I'm glad to say that the first meeting of the Lincoln & North Lincolnshire branch will take place in the boardroom of The Museum Of Lincolnshire Life, Burton Road, Lincoln at 18:30 on 22/04/2009. Refreshments will be available & all are very welcome.

This will be an informal meeting to establish the structure of the branch, for all to have a say in how it should be run and arrange future events/ meetings.

I am trying to organise a speaker for the evening however Plan B is for all attending the meeting to bring along something from their own area of interest to disseminate with all attending. Plan C is to decamp to the Queen Vic behind Lincoln Castle with the beer on me!!!

Please feel free to P.M me or call me on 07740 407609 for more information.

See you on the 22nd
regards,
Mick

Mick,

Picked up your notice by accident, suggest you re-post it under Forum Pals will be pleased to come along .

Cliff.

Looking forward to it Mick, I'm from the steeltown to the north of Lincoln but hope to get there,
its a bit nearer than traveling to York which is my local branch at the moment.
The only problem being, it coincides with lecture night at Metheringham airfield, hopefully dates won't clash after this initial meeting
regards
Tom

Mick
Would like to come along I am based in Grimsby and wil be looking forward to it
Sid

Still on tonight, is it?


19.30. Yes, it was on. Standing room only - 50+. Jolly good, eh. I had to bring my suffering back home a cause de standing too long, but will go to next show

Excellent meeting last night Mick, The second room we moved into ...a display hall, was almost not big enough to hold the numbers attending.
As for the unfilled positions of officers, that will come with time, most of the people there had never met before and were reticent about offering their services in front of strangers, but as said time will change all that. The talk at the end, given "off the cuff" so to speak was also a sign of the good things to come
To other forum pals who read this and were unable to attend, make sure you get to the next meeting, this is going to be a WFA branch with lots of interesting meetings for the future
Once again Mick....thanks for organising this initial get together, well done...
regards
Tom

Nice to see you again last night Sid.....looking forward to the next one, we will have to see if we can get some more of our northern aquaintances down to Lincoln..
regards
Tom

Good luck with the lift-off.

Alan Tucker
Secretary
Birmingham WFA

Good to see another branch has lift off.

Regards
Arm

WOW !
The response to the first meeting of the Lincoln & N Lincolnshire branch was incredible.
I had arranged for the boardroom at the Musuem of Lincolnshire Life as it held around 25 people however I hadn't excepted the 50+ WFA members & non members that spared the time & made the effort to attend. The musuem staff very kindly moved us all from the boardroom to one of the exhibition rooms which contained a selection of interesting artifacts & also allowed us to have refreshments in an adjacent exhibition hall in which there was an example of one of the original tanks built by William Tritton, Lincoln.

The meeting was received very well with a clear vision of how the branch may develop with careful consideration of all members wishes & ambitions for the branch. I was extremely impressed & humbled by the wealth & depth of knowledge that all attending brought & look forward to tapping into that resevoir of knowledge.

Special mention & my heartfelt thanks must go to our inaugral speaker, David Hooper, who at very,very short notice ( he volunteered on the night !!! ) delivered a very interesting personal history of RSM George "Pop" Beeton, Lincolnshire Regiment.

I would like to thank everyone who attended for their support, Mike Creland for his help, The Musuem of Lincolshire Life for looking after us and most of all Julie for not only baking all the cakes for the evening but also being pressganged as secretary.

Very much looking forward to the next muster of the Lincoln & N.Lincs branch in the not so distant future.

Mick

Mick,

I sent an e-mail the other day as well. not sure if you got it, but basically it was an offer to do a talk for you in the future. Just come back from The Devon and Cornwall branch and they seemed to like the talk- invited back next year!

Regards
Arm

Hi Arm,

Didn't get your e-mail, try this one, [email=michael.mcdonald28 AT btinternet.com]michael.mcdonald28@btinternet.com[/email]
Many thanks for your kind offer, we will definitely be inviting you as a speaker. Could you e-mail again with your list of subjects you talk on please.

regards,
mick

The next meeting will take place on Monday 1st June 2009 @ 19:00 in the Students Union building at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Newport, Lincoln LN1 3DY. The speaker for the evening is Mike Credland on the subect of Lincolnshire War Memorials.

There is the Students union bar available to us including tea, coffee & Julie's cakes!!

The room has ample seating but is up two flights of stairs however there is a lift available. If you require special seating arrangements let me know.

All WFA & non WFA members are warmly welcome.

See you in June,

Mick

Mick,

Missed the above reply have sent off an e-mail just.

Regards
Arm

Mick
I attended the WFA meeting at the Museum of Linconshire life and you mentioned that someone required a lift from Louth. I shall be attending the next meeting and will be coming from the Grimsby area and would be able to go via Louth, and am willing to offer transport if it is needed.
Sid

Hello Sid,

Many thanks for your very kind offer, I can PM you the telephone number of the gentleman concerned & you could talk direct to him if you like.

See you on June 1st.

All the very best, Mick

Miick
Please do that and I will give him a call
Regards Sid

Sorry Sid, for some unknown reason I can't send PM's to another forum members.

