Copyright © Costa Blanca 41 Club 2018

Costa Blanca 41 Club

“Membership and Rules Dominate”

(Quote from “Costa Blanca 41 Club Newsletter Vol 10, Issue 3”)

After electing our first Dutch Chairman, Hans Waller at the 1996 AGM, with VC Albert White, Secretary Paddy O’Callaghan and Treasurer Len Peacock, we all had to turn our attention to the problem of membership, and changes as a result of National Rules:

Membership

‘We are now down to 16 resident members and 29 non-residents. This means that half the resident members are on Council, and there is concern that in the winter months, it may be embarrassing to ask a proprietor to close his restaurant for around 10 people. It was suggested that we put an advert in the ‘Costa Blanca News’, but the general opinion was that that was not us. We do not collect money like the Lions. Our aim of ‘continued

friendship’ and ‘support of Round Table’ is a bit difficult to achieve as we do not have a local Table, which leaves us with the motto ‘do nothing, but do it well!’

‘All of us have given many years of Community Service through Table, and it was felt that the main way to increase our membership is through personal contacts. There was some concern that, as a club, we were getting older, and a number of ex-Tablers who had taken a look at us may have rejected us on age’.

Rules

‘Our title is ‘The Costa Blanca Branch of the Association of ex-Tablers Clubs’, generally known as the ‘Costa Blanca 41 Club’.

All members must be ex-Tablers or current members of Round Table. Those who have not attained the age of 40 years must not hold office or vote.

There are two categories of membership:

Resident – those who have their principal home in the area and wish to

                  participate in the Club’s activities; and

Non-Resident – those who visit the area from time to time and wish to

                 participate in the Club’s activities.

Potential members are required to complete an Application Form. The Club may, at the discretion of it’s officers, defer admission pending confirmation of the applicant’s eligibility. Upon admission, the full subscription for the Club year must be paid. Any member who fails to pay his subscription by the 30th June of the next year, will, following notice of default, have his membership terminated. There is no refund of subscriptions’.

Affiliation and Capitation

‘Overseas Clubs can only affiliate if their membership accords with the Association’s Membership rules. A Capitation Fee is applicable for a ‘Full’ and ‘Associate’ member, the latter of which we take to mean ‘Resident’ member in our case. Overseas Residents may not hold office on the National Council, but we are entitled to send a delegate to vote and speak at General Meetings of the Association’. Because our affiliation is restricted in both office and accessibility to UK Association events, we pay capitation in respect of only 8 members, irrespective of our total membership number. There are no proposals to interfere with or change this arrangement.

Administration

‘The Club shall be administered by a Council elected at the AGM, and shall consist of a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and any other officers deemed to be necessary. Officers can offer themselves for re-election. The Council shall interpret the Rules, if necessary, and resolve any matters arising. In the event of serious difficulty reference should be made to the Association Rules.

An Auditor shall be appointed at each AGM, but will not be a member of the Council.

An AGM will be held each year, (usually in April), giving 4 weeks notice to members. The Club will meet at a venue to be determined, normally on the first Wednesday of the month.’

Meanwhile, on the social scene, ‘Chairman Hans excelled as a cook and as a tour guide. At a ‘Pancake Party’ he produced a wonderful selection of savoury and sweet  pancakes, only marred by him nearly chopping his finger off. He introduced a ‘Green Pea Soup lunch’, which sounded rather dull, but when filled with sausages and all sorts of delicious ingredients, was very tasty’.

‘In October on a coach trip to Albufera, he came into his own explaining the technicalities of rice growing, (so important to this area), during a mini tour of the rice paddies, a nice prelude to the main event, a boat ride and lunch at El Rek, on the shore of Albufera, a fresh water lake fed by two main rivers. The entrance to the sea is controlled by locks, so

Albufera Lake Natural Park

that the water levels can be managed to facilitate flooding of the rice growing areas. Several species of bird were spotted, including grebe, mallard, egret, heron and the odd stork.

A paella lunch awaited our disembarkation, a fitting end to a trip with a difference’.

The newsletters changed from a narrative style to a three column newspaper format. After earlier printing excellent obituaries to Doreen, Jack Cope’s wife and past chairman Derrick Teale, Tony asked members to submit a sort of ‘This is your life’ narrative about themselves, to enable us to get to know a bit more about each other, and he printed articles on Islay Burns, Albert White and Jack Cope as examples.                                                                              

New chairman Albert retained both Paddy and Len as Secretary and Treasurer respectively at the 1997 AGM with Jack Cope as VC, but not without yet another appeal for more members to volunteer to serve on Council. Membership was still an important topic of concern as it was at the beginning of the club year, and even Charter Night guest, past National President Geoff King, reflected ‘on the massive drop in membership of Round Table, citing the fact that in our day, we concentrated on our family and serving the community, whereas today there was an emphasis on supporting National projects and beating last year’s target. This will reflect on our membership in the future’.

‘The social scene continued unabated, with a Moroccan Feast and Easter Bonnet evening at chairman Albert and Betty’s home; a Flamenco Dinner at El Greco in Moraira; and a Brazilian evening at restaurant Baccara, dancing to more conventional tunes as the poor musician had earlier been involved in a car accident’ . This in addition to what has become the normal traditional programme.

                                                                               ... to be continued...

.

Ted Homewood

Chairman 2005-06

Bob Oxley

Chairman  2011-12

Note

This is the eighth of a series of articles on the history and development of the Costa Blanca 41 Club. It is being compiled from a large number of newsletters recovered from files held by Tony Ogden, who played a major part in the development of the Club and later in the development of the group of clubs now known as the ‘Iberian Cluster’. All the text above in italics is directly quoted from newsletters published at the time, and the web posting and additional illustration images are provided by Gordon Macnab.

Ted Homewood/Bob Oxley