[P]' (capital P in square brackets) somewhere in the mail subject for a faster reply. I look forward to hearing from you . LIAM WRIGHT National External Public Relations Officer |
|
|
Elected |
|
|
|
|
Publicity |
|
In August a feature appeared about 18 Plus on Ceefax on the Community Service Volunteers page. ALEXANDER HICKSON Abingdon 18 Plus |
|
|
Jelly Baby Update |
|
The following letter from Shelter was received at the office in May: Dear Judy
As you can appreciate it is not physically possible for me to meet everyone who raises money for Shelter, we just do not have the resources. However, when I do, it really motivates me. Meeting supporters face to
face, knowing that there are people out there like your Federation who really do care about homeless people makes my job worthwhile.
So on behalf of us all at Shelter we would like to thank the following groups for their donations: Barnet 18 Plus Group - £29.50 North Thames & Chilterns Area - £100.66 L .Street / NEC meeting - £2.00 Coventry 18 Plus - £654.66 Havering 18 Plus - £260.00 Various ER Groups - £57.00 Hillingdon 18 Plus - £60.97 Bradford 18 Plus - £10.00 Leeds 18 Plus - £124.00 North West Region - £15.02 Northern Area - £8.82 Romiley Group - £56.00 Cheadle Group -£12.14 Stockport - £4.08 Didcot (Oxfordshire) - £56.56 I do hope Shelter can look forward to working with the National Federation in the future. In the meantime please pass on our sincere thanks to all the above groups for their kind support throughout the past year. The money raised will be put to use straight away helping those who are homeless and badly housed.
FIONA HEAD Community Fund-raising Officer
|
|
|
Congratulations |
|
Ruth Bowers (Thurrock 18 Plus) and Andy Bond (Eight Rivers Area Chairman) got married in August.
Mark and Katie Hawkins (Barnet 18 Plus and Plus News Editor) are now the proud parents of John who was born on July 15th weighing 8lb. 5oz. |
|
|
WASH Bookings Open |
|
Booking forms for WASH 99 were sent to all groups on 16th June. If your group did not receive the booking forms and information about WASH 99 for any
reason please contact Sue Rowland for copies. Bookings for WASH 99 have already been received. As usual, the first booking came from Barking and Dagenham Group, whose ever efficient booking officer Garry Dunnings has been obtaining the f20 deposits from the Barking members over the last couple of months. Northwich 18 Plus also tell me their members have all booked their time off work and are already counting down the days! The WASH 99 committee look forward to seeing you all at WASH. If you have never been to WASH and would like to know more about it, please feel free to ring Sue or Paul for more information. SUE ROWLAND WASH 99 Bookings |
|
|
The final AMMO of the millennium brought another new venue - Stubbers in Upminster. I had paid
my money and booked up for a golden ticket allowing me to take part in all the activities. However, I also ended up on security and therefore had to combine all the fun with plenty of work - what a weekend. 
There were 12 races on the programme and betting was done from the table - so you didn't have to move at all. Various methods of selecting the dogs were used by members ranging from studying the form to choosing pooches that "looked
pretty", reminded someone of their cats! or "had a curly tail". 
Simon George (pictured) is a member of Slough Windsor and Eton 18 Plus and North Thames and Chilterns Area Development officer. He was elected as Borough
Councillor for Stoke Ward (Slough North) on May 6th this year.