February 20th, 2010
Two new members
Sharon kindly hosted the evening and had decided to demonstrate “emotional freedom technique” which involves tapping on accupuncture points while focusing on the thing that is causing you anxiety. We were a little unsure at first, but soon got in to the swing of things, and all had a practice.
Before moving on to business for the evening, Sharon brought out her chocolate fountain for us all to try with freshly baked waffles, marshmallows and strawberries to dip in. Mmmmm
What with all the tapping and chocolate, we headed home as happy as Larry!
Thank you Sharon for a lovely evening.
At the end of the eventing, two more new members were welcomed into the club: Sarah and Evelyn being presented with certificate and flowers by Chairman Marianne.
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February 20th, 2010
The snow on the ground only added to the atmosphere as our brave Circlers accompanied Santa on his float ride around the streets of St Albans. Round Table had thoughtfully offered Father Christmas the chance to meet some of his adoring public in the evenings running up to Christmas and Ladies Circle members joined him to knock on doors and collect money for our charity this year, Earthworks. It was great to see the smiling faces at the windows, excited about seeing Father Christmas, rushing to the door to give him a wave – and that was just the adults! The slippery paths and freezing temperatures pulled at the heartstrings of local residents and they were extremely generous in donating money this year. Thank you St Albans residents!
A big thank you and well done goes to St Albans Round Table (www.stalbansroundtable.org.uk) who once again did a marvellous job of organising the float collections and keeping going in very challenging circumstances!
Everyone who took part in helping Santa felt warm inside and ready for Christmas, even though they were frozen on the outside! Well done girls – you are true Circlers!
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February 20th, 2010
This was not strictly a fundraising event but we were priveleged to have the new director of Earthworks St Albans, Teresa Gore, come and give us a talk on our chosen charity for the year, in an effort to inspire us before walking the streets with Santa’s float! It was good to hear all about how the charity works and the services it provides as although some of us had helped out at the summer and autumn fairs, others were not really sure what Earthworks was all about.
Their motto is “people of all abilities learning and working together” and they provide people with learning difficulties a unique opportunity to gain practical horticultural skills and the chance to lean about the environment, make friends and gain experience which may lead to employment. The trainees themselves love working there and take part in all decision-making.
The site at Hixberry Lane not only has a large vegetable patch, shade tunnels and polytunnels but also an orchard, woodland, ornamental and wildlife gardens and they have recentlyconstructed a pond. The site is run as environmentally-friendly as possible, even down to water recycling! The produce (fruit, vegetables and herbs) is all organic and is sold on site and at St Albans Farmer’s market. Trainees also make bug boxes and bird tables.
Earthworks works closely with the local authorities who pay for the trainees placements and they are working towards providing nationally recognised qualifications. Many volunteers work alongside the trainees and paid staff and it has proved such a success there is now a waiting list of volunteers!
St Albans Circle has helped with the various fairs held during the summer selling teas and coffees but next year (2010) these will be combined to one big Autumn Fair, which will be on Sunday 5th September. Looking forward to it!
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February 20th, 2010
Wow what an amazing venue for a party! We were all dazzled by the Elizabethan “Old Palace” at Hatfield House, with the oak panelling, tapestries and long tables, it already felt Christmassy before the festivities began. Nearly all members put on their best frocks to come and be entertained by Queen Elizabeth and her minstrels. Only poor Karol was too ill to come. Kris was mildly annoyed by the historical inacuracies but seems to have overcome it by the time this photo was taken! During and after our delicious (but not historically accurate!) three course meal we had various forms of entertainment including full audience participation of The Twelve Days of Christmas. As you can see by this point everyone is very merry! Is was not long after that the disco began and everyone boogied the night away until our carriage came to collect us! How very Cinderella! Don’t forget more photos are available on our facebook site.
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February 20th, 2010
Safari suppers are a blast from the past, made all the more popular with the advent of that popular television series, Come Dine With Me. Basically, one person organises the group, this year it was Stuart from Round Table who had nearly 30 people to organise, all in top secret! He did a sterling job and everything went very smoothly. After volunteering to take part, and telling Stuart whether you were happy to host a starter, main or bring a dessert, you then had warning if you were hosting that this many people are coming to you and these are their food dislikes etc.
