Thursday 23rd October: Today I join a Programme Committee meeting at The Lord Nelson, back room, roaring fire, no one else, a good place to meet during the day. Robin, John Reid, Bob Lucas, Rob Wilkinson and Mike Crosland make up the quorum, and there is no hint of Robin's resignation the following day.

Shape of the Social Calendar is on the agenda, and I explain the basis of the framework. We also discuss and agree alternative venues to schedule business meetings, and I update on the visit to Rutland Plastics.

I lob a suggestion in that we might consider alternatives to Wednesday for some meetings which John immediately closes down. It gives me the opportunity to ask the committee to open their minds a little, as well as consult and involve outside the committee.

Given Robin's email, it's clear that apart from Bob Lucas, it's mostly down to him to get the programme together, negotiating with The Whipper in, sorting the menus out, how hard can it bloody be, might be OK if they actually wanted us there, unlike The Barn who would welcome us with open arms.

I'll paste in a bit of Robin's email here for future reference:

I refer to the Programme Committee meeting yesterday. Unfortunately the

discussion over your proposed “Shape of a Social Calendar” resulted in our

making little progress towards finalising the programme for the first half

of next year. I am very unhappy with the situation of having so many

unfilled gaps and consider that your guidelines are too prescriptive and

somewhat inflexible to implement. This difference of opinion and the lack of

a clear programme at this point in the year are not acceptable to me.

As President this year you appear to want to see a change in direction for

the Lions. You obviously consider that the Programme Committee is not

“open-minded, consult outside the committee, and shut down any new ideas

before giving them an airing”. I consider that to be a very unfair comment

on the work of our committee, which also involves liasing with the

Whipper-In to book dates and organising a menu.

So where to from here?

I visit Rutland Plastics and agree the timings and numbers with Steve Ayre, and he later confirms that he and his other director, Stuart Johnston will join us for the meal afterwards.