JOURNAL OF THE ARMY & NAVY CLUB 36 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5JN Issue No. 56 | February 2020 A WAR M WELCOME FROM THE CEO A warm welcome from 36 Pall Mall to all our Members and I hope everyone is looking forward to the start of the Roaring Twenties at The Rag. We may be only a few weeks into the New Year, but there is much that is already underway, or on the near horizon, as we get the Club and Clubhouse ready for the next decade. I am delighted to say work has already commenced to have been very low. The Club pays for the monthly replace the boilers and the promise of uninterrupted memberships and at present it is hard to justify doing hot water and heat to all parts of the building is this, such is the low patronage. In an attempt to make something to look forward to. All being well, everything it worthwhile, I have done away with the £10 per visit will be completed by mid-April. fee and made it FREE! Please do use it, or else we Those Members that use the Business Centre will will be forced to lose it. have noticed we have been busy in there too. The On page 6, you will find detail of the incoming new room has been re-configured to provide more work membership IT system that will revolutionise how space and new furniture provides both greater comfort Members can engage, access and pay at the Club. and flexibility. The desktops have been replaced with I am really excited by the system’s potential and see packages more akin to the times we live in and a new it as a great step forward for all. menu caters for those working lunch needs. It really Finally I am delighted to welcome some new, young is now a great space to host those informal business and exciting talent to the team. We have taken the requirements. decision to employ two University Graduates on gap The changes in some of the management team years to bolster the Event, Marketing and Membership has brought a focus to the Club doing its bit for the functions. Conducting the interviews has been a very environment and being more sustainable in what exciting process, as the energy, ideas and fresh we do. In replacing the boilers, we will make a big thinking on display is going to be great to have as improvement to our energy usage. However, there are part of the team. many more initiatives underway, the detail of which I look forward to seeing you at the Club in the near can be found on page 6. future and as always, please do let me know any It would seem Members have not made getting thoughts or comments. or staying fit one of their New Year’s resolutions as take up of the excellent facilities across the Square Robin An update from the Chairman In this edition of the Quarterly Newsletter I would like to take a slightly different perspective on the Club’s development. With Robin Bidgood now firmly in the driving and optimising our service. Currently we are seat as the CEO, the Board meetings have focussing on essential infrastructure repairs been reduced to one every quarter as with the replacement of the boilers and the well as a meeting immediately after the installation of an integrated management Annual General Meeting, this year on 8 information system, essential for a business July. The Finance & Audit Committee and such as ours. However, the lifts will not last for the Membership Committee continue to ever, the kitchen needs modernisation and have executive roles, but the remainder the standard of our bedrooms continues to of the Directors are now Non Executive in lag behind ever-rising expectations. support of the CEO. This has allowed the We all recognise the changing Board to move away from tactical fire-fighting demographics that we face. The wider which was the priority in 2018-19, towards military community is reducing but we wish Major General considering the strategic opportunities and to retain a military ethos. Our average age A P Grant Peterkin challenges that the Club faces in the next of member is 65 and we must continue the decade. drive to recruit younger members and people We have begun by looking at some of the who are willing to spend money in the Club. problems that we face and at its most recent There are opportunities to recruit members meeting the Board adopted a new Risk from those who work nearby, and particularly Management policy, which describes how to recruit more female members given that we shall manage risk across the business in many of our neighbouring Clubs do not allow accordance with established good practice. women to join on the same terms as men. The policy also allocates responsibilities for We have started the crucial next stage risk management at each level - strategic in the Club’s development with the CEO by the Board, operational by the CEO and and his executive team running the Club technical by the relevant managers - which and ensuring that we are trading profitably, will create clarity and accountability. The with full Board support. You will have many next step in the development process is differing views on what you want from the establishing the framework for the Club’s Club and how you believe new Members management, with the CEO focused on can be attracted. Hence the need for a operational factors in the first 3 years and comprehensive survey to which I hope you the Board on the longer term and strategic will all respond. Your views and aspirations issues. These improvements will allow the for the Club will be important for the Board to Board to fulfil its proper roles of direction hear in our efforts to deliver the way ahead and stewardship of the Club. for the RAG over the next decade. After the next AGM, by which time I expect our revenues to be increasing and when we Peter Grant Peterkin will have a Membership Secretary in place, Chairman I hope that we can once again survey the membership to ascertain what it is that you PS: Again looking ahead, the Club Dinner want from your Club. This should greatly help will be on Thursday 29 October. in prioritising our investment expenditure NEWSLETTER OF THE ARMY & NAVY CLUB CLUB ART COLLECTION NEWS DEPARTMENT UPDATE THE COLLECTION Conservation at The Rag is progressing well. In the last few weeks we have welcomed back to the Pall Mall Room our portrait of General Beresford in a much improved frame and with his paintwork expertly restored. In the Drawing Room ‘A Girl with Dove’ has been returned to the Club walls having been restored and with a new frame. Finally, some Members may remember the large painting of the Gunners, ‘Ubique’ by Charles Edward Major Skelton-Stroud and previous Librarian Stewart that was hanging for a time in Mary Duffy. the Smoking Room. Both painting and frame needed a lot of work which has There have been numerous changes in been completed with great success and Our portrait of General Beresford, mid- the department already this year. Firstly we look forward to displaying the work conservation, before its restored frame we sincerely thank Major Paul Skelton- more prominently in the future. was replaced Stroud for his contribution to the running of the Club’s art and library collections as he passes the baton onto Colonel Alan Roberts. The Major has spent many years supporting first Mary Duffy, then Jane Branfield and now myself. On behalf of the Club I would like to thank him very much for all his hard work and dedication to all aspects of the collection and for being such an ambassador for The Rag. As we embark on a new decade it was felt that the department name could do with a refresh, so it will now be called ‘Collections’, with my job title changing to ‘Collections Manager’. Alice Crossland A close up of ‘Ubique’ post-conservation BOOK SALE DONATIONS Finally, the next book sale will be on the 6th April. If Members have We have been very books they would like to donate, lucky to receive some either to the library or the sale, interesting donations please get in touch. We have of artworks, including now expanded our selection a portrait of General of military and non-military Montgomery which novels to three shelves, was presented to the so if you have any Chairman by William suitable donations for Bortrick, Chairman of this area they would be Burke’s Peerage and is gratefully received. now on display in the Ian Jacob Bar. You can contact me on [email protected] From left to right – Alice Crossland, Maj Gen Peter Grant Peterkin or on 020 7849 8304. (Club Chairman), William Bortrick and Club member Mark Ayre UPCOMING EVENTS The Events Office have released a busy and exciting programme of Members’ Events for the first part of the year. To book any of the following events, please contact the Events Office on0207 827 8079 or email [email protected]. Some of the events are ticketed with places at a premium, so do not delay and reserve your place promptly to avoid disappointment. In Conversation…with Jeremy Houghton RN Dinner: The Yangtze Incident Tuesday 17th March at 18.30 Friday 27th March 2020 at 18.00 The acclaimed artist Jeremy Following the success of last year’s Royal Naval Houghton is a man of many Dinner, join us again this year to honour the heroic homes.