Then at 7pm on the night, each person/couple received a text to say please arrive at this address by 7.30! Only on arriving at said address, do you find out who lives there and who are your follow diners for that course! Eating, drinking and chatting ensued until at 8pm you were allowed to open the envelope which told each person where they were heading for their main course, usually not with anyone we had just had starter with. Then is was a sudden rush to reach the main course on time, followed by more ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ at finding out who else you were dining with and of course eating the delicious home cooked food!
Finally at 10pm the dessert/party destination in announced and everyone ends up in the same place to finish the evening. Six Circlers (plus some partners) took part and everyone had a great time. A very enjoyable evening of good food, drink and conversation was had. It was great to get to know some of the Circlers’ partners as well as Tablers and their wives and to have a chance to chat to people away from the usual few minutes at the beginning or end of a meeting/event. This was definately one of the most enjoyable evenings with Circle!
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February 20th, 2010
Image consultant Gail Morgan from www.theimagehouse.co.uk gave a great talk on the basics of making your wardrobe work for you. Joanne very bravely volunteered her wardrobe to use as a demonstration, but aha! Now we know why she was so keen – she had already been made over! We are duly impressed that you have kept to the rules! Gail brought her colour charts with her and explained the differences between warm and cool colours as well as the seasons. She also went over shapes and styles, the need to empty your wardrobe of all that tat plus what has stuck in my mind, the need to have a set of everything in your neutral colour (whether that be black, brown or whatever) i.e. skirt, trousers, jacket, jumper or cardi, vest top, shoes, boots and handbag.
Gail also gave us each a “wardrobe management chart” to help us put together outfits for various occasions, using a “key piece” eg jacket. Joanne was a big supporter of this method and certainly had the complete outfits to prove it! More things to add to our shopping lists – must make sure have tights to match all skirts! Plus get nice jacket.
There was a lot of nodding and admission of ‘yes, that’s me’ from everyone present and I think everyone went away inspired to sort out all our clothes into those 4 piles! Got anywhere with that yet, girls?
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February 20th, 2010
Tangent’s big fundraiser this year was this very amusing evening of Elvis. Not only were we entertained by Elvis, we were fed beautiful home made food made by the fair hands of Tangent members. This evening was also a good opportunity to chat to a few more of the Tangent ladies and generally get the message out there that Ladies Circle are back! It still amazes me I have to explain that no-one is married to a Tabler, despite that rule being abolished well over 15 years ago!
Anyway, it was a thoroughly cheesey evening, the only wish that Elvis was maybe 20 years younger! Or at least able to sing! But that surely is the joy of such an evening?
There were over 100 people present and it was a great atmosphere. It made a good change from going to a restuarant and what is more Tangent made over £2000 in aid of Grove House. What more can you ask for?
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February 20th, 2010
I’m not going to use certain words here because I don’t want to attract the wrong type of internet user, but suffice to say, this dance class was a great deal of fun and involved the use of long gloves, feather boas and chairs! High heels were obligatory. We all felt somewhat self-conscious at first, but after two hours of expert tuition, we were all pretty confident with our new found skills! The basics of walking, turning, sitting, looking over your shoulder, taking off the gloves and various ways with a feather boa were all covered. It was hilarious! Thanks again to our wonderful teacher Sabrina and to Sharon for organising. A very memorable night!
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February 20th, 2010
As Chairman of St Albans Circle I have also been made an honorary member of St Albans Tangent Club. This is where we Circlers graduate to after reaching 45! Many moons ago there was a very active and successful Ladies Circle in St Albans, but unfortunately it closed down about 6 years ago. However, nearly all the past Circlers can still be found in Tangent. I was delighted to be invited along to talk to the club about how well (the new) St Albans Circle is going and to show them our prizes! I have met various Tangent members before, at the Bollywood night, the Chairmen’s Dinner, the Area Dinner and at a previous meeting I had attended to be made an honourary member, so there were some familiar faces. However, although I also looked familiar, very few people new exactly who I was! So it was a great opportunity to tell everyone that St Albans Circle is well and truly back in business and to expect to see us around at future events. They were keen to know why I decided to set up a new club, how often we meet, what we get up to etc. I also reminded them that we are organising this year’s Area Dinner in July and this will be a great opportunity for the two clubs to get to know each other a bit better. Not forgetting the black tie Chairmen’s Dinner coming up in March! Altogether is was a lovely evening and I left feeling I had done a good job and that we now have 40 very experience women to back us up.
