14 March 2001
To the Members of the W-D XXI Club
Dear Fellow Member of the W-D XXI Club
Life has changed so much since the founding of the W-D XXI Club that I write to suggest changes that might give it a new life and purpose.
These major changes are:
The spirit of W-D and its Babcock successors, understandably, does not live on in the AMEC company which continues in Crawley. AMEC has its own long-serving employees club and no longer supports the W-D XXI Club with the customary "State of the Company" address by the Chief Executive or the provision of the dinner wine as a token of thanks for past loyalties.
The number of working members and working potential members is now greatly outweighed by the pensioner members.
The Pensioners are arguably those with the time and energy to keep the social side of the Club going and many are now more computer literate in retirement with e-mail, word-processing and web-site skills than they were when they were working!
Two groups already meet on first Wednesdays of the month at local hostelries and there are many who did not spend 21 years with the company but who still value friendships built in their W-DlBabcock days.
In the past, the potential for leakage of commercial confidentialities to old colleagues working for competitors was perceived as a potential threat and was the unwritten background to some of the provisions of the Constitution of the Club. This no longer applies.
Chris Openshaw has chaired the Club for almost four years since I retired and looks to hand over to a new Chairman, who could and possibly should be a retired member.
I would argue that the company that exists no longer values the long-term loyalties of the past, and that the 21 year rule should be abandoned and replaced by an over-riding social objective to make the Club a framework for keeping up old W-D/Babcock friendships and dissemination of news to colleagues.
I further suggest that the Club should make the following responses to this changing world:
Abandon the old 21 Year's Service rule for entry and invite anybody who worked for W-D or its Babcock successors and is interested in retaining links with old colleagues to join. There would be no joining fee. The Club has a little over £600 and this should cover any foreseen expenses for some time and it would be possible to make a modest margin of, say, £1 a ticket for Dinners if funds need to be replenished in the future.
MEMBERSHIP would consist of providing contact details for the Mailing List with e-mail numbers. Terry Harper has agreed to set up a W-D XXI Club Web-site with a mechanism where members can dial in and post news of colleagues including Births, Deaths and Marriages, although Births would not be expected to be a strong feature!
EVENTS The suggested objective should be to arrange two events per year:
A Dinner in the first two weeks of April with spouses invited. Ticket event.
A lunchtime meeting probably in a separate room at a Crawley hotel or Sports and Social club, on the fourth Wednesday of September for working and retired members. A roll-up non- ticket beer and bar meal or sandwich event.
Both events to be held in Crawley.
SUGGESTED STAGES TO IMPLEMENT PROPOSED CHANGES
The Club has, you may be surprised to learn (!), a written Constitution, and it is not imagined that implementing changes will be unanimously agreed. Although when such changes have been mentioned to the old colleagues with whom I am in touch, I have had nothing but agreement - and that includes the present Committee. It is important therefore that the changes are properly discussed and voted on by present XXI Club Members, so I suggest the following sequence of events:
Send your opinions/comments to me a.s.a.p., or at any time, copy to Club Chairman Chris Openshaw in the Crawley office for information.
Discuss the possibility of change at the next Dinner scheduled for 8 June at the Crawley Club.
The Committee will publish a proposed Revised Constitution by end July 2001.
That an Extraordinary General Meeting of all Members to be scheduled for 12 noon Thursday, 27 September, 2001 at a Crawley location at which the Revised Constitution will be put to the vote. I suggest that a simple majority of those Members attending the meeting should suffice but you may think postal votes should be allowed. New potential Members, without 21 years service, will be invited to attend but not yet have a vote and the meeting will then naturally develop into the First Annual Lunch-time Get-together.
A minimal essential Committee will need to be elected, I suggest, comprising:
Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, IT Guru, and maybe, Membership Secretary for the first year or so to put some impetus into finding and listing colleagues who might be interested in joining but have disappeared into the retirement woodwork.
All or any of the Committee posts could be held by retired Members but a Committee member or two still working would obviously be desirable. Who knows, the Company may wittingly, or otherwise, meet our postage costs!
