CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

I am told on good authority that summer is here, well I can only hope that when you read this it is.  The one thing that is certain is that time passes so quickly these day that you have little time to turn around.

Since the last Newsletter not a lot has happened on any front, perhaps the election has had something to do with it, or perhaps the reorganisation of the Pensioner representation (now called the J.P.C.) to include the Marconi (2000 group) and the Royal Ordinance pensioner representatives. One change that I do not like is the title of the committee has changed from a consultative group to the Joint Pension Committee.

In my opinion the company did not do a lot of consulting from the start, I trust that dropping the consultative title does not mean that they will do less in the future, your representatives have been able to persuade the company to make a small number of improvements, like to notify them on the death of a pensioner, and to make improvements to the letters that are sent out to relatives.

The addition of the Marconi group may make for some improvement, as the representatives we meet at the Area 8 meeting seem to be on the ball; in fact one is to be chairman of the committee next year.

The RMSA AGM was held in March 2005 and the normal business was conducted, but at the end of official business we were treated to an illustrated talk on the 380 aircraft by Rob Bray, it was very successful, details are contained elsewhere in this newsletter, the arrangements were facilitated by Ian Gray and his secretary Barbara Ward. With Ian being so busy with the 380 and now the 350 we have not been able to fix a date for what we hope will be an annual talk with him, to bring us up to speed with the activities of Airbus. I have no doubt that when things calm down a little, arrangements can be made.

On the local front the Day-out to Llancaiach Fawr Manor and the Cwm Carn Forest was a huge success, trust me to miss that one! It inspired one of our members to relinquish his retirement and consider treading the boards, just joking Bill. I understand that the problem with BAWA and car parking will be resolved when David makes the arrangements for the Lynton/Lynmouth trip in July; we do rely on David for these little things in life. The trip is well supported so we look forward to another success.  The Short-break to Llandudno in October is less well supported, perhaps our members are trying to tell us something, but my experience is that all who take part really enjoy themselves, and consider it well worth while. The hotel is from the same chain of hotels as last year and that was OK, a good swimming pool and by the way the food was good as well. If you are thinking you might like to join in, have a talk with David, and obtain all the details, hope to see some new faces there, as well as the regular ones.

In response to the committee asking many times for some members to come forward to share in the committee work, we have at last received a positive response from David Curtis, He attended the May committee meeting and he has been co-opted for the remainder of this year, if he can stand the pace he will be up for voting on the committee at the 2006 AGM. Thank you David we would still like to hear from other members interested in this varied and interesting and rewarding work.

Frank Webb

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