I’d like to share this email from Tangent Chairman Daphne Harris:
Hello Marianne, Thank you so much for last night. I really appreciated you coming along. Your talk was an inspiration and I think firmly linked our two oranisations very positively. It is good to know that there is such enthusiasm and commitment to Circle and you are to be congratulated for being the pioneer of it all. We are really proud of what you have done so that Circle 133 can continue. We will ensure also that we give you the history to St Albans Circle to fill the missing piece of your jigsaw. I shall look forward to seeing you at the Elvis evening. Thank you so much, Best wishes Daphne
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February 20th, 2010
Twenty of us were scaring the residents of St Albans last Wednesday by dressing up as witches, cats, devils, pirates and other spooky characters and wondering round the the town centre in search of Ghosts! We had the help of two lovely Green Badge Guides who told us all about the many and varied strange happenings and ghostly sightings, including invisible organ players, broken hearted lovers and trapped monks. The history of St Albans goes back so far, it was amazing to hear about stories from many different times in the past. The tour ended with a glass of mulled wine in The White Hart, also renowned for strange noises in the night. We were warned not to go upstairs to the ladies on our own…
A big thanks goes out to Sharon for her wonderful organisation and for helping to raise £100 for our charity this year – Earthworks. We were also honoured to have the National Membership Officer in our midst, Karen Sprod, who also very kindly inducted our two newest members, Karol and Jenni. We were also delighted to see 4 prospective members getting into the spirit of the evening!
Marianne – Chairman
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February 20th, 2010
Getting creative!
Card-making, collage, knitting, origami…what a creative lot we are! It was like being back at junior school! As October is Think Pink month, people also dressed in pink and there was a little donation box for CRUK, which made £30. Sharon also very kindly donated some Rose Quartz gifts and made some yummy pink cakes. Thank you Sharon!
We were also entertained by two lovely guests; Sally (Area Chair and Harpenden club member) and Nicola (Immediate Past Area Chair and Radlett club member). It was great to hear their Circle stories and how much fun they have had being in Circle. They also explained a little bit about how Circle works with regard to the National Exec and how information flows up and down via the Area Chair. It was great to hear from Sally and Nicola how they started off in Circle – thanks to both of you!
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February 20th, 2010
“Think Pink and Pizza” was the theme to the Area meeting this quarter! This is where the Area exec and representatives of each club get together to eat pizza, drink wine and chat. Oh yes, and talk about what is going on in each other’s clubs and what new from the National Council meeting. Joanne and Marianne joined Circlers from Harpenden, Letchworth and Welwyn (with apologies from Radlett), as well as the National Treasurer Chris (pictured, centre). Chris does an amazing job of holding down a full time job, being the single mum of 2 children and looking after all the NALC accounts as well as sending out all the invoices! You are an inspiration!
Sally (pictured, left) was very enthusiatic having just returned from the National meeting and was able to astound us with facts such as Circle as a whole made over £300,000 for charity last year. Fantastic!
All the clubs had good news to deliver, including Letchworth who are about the induct five new members – congratulations!
The evening ended with pink strawberry meringues and the news that we had made £108 pounds for CRUK from donations from attendees- what more could you ask from an Area meeting! Looking forward to seeing everyone again in February in Letchworth.
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February 20th, 2010
About 3 or 4 times a year, all the Council members get together to make sure the club is running smoothly. On Weds we all met at Sharon’s house for some drinks and nibbles.
First we discussed the draft Local Rules and Guidance Notes. Everyone agreed that these are a useful thing to have and some suggestions were made for small changes. These will all be incorporated and the draft rules sent round to all members to read and comment on. It was agreed that as some of the rules apply to the AGM, the rules need to be adopted before the next AGM, so an Extraordinary General Meeting will be added on to the November business meeting in order to adopt these. This is the only thing outstanding to make the club fully functional!
We then went onto ideas to make money for club funds. Although one of our main aims as a club is to raise money for charity, we also need funds to spend on the running of the club, for example, paying for internet hosting (a vital resource which we cannot live without), other advertising (leaflets, posters, t-shirts, adverts in local magazines etc), general expenses (stationery, engraving), Chairman and Area Reps expenses for attending other meetings, buying badges for the council etc.
