Committee Meeting - 28th April 2023
This time of the year sees us gearing up for our signature activities, beginning with the Anniversary Walk (which will by now have taken place on 30 April). Next on the agenda will be preparations for hanging our medieval banners in the streets of Tewkesbury. Work on refurbishment and replacement is nearing completion, and attention is turning to the poles –an essential element in ensuring a swift process when it comes to hanging them on Sunday 11 June. Putting the banners up is an activity for which we are always looking for additionalvolunteers – no specialist skills are required, just an ability to shin up a ladder or help carry ladders and banners through the streets. This year, we are introducing a new policy to try to keep the whole project manageable, as there is increasing demand for banners in areas that are not easy to get a ladder to without specialist transport. Details will appear on our website and Facebook page soon, but our aim is to allow all that want to be able to participate, without creating a task that, as a small team of volunteers, we simply couldn’t deliver on. For this year, we’ve also acquired a card reader so those coming along to book their banners on 12 and 13 May will find it much easier to pay.
Soon after that will come the Medieval Festival on 8 and 9 July. The Festival itself is organized by our counterparts in the Festival committee, but the Society traditionally sponsors the Exhibition Tent where other battlefield charities and non-profit organizations can meet to lay on displays, alongside the magnificent exhibition of art by Graham Turner. This year, we’re extending the Tent slightly to create a little more space, and we already have a varied line-up of exhibitors keen to attend.
We recently attended a conference for battlefield societies organized by our umbrella charity, the Battlefields Trust. This provided an excellent opportunity to share our experiences of protecting and promoting battlefields across the UK. There were in depth sessions on membership models, fundraising, governance and outreach, and we came away with some good ideas, as well as the confidence that we have steadily been adapting and evolving to meet our own particular circumstances.
The start of the year marks the build up to our Anniversary walk, brought forward this year to 30 April this year to avoid a clash with the Coronation. Our monthly walks, with occasional additions to cater for one-off groups, continue to be popular. The Coronation has also meant that we’ve had to postpone our proposed conference again, and we are now exploring combining the event with the conference for fellow societies being hosted by the Battlefields Trust.
We look forward to seeing our members over the Summer’s events, and maybe attracting a few new ones to join us. It’s free to join, so why not come on board?