December 2004/January 2005

Crossways AGM 2004
My thanks go to all those members that attended the DA’s AGM weekend. Friday evening saw the Clubhouse packed out.

Saturday Night we were all at Crossways Village hall dancing the night away to the sounds of Evergreen what a great group.

Sunday AGM There was a good turn out for the meeting, and my thanks again to those that drove out especially on the Sunday morning.

The present Committee was re-elected to serve again for the next eighteen months and I thank you on behalf of the Committee and myself for your support.

Members meeting following.
There was a lively debate covering a range of subjects and one in particular I would like to touch on at this time. Unrest and disquiet in the field. Like any good organisation or workplace there are lines of communication in the event of any member having a grievance. You can personally contact a member of the committee or send in a signed letter to the committee. In each case the full committee at their next meeting will discuss it, after all camping is for camping and enjoying ourselves.

Halloween.
Once again a great turn out and my thanks go to the committee and to all those who helped to make it such a success. A special thank you to Shaun who at the last moment volunteered to do the Disco well done.

Dinner Dance.
I look forward to meeting those of you that are going, and to enjoying the evening in true Dorset DA style.

New Year meet.
As you know Dianne and Terry are taking a well-earned rest this year attending a family wedding in Cornwall over the New Year period. The task of stewarding this year has been passed to Jayne and myself to look after you.

The site will be open from 11o’lock on Wednesday the 29th December and will close at 11 o’clock on Monday the 3rd January.

Web Site
As announced at our AGM we now have a Dorset DA website which we are all very proud of. The website address is www.dorsetda.com. Photographs can be submitted for inclusion on the Web Site – Group –Scenic - Sites but not portraying people in a poor light or state of undress, and permission should be sought from the individual involved prior to submission. Remember the website is open to all in the UK.

October/November 2004

This will be my last Chairman’s Chatter before the AGM so I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Committee for all their hard work and support during this my first year as Chairman. It has been a pleasure to work with such a great team and AGM permitting look forward to continuing all the good work you have done so far during the next eighteen months. The next AGM being in April 2006 as the financial year end is being changed from October to April along with that of the head office of "The Camping and Caravanning Club" in Coventry.

Stewards.
I, on behalf of all the members of the Dorset DA. would like to thank all those members that have stewarded a meet for us during the past year without you we would not have any rallies. With a special thank you to those of you that have stewarded for the first time year. It helps to spread the load. A very special thank you must go to Sandra our Senior Steward nothing to do with age as she's always there for us if we have an emergency.

T.H.S. Weymouth.
Many thanks once again to Jim & Mavis for stewarding this event along with the assistant stewards that helped out over the 21 days with a total of 996 unit nights camped. A special thank you to Baz who assisted Jim over the whole period.

We will be running the THS again next year and will be looking for Stewards to help run this meet as Jim & Mavis will be taking a well earned rest attending the FICC in Italy (See item regarding THS 2005 )

Dorchester Show, Kingston Maurward
Many thanks to Gordon & Anne for again stewarding this popular five-day meet with a total of 65 units attending. (See Stewards report)

WebSite.
Nikki our Webmaster has completed the draft original of our Dorset DA Web-site, of which she gave a presentation to Terry and myself along with other members of the committee. It was absolutely brilliant well done Nikki. It has now been passed to other committee members for their comments and on to the S.W.R. Webmaster for approval. We hope to be able to show it at the AGM meeting.

Country and Western 2005.
With reference to the statement in the Dorset Diary of August/September "The Country and Western is nearly all booked" this unfortunately caused some confusion. It was a reference to the Entertainment, Marquee etc being booked for next years event. Not that the individual bookings were now fully booked. I apologise for the confusion caused.

Regards to all, I look forward to camping in 2005.

MICK (Dorset DA Chairman)

August/September 2004

Hello All

We had a great time at Teddy Bears Picnic along with all the other children, young and old alike. Dianne's workshop went down a treat, the kids loved making the boats. The picnic was fabulous, sandwiches, sausages, cakes, jelly and ice-cream. A great effort was made by all for the boat making race. Winner, Bob with a Cruise Liner, smoke and all! and Queron with his powered speed boat, although a little controversial as all the other boats were wind assisted, Queron did get a special prize for ingenuity. Next year there will be another class for power-assisted boats. The rubber ring race, well as you can see we all got more than a bit wet, but it was fun. Many thanks to Ray, Stuart and Queron who were brave enough to join me in the cold and murky STREAM.

Unfortunately we haven't been able to camp as often as we'd like recently due to the fact that I had to go to Houston twice and to Aberdeen. Work does tend to get in the way!! However we were able to stand-in at Fillybrook and Homefield School, and to visit Swanage and Wareham Rugby Cub for coffee morning which was well attended with 42 units out all basking in the sun.

