Minutes from meeting number 1203
Minutes of the 1203rd Meeting of the
Manchester Pickwick Club held at the Moorside Social Club on 20th October, 2010
The 1203rd meeting of the Manchester Pickwick Club commenced at 8.04 p.m. with Weller, assisted by Fogg, rushing to take the drinks order. There were suggestions that Weller was trying to be away from the meeting when Dodson arrived to collect his subs but this was subsequently proved incorrect when it was announced that Jingle had agreed to pay for the first round of drinks to celebrate his 80th birthday. Members will note that the drinks order was taken before it was announced that Jingle was to pay; this was obviously to avoid members ordering expensive drinks because the club wouldn't be paying!
The toast to Mr Pickwick was sung and once again it was suggested that whilst the quantity of the singing was good, the quality left a little to be desired.
Grummer, Smangle, Stiggins and Weller were all fined for holding a separate meeting and slammer was thanked for drawing this matter to Pickwick's attention then fined for peaching.
Sam Weller advised members that Tony Weller's operation which was reported at the last meeting had been delayed for one week, but before the deferred operation could take place, the surgeon went on leave so a further delay was necessary. When the revised date was reached, the surgeon had gone off work sick so once again the operation didn't happen. Tony has now been given a new date for his operation and Sam Weller suggests that the procedure will probably be carried out by one of the cleaners if the surgeon isn't available on that new date.
Pickwick wasn't having a good time in his new post and was embarrassed when it was pointed out that he had missed one of the items from the agenda; he agreed to make a donation to the fines box to compensate for this error.
A text from Dodson in Spain suggested that in view of the Chancellor's statement of necessary 'cut-backs' to reduce the Country's deficit he felt that the club should do their bit to aid the Government by ensuring that in future there would be no free evenings!
The Secretary reported that he had received an E-mail from Peter Brooks suggesting a meal to celebrate Dicken's bi-centenary in November 2012. Members felt that a lunch might be preferable to a dinner and the views of individual clubs was to be sought on this point. The minutes of the meeting in London on 29th September were read and member clubs were asked to submit dates for individual events by January 2011 so a schedule could be prepared. On this matter, Grummer said he had visited the 'Crown' at Nantwich about an anniversary meeting with dinner and overnight accommodation on 11th February, 2012 which would cost approximately £80 per member; Dodson had agreed to open a book so members could save up for this event.
Members were shown copies of an extract from the 'Telegraph' about Cedric Dickens and also a suggestion of an auction for a first edition of 'Christmas Carol' which was actually signed by Dickens himself and which was expected to raise at least £200,000. Whilst on the subject of finance, Hopkins asked what was the regular fine for offences deemed or otherwise and was told it was 20p.
Grummer then told members about his trip to Scotland at the new year which had resulted in him going for a sick note to his GP, after which everything went 'pear shaped'. The GP insisted on the usual blood test, ECG, and other tests which resulted in a suggestion that Grummer's pulse rate was too low, despite Grummer's insistence that he felt fine. It is obvious in these circumstances that the views of the patient are irrelevant so Grummer was subjected to a further series of tests which resulted in a suggestion that he needed to be fitted with a 'pacemaker'. One particular test required him to complete a record of activities so the results from the machine could be compared with actual activities, but nobody had told Grummer so when asked for his activity record Grummer was nonplussed. Eventually it was decided that he should go on a regime of 'Warfarin' - a well known rat poison, but this necessitates regular weekly visits to the hospital for tests until the appropriate dose is identified, and thus the problem continues; in January, a birthday card from members on the 1st anniversary of Grummer's original GP visit would be appreciated (and he still hasn't got his sick note).
Due to the absence on leave of the steward at the Moorside Club and Dodson (who was spending the club's profits) in Spain, the buffet for the evening had been prepared by Nat and Mrs Winkle, both of whom were thanked for the excellent fare they had provided.
Snodgrass produced a pamphlet about a Dickens event at Grassington and suggested that this might be something the club would like to attend, although he pointed out that traffic was banned from the village whilst the event was in progress so it would be necessary to hire a coach if we decided to attend.
Unfortunately, the meeting was running late so it was decided by Pickwick that a vote of thanks to himself and the vice-chairman wasn't necessary because they had done an excellent job throughout the evening.
'Good Neet Owd Friends' was sung by all and followed by the National Anthem. The raffle raised £7.00 whilst the Fines Box contained £5.96.