A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR MEMBERS!

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MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

- MAY WE REPEAT-

Yes, it matters! Our members are still our most important asset -. and we all ~ ~ enjoy the good fellowship of a large, cheerful body of enthusiastic friends ~~ who attend our events in large numbers and never let us down. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN - KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2nd December 2002 - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Doesn't time fly! Another AGM, and all your officers and Committee members are ready to serve you again, should you want them to. We are always eager to co-opt further Committee members- so what about it?

Enjoy the festivities afterwards!

As most members will be aware, it has always been our hope that the exhibition should have a permanent home, in a purpose-built building, on the present site. The coach was obtained as essentially a stop-gap measure when, in 1980, it became apparent that St Helens MBC no longer had the money available to provide the building for us. The creation of the Heritage Lottery Fund gave us the idea that here might be the source of finance for a permanent building. St Helens offered support in the past, appointing 2 advisers - both took early retirement- having done precisely nothing! More recently they offered to make the application for us, jointly with other Heritage Applications. This however turned out not to be possible. Nevertheless, we have pursued a number of lines of enquiry, and in the spring of this year, St Helens suggested that we contact St. Helens Chamber, an organisation dedicated to the support and encouragement of new enterprise and business within St Helens. We had also attended a number of presentations by the National Lottery, and in particular, the Heritage Lottery Fund, at which it had become apparent that not only did they have money available, but that this area was under-funded and they wished to support projects in this area during the current financial year.

We subsequently made contact with St. Helens Chamber and with significant help and support from their staff, and from external consultants produced the substance of a Business Plan, which would ultimately form the basis of an application to the Heritage lottery fund. They were also in the process of supporting and promoting a number of social projects within St Helens we were encouraged in being accepted to participate in that process, but unfortunately did not make it to the second stage.

However, the support from the Chamber is continuing. At the present time we are formulating an application to the Heritage Lottery for a grant to carry out a feasibility study into the concept of our project, and to produce the architectural plans from which we can obtain quotations to make a formal application for funding for the permanent building, for an improved and updated display and for the IT infrastructure which we believe is necessary for the future of the exhibition. This is neither an easy nor a quick process, and it is likely to be well into next year before we can think of being in a position to proceed with the feasibility study and to produce proper plans for the new building.

(P .S. This is this year's big news - Chris has worked tirelessly at it, given up holidays & spare time and with some input from Derek, Keith & Margaret has made enormous progress after our years of frustration - thank you, Chris! - Ed.)

CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! DON'T FORGET OUR GREAT

SELECTION OF SOUVENIRS AND BOOKS ALL ON SALE AT THE LIBRARY, VERY REASONABLY

PRICED!

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Produced by Derek Houghton and Keith Naylor December 2002