4th August - Northern Lights Committee Meeting in Doncaster

Chris, Brian and I met up at my parents' house this morning and set off for Doncaster. Chris seemed to be familiar with the route so we discussed the agenda as we travelled. The weather was good and the roads were reasonably quiet so we arrived at Paul and Yvonne's house in good time for the meeting. Sandra, Paula and Christine were already there and Adele and Keith arrived at the same time as us. Yvonne had bought plenty cakes and biscuits so there was a good selection of things to eat during the meeting.
We started off by talking about the events we have planned for the rest of this year.
Keith says bookings are going well for the York Day - I think we have about 40 people going at the moment.We are also starting to make final arrangements for the November Dinner and Disco. This will be the last event that Paul and Paula will be planning as they are retiring from the leadership team this year. It looks like Keith is taking over as chair with help from the rest of the team.
We had a break for lunch which was carrot and coriander soup followed by more flapjacks and cakes.
We then discussed events for next year. We already have a quiz planned for April and we are hoping to have a couple of weekends away - one of which may be in Europe. Chris suggested a day in Liverpool as it will be city of Culture next year. We need to have something on our side of the Pennines for a change! I have been tasked with booking a West-End musical for some time next year.
At the end of the meeting Paula left to go to the theatre, Paul took Christine to the station and Sandra and Adele went home too. The rest of us ordered a Chinese meal for 4 (between 6 as portions are quite generous!) from the local takeaway. We decided to eat outside as it was still warm and sunny. There was a good selection of dishes including spare ribs, prawn and vegetable fried rice , chow mein and chicken with water chestnuts and cashew nuts. We also shared a bottle of Chianti which Chris bought with him - he still has several bottles of wine at home which were birthday presents.
When it started to get dark, we said goodbye to Paul and Yvonne and made our way back to Manchester. We had another good journey and decided to stop at a pub in Shaw near Oldham on the way. It was quite a modern Travelodge - though I'm not sure if we could have an event there in the future as we couldn't see a function room.
We arrived home at about 10pm. In all we had a pretty good day - I think I got to know the rest of the committee a bit better and we have quite a few ideas for next year's events.