Post by aghart on Oct 6, 2016 18:54:36 GMT
21 members present for the October 2016 meeting. Robert Bone (and his wife) ex 5 RTR and a Korea veteran were welcomed on this his first branch meeting. Robert lives at Romsey in Hampshire so had to make a longer journey than most to take part. John Howell our oldest member gave short description of the visit to Highgrove House with the Not Forgotten Association. 7 members were on this trip. Dave Orman announced that the branch had been offered two places on the 4 day battlefield tour of Normandy this month, again courtesy of the Not Forgotten Association. This was a short notice thing, we were given the slots after the original people had to pull out. Both places have been filled.
A working party has been formed to take forward the proposal to organise our own trip to Cambrai in 2017. A letter from OC CYCLOPS to the South West RTRA branches was available for all to see. An invitation for some our members to take part in a small reception in Poole Civic Centre following the rememberance parade in November is being taken up by 3 of our group. An early warning order from Weymouth & Portland Council regarding Armed Forces Day 2017 was available for all to see.
The guest speaker's were then introduced.
The President and Chairman of the Poole Branch, Royal Air Forces Association gave us an insight to the Association and the Poole branch in particular. Post WWII it had a worldwide membership of 200,000 in 600 branches. The "S" in Air Forces is because the RAFA includes the dominion air forces as well. Today it is about 62,000 in 440 worldwide branches. We were surprised to learn that the RAFA has a large welfare infastructure, it has 3 care homes for short term respite, it has 500 welfare officers who carry out approx 100,000 home visits a year. We assumed that they must receive some government help financially, but no, they don't. They are active in assisting serving airmen as well as veterans. A great many serving airmen and women are members of the Association. Dave Orman commented that it seemed like a duplication of effort when you take into account the activities of such organisations as SSAFA. They agreed that to some extent it was, but it was felt it was important to keep this "in house" capability. It must be remembered of course that because of the "tribal" culture of the Army, we have Corps & Regimental Associations rather than a single "British Army Association".
Looking at the local situation? the Poole branch has 186 members but only 40 or so are active. They tend to have between 25 and 40 at each branch meeting. Their meetings are in the same location as ours so on this occasion I had no fears that the guest speakers might not be able to find us. Familiar concerns came to light, difficulty in recruiting younger members due to the internet allowing 24hr communication between veterans, resulting in an ageing membership group. It made us in the Bournemouth & Poole RTRA grateful that we have a reasonable number of members under retirement age. They also have regular guest speakers and we are planning to "pinch" their list and see if we can get some of their speakers to visit us.
An interesting presentation and I have offered to return the favour and talk to their branch about the RTR and RTRA. My only concern is that a few months after being the guest speaker at the Wessex Branch of the Parachute Regiment Association, the branch folded! was it something I said?
A working party has been formed to take forward the proposal to organise our own trip to Cambrai in 2017. A letter from OC CYCLOPS to the South West RTRA branches was available for all to see. An invitation for some our members to take part in a small reception in Poole Civic Centre following the rememberance parade in November is being taken up by 3 of our group. An early warning order from Weymouth & Portland Council regarding Armed Forces Day 2017 was available for all to see.
The guest speaker's were then introduced.
The President and Chairman of the Poole Branch, Royal Air Forces Association gave us an insight to the Association and the Poole branch in particular. Post WWII it had a worldwide membership of 200,000 in 600 branches. The "S" in Air Forces is because the RAFA includes the dominion air forces as well. Today it is about 62,000 in 440 worldwide branches. We were surprised to learn that the RAFA has a large welfare infastructure, it has 3 care homes for short term respite, it has 500 welfare officers who carry out approx 100,000 home visits a year. We assumed that they must receive some government help financially, but no, they don't. They are active in assisting serving airmen as well as veterans. A great many serving airmen and women are members of the Association. Dave Orman commented that it seemed like a duplication of effort when you take into account the activities of such organisations as SSAFA. They agreed that to some extent it was, but it was felt it was important to keep this "in house" capability. It must be remembered of course that because of the "tribal" culture of the Army, we have Corps & Regimental Associations rather than a single "British Army Association".
Looking at the local situation? the Poole branch has 186 members but only 40 or so are active. They tend to have between 25 and 40 at each branch meeting. Their meetings are in the same location as ours so on this occasion I had no fears that the guest speakers might not be able to find us. Familiar concerns came to light, difficulty in recruiting younger members due to the internet allowing 24hr communication between veterans, resulting in an ageing membership group. It made us in the Bournemouth & Poole RTRA grateful that we have a reasonable number of members under retirement age. They also have regular guest speakers and we are planning to "pinch" their list and see if we can get some of their speakers to visit us.
An interesting presentation and I have offered to return the favour and talk to their branch about the RTR and RTRA. My only concern is that a few months after being the guest speaker at the Wessex Branch of the Parachute Regiment Association, the branch folded! was it something I said?