Excalibur to move to two meetings each month

Hi all…it seems like ages! And indeed it has been. What with a trip to the Toastmasters World Convention in August and a short break when our last meeting was on, I have missed my Excalibur fix for the last two meetings. I fully expect to see you at the next few meetings!

Your committee has, however, been hard at work in the background. Indeed, at the end of August, our committee meeting lasted over 3 hours! There were lots of exciting ideas for us to pursue this coming year. Today I would like to focus on the biggest item from that meeting.

Excalibur is moving to two meetings a month

We have decided, due the continuing success of the club, that we will be moving to two meetings a month as of October. We will continue to meet on the second Wednesday of the month but will also now meet on the fourth Wednesday too. Accordingly, meeting dates for the rest of the year are:

Oct 14^th

Oct 28^th

Nov 11^th

Nov 25^th

Dec 9^th

Please add the extra dates to your diary! You now have more opportunities to enjoy your Excalibur experience! Our VPE, Karthik, will add the extra meetings to our booking system shortly.

Why are we doing this?

With new members continuing to join, our current membership stands above 35 people. With one meeting a month, some longer speeches, and with hosting contests twice a year, this leaves just over one speech slot per year per member for a manual speech. We expect further membership growth over the course of this year so it feels the right time to make this move.

While some of you may still wish to continue to come to only one meeting a month, this will give you extra flexibility.

Dues will need to increase to cover extra venue costs

Moving to two meetings a month adds £70 per month to our venue costs (plus small costs for other items). To cover these, we will need to increase 6 monthly dues from the current £42 to £57. On a per meeting basis, the cost of being an Excalibur member falls from £7 to £4.75. I hope you agree this is excellent value!

6 monthly dues notices will be forthcoming shortly with further details. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to drop me a message.

Your President, Freddie