The 27^th Annual General Meeting of the Friends of COAM will take place on Wednesday 24^th March.  This year we are moving the venue to the Community Centre, Gravel Hill, Chalfont St Peter.   The meeting will start at 7.30 pm, followed by light refreshments. 

At 8.30 pm  Richard Hoyle will present the last in the season of Friends’ Winter Talks, on “Current work of the CVAHS Chess & Misbourne Valley Landscape Characterisation  Group”. 

This will be an interesting evening and we look forward to welcoming you. 

If you are unable to attend the AGM and want to send apologies, please leave a message at the Museum.

Tricia Phillips
Secretary, Friends of COAM

As the new decade opens I would like to wish all Friends a very Happy New Year, with health, happiness and as much prosperity as the times allow. Last year in my “message” I expressed the hope that the 2009 season would be a great one, and as you can see from the Financial Report, this hope was fulfilled.

Thank you to everyone who supported the Friends either by working at the Museum or by organising activities off site – and especially those who did both. Thank you to all who supported our three special events, the Penny Trail, the Open Garden Event and the Summer Draw.

In 2010 we need even more helpers, so please get in touch if you can spare some time. We are a friendly bunch and there are jobs to suit a variety of interests, so please consider joining the “active core” when the Season opens on Saturday 27 March.

Thank you for your subscription payments. The Friends’ Committee hope that you will have many happy visits to the Museum during the coming Season. You may be interested to know that your subscription contributes to the money which is handed on to the Museum for essential work and maintenance of the buildings and site, and also for special projects. In 2009 these included Playground repairs, completion of the Northolt Barn doors and the ongoing Haddenham Project – a grand total of £32,500.

As a Friend you will receive copies of the Museum Update, produced by Chiltern Open Air Museum, which gives in depth information about Museum projects and events, as well as other articles of interest. Supplementary Newsletters from the Friends are also be circulated from time to time. In addition, the Friends organise a series of Winter Talks on a wide variety of subjects and other enjoyable social events, such as the Quiz (including Fish & Chip Supper!) on 20 March 2010, which we hope you will support  - donations of raffle prizes are always welcome! Tickets will be £12 and available from 01494 793017. Tables are of a maximum of 8, but do come along and we can welcome and accommodate you.

Last, but by no means least, there is the Friends’ Centre, housed in the Maidenhead Pavilion, which is open whenever possible to raise funds by the sale of books, gifts, plants, preserves and other donated items – this year they will include wood turned items. But it is staffed by volunteers, so can only be open and raising money when such help is available – please consider giving that help – say a 3 hour morning or afternoon session once a month.

On a personal note, I would like to thank all those who have continued to help me as Chairman. There could not be a more convivial or devoted group and you have been most generous to me with your time and patience. I hope that 2010 will be another great Season.

Anne Ratcliffe
Chairman, Friends of COAM

A SUCCESSFUL YEAR – FINANCIALLY

The headline figure is that the Friends donated £32,500 to the Museum in the Financial Year ended 31 October 2009.  Whilst not quite a record it was, I believe, the third highest figure we have ever achieved and is the result of lots of hard work and effort by you all.  The full figures will be available at the AGM, after they have been checked and independently scrutinised, but are approximately as follows – Total Income of nearly £40,000 less purchases and costs of events of approximately £6,000 and expenses of £1,200.

However among the notable results are the very buoyant membership income (£17,000 before Gift Aid) together with considerable effort from the Friends in producing income from their efforts in the Friends Pavilion, the Auction, the Raffle, the Quiz Supper, the Penny trail and from a number of outside events including the Uxbridge Coffee Morning and the Open Garden event at Bledlow Manor.

Dick Lister
Hon Treasurer, Friends of COAM

Looking a bit further behind and ahead, Dick Lister also comments

It is all too easy amongst the mass of figures to fail to spot important financial milestones or events but the Treasurer managed to spot this one just in time – this century (i.e. since the year 2000) we, the Friends, have raised over £250,000 for the benefit of the Museum.  This is really quite a staggering sum and we all deserve a pat on the back for such an achievement.

Let us see if we can make the next quarter of a million well before 2020…..

FRIENDS AUCTION AND STEWARDS ORGANISER

Last November’s Auction was the best since I started helping.  We raised about £2,400, plus some Gift Aid to come, which I know will be very welcome to the Museum.  Our thanks go to all who helped on the day and before – those who provided the goodies, the fetchers and carriers (not forgetting Conway and John who ferried a garage-full to the Community Centre), the caterers, superb as ever, and everyone on the floor, often for the whole day.

As I said at the end-of-season meeting last October, I plan to make 2010 my last season as Stewards’ Organiser, so I am looking for a volunteer to join me this year and then take over in 2011.  I aim to keep on the organisation of Duty Managers, and whatever else I’m doing at the Museum, just need to pass on this one job after however many years I’ve been doing it.  So volunteers please give me a call on 01923 774637. 

