After a little hiatus we are holding another online social event on Wednesday October 14th.

Our first Zoomy Coffee meetup was a very pleasant affair with a wide variety of topics over the 90 minutes and quite a few attending from across the country. It has always been our intention to hold another, but, you know, life..

But with the traditional British weather returning and mornings being a bit dull at times let’s get together and have a chat.

What about? Well this is a very informal affair with no fixed agenda, we had enough of those at work! We have a few topics in mind to keep the convo moving but we would love you to bring your own. Travel and holidays, work adventures, hobbies, favourite TV programs, jokes, a musical interlude if you play, anything other than politics and religion. We get enough of that on the news and in the papers! (If you still read those..)

So put this date in your diary and the time 11am to around 12.30, bring a tea, coffee or something a bit stronger (if it’s not too early for that) and join some colleagues for a catch up and a chat.

A Zoom link will be sent out the day before. No need to register in advance.

Colleagues & Friends,

 As promised, I have once again booked the Sovereign room at the RAF Club, 128 Piccadilly, London W1J 7PY for what has become our annual reunion luncheon, long may it continue!

On this occasion (despite inflation) I have been able to achieve only a small increased cost, £66 per person, which includes room hire and an allocation for gratuities.

The RAF Club is full of pictures and historical artifacts and is interesting to visit in its own right.

The format for the day will be the same as for previous occasions:

12:00 Midday – Drinks in the Churchill Bar

13:30 Sit down lunch – Sovereign Room

Close of Bar 16:00

Lunch Menu by popular demand is:

• Pea Velouté with mint crème fraiche (v)
• Steak, mushroom and ale pie served with creamed mashed potatoes and a selection of vegetables 
• Sherry Trifle or Fresh fruit salad with cream 
• Coffee and petit fours 
• A Vegetarian option is also available

Confirming the cost will be £66 per person 

 I know my invite list is never complete so can I ask all attending if you are in touch with ex colleague who you think I might have overlooked or who might be unaware of our lunch please do extend this invitation to them.  As you might guess keeping our numbers up is critical.

Please contact Rod on rodpesch@aol.com and he will send you booking and payment instructions

Around 60 people attended the event at the wonderful RAF Club in Piccadilly just a few steps from Hyde Park Corner and Green Park tube stations.

Although fewer than in previous years, there were representatives from all parts of the Chevron and Texaco companies, including Marketing, Comptrollers, Upstream, ITD and Texaco Tankships.

We convivial re-connections were made in the RAF Trafalgar Bar beforehand surrounded by portraits of illustrious air force leaders of the major conflicts of the last century and a very satisfying lunch in the similarly decked dining room.

A few continued the imbibing in the Rose & Crown just around the corner after the dinner ended at 4.30.

Neil Jones, CUKPA Vice Chair, took the opportunity to quickly brief the attendees on the activities of the Association and we have picked up a few new members since.

We wish to thank Rod ans Sue Pesch for their stalwart efforts in the organisation and they confirm that they will be organising another for next year.

You can be put on their email list by contacting Rod on rodpesch@aol.com.

If you would like to organise a meal for your area I am sure Rod would be pleased to give some advice.

Or if you did organise or attend a local lunch do let us know via the Contact Page

To be held at “The Medical Society of London”
Lettsom House
11 Chandos Street
LONDON
W1G 9EB (See map below)

Tuesday 1st October 2024 11.00am

Also over Zoom. The link will be emailed to registered members the day before. Maximum 100 attendees

AGENDA

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
2. MINUTES OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON 12 SEPTEMBER 2023
3. CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW OF 2023/24 ACTIVITIES
4. REVIEW OF ACCOUNTS AND TREASURER’S REPORT
5a. MEMBERSHIP REPORT
5b WEBSITE REPORT AND FUTURE PLANS
6a. ELECTION OF NEW COMMITTEE MEMBER
6b. RE-ELECTION OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
7.ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Proposed resolutions to update The Constitution, as previously notified:

Changes/additions shown in bold.

i. Item 4a. An Annual General Meeting (AGM) shall be held not
earlier than 1 July and not later than 15 December each year.

ii. Item 4c. General Meetings will be held in person with provision for online attendance. (new item)

iii. Existing Item 4c becomes 4d

iv. Item 5. QUORUM – At any General Meeting the Quorum shall be seven (7) members present, attending either in person or online.

v. Item 7. COMMITTEE PROCEDURES The financial year is 1July to 30 June the following year.

June 14th 11am was our first online social event!

We had interest from 18 members with 11 members attending at the peak from Cornwall to Aberdeen and Liverpool to South East England and a few in between. A modest but comfortable start to an event we hope will increase in popularity as word gets around.

A couple of people did have some difficulties connecting and we will get in touch to see if we can resolve those for future meetings.

Past roles included managing North Sea oil platforms and meeting again a maintenance technician from the same platform over 40 years later. Engineering, Marketing, IT and Refinery personnel were also represented.

A few retirement interests included kayaking, 17ft steam boats, model railways, touring by motor bike and volunteering as signalman and station master on heritage steam railways. Fencing (the sport…), and touring in mobile homes. Some were fully engaged with the community being local councilors and chairs on the committees of various charitable and local bodies.

There was even advice about dating at the age of 90 having lost their life partner!

An item of common interest was the cost of insurance for travel (rather high) and motor cars with NFU Mutual being regarded as a helpful and economic provider, unless you live in certain areas of Suffolk!

Together with offers of assistance to people at home, with suitable DBS clearance, there were other interesting suggestions that the Committee will take up with the company and consider in future.

All in all it was a productive and pleasant couple of hours and it was agreed to hold another in early Autumn.

If you are interested look out for our email with information about that nearer the time.

In that respect we are aware of our emails going to spam folders despite using all the advice to avoid this. To help avoid this do please add our email address to your contacts to minimise this problem. the address can be found in any recent email from CUKPA.

If you haven’t used Zoom before or had some issues installing it we have some help pages under the Resources section, we recommend the videos, and we are happy to assist if you send a message via our contact form. If you have any teenagers or grandchildren in the family I am sure they will be helpful, too!

Until next time.