The Master’s August / September Newsletter

After a busy and successful year, it’s a pleasure to finally have a moment to relax and reflect. The excitement of the Letter Patent and Summer Banquet is still fresh. Here are some photos from the much more relaxed BBQ last week. Thank you, Tee!

 

Final Events of the Year

Our next big event is the Autumn Jazz Dinner on September 18th. It’s a new experiment for us, with live music played throughout the evening. We're also relaxing the dress code—think Ronnie Scott's, not black tie—to encourage more mingling and conversation. Space is limited at this small venue, with only 40 seats left.

This will be my last major event before Alastair King’s Installation on November 24th. In the meantime, don't forget our other upcoming activities:

• Second Wednesday Drinks: September 10th
• New Freeman's Breakfast: October 1st
• Amy's Kent Walk and Mark's Blitz Walk
• The City Livery Sailing Challenge

For more details on these and other events, please visit the website.

We Want Your Feedback

We've had a truly remarkable year, with three major celebrations: our tenth anniversary, the Senior Warden becoming Lord Mayor, and the granting of Livery. We hope you've enjoyed our many events, and we want to ensure we're doing things you enjoy.

To get your input, we've created a short, anonymous, 3-question survey. Please take a moment to complete the survey here. Your feedback is crucial for our future planning.

Get Involved

Volunteer Your Time The adage "the more you put in, the more you take out" has certainly been my experience. We are always looking for more people to help out, whether with Education, Outreach, or another committee. Please let me know if you'd like to get more involved.

For those of you already volunteering, we are now recording our collective impact. Please use this form to record the time you volunteer on behalf of the Company, including time spent in meetings and on administrative work. This helps us track our total contribution and is an important way we keep costs down.

Contribute to the Magazine I’m currently catching up on some articles for this year's Magazine. If you have an article you’ve volunteered to write or something you’d like to submit, please contact Chris Simmance or Talan Skeels-Piggins on the Communications Committee. We also have some advertising pages available.

New Members The Summer Banquet has led to a large number of applications for Freemen. If you know someone who would be a great addition to the Company, please contact me or the Clerk. The Membership Committee would also appreciate new volunteers.

A big thank you to Kieron Garlick and Present for the excellent videos of the event, which you can see on the Company’s YouTube site.

Volunteering is one of the important ways we have been able to keep costs down. Even with this and the slowly increasing membership, our costs are rising. The Finance Committee is exploring how we can manage this but it is looking more than likely we will have to increase Quarterage this year. Something that we have avoided to do for a number of years and will be reporting back in September after our next meeting.

A Final Thought

I hope you’ve had a relaxing summer and feel refreshed for the opportunities and challenges of the autumn. I look forward to seeing you at the Second Wednesday Drinks and the Jazz evening.

Dare, Create, Succeed

Yours

James