South Petherton Twinning Association
Newsletter – Spring 2008
Introduction
Welcome to the second newsletter of the SPTA. Quite a lot has happened since our first one. Membership now stands at 35 people and is slowly growing. Membership fees and fundraising monies are intended to cover the costs of any public receptions for the Javené visitors in 2009 as well as Public Liability Insurance and our modest admin. costs. Hamdon Financial Services have kindly offered to act as an “independent examiner” of our accounts. Thanks to Alan Ashdown, we now have a webpage on www.southpetherton.com . Finally I have worked out where the accents are on my keyboard and can now spell Javené correctly.
For any member who has an all regions video player (you will need SECAM), I do have a slightly dated tape about Javené and the local economy which can be borrowed.
Visit to Javené
This has been fixed for the 29th May-1st June. The party now looks like being 12 people confirmed plus a few more undecided who will be travelling from Exeter Airport to Rennes. If any members are still interested in going then please contact Lin Aldred on 242386 before arranging travel (and before the end of April). Would all those travelling to Javené please ensure they have adequate travel insurance and make sure your E111 card is up to date. We will organise a car pool to get to Exeter and we will be met by our hosts at Rennes. Diane Langford is working to check the level of French among the Pethertonian visitors with the level of English among our hosts so that people are appropriately paired.
A draft “Village Twinning Charter” has been sent to Javené for comment. Rodger Neve has agreed to sign this on behalf of SP PC before we depart and the new mayor of Javené will sign at the other end. This will be posted on our webpage when the wording has been agreed. Paul Carlisle and family will be taking along some letters from pupils in our local junior school which we will pass on to the two schools in Javené with the object of starting some correspondence between them.
In view of the relatively low take up of places for this year’s visit , future dates and mode of travel will be an agenda item at the next AGM.
Fundraising Events
The skittles evening on the 27th March at the Wheatsheaf went very well with a good turnout of 18 people. Tony Charman was the eventual winner of the skittles tournament. The next fundraiser will be a barbecue at the house of Brian and Judith Turtle on Friday 27th June (6.30 for 7.00pm, directions later). The cost will be £5 for members and £6 for non-members (this includes all food but bring your own drinks). Cheques should be made out to South Petherton Twinning Association and sent to Judy Bosanko, 1 Farm Court, Palmer Street, TA13 5EB to arrive no later than 20th June.
French Lessons
A few members have expressed an interest in organising French lessons in South Petherton. I have some literature from “Le Cercle Francais” which holds classes in the area (Tintinhull, Yeovil) who have said that they could organise a class in SP if enough people were interested. If you are interested then please contact me in the first instance and let me know your level of French (beginner, intermediate, fluent). I will then enquire about likely costs and location.
Brian Turtle (brianturtle@tiscali.co.uk 01460 241073)