Drop me an e-mail at michael.mcdonald28 AT btinternet.com.

regards, Mick

Another good turnout for the lecture last night, Mick made what could seem to be a rather "dry"
subject extremely interesting, and his delivery without notes was impressive to say the least.
I noticed a lot of the attendees were "mixing" during the interval which means there will be less
self-conciousness when it comes to volunteering for positions we have yet to fill for this WFA branch.
Also I must say that a big vote of thanks to Mick(micmac) and wife Julie for the amount of work and drive they have put into getting this new branch of the WFA off the ground.
Again I can only urge forum members and friends living in the Lincolnshire area to attend these
gatherings, a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and looking forward to the next meeting
regards
Tom

Many thanks to Tom for his support & kind comments and indeed to all the members who attended another successful muster on Monday evening. The turnout again surpassed all expectations and certainly bodes well for the future of our branch.

A special mention in dispatches goes to our guest speaker, Mike Credland, who delivered an extremely interesting presentation on the war memorials of Lincolnshire. As Tom said in an earlier post, this could have been a dry subject, but Mike's passion & enthusiasm for his subject made sure it was anything but and very informative. Good on you Mike, a job well done mate. As a follow up to Mike's presentation, we are hoping to tie in a summer social function that involves a trip around some of the memorials in the Lincoln area followed by a few cold ones in one of the village pubs so watch this space.

During the interval it was really great to see everyone mixing and welcoming new members to our group and many thanks to those who offered their services to enhance our branch organisational skills.

The Student's Union at Bishop Grosseteste University College looked after us very well & it was agreed that we shall use this venue for the immediate future. I can now go ahead and plan the rest of the years events & speakers so again watch this space.

Many thanks again to all WFA Lincoln & N.Lincs members for their continued support,

Mick

The next muster of the Lincoln & N Lincs WFA will be at 19:00 at the Students Union building, Bishop Grosseteste University College on Monday, 27/07/09.

The speaker for the evening is Eric Noel Farthing on " Hitler in the trenches, 1914-1918 "

All WFA & non WFA members are warmly welcomed, admission is £2.00 with the usual refreshments available.

see you on the 27th.

regards,

Mick

finally got around to updating the other forumites to how things are going with our branch here in Lincoln & N Lincs :
The summer social held on 24/08/09 was a great success, Mike Credland organised a car tour of some of the satellite villages of Lincoln and their memorials. He related the history behind the names on those stones & tablets in his usual enthuiastic manner, finishing with a visit to the Eastgate church & cemetery to the final resting places of the great & good of Lincoln. To finish the evening, we all piled into the Morning star to enjoy a beer or two & view John Lawrence's fine display of Great War exhibits he displays in the bar.

Ian Walden's presentation on "The tank & the public" was extremely interesting and enlightening as it focused on how the tank was used as perhaps an early form of merchandising through toys, china ornaments, advertisements and the war bonds drive etc rather than purely in the field of combat. Ian supplemented this with several exhibits & posters from his collection. A job well done Ian.

We now have speakers arranged for all our meetings from now & into the new year, check out our branch events for a listing, all WFA & non WFA members are warmly welcomed.
Thank you to all our branch members for their continued support.

Mick

http://www.gainsboroughstandard.co.uk/news...s-to.5710454.jp

Just to let other forumites of our first branch project.

Mick

A very worthwhile project - please keep us updated on progress.

Excellent coverage of the project we discussed at our last branch meeting Mick....
And for fellow forum members and friends in the Lincoln and North Linc's area, our next meeting is on Monday evening Oct 19th when our guest speaker will be John Chester
and the subject will be "The Unknown Warrior"
Here's a link to our site with information for future lectures, Venue etc........ http://www.wfa-lincs.org.uk/WFAL_p01x.html
Come along, enjoy an evening in convivial company...
regards
Tom

Many thanks to all who attended our branch meeting on Monday 19/10/09, again a great turnout of 45 members to hear John Chester present " The Unknown Warrior ". A very interesting & touching subject. Many thanks to John for a great presentation.

We also decided on our course of action regarding our project of restoration & rededication of Thorpe Le Fallows Memorial Cross. The present condition of the stone can be seen through Chris Goddard's photographs at the following link http://www.opensezme.co.uk/thorpe .


As our secretary/baker/chief cook/bottlewasher Julie has OFSTED in her school, I took the minutes so will apologise in advance for not being the usual high standard The next meeting is on 30th November with Terry Marker presenting "The Battle of Fromelles "

Further updates on the progress of our project will be posted on the forum as we work to keep forumites informed.

Mick

Yes another good meeting Mick, and I must say that I think our branch of the WFA must have the most comfortable seating in the country for lectures......
Thanks for the link to the photo's of the memorial.
regards
Tom

Hi Mick

Have just found this topic at last re our branch! Will keep abreast of your posts and will see you next week at fulbeck
Regards
Jonathan

To all members and other interested parties: There will be a wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial at Thorpe Le Fallows (Near Scampton) Lincolnshire at 11am on Sunday 8th November. All welcome.

Hoping to be there Jonathan.......
regards
Tom