The Holiday Site at Weymouth commences soon with Jim and Mavis at the helm. Terry and I will be going on Sunday 8th to help Jim peg out. My grateful thanks to Jim and Mavis and also to those who have offered to assist Jim with the stewarding.

Jayne and I are off to Thailand on the 21st for a week, returning in time to attend Sam and Philip's wedding. The following Monday we are off to Weymouth to join Jim and Mavis and go on from there to the NFOL. We have 18 units booked in and we look forward to seeing you all there.

Nikki has offered to become the Dorset DA Webmaster and to design and run a web-site for us. The Committee all welcomed her offer and things are now underway, although it will take some time to get it running, as special approval has to be sought from Head Office in Coventry before we go live, but we are all very excited about this 20th century move. It will enable everyone to get up to date information, such as times when the stewards will be on site, site changes, and much much more. Thank you Nikki.

Country and Western is nearly all booked for next year. We have a new group, called John Douglas which Ray, Myra, Terry and Dianne went to see. Many thanks to Bernard for the recommendation. Pee Wee are coming back next year although they wanted to retire but we twisted their arm. Len and Pam are once again willing to teach line dancing, so get your boots ready.

There is a nomination form in this edition of the Dorset Diary for the Election of Officers and Committee 2004/05. I look forward to seeing you all camping for the weekend. We have a full programme of entertainment with a live band on Saturday night. Don't forget to bring your membership card to the AGM, it must be shown at the door on Sunday morning. this is your DA, come along and support your Committee.

MICK (Dorset DA Chairman)

June/July 2004

Longleat
Arrived on site Thursday evening to be met by Ray and Myra the stewards. The site is Wet and Muddy, they said, but not to worry the staff at Longleat had told them you get them in and we will get them out" and that's exactly what happened. 105 units were booked in for the weekend, along with 45 units from Wales who were allocated pitches in the same area as us with only one Entrance/Exit. Friday, the day they were all due to arrive, came it rained and as the day progressed units were pushed, pulled and dragged into their positions, and in a lot of cases that's where the vehicles stayed for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday, although dull, stayed dry for most of the . Sunday the sun came out at last, and it was a glorious day with most of us wandering around the attractions of Longleat in shirtsleeves and the ground eventually beginning to dry out. Overnight it rained again.

Monday morning came the time to leave. The Longleat staff, as promised, arrived with Tractors, Quad bikes and 4x4's to get us out and another exit was provided across flat land. In some cases the car and caravan were towed out as a single unit or as in other cases, me being one of them the caravan was towed across the field to the main road with me following. Where we were reunited and hitched up.

Country and Western 2004
I would, on behalf of the Committee, like to Thank all those DDA members who helped out over the two-week period from the Working Weekend through to the Rest weekend to make our 20th Country and Western the success that it was. Well done to you all, everyone worked together as a team and as someone said a very efficient one.

What a weekend. The weather for once at Sixpenny Handley, apart from a couple of showers on the Sunday afternoon, was glorious. We had 175 units on site. I had lots of encouraging remarks, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and a lot said they will be coming back again next year.

April/May 2004

Valentines Meet. Feb 7 2004

What a super evening. My thanks go to all who helped to make the evening so enjoyable. 72 people sat down to a 5 course HOT meal washed down with some fine wine. The entertainment for the evening was from a new act to us called "Georgie" well done to Jerry for recommending her. Georgie played and sang to a variety of different types of music and the dance floor was busy all night. My thanks also go to Mike for the humour during the evening, and for reminding us when it was time to go home.

(For those of you that were unable to see "Georgie" at the Valentines Meet we have booked her duo "Two's Company" for the Country and Western Weekend to do the Sunday Lunch time entertainment.)

Church Lane Parley. March 5th

The first Green field Rally of the year, despite the weather not being too good 20 units turned out. The meet was stewarded by Len and Lou. This being their first time as stewards, well done to you both it was excellent, even down to Len volunteering to do the speaking at coffee morning.

Birchwood Tourist Park, April 2nd

This was my first time at this site. What a nice venue. My thanks go to the owners and their staff who bent over backwards to make sure we had everything we needed to make our weekend go smoothly.

Longleat May 1st

The response to this event has been incredible. On our final application we increased the number of pitches to 100. There are now 105 units booked into the meet, and the booking is now CLOSED. So if you have not booked sorry the site is full.

Country and Western Weekend May 29th.

The bookings for this event at the time of writing stand at 120 units, with only a few of our own members booked in. So if you want to come please at least phone Anne and let her know so you are not disappointed. To give you some idea of the response, on Tuesday 30th March the numbers stood at 86 units booked, by Sunday 4th April 120 units had booked in. So get phoning.

Look forward to seeing you all soon.

Mick Cooper