WELCOME TO THE COTSWOLD BRANCH

The Cotswold Branch of the RSA was formed in 1986 by three retired ladies from the Printing & Publications Services Division, Greville House, Cheltenham.   They were, by name,  Gladys Lines,  Rose Barnfield and the late Doreen McKenzie.   The ladies received strong support from the Central Committee, especially Pat Paterson and Hugh Wilson-Chalon.   From small acorns grow large oak trees, thus the Branch now has some 116 members, of which around 30 could be classed as regular attendees at our meetings ands  social activities.

The Branch is, we believe, unique in that since P & PS closed in 1991 we have no parent unit in the area to rely on for clerical or technical support services as enjoyed by some other branches, hence our only income is from the Central Committee fund.   This amounted £209 in 2005 due to our relatively small branch membership.   We do regularly cry poverty, alas to little effect.   Even so we have expenses which have to be met head on whilst most other RSA branches may still enjoy cushioning from a parent unit.  

The meetings usually include a social feature such as a speaker or slide show.  We hold a raffle at every meeting and periodically have a "bring and buy" sale, all to try and keep our heads above water financially.

Our major social functions, usually separate from monthly meetings are an annual garden party held at the home of one of our members, a Christmas lunch at a venue in the Cheltenham area, an annual skittles/quiz at the December meeting, with wine and nibbles, and similar festivities at our AGM in March.   Recent outings have included canal trips to Newbury and Llangollen, a day visit to Weston-Super-Mare, a visit to Bristol for lunch and to Filton Airport to view and have a "climb" over Concorde GBOAF.    Planned for later this year, 25 of us will visit Highgrove House gardens and in October the Home Front Recall Organisation has agreed to sponsor a lunch for the Branch to honour those of our members who saw action in the Second World War, as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of peace.

Many of our members live a fair distance from Cheltenham, but a number live local to us.  It would, of course, be very nice to see some new faces.   Our "local" members are ex-service staff from Greville House, Aston Down or Birdlip/Winstone Radio Station.   CAA staff who have retired to the lovely rural area in which we live form the majority of the Cotswold branch.   To those members we would extend a very warm welcome.

The Cotswold Branch Committee;

The branch also has a member, Ron Russ, who reports branch activities to the Contrail Editor, to make life easier for the secretary.  The committee publish three times a year a list of activities pertaining to the branch activities for the coming months.   The current list is as follows;

Webmaster's Note.   I had the pleasure of serving at Birdlip/Winstone as a young radio technician during the 1960's and later, in the 80's and 90's,  had responsibility for the en route radio stations of which Birdlip/Winstone was one of 37.   

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM THE 2005 AGM REPORT

The 27^th AGM started as usual at 1030 with a meeting of the Branch delegates and Central committee.  The Chairman welcomed the members attending the meeting and the Treasurer went through expense claims, public liability insurance and branch grants.  Following this the branch representatives present were asked to give a brief report for their branch.

COTSWOLD: Ron Russ: We no longer have a parent Unit so the new members are people who live in the area.  We have regular monthly meetings and about 25 to 30 people attend.  We have raffles and bring & buy sales that help augment our funds.  A lot of our members are quite elderly and were also in the lower paid brackets so income can be a bit tight.  We hold an annual garden party and a Christmas party.

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