The Semaphore Circular No 653 the Beating Heart of the RNA September 2015
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The Semaphore Circular No 653 The Beating Heart of the RNA September 2015 HMS M33 all spruced up and awaiting her public.... HMS 33 is a M29 –class monitor and she was built in 1915. She saw active service in Gallipoli and in Russia in 1919. She opened to visitors on 6 August 2015 and is one of three remaining RN Warships which served during the First World War. RNA members are reminded that hard-copies of the Circular are distributed to each branch via their Secretary, but “silver-surfers” can download their own copy from the RNA website at www.royal-naval-association.co.uk .(See below) 1 Daily Orders 1. Biennial Parade Update 2. More Biennial Stuff 3. Field of Remberance 4. Remberance Sunday 5. Annual St Pauls Seafarers Service 6. 2016 Welfare Seminar Update 7. Guess Where? 8. Joke – Another Premium Blonde 9. Finance Corner 10. Donations received 11. RN VC Series – Petty Officer Edward Sephton 12. Joke –One heck of a day 13. His and Her Calendar 14. HMS Illustrious Memorial Service 15. WRNS 100th Anniversary 16. Request for Volunteers in Cumbria 17. Joke – Church Issue 18. Unashamedly Shep Woolley 19. CONA Admin Support 20. Joke – Complete or Finished? 21. Order Forms for Diaries, Crimbo Cards and His & Her Calenders 22. Java Far East Prisoners of War Club (FEPOW) 23. Can you assist – Family of the late S/m Fred Bishop Longcast “D’ye hear there” (Branch news) Ship’s Office Swinging the Lamp For the Branch Secretary and notice-board Glossary of terms NCM National Council Member NC National Council AMC Association Management Committee FAC Finance Administration Committee NCh National Chairman NVCh National Vice Chairman NP National President DNP Deputy National President GS General Secretary DGS Deputy General Secretary AGS Assistant General Secretary CONA Conference of Naval Associations IMC International Maritime Confederation NSM Naval Service Memorial Throughout indicates a new or substantially changed entry Contacts: 2 Financial Controller 023 9272 3823 [email protected] FAX 023 9272 3371 Assistant General Secretary (Membership & Slops) 023 9272 3747 [email protected] Deputy General Secretary 023 9272 0782 [email protected] Shipmates Administrator 023 9272 0782 [email protected] General Secretary 023 9272 2983 [email protected] Admin 023 92 72 3747 [email protected] Find Semaphore Circular On-line ; http://www.royal-naval-association.co.uk/members/downloads or... RNA Website – Members Area – Downloads – Circulars – Code (Shipmate) RNA HQ Staff continue to attempt to build a library of e-mail addresses within the Association. It would be extremely helpful if those Branch Secretaries able to communicate by e-mail would forward a short e-message to HQ to [email protected] Snail Trail Mail - Postal Address RNA HQ, Room 209, PP70, Semaphore Tower, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth Hants PO1 3LT 3 Dear Shipmates, Welcome to the September Circular, I hope you are enjoying the Force 10 storms that have been rocking Semaphore Tower to its foundations this week! We are in the period of main HQ staff leave, which does mean that your favourite staff member may not be available – I am grateful for your patience, we do our best to ensure that we keep business running. Some good news to start with, a review of our costs means that we will not have to charge for HQ Open Days in 2016 after all. I’ll plan the days over the next few weeks and put them into the Circular – book early since the places go like hot cakes! A point of clarification that I didn’t make too clear last edition (apologies), The National Council is trying to go to all e-mailed Circulars after March next year and our wonderful National Council Members have been gathering branch secretary or branch contact e-mail details. You will be delighted to hear that we have about 90% e-mail coverage from branches. We will go into a period of parallel running with hard copy and electronic until the March edition 2016. We have started with the e-distribution of the Conference minutes today. If the distribution is satisfactory over this period we will then stop the hard copy for our electronic branches. Each Circular costs about £1,000 to print (depending on length) and £450 to post (depending on other things in the envelope) times 10 or 11 Circulars a year adds up to a lot of money and trees. All electronic communications is not only cheaper, but should be more efficient and quicker. I hope to use our new system to let you know all sorts of important news that might be of interest, such as the change in the payment