Page 9 - QARANC Vol 14 No 7 2013

THE GAZETTE QARANC 7
must be completed before he can start on our website. These projects will not leave Mr Jones free to commit fully to the website project until the summer. However, this will give us sufficient time to determine how we want the website to work. 15. Although electronic means of communication is the preferred method for a lot of our members, we remain conscious that this is not necessarily available to all, and therefore we need to continue to promote the aims and activities of the Association by other means as well.
16. It was also felt that the Association should be actively promoted at events such as the DANS conference, HCA conference and activity’s such as MOBEX & HOSPEX with the TA as well as small advertisements in professional journals. 17. The review also highlighted what they perceived to be the main threats for the continued growth of the Association - namely the turbulence caused by operational tours, unit moves and professional demands as well as the perception by the younger, more junior members of the Corps of its applicability to themselves.
18. Terms of Reference - the review recommended that TORs be standardised - with local requirements added - and brought up to date. Following a request to the Branches to review and consolidate the TORs, it has become apparent that some Branches do not have TORs or if they do they cannot find them. RHQ is currently undertaking the production of revised TORs for the Branch Committee roles. In addition the TORs for the RHQ have been updated to reflect new working practices. 19. The Constitution was raised and discussed in AOB at last years AGM as it was felt to be outdated. The Constitution was not considered by the QARANC Review Working Party and the belief was that it may be costly to change it. The Treasurer has been asked to investigate to see how costly this would be ready for the Board of Trustees meeting in July. The current Constitution allows us to be flexible but requires robust Terms of Reference to support it.
Branch News
20. Each Branch is busy making arrangements for the coming year’s functions and RHQ are receiving positive feedbacks on what they are getting up to! Aldershot Branch are off to Windsor in Jun, Jurassic Coast are arranging a visit to Armed Forces Day in Plymouth and a Battlefield Tour to France in 2014.
All the hard work carried out by the Branch Committees and their supporters is greatly appreciated.
Membership
21. Membership continues to rise, with new members requesting to be affiliated to branches rather than RHQ.
22. The General Secretary writes to all Regular serving officers and soldiers who are due to leave the Army and invites them to join the Association. This is only partially successful but she considers it a worthwhile exercise.
The Gazette
23. Our problems with the production of the Gazette have continued – as I’m sure you are aware last year’s Autumn Edition of the Gazette was tackled by the General Secretary and I being ensconced in her home for 2 days. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of collating the magazine but there followed many difficulties with the publishers in getting the edition out to our members. We have therefore changed publishers again – hopefully for the last time!
24. We are very pleased to announce that we have a new Editor, Lt Col (Retd) Pat Gibson MBE. For her first edition (Spring Edition) she worked closely with the General Secretary
and they are pleased with the new look of the Gazette. There were a few initial problems mainly trying to understand how the new publishers work and we apologise for the Gazette arriving late on your doorstep. I am sure you will agree that the end product was worth the wait.
25. The majority of articles received were of various sports and adventurous training undertaken by units and individuals. Funding by the Association was made known in each article. No articles received by the editor were refused and the editor again stated that the Gazette is only as good as the articles received.
26. The Editor hopes to encourage readers to send in letters and hopefully submit a letters page for the next edition. Articles are always welcome although there has been no shortage recently. In particular we would like to encourage the submission of technical articles on professional topics. 27. We will also use the Gazette to advise our members of any vacancies that are upcoming on the Central Committee. If any of you are interested in serving on the committee, please watch out for these ‘calling notices’.
Chattels
28. Our Chattels member - Maj Chantel Whelan - has carried out a 100% check of the QARANC Chattels held in AMD. There were a number of items that required expert attention and these have been sent for repair to professional companies. In addition, the following Messes will be visited in early July to check our Chattels against the database; Catterick, Strensall, Fort Blockhouse and Aldershot. A report will be ready for the Chattels and Central Committee meeting on 12 Jul 13.
29. Units continue to borrow items for Regimental Dinners etc and as long as care is taken with them, this, it is hoped, will continue
NMA Plot
30. The Gen Sec, Treasurer and I were invited by the Chief Executive of the NMA to visit and discuss the future move of the QARANC plot due to forthcoming extensive building work. This work (with a £14 million cost) will transform the NMA. The CE along with the Curator Mr Paul Kennedy explained the reasons why our plot needed to be moved and suggested a possibility of where we might like to go – which we did not agree with. After a short discussion between the Chairman and the CE, we viewed 3 potential plots for our new site. It was then decided that we would move to the right of the Polish Memorial. Our plot will move in its entirety.
31. There is now a train that takes visitors around the NMA and it will pass close to our plot. Passengers will have the opportunity to disembark from the train and visit those memorials of interest. We are producing a notice board with a synopsis of our history so visitors can read information about the Corps whilst visiting the Arboretum. This information will also be available to be downloaded onto an App which will be attached to a post (which depicts our plot number), thereby allowing visitors to download the Corps history straight onto their mobile phone.
32. The 2 cast iron benches that we presently have, will be situated outside the new plot and it has been agreed by the Trustees that we purchase 4 new grey marble benches with the Corps crests (QARANC, QAIMNS, TADS and the Association) engraved in the centre of the bench in Red, thus promoting the Corps colours of Scarlet & Grey. Once everything is in place the Gen Sec will arrange for the memorial stone to be re-gilded.
Events
33. The Chester Branch are organising the next reunion for