In the committee meeting yesterday we discussed how we can help people to promote events they are putting on.

We’ve decided to set the club night on the first Wednesday in every month as New Bulletin Night – when we make a point of looking at and
chatting about the events in the new bulletin.  As well as a normal social night, it’s a chance to find out more about the events that are
on in the month and to see which catch your interest; so come along and get involved.

If you’re putting an event on, do try to come along to promote your event.  It’s a chance to sell your event and encourage lots of people
to come along – and we all know that the best way to get people to come on your events is to tell people about them!  Don’t worry -
there’s no need to stand up and make a speech (unless you really want to…), just come along and chat about what you’re planning over a drink.

We on the committee will also be there to promote things, so if you’re putting on an event and you think you can give us useful information, let us know at the events address.  If it’s your first event we’ll be happy to give additional support if you’d like.  And if you can’t make that evening then let us know and we’ll tell people about your event – though of course it’s always better if you can do it yourself, because you know your event best (and we might have lots of other events to promote!)

Obviously, every club night is a chance to talk about events – and if you’re putting on an event, you might well want to keep on telling
people about it at other times as well!  But often this doesn’t happen at all, so we’re making this a chance for us all to get together;
those who might be interested in going on events know that people will be there to talk about them, and people who are putting on events know that it’s their chance to promote them.

So, the first New Bulletin Night is next week – the first of September, in the usual venue.  Come along and tell people about your
event, find out about events that month, and just meet up and have a drink!

A

When I realised that I’d scheduled my Parkgate stroll on the same afternoon as England’s first world cup game, I thought I might be strolling alone! However, the sun shone, as requested, and there was a great turnout so thank you to everyone who came along- it would have been very dull on my own! We started with the obligatory Parkgate ice cream (well, it would be silly not to!) and very nice it was too, before heading off along the front past the Boathouse and eventually joining the Wirral Way. The Harp Inn provided a welcome spot for rest and refreshment en route, with lovely views out across the Dee estuary before making our way back through the reed beds to Parkgate. Having well and truly walked off the ice cream by the time we returned to the car, a curry at Connah’s Quay finished the evening off nicely, and I think the curry house was very glad to have our custom on what looked like a very slow night for them! Hopefully they weren’t planning on sitting and watching the football either…

On Friday a few members went to see The Penguin Cafe at the Town hall for their excellent performance. It was great, you should have been there! This was the first event this month and at this rate it should be good:

Members also yesterday went to see the BIG SING as part of the Chestival and saw the Rhino’s starting to appear:

Later in the month some of the members will be going to the Spitting Feathers Beer Festival in Waverton so we might see you there:

If this sounds like your kind of social life, you’re over 21, live near Chester and want to meet more people who like to get out them call us and come and see what we do.

We’ve got an exciting bulletin this month, with lots of fascinating looking events on throughout the month. I’m almost wishing I wasn’t on holiday for some of the earlier events… I’ll look forward to hearing about them when I get back. Unfortunately we don’t currently have anything planned for the weekend of the 24-25 July, so if anyone wants to put on an impromptu pub trip, meal, walk or similar, let the events officer know. And even though it’s a whole month until the August bulletin comes out, now’s the time to start thinking of August events, so we can get an even better programme next month.

Don’t forget our two trips away in the next couple of months, to the camping barn in the Forest of Bowland and to Rhoscolyn on Anglesey. I hear that Rhoscolyn is filling up fast, but I’m sure you can still get on either of them. I’m looking forward to exploring the Forest of Bowland some more; in fact, put my name down will you? (Can I get away with booking my place in the front page of the bulletin? Course I can; you have to have some perks as Chairman!)

Enjoy the July events, and see you soon.

Having been tipped off by a colleague that the weekend was going to be a scorcher he popped into Argos on the way home and became the proud owner of a shiny half barrel.  A couple of e-mails and texts to the rest of the members and the next day a dozen of us we were all more than happy to help him christen it in the glorious sun the next day!

Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you in the garden soon…

-- x --

Find us in the paper this week:

Do you want to make new friends in the area? Why not check out IVC? . This week members walked at Parkgate and enjoyed an ice cream and a curry and also at Halkyn with a pint at The Bluebell. Why not check out the web site and come along. Members suggest a huge range of activities. IVC is free for the first few weeks and only makes a nominal charge for membership.www.cnw-ivc.org.uk or call (07843) 766 434

Cheshire and North Wales IVC is a friendly, non-profit making, activity and social group, for professionals and graduates aged between 21-45. Come and join us. We would enjoy meeting you.
Check out the programme for news and group information contact

Being one of the hottest days of the year so far, we also managed to squeeze in a welcome drink in a nearby beer garden and make the most of the sunshine, so a big thank you to the chair for a great trip!

