Newsletter No 31 – 12/2015

Autumn News from OSGUG

Patron of the Society

You may recall from our AGM that Sir William Kerr Fraser requested to be relieved of his role as Patron of OSGUG.  The AGM was whole-hearted in its thanks for Kerr’s support over many years.  We agreed to approach Sir Drummond Bone, the Master of Balliol College and a graduate of Glasgow University, to take on this role, and he has accepted.  We have asked him to host an OSGUG event, and we are planning a meeting at Balliol on Saturday 7th May 2016 when Drummond will give a talk and we will have lunch in the college dining room. Please put the date in your diary.

Burns Supper

We plan to hold a Burns Supper at Cosener’s House in Abingdon on Saturday 30th January 2016. We have booked Scottish harp player and singer Fraya Thomsen to entertain us. I think you will appreciate her.  The cost will be £35 each, as in previous years.  There are more details and a booking form at the end of the newsletter.  Alternatively you can try our new OSGUG on-line store http://osgug.org.uk/store. Click on Events and choose Burns Supper 2016.

OSGUG Website

Have a look at the OSGUG website: http://osgug.org.uk. If you have any pictures to share, or other comments please send them. One new feature is the ability to pay your subscription by credit card or PayPal. If you are paying by standing order then don’t change but if you normally send a cheque this will save you the postage and Alistair a trip to the bank. Follow the link on the menu on the left hand side to find the store: http://osgug.org.uk/store.

Meeting Up

In June we planned an event at Rewley House in Oxford. Unfortunately we did not attract enough people to make the event viable so we had to cancel. Instead some of those who had planned to attend met up for a pub lunch in Oxford. We all had an enjoyable time so we had the idea to have a new type of OSGUG meeting; one which is regular, monthly, informal, includes lunch and is during the week. So, the proposal is called Last Tuesday Club (LTC) and it will meet on the last Tuesday of most months.

The first meeting was organised by Alistair Mills in the Royal Oak in Woodstock Road, Oxford in November and advertised by email.

The second meeting will be organised by Margaret Stevenson on Tuesday 26th January 2016 at the Old Fisherman in Shabbington from 12 noon until 2 pm; I will organise one later.  You can book without cost for the Last Tuesday Club at the Osgug Store.

We hope that the participants in LTC will then take turns to host a meeting at a venue of their choice, which does not have to be a pub; it could be a café, their home, or a village hall; we leave you to invite us to interesting places! All that is required is a suitable venue. The committee will help the organiser, for example by adding information to the web site.

AGM

The 2016 Annual General Meeting of OSGUG is scheduled for Saturday 12th March. I am looking for a new venue for 2016. The service at The Vine in Cumnor was disappointing at the last AGM and for me it marred a good day. If you know of somewhere where we can meet and then have lunch, please get in touch. Preferably a place which will let us use a room for an hour in exchange for our custom but a small fee would not be unreasonable.

OSGUG Committee

While Margaret Stevenson, Alistair Mills and myself have kept OSGUG going for a few years, it would be good to have a few other people involved. Alistair has more than done his duty to OSGUG over many years and plans to stand down so we will be looking for a new treasurer and a new webmaster. It is no great commitment; the accounts are simple and as a committee we only meet about three times per year and mainly communicate by email and phone. Your ideas would be welcome. Get in touch if you would like to discuss.

John Gordon, President

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