Chers Amis
Thanks to a
favourable alignment of celestial bodies (or whatever it is that’s running the
world these days) 42 of our members enjoyed the hospitality of Wheeler’s
Restaurant and had lunch to celebrate Bastille Day on Tuesday, 14 July.
Compared with our Bastille Day celebrations of the past it was a short and
simple affair but restaurant manageress, Jacqui, ensured that there was a
wonderful French-inspired menu for us to choose from, and put on her best
French beret to make us all feel welcome. It was fitting that formalities on
the day were kept to a minimum, however, we still had the opportunity to offer a
warm welcome to Sally-Anne and John Cottle as new members of our Alliance. I
look forward to seeing them at coming events and thank them for their generous
offer to host an Alliance event (picnic and Petanque??) in their garden
whenever our lives start to get back to normal.
As
foreshadowed in my item in last month’s La Mouette, the Committee met on 21
July, our first meeting since March. Discussions centered mainly on what events
would be possible over the next few months and, among other activities, we hope
that we may soon be offering a zoom-based conversation group hosted by our own native
French speaker, Sylvie Dubrulle. I would like to offer a big thanks to Sylvie
for taking on this task and look forward to getting a conversation group up and
running again. Many thanks also to Anh-Thu Stuart for proposing a French film
discussion group. It would be wonderful to see our members participate in these
activities.
The other big
decision taken by the Committee was to offer all current members a subscription
holiday for next year in recognition of the fact that most of this year has
been lost in lockdown. The proposer of this motion was none other than Madame la Trésorière herself so
the motion was passed unanimously, and no existing Alliance member will have to
pay subs next year - assuming a quorum of members votes in agreement at the
AGM. Finally, the Committee fixed a time and date for our next AGM which
will be held at Club Sapphire at 6pm on Monday, 28 September. We
have normally held the AGM on a French Film Night but we are unable to show
films for the moment and are hoping that those attending the meeting will be
able to adjourn to the Club restaurant for dinner afterwards.
Meilleurs
voeux,
Rob McCombie
