Dear Friends,

   First of all may I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

   I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are now ready with all your New Year’s resolutions in place and your diet sheets at the ready to lose those extra pounds accidentally put on during the festive season. I do keep losing my weight but unfortunately it finds me again just as quickly!

   It’s that time of the year again when I waffle on for hours and you (my poor innocent members) have to read it (hopefully). I have loads to report this year and so I will get going straight away.

   We had a great year again last year, we had an interesting assortment of speakers including our Vicar’s son Charles Garland who stood in at a days notice when, for the first time in 10 years plus, I was let down by a speaker. We tried out our Spring Auction with a difference – yes home made crafts and I am pleased to say that this was such a huge success that we will be repeating it again this year. The year is never over without our Christmas Party, which, with excellent food, entertainment and most of all good company, it ended the year in true Zipper style.

   Following the disappointment of having to pull out of the National AGM weekend which we had hoped to host this May for numerous reasons including lack of sponsorship, I am delighted to tell you that through my daytime job I belong to The Ipswich and Suffolk Small Business Association (ISSBA) and they have agreed to adopt our very own East Suffolk Zipper Club Group as their charity for 2009 – how exciting is that. What does that mean to us I hear you cry – well at any of their functions where money is raised it will come straight to us, and for me this means I have to attend all their events for the next 12 months which means a busy diary. They do have one main event each year which is The ISSBA Trade Fair held at Trinity Park on Wednesday 29 April between 1pm and 7pm at which they hold a raffle, now this is where I need your help – we have all the proceeds of the raffle however we have to organise it – i.e. they contact their members asking for prizes but we have to collect them, run the raffle etc. I, at the moment have a slight problem with that day as my company is exhibiting at the show and I am supposed to be organising that – minor problem I will get out of that if at all possible however I will need as much help as I can get – collecting prizes, folding raffle tickets, selling them on the day etc – please please give me a ring if you are able to help in any way (however small) possible. This is a wonderful opportunity for our Group not only to raise some serious money but to also more importantly raise the profile of the Zipper Club in general.

   As you will all have seen in the last national journal Maurice and Iris Lambert very kindly donated £600 to the Group following their Diamond Wedding Anniversary and I am pleased to report that we are just awaiting delivery of a new 14 day life recorder for the Cardiac Unit of Ipswich Hospital which has been brought with Maurice and Iris’s donation and they will be presenting this to Cliff Woollard of the Hospital as soon as it arrives. Well done Maurice and Iris and may you have many more wonderful years together.

   Right now onto the important part of the newsletter – our very special schedule of events for 2009. Let me assure you, we have worked long and hard on this programme and we have taken into consideration all comments and suggestions made to us i.e. you don’t like us entertaining you but prefer the professionals!!!! – Only joking. As with all our meetings with the exception of July, we meet at Kesgrave Social Club in Edmonton Road, Kesgrave, starting at 7.30pm with a break where hot food is available mid evening – now come on why not save on the electric bill and treat yourself to a very reasonable slap up meal whilst enjoying superb company. We also hold a raffle and prizes for these are always very gratefully appreciated.

   Here we go then and hold on tight and do please try and control your excitement (remember your hearts):

WEDNESDAY 25 FEBRUARY - This is our Annual General Meeting night – but don’t worry if you don’t ask any questions it doesn’t have to last more than 10 minutes and then we can enjoy the real entertainment of the evening. Unfortunately we are losing four Committee Members this AGM my Vice Chairman Stan Madden, secretary June Kapitan and Committee members Ben & Betty Powell. All four have worked very hard to support the Group over the years and it is with great sadness we see them go – thank you to all of you for your hard work. I would like to invite nominations for any of the officers posts i.e. Treasurer, Chairman, Vice Chairman or Secretary or indeed to be a member of the committee to be forwarded to me, together with a proposer and seconder by the 11 February 2009. Please do not think because we are asking for these nominations that your current Committee are about to fall by the wayside, it is purely a formality I have to abide by. This is your chance to have your say and we would all appreciate your comments and views and are always open to new blood and ideas.
   Now last year due to illness we missed out on our Inter Suffolk Quiz Night with our friends from West Suffolk so we have decided to incorporate it with our super quick AGM – yes please bring all the brains you can find and have your ‘phone a friend’ numbers at the ready for The Big Suffolk Quiz. I promise you it will not be too hard and as much as possible I will try and make it humorous, so please come along and join in the fun.

WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH - Now for the first speaker of the year – we have Mr Tyler who’s talk is entitled ‘With A Flush and A Brush’ – yes you’ve got it – it is a highly hilarious look into the history of personal hygiene. Now I know it may not sound like the nicest of subjects to talk about but I am assured it will be a very amusing and entertaining night (don’t worry hygiene tests will not be compulsory) – please come along and give Mr Tyler a warm Zipper welcome.

WEDNSDAY 22 APRIL – Wow this evening’s entertainment goes under the name of ‘Crab and Winkle’. Please do not ask me why that name as I have absolutely no idea but I am sure young Andrew Stannard and his associate will soon tell you on the night, yes we are being treated to a night of good old fashioned silly Suffolk songs and music – no loud drums or noisy guitars to contend with just a couple of English gents and their melodic tunes. When I asked Andrew how best to describe them he simply said “say I like to see my audience laugh”. Please come along and I bet you won’t be able to resist tapping that foot!

WEDNESDAY 27 MAY - As I said earlier due to the huge success of last years Craft Auction we will be doing a re-run on this night. We had an absolutely wonderful array of goods to auction last year from cakes, bird houses, plants, needlecraft and even a beautiful hand carved chess set. As I have said before you can bring anything at all as long as it is home-made. Now you have plenty of time to get sewing, baking (mind you best leave that to a little nearer the time as stale cakes don’t do so well) or whatever you do best and help us raise a lovely large amount to help keep the club going.

WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE - Now onto the second of our speakers Mr John Burrows. Now John’s claim to fame is that he went to school with none other than Sir Michael Caine so of course I asked him to bring him along with him but Sir Mick was busy washing his hair he said. No seriously John is a qualified horticulturalist and is coming to talk to us about ‘Gardening in Your Twilight Years’. John is a lovely man who is very passionate about gardening and promises to uncover the mysteries of ‘what Granddad keeps in his Shed’ – please come along and who knows we may see you at the next Chelsea Flower Show with all his hints and advice.

WEDNESDAY 22 JULY - Right now it has become a bit of a habit to have an outing each year and let me assure you 2009 is not going to be any different. Yes I have hired a coach and we are off to Bressingham for the day. There is something there for everyone, pretty gardens, nurseries, beautiful steam train rides, the Dad’s Army museum and for the big kids amongst us The Carousel. Final details regarding timings, costings and whether or not we stop for a meal on the way back will be published later but please please keep that date free – it will be in the school holidays so if you would like to bring the grand-children along please feel free – we must fill the bus.

WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER - I am delighted to welcome back to the Zipper Club Mr Basil Abbott – he of Toastmaster fame. Yes it was about 2003 when Basil last came and talked to us about his life as a Toastmaster, well this time he is back with a talk entitled ‘Being a Theatre Critic’. Basil is going to give us examples and reasons as to why ‘we should never believe what you read in a paper’ and tell us some wonderful tales of how they have twisted what he has written. It will be lovely to welcome him back in true Zipper style.

WEDNESDAY 28 OCTOBER - Well for this month’s entertainment we are going underground – well sort of! You have heard of Spring watch well Mr Paul Sawer is doing his very own Suffolk Wildlife watch and will be showing us his stunning collection of wildlife photos and talking us through them. It always amazes me how these wonderful pictures you see are taken from what appears to be so close up – I have enough trouble getting a clear picture of a human who is standing still let alone a moving animal. Please come along and together we’ll show Bill Oddie how it’s done.

THURSDAY 3 DECEMBER – It’s this year’s Christmas Party (crikey that’s scary saying this year’s Christmas). This year I am delighted to inform you that we will be entertained by “Jimal” – a lovely couple of fellas who will sing and play and keep you entertained all night. They like to see their audiences enjoy themselves and will do whatever we ask – apparently – sorry no full monty’s – remember your condition! – Book the date in your diaries now so you can be prepared.

   Wow – I’m worn out just telling you about all that lot but see I promised you a great programme. You will have possibly noticed we have one or two more speakers than usual and this is something we are trying this year. We have asked a wide selection of you and have been told you prefer speakers rather than more audience participation evenings. I am afraid however, after much discussion, coupled with the fact that free or cheap speakers are very few and far between, we feel it necessary to charge a nominal amount of £1 per person to help defray the speakers’ costs and this will not be charged on in-house entertainment nights. I am really sorry to have to do this but our evenings have to be self-financing as far as possible.

   Well if I have missed anything I am truly sorry, but I will keep you all informed of further developments and details in due course. I wish you all a super spring (and more settled weather) and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at some of our fabulous events. As always most of all look after yourselves and each other, especially during this horrible cold weather.

Don’t forget our Co-op Dividend Account Number is : 7820

Lots of Love
Anita
Area Co-ordinator