Some excellent ideas were suggested, and we are going to start with: setting up a Buy.At account (to get money from internet shopping), look into selling advertising on t-shirts, website and diary sheet. There were also ideas for one-off fundraising schemes, such as having a stall at a local show eg Herts county show. This will also be investigated further.
After a quick look at the diary for the remainder of the year, everyone went home exhausted! But is was certainly a productive evening!
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February 20th, 2010
Blog post by our 2009-2010 Chairman, Marianne.
Months ago at the Chairman’s Night I won an evening for four at Champneys, and finally I got round to booking this. Lisa and Claire, who were also at the Chairman’s Night accompanied me. We had a relaxing evening of mini-facials and make-up demonstration, with plenty of free drinks and a goody bag to take away. Feeling much more relaxed and glamorous and somewhat hungry, we then headed for Wagamana’s for a healthy dinner. That place was packed! So this is what everyone else in St Albans does on a Wednesday night!
It was really lovely to have a chat in a small group and the conversation even stayed off the topic of Circle for most of the night! We are all looking forward to a larger group session at Champneys in the new year and decided more meals out are needed. Lisa – over to you, social sec!
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February 20th, 2010
The Cheese and Wine evening was a great success, with five prospective members attending for the first time making a total of 18 people squeezed into Allison’s lounge! Julia from Flagship Wines, Hatfield Road, was teaching us all how to taste wine and we had a selection of 6 wines to compare and contrast. It was interesting how different people rated the different wines and how much the taste varied between regions and grape varieties. Between each tasting there was plenty of opportunities to chat and to nibble on cheese and biscuits. Over £40 was made for Earthworks, our charity for the year and a lot of fun was had! Thanks go to Joanne, Lisa and Sharon for organising and to Allison for hosting.
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February 20th, 2010
Nine of us had a wonderful afternoon living the high life at Luton Hoo. Afternoon tea – what a luxury; not quite lunch, not quite dinner, just an excuse to dress up, chat and eat cake! The first decision was how many trays to order and then what type of tea! There was a choice of about 20 in all, including herbal and fruit teas. Between us we chose four types of tea and since this was constantly topped up, we were all able to try different ones. Dainty finger sandwiches, strawberry tarts, chocolate layer cakes and purple fairy cakes were tantalisingly displayed on the silver 3-tier trays, but everyone agreed that the scones were highlight of the afternoon (however you pronounce it!) Early on there was some debate as to whether 5 settings were enough to share between 9 people, but as the afternoon drew on, high on sugar and lashings of tea, we were content we had ordered just the perfect amount. A wander round the hotel and grounds only convinced us that more such afternoons were needed, perhaps with a trip to the spa beforehand! It really was a wonderful afternoon, great company, delicious food and sumptuous surroundings. This is exactly what being in Circle is all about – not turning into a lady who lunches! – but doing something you would never have got round to doing on your own. Here’s to St Albans Circle!
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February 20th, 2010
Looking glamorous on the terrace of Luton Hoo
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February 20th, 2010
Name: Marianne Jordan
Age: 37
Occupation: Audiologist and mum
Lived in St Albans for: 11 years
Joined Circle in: 2005
Reason for joining: to be part of a club again (I had been a member of Rotaract, the young person’s Rotary, and missed the opportunities for meeting new people, trying new activities and helping in the community.)
Aims for the year 2009/10: To keep building the membership; to raise more money for Charity than last year; to develop better relations with Tangent and Round Table; to get the final pieces in place to become a fully-fledged club (ie Charter, local rules); to find a way of making money for club funds; to try out new activities; to have fun! (Must remember that last one….)
What have you done as a member of Circle? I was a member of Harpenden Circle for 3 years before deciding it was time to start a club in St Albans. I had been on the Gift Fair Organising Committee for 2 years and was social secretary for one year. For various reasons I had decided to leave Harpenden club, but on driving to what I had planned to be my final meeting in March 2008, I realised that there are some things that you can only get from being in a club such as Circle. So somehow, instead of taking a break, I ended up starting a new club and becoming the chairman! The first year went amazingly well, culminating in winning not only the National membership award for most new members in a year (15, not including the 3 founder members) but I was also awarded The President’s Award, in recognition of all the work I had put in and specifically for being the person who had done the most to promote Circle that year. I neglected to mention that not only was I St Albans Chair, I was also on the Area Committee where I was the publicity person. I organised an Area publicity meeting, where all clubs in the Area shared their ideas and then I produced a document which was shared on the National website. As far as I see it, there is no need to reinvent the wheel and if you find something that works (to promote Circle) you should share it with everyone. I was delighted to receive this recognition and it was a great surprise as I had no idea such an award existed!