As May draws to an end and summer approaches, it’s time for me to write my first message as your new Chairman. I’d like to start by thanking all the new committee members for volunteering to help the club, as well as the existing committee members who have stayed on in their roles. I’d also like to welcome C onto the committee, who has stepped into the Events Secretary role.

From everything I’ve heard, everyone had a great time away at Derwentwater with J. Not only did she manage to arrange the hostel and some great activities, but even made sure that the weather was warm and sunny; congratulations!

Speaking of the rest of the summer, we’ve got two big events to look forward to. We have booked a camping barn in early August in the Forest of Bowland, which I’m really looking forward to – it’s a beautiful part of the country that’s often passed by. It’s only £20 for the weekend, and I’m sure there will be lots of chances to go walking, explore pretty villages, and have evening barbeques and trips to the pub.

And as I’m sure you’re all aware, in September we are repeating our very successful trip to Rhoscolyn. Given the fantastic time everyone had last year, I guess the only thing to say for both of these is “book your places before they’re all gone!”

We’re experimenting with some changes to the bulletin, as you can see; if you have any comments, let us know!

And finally, just a quick reminder; if you haven’t paid your subs yet, please send them in! It’s £17 (now that May will be gone today ~ hopefully giving way to a very sunny June) and you can give them to any committee member, or send cheques (payable to Cheshire and North Wales IVC) to us.

Best wishes for June,

Thirty people spent a brilliant weekend at Derwentwater Youth Hostel. On Saturday we walked up past the waterfall along the river to Watendlath. The local farm provided tea and scones then we climbed across the fells into Borrowdale and bought lunch at the pub in Rosthwaite. The next challenge was the steep climb to the top of Castle Crag then along the river path to Grange. The last section of the 10 mile walk was across the marsh path at the bottom of the Lake.

Sunday was spent cruising round Derwentwater on an open launch in the sunshine. We stopped off to walk on the far side of the Lake and later to listen to the free jazz festival in Keswick. We enjoyed a last walk on the fells above Rydal Water before driving back to reality.

We won these chocolates for having one of the three best IVC websites (as judged by the outgoing publicity officer) which we will give to the member who last year built this site for us (thanks again GW).

We also won two other prizes (in uncontested categories ):

I walked away with a bottle of Vodka for coming up with the winning mission statement of ‘The Spirit of IVC to to get out, make new friends and to have fun’.

We also won a small box of chocolates for the ‘Best Free Publicity’ so thanks to The Standard for that. Thanks to the other IVC’s too for not entering which I’m sure greatly increased our chances of winning

The weekend was good (there are some photos in the member’s area) and we came away with a few ideas that might help us to retain newly attracted members and to attract more. We sat through a fair amount of silly politicing from some clubs who should have left their dirty laundry at home and learnt that most have trouble getting members to put on events. In one club the membership fee doubles if you don’t put on at least two events a year: maybe we should try that

Spring in the Gardens

On the Saturday afternoon we went for a very nice walk down to the sea and on Sunday went to Tyntesfield which we liked. Saturday night’s 60s night was fun too so a big thanks again to out hosts Bristol and Bath IVC.

Don’t forget that next week is our AGM! (Free drinks! 8pm prompt)

We met at 11 and after an hour waiting for various stragglers to find us set off from the village (starting next to the pub: it was a circular walk (can you see where I’m going with this?)) and through fields of lambs to the first hill. It was lovely so we stopped a few times and decided to go to the top of Moel Fammau for lunch. We rested again there and had our lunches before strolling along the ridge to look across at Moel Arthur. As it was so nice we walked up that hill too and on reaching the village again stopped at the pub.

Hope to see you soon at a future event, we’ll be in Llangollen next weekend and our next weekend away is Derwentwater in May.

William (p.s. there are more photos in the member’s area)

The walk we did was:
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/wps/wcm/connect/9552d500495452de8b10ef71e225a0af/Rural_walks_22_moel_arthur_cilcain.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

from a book of walks which can be downloaded for free from:
http://www.flintshire.gov.uk/wps/portal/english/services?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/web+content/flintshire/english/services/100006/200029/countryside+-+rural+walks

Our start point:

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