arrangements of War Pensions, sent today. If you haven’t got an e-mail contact then we will put interim arrangements in place to ensure that you get the Circular in hard copy. We will work with those branches (and their Area officers in the first instance) to see what can be done to help them go on-line either with our volunteer branch support officer, or the recently appointed CONA support worker (we get some of her time for free). I also appreciate that some of you might be worried about the cost of printing the Circular for your branch. The best option is to send it to your own branch members electronically, or only print out the parts that you need. The Circular is always on the website first and your members can also get it themselves. That said, if printing costs are a concern for your branch, give me a shout and we will look to give support from the Club and Branch support fund, it’s what it’s for. Your NCM can give you advice. Just a small point of clarification, the membership cards that need to be replaced are the old ones with the Chelsea Manor Street address. This is the right, modern and acceptable card. Please let your members know, Nigel is pulling his hair out with calls and I have to keep buying him pints because I didn’t make it clear enough (sorry). I hope that you are all girding your loins (whatever that means) for the Biennial Parade on Sunday 6 September and I am looking forward to seeing many old friends there. Security will be a bit higher this year, the main effect being that all vehicles must park on Whitehall Place and not on the Embankment. This is a sensible security move for your safety, so please co-operate. We will have the Fleet Commander; Minister (AF) Penny Mordaunt; Minister Mark Francois; the Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee; and our own Chaplain of the Fleet. We have a Sea Cadet Band and Sea Cadet helpers. Coffee and toilets before at the Civil Service Club and drinking and singing there 4 afterwards. The Irish Naval Association will be there and our Belgian friends and a great turn out expected from sister associations, especially the Type 42 association and the Ganges association. Please come and make it a day to remember, we will need a good tenor line-up to beat the Irish Naval Association in singing! A reminder about the branch insurance scheme which provides great 3rd party, public liability cover and also cover for cash. Marvellous value, and the link on the website is easy to follow. The personal insurance from Ansvar is popular with encouraging numbers of sign-ups. Very good value and a great way of leveraging your RNA membership (which shows you are a better risk than the General population). Also don’t forget the great discount on RAC membership through our friends at ARNO that could save you hundreds on your breakdown cover in UK and Europe. These are all direct benefits of your RNA membership and are included on our new benefits page which is in the Circ and on the website – with helpful links to get you there! The latest benefit for branch officials or those thinking of taking on the job is the new, free admin help provided by CONA, see article 19 for details. In terms of longer distance planning, the deadline for branch motions is 19 February 16, so now is a good time to be chatting over ideas you may have. A good idea to submit early so the Standing Orders Committee can work with you to get your motion into good shape so it can be accepted for Conference. Sometimes motions are good ideas that can be adopted without waiting for Conference too. Also a good idea to be looking to book for Conference 2016 at Reading. It is a little more expensive than the Britannia hotels we have used recently, but a very nice hotel in a parkland setting which I am sure will be popular. I hope to hear from the Privy Council in September that our Conference motions have been approved by Her Majesty, which will affect the voting rights of those Associate Members who have been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation. So, not yet there, but should be soon. Due to leave there won’t be a Circular for October, but we will probably send a quick admin update through the branch secretary e-mail system. Yours in comradeship Paul Andy and Chrissie at Conference Paul NSM on 16 August, showing the shadow ship very clearly 5 Chairman’s Chat - September 2015 Well, Shipmates, the summer is nearly over, we won the Ashes in a real humdinger of a series, and are doing well at the Athletics World Championships. Having turned 70 now I can no longer pursue my active love of rugby, cricket and hockey but can, as I have always done, delight in the exploits of others.