This year (2009-10) being the Chairman has been a lot less stressful as I now have a great team behind me. The biggest challenge is turning out to be finding someone to take over next year! However, this is nothing compared to the challenge of setting up a new club. Please see “The story so far” for more details of the trials and tribulations of the first year. I have certainly learned a lot, not least that you cannot please all of the people all of the time and that if something is important to you, you make time for it.
Things you would never have done without Circle: Where to start! Chocolate-tasting, belly-dancing, lunch at Gordon Ramsay’s, Bollywood Night, pole dancing, being Santa’s little helper, Safari Supper, Gift Fair, a chance to develop people and project management skills and public speaking skills; meeting so many lovely people!
Final words of wisdom: You never know what you can achieve until you try.
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February 20th, 2010
Marianne Jordan, St Albans Chair with Nicki Stocken, National President
July 2nd 2009 was the hottest night of the year when all of Area 21 met for their annual Area Dinner. This year the venue was Mid Herts Golf Club in Wheathamptead and drinks were enjoyed on the terrace before sitting down in a very warm room for the meal. This year’s National President, Nicki Stocken, was in attendance, as well as all clubs in the Area (Harpenden, Letchworth, Radlett, Welwyn and St Albans) and many Tangent members, including Andrea Evans, past St Albans Circler, Past National President and Past International President. Now there is a role model!
It really was a fabulous evening. National President Nicki gave a lovely speech, then presented our Chairman with the club’s Charter certificate. Marianne then gave an update of the story so far, because there were a lot of people in the room who did not know how well we had done. Marianne was then presented with a beautiful bunch of flowers from the club, as a thanks for all the work she had done as Chairman.
As you can see from the picture, Marianne was wearing the old St Albans Circle regalia. We were delighted that two Tangent members were able to attend at the last minute and were kind enough to bring the regalia along. As we care very much about Ladies Circle and its history we were honoured that St Albans Tangent lent us this clearly valued part of the club’s history.
It was good to chat with a lot of the other Circlers in the Area and to update them with how well everything was going as well as other people we have get to know over the last year. The night ended with a raffle with some superb prizes. We would like to say thank you to Harpenden Circle for organising such a great evening and we look forward to organizing this event next year!
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February 20th, 2010
Lisa presenting Marianne with flowers on behalf of the club.
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February 20th, 2010
Ready for that beach party! Caroline, Marianne, Claire, Sharon, Lisa and Monika
National Conference – where else would you get to spend the weekend with a thousand other people who all love having fun?? Six of us headed down to Eastbourne on Friday afternoon, all very excited about a girls’ weekend away. The partying started with a Black Tie Masked Ball in the Winter Garden in Eastbourne, attended by Tablers and Circlers from around the world. It was a fabulous evening, with a 3 course meal, photographer, 3 bands and a disco! Needless to say it was pretty late by the time we retired to bed.
The next day at the AGM were were delighted and surprised to receive two national awards! The first for Membership (see photo http://son-images.smugmug.com/photos/538053304_gPHqC-L.jpg ) i.e. the club who had registered the most new members in a year, presented by National Membership Secretary Vicky Perry.
The second was for our chairman, Marianne, who was presented with The President’s Award by the National President Lynda Wieland! (see photo: http://son-images.smugmug.com/photos/538133508_aMUNK-L.jpg ) It was great to see our chairman get this recognition for the amount of work she had put in over the past year. But no time to bask in the glory! It was time to hurry back to get ready for the beach party! Sharon had done wonders finding us all these fabulous costumes and we certainly felt in the party mood. Again there were 3 bands to help us boogie on down and much hilarity was had. It was certainly a fantastic weekend away.
Next year: Harrogate here we come!
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February 20th, 2010
Looking gorgeous in our evening wear! Marianne, Monika, Sharon, Lisa and Claire
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