I propose that, if the changes go through, the club should still be called the Woodall-Duckham XXI Club as a nod towards its historical origins (Nunc Dyble and all that to the old timers!)
The changes should give the Club a possible further twenty years of active (?) life. We must be optimistic!
Please feel free to call me or e-mail me with your comments (pro or con) and if you are in favour of the changes, contact and canvas any of your old company colleagues and friends with whom you are still in touch or come in to contact with, to sound out their interest in the New XXI Club.
Best wishes
John G Moor (I am the Pensioner Rep on the present W-D XXI Club Committee)
P.S. No sooner asked, than implemented. Terry has already set up the framework for a web-site. Something to build on.
http://www.wdclub.org.uk will get you there.
E-mail to: info@wdclub.org.uk Many thanks Terry.
WHEREAS the Woodall-Duckham XXI Club ('the Club') was formed originally as a means to
recognise long loyal service to the company and to form something to which employees would
aspire to qualify to join, successive take-overs and reorganisations over the years and in particular
the acquisition of the successor Babcock companies by AMEC, who have their own long-service
employees organisation, now make it sensible for the W-D XXI Club to adapt itself to the changing
circumstances in a positive manner.
It has therefore been agreed, in a Special General Meeting of Members that took place on 27th
September 2001, that the Club will become a pure social club to enable friendships between past
and present staff employees of Woodall-Duckham and it's successor Babcock companies to be
maintained, by providing a framework of opportunities to socialise and keep in contact, without any
specific long-service pre-qualification to participate.
The rules which follow are agreed to supersede the previous Constitution of the Club dated 4th April 1995
The Club will continue to be called the Woodall-Duckham XXI Club (or the W-D XXI Club)
as a permanent reminder of its origins. Membership of the Club will be open to all staff employees past and present of Woodall-
Duckham and its successor Babcock companies, including those employed by AMEC or other
companies, who wish to maintain their friendships and links with former colleagues. The activities of the Club will include a mid-week buffet stand-up lunch**
in March or April of each year, depending uupon when Easter falls, which
Members may attend with their partners and a mid-day event on the fourth Wednesday in
October* each year to which all Members are invited and which will commence with a brief
AGM, the principal purposes of which will be to elect the Committee and receive brief reports
from the Chairman and Treasurer. The affairs of the Club will be managed by a Committee comprising a Chairman, Treasurer,
Secretary, Web-site Organiser and three Members who will be elected at the annual General
Meeting of the Club. A minimum quorum for a Committee meeting will be the Chairman or
Treasurer and three Members of the Committee. Membership will be achieved by registering an interest in joining to any Committee Member
with the provision of up-to-date address, telephone number and e-mail address. The Web-site Organiser will set up and maintain a web-site under www.w-dxxiclub and will
co-ordinate with the Secretary and Chairman to ensure that a Register of Members is available
on the web-site together with a means for Members to post items of possible interest to
Members. There will be no joining fee or subscription unless at a later stage the Committee decides
otherwise. It is the intention that all organised events will be financially self-supporting and
that the Committee maintains a modest sum to be used for the payment for occasional services
deemed appropriate by the Committee. All funds and property of the Club shall be vested with
the Committee current for the time being. Any three Members wishing to make proposals or suggestions concerning the Club, its events
or Membership are invited to make written submissions at any time to the Secretary, who will
confer with the Committee to agree the course of action. The positive ideas of the Membership
are to be actively encouraged, including the development of informal events, smaller regional
meetings for Members who have settled elsewhere or any other ideas which will increase the
opportunities for Members to communicate. In the event of the Annual General Meeting of the Club deciding by simple majority that the
Membership is too small to justify continuance of the Club, the accumulated funds (if any) will
be disbursed in the proportions of fifty per cent to a recognised major National children's
charity and fifty percent to an International aid agency to be agreed by the Members.Revised Constitution of the Woodall-Duckham XXI Club
(* As amended by the AGM on 22nd September 2004)
(** As amended by the AGM on 26th October 2005)
Page created by Terry Harper
Last modified 22 October 2008