Thank you.

Tom Crosby

FRIENDS CENTRE

A Happy New Year to all our friends and volunteers of the Friends Centre. We are looking forward to another exciting season of meeting new and old friends who help to keep open our Friends Centre as an important place for making pennies for the Museum. This season we shall have an addition in the form of a wood turner who makes beautiful items from pieces of discarded logs. We shall still have our crafts, pottery from Jane Rivett, selection of books and bric-à-brac, tasty jam and popular local honey.

We do need to form a rota to keep the Centre open as often as possible, so we would appreciate any time you can spare to help. Please ring Jenny Ogden (01494 793017)  as soon as possible to book yourself in.

Here’s to another successful season at our Friends Centre!

 Janet Michael

200 CLUB STILL NEEDS MORE MEMBERS!

The 200 club is growing but still has only just over 100 members!  It only costs £13 per number and you may get that back in the form of a monthly prize (currently £40) or one of the annual prizes; currently £120, £80 and £50.  Some lucky people win on several occasions!

The way it works is that half the monies go to prizes and the other half goes directly towards helping the Museum. If you do the maths: the more members, the greater the prize monies (….and the greater benefit to the Museum).   You don't even have to be a Friend of COAM, although the vast majority of number holders are.

So please consider taking out a number (or two) with the 200 Club.

Sounds a good idea?   Download a form and fill it in now – the deadline is 31st March as the first draw for 2010-2011 takes place in April.

Beth Neill
Membership Secretary, Friends of COAM   

The two following items have been submitted by Dick Lister on behalf of the FCOAM Committee:

THE YEAR OF THE FRIEND 2011

How long have we been Friends? The Friends have formally existed as a separate legal entity in their own right since 1983 when the charity was formed and registered with the Charity Commission.

However there is a mention of a “group of friends” in Update in 1981.

Next year – 2011 – is therefore our 30^th Anniversary and we intend to celebrate this as being the ‘Year of the Friend’ and are looking to commemorate this with various events throughout next year.

As a committee we are all too aware of how the Museum and the Friends have benefited from the help and support of lots of people over many years.  We would also like to be able to acknowledge and recognise such support. However, we have a problem.  Our systems and records just do not indicate how long ago people joined the Friends and for how many years they have been members.  We know that some have been involved since the early days but our information is just too patchy and incomplete to be sure that we are catching everyone whose “long service” should be recognised.

After debating the matter in the committee we have decided that rather than risk recognising some but missing others it would be best to record the date of membership from now onwards so that future committees can recognise long standing Friends.

For those of you who are missing out on such recognition now, due to the paucity of our old records, you know who you are - we say ‘thank you’ for your long service and support over many years.

WHERE ARE YOU?

My trusty Works database has been holding details of the Friends for many years now, and helping to produce lists and address labels as required, but it can also sort the records in various ways, and I thought you might be interested to know something of the geographical distribution of the Friends. It is quite predictable in many ways, with most being around the Museum itself, but here are the most “popular” areas for Friends to live – those areas with 20 or more Friends (which, of course, in many cases are addresses where two or more Friends live):

93 – Chalfont St Peter; 57 – Chalfont St Giles; 48 – Uxbridge (incl Denham, Harefield & Ickenham); 47 – Amersham (incl Little Chalfont & Chesham Bois); 42 – High Wycombe (& surrounding areas); 36 – Chorleywood; 35 – Rickmansworth (incl Mill End & Maple Cross); 34 – Watford; 30 – Beaconsfield (incl Seer Green); 26 – Chesham; 23 – Gerrards Cross; 22 – Croxley Green; 20 – Aylesbury & surrounding villages.

At the other extreme, the following towns have a single Friends’ household each - Ascot, Ashford, Bedford, Belfast, Bicester, Blandford Forum, Camberley, Corsham, Coulsdon, Didcot, Guildford, Halesowen, Halesworth, Harpenden, Hatfield, Horsham, Isleworth, Leighton Buzzard, Leominster, Lingfield, Marlow, Milton Keynes, Oakham, Oswestry, Radlett, Sevenoaks, Staines, Stamford, Stockbridge, Street, Swanage, Swindon, Taunton, Thame, Thatcham, Torquay, Totnes, Tunbridge Wells, Twickenham, Warminster, Welwyn Garden City, Wimborne, Warlingham, Yateley.

Whilst I have your attention, two database and distribution related items –

1) We try hard to ensure that your address is as accurate as possible, including reference to the Royal Mail database, to ensure that COAM information has the best chance of reaching you. However, if you do notice any errors of spelling, initials etc, do let us know.

2)  Did you know that the COAM Update (and this Newsletter) can be sent to you by Email – thus saving heavy printing and postage costs? If you would like to receive your copy this way, just drop me an Email and consider it done.

Richard Ogden (richard.ogden@btinternet.com)