A newsletter for those who remember Dick Barton - or should that be 'Richard'??

Monthly meetings

As in the past these continue to be held in the Environment Centre in Pier Street, Swansea - a few yards from the Evening Post offices from 10.30 to 12 noon.

The next one will be on: Tuesday 11 January

They will still be on the SECOND TUESDAY through 2005 . . .

Tuesday 11 January Tuesday 12 July
Tuesday 8 February Tuesday 13 September
Tuesday 8 March Tuesday 11 October
Tuesday 12 April Tuesday 8 November
Tuesday 10 May

New members are always especially welcome and will enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and a home made cake. We usually have a speaker from some relevant local organisation as well as plenty of time for a general chinwag. The sharp-eyed will notice that we miss June for a Summer Outing, August for the holidays and December for the Christmas Party. On the subject of which ….

Following the success of previous years we have rebooked the Aberavon Beach Hotel on Tuesday 7th December and this will take the place of the regular monthly meeting - knitters, please bring finished knitting with you.

IMPORTANT NEWS

For three very different reasons - and by unfortunate coincidence - Mildred, David and myself have all decided to give up our respective organiser roles in RSVP. David has already done so, while Mildred and I intend to hand over at the end of the year. All three of us will continue to support RSVP and be volunteers in various ways but there will be some new blood and ideas at the helm.

At the time of writing (end of October) the posts are empty but there will be some strong publicity shortly to attract potential organisers. Of course, if any of you fancy taking a more active role we'd be delighted to hear from you. Because the knitting project has become so big I have suggested that we really need more than one person to replace Mildred. Briefly, the jobs are:

1. Area organiser - act as RSVP representative locally, oversee projects, arrange meetings, outings etc.
2. Schools organiser - oversee the schools project, liase with head teachers, hold the hand of new volunteers, help recruit new volunteers.
3. Area knitting organiser - coordinate the efforts of knitters, liase with the charities receiving the knitting, seek new outlets, recruit new volunteers etc.
4. Knitting collector/deliverer - someone with transport who can collect knitted goods from the housebound and others who can't get to meetings, and also deliver bundles of sorted knitting to various charities.
5. Knitting sorter - someone with a spare room who can receive mixed knitted items and sort them according to the widely different needs of those we help.

The rewards include expenses incurred, occasional trips to Cardiff for meetings with those from other areas, lots of support from the staff in Cardiff, the freedom to run your part of RSVP the way you want to, making lots of new friends and, above all, the feeling that you are really making a difference to peoples' lives.

If you think you can help - even for a short time - or know someone who might be interested, then please ring me on 01792 645644.

If not, DON'T WORRY - Swansea RSVP is too big to stop now!

Past Meetings

The May meeting had a visit from Barbara Williams from the Bonymaen Family Centre. She gave an interesting talk about the wonderful work they do in supporting young families in the area who have fallen on hard times for whatever reason. She mentioned several families who had been particularly grateful for our knitted goods.

June saw our Summer Outing - this year to Craig-y-Nos Castle in the Swansea Valley, one time home of Adelina Patti. Once again the weather was kind and we had a fascinating talk about Madam Patti and the history of the castle and the theatre. At one time the castle was used as a hospital and one of our members was able to add her own recollections as a former nurse. It was a shame that we didn't have time to walk round the grounds as well but there was a very nice tea to enjoy.

In July our intended speaker had to pull out at the last moment but Liz Morris of the Dark Horse project very gamely filled the gap for us. She is enthusiastically promoting the project all over South Wales. Its aims are not unlike RSVP's in encouraging volunteering but particularly among the housebound and residents of nursing homes, sheltered housing etc.

We normally miss August for the holidays but this year there was an extra meeting arranged to allow David Howells to tell us about his adventures (not too strong a word!) helping at a school in Ghana. This was quite enthralling and left us all wanting to help David raise funds to enhance the chances of the Ghanaian children. He told of one child who was unable to take the end of year exam because her father had not paid. From what I hear from David of his fund raising efforts, this should not happen again.

My apologies to those who missed the talk; it had to be arranged at very short notice to fit in with holidays, availability of the hall etc. David is only too willing to give it again and, indeed has several more talks lined up. If anyone would like to catch up with him or knows of a group who would like the talk, he would be happy to hear from you on 01792 406328.

The September meeting was one of those which we put aside occasionally to just talk about this and that and generally catch up on news. The Environment Centre exhibits were quite fascinating.

Finally, in October Louise O'Shea from Homestart told us about that organisation illustrated with a short video. She told us some touching stories of families that they had been able to help through difficult times and it was evident how much our hand knitted garments were appreciated by those children and parents who otherwise never saw anything brand new.

Life begins at 50,60,70,80,90 . . .

If you belong to RSVP you know this already but there was an exhibition in the Brangwyn Hall on the 9th November which was well worth a visit. It ran all day from 10 'til 4 and was much like the 'Golden Age' exhibition Swansea Council ran two years ago. We had a stand and found six new volunteers to join us.

The Gathering and a new recruitment video.

Along with over 100 organisers and others from all over the UK I have just spent two days at a national RSVP conference (the Gathering) which happens every 2 years to exchange ideas etc. It was very enjoyable if very hard work - there were 'workshops' on everything from knitting to computers all of one day. We saw a new video which is to replace the Annette Crosby/Anton Rogers one - a bit dated now. The new one is excellent and features our own David Howells among others telling how they joined RSVP, what they do and what they get out of it.

The second evening saw some entertainment by a group from Coventry called the 'Nostalgics'. They worried me by singing songs from after my time! Songs from before my time - and even older jokes - came from 'Dame Hermione Hoodwink' - guess who! The latter was originally intended to show other areas how easy it was to entertain in nursing homes, day centres etc. - it did achieve some success in that two groups from the London area have already asked for lists of the 160 odd songs of which I have the words on the computer.

Finally

Mildred, David and I would like to thank you all very sincerely for the tremendous support you have given to RSVP and ourselves over the past five or six years. Whether you have come to meetings or not, knitted, sung, played a keyboard, listened to small children read or just taken an interest you have 'made a difference'. Hopefully, you have enjoyed it on the way and will continue to do so for many years to come. We have made many friends, no enemies (that I know of!) and generally had a whale of a time - it's been great.

Thank you very much - Diolch yn fawr!

Doug

Doug Adams, (retiring) Swansea Area Organiser Tel. 01792 645644
86 Saunders Way, Sketty, Swansea SA2 8BH