CYHA News

Many thanks to those of you who came to the AGM in October. As usual we barely scraped a quorum, so it was with a cheer that we greeted John at 8:45!

The meeting started with the approval of the minutes from last year’s AGM, followed by the Chairman’s report. Mike ran through the events of the last year, including some fabulous trips such as Brecon Beacons at New Year, Burnham Deepdale in the snow, a sunny Easter in Ambleside, back to basics in Knoydart and blown away in Pembrokeshire. There was a series of notable birthdays for Ali, Cress & George, who notched up a fresh decade each.  May also saw Nick & Lorna get spliced, having invited us all along to join in the fun.

The Secretary’s report dwelt on the membership, which has dwindled a little over the last twelve months to 61. This led to a discussion about whether we should have a membership drive.

Lastly we had the Treasurer’s report and Dave told us that subs could remain at £20pa, but might have to go up next year. This year we’ve had 12 trips and the cost averaged out to £25 per night including food and transport. Whilst we thought about what a bargain this was, Dave bombarded us with statistics on our annual consumption of various stock items, including 12kg marg, 1000 tea bags and 190 pints of milk. Making their first appearance in is the stats were the 576 oatcakes which kept us going in Knoydart.

We finished off with the election of officers. Mike had completed a 3 year stint as Chair and according to the constitution it was time for a change. Ali proposed Cress, this was seconded by George and John, and Cress was duly voted into the Chair. Dave P proposed Andrew as a new committee member, this was seconded by Cress, and Andrew was voted in by the meeting. All other committee members were voted back in as is.

Cress wound up the meeting with a request that we all talk to our non-YHA friends and persuade them of the benefits of healthy outdoor exercise and fun weekends away. How could anyone resist?

If you’d like to see the full minutes from the meeting, please contact Dave J.

Ali

Palace Farm

September saw us pay a visit to Doddington in Kent and the perfectly named Palace Farm hostel. The location could scarcely be better: on a farm on the outskirts of a beautiful village, just a stones throw from a real ale pub. Perfect.

We had a couple of cracking walks and superb weather just added to the enjoyment.

Memorable moments included the most helpful farmer in the world, who, on seeing us coming, broke off from ploughing his field to re-instate the footpath just for us.

And to round off the perfect weekend, we finished our walk in the delightful village of Chilham with a superb cream tea with the most enormous scones.

Ali

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George’s Barn Dance

Thank you George for letting us join in the celebrations for your 60^th. I for one had a splendid time dancing the night away. Thanks also to all those who contributed to the  bring and share buffet. Despite  our best efforts, there was enough left over to feed George on leftovers for the next month. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

Ali

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Ten Pin star

A good turn out on the Wednesday evening at “Ten Pin” enabled almost everyone to prove they were as bad a each other, all except Richard who has apparently been practicing!