Last month (September, if you remember) should have been the History Group’s Annual General Meeting, which as you will know, could not be held, along with all other activities which usually take place daily in the Village Hall.
Consequently, having already cancelled the first two of our Open Meetings this year, our Committee reluctantly agreed to cancel the AGM and our Christmas events, on the assumption that there is no likelihood of the Hall being able to operate as before until sometime in the New Year.
Having done that, and in the hope that things may get back to normal sometime next year, the Group’s Committee agreed to remain in position, and all current Memberships have been renewed without charge until September 2021.
This is in appreciation and thanks to our Members for their loyalty and understanding this year. Furthermore, in the hope that the rules preventing the Hall from re-opening and operating as before, will be relaxed in the New Year, we have taken the step of re-booking our Guest Speakers not only for all four Open Meetings next year, 2021, but also for the following year 2022! Our Secretary Derek, deserves our thanks for his hard work in achieving this, especially, as I have said before, it is getting more and more difficult finding and booking Guest Speakers of the high standards which we and our Members (and non-Members) have come to expect.
To finish on a lighter note, one good thing which has come out of being restricted in our movements and having limited contact with small numbers of family and friends, has been the extra “spare time” to deal with other History Group tasks. Hence I have been able to update our book-list (see our website – “marldonlocalhistorygroup.com”), catch up with filing memorabilia in our Archive, helping (mostly) non-members from near and far who are researching their “family tree” with enquiries about family members who lived and/or were buried here in Marldon, articles for this Magazine and our website (including the latest in this month’s Magazine about Marldon‘s Royal Coat of Arms) to name but a few, and various small items which nevertheless take up time.
At least I now have a clearer desk, but also lots of files and material on the floor, which I can now take back to our Archive in the Village Hall!
Tony Chidlow .. Chairman
Marldon Local History Group 