Letter to Members

                                                                                                January 2023

Dear Members

A very happy and healthy New Year to you all.  I hope you had a peaceful and happy Christmas – it seems such a long time ago now.  I am looking forward to seeing you all again at our next meeting on Tuesday January 24th when our speaker will be Michael Higginbottom talking about Victorian Cemeteries.  This is a topic I know absolutely nothing about, but I am reliably informed that it is ‘an appreciation of the Victorian attitude to death’ and that the cemeteries are some of the most evocative and moving examples of Victorian architecture, landscaping, statuary, and other monumental art, so it should be a very interesting afternoon.

Two pieces of news for you all.  Our Spring Lunch will take place on Tuesday March 14th in the Versailles Room.  So many of you said how much you enjoyed the intimacy of a smaller room, so we are in there again.  There will be a quiz and the menu is attached to this letter.  The price for 2 courses is £25 and for 3 courses it is £27 to include tea/coffee and petite fours.  Tennants need to have numbers by Friday March 3rd.  A booking form is also attached, and there will be a supply of printed menus and booking forms at our signing in desk at the next two meetings.

Jenny Howard-Vyse has been working very hard arranging some outings for us this year.  She still has details to confirm, but she is planning a trip to Harewood in June and another to Saltaire in the Autumn: for members only, so watch this space.

If our Society is to continue to prosper, we need to attract more new members. One of the successes of this year has been the increased number of guests attending our lectures, and we would like to convert these guests into members. In the past, we have offered membership at a reduced price to people joining part way through the year. However, our Society gains very little revenue from these “part-year joiners” because we still have to pay a £17 per head affiliation fee to our Head Office although they are members for only part of the year. Last year the revenue, net of the £17 affiliation fee, received by our Society from people joining from January onwards was less than we would have gained had each of them attended just one lecture as a paying guest.  

To address this issue, we are introducing an “Introductory Guest Pass”. This will entitle new joiners to attend the remaining lectures at a significantly discounted price, and receive the 10% Tennants’ Cafe and Bistro discount, with the aim of encouraging them to become full members next season. We are able to price this very attractively as these new joiners will still be classified as guests.  The pass will not be available to anyone who, in the past two years, has been a full member of our Society or has taken advantage of the Introductory Guest Pass.        

Please tell your friends about this new guest pass and encourage them to take advantage of its very attractive pricing and to come to our lectures for the balance of this season. 

I look forward to seeing you next week.

Best wishes

Susan