ADAPT Monthly Meeting Minutes
2 September, 2017.
WELCOME FROM THE PRESIDENT.
Janet welcomed members back after the summer recess, everyone has been talking about the heat, and now, the main topic is the rain!
The Open day in June had been well attendeddespite being a very hot morning. She said that the venue was far better for this kind of event and thanked all those who had taken the time to visit and talk to the various group leaders.
Announcements.
The Conversation Group will restart on 23rd September 2017 not on the 16th September as previous stated.
The rambling group have a walk planned for next Saturday, September 9th, organised by Pauline Nichols and will be from El Mahon to Torre de la Horadada. Please contact Pauline if you are interested.
Knit and Natter will resume in October.
Menu del dia in September will be at Lilly’s in Torre de la Horadada on September 21, contact Terry if you wish to participate.
The Metal Detectors have continued meeting throughout the summer.
Carol Beech, our School Monitor’s Coordinator, is meeting with schools next week to plan timetables to start again in early October. Carol has five new volunteers to add to the group.
Two group leaders have stood down, Gale Haywood from the Carnival group and Geoff Bell from the Painting group. Janet presented both of them with a token of appreciation of theircontributions from the Association.Currently there are no replacements for Gale and Geoff and volunteers for these roles are very much needed, pleasecontact Janet if you are interested.
David and Pauline Blakey have also stepped down from leading the choir but Dennis Gill has agreed to take over the reins.
Dennis then addressed the meeting, thanking Pauline and David for their good work in keeping the choir going. David, the organist, has also returned to the UK so a new organist is required to enable the group to continue. The commitment is from late October to early December. New members for the choir are also very welcome.
The choir, which sings in unison, visitsestablishments across the region such as old people’s homes, AIDEMAR, and are very well received.
Anyone wishing to join the choir, or who can assist in finding an organist, please contact Dennis via the Adapt Secretary
AWALK DOWN MEMORY LANE.
Janet introduced Jane Cronin, the founder of ADAPT to present a history of the Association to inform new members of what ADAPT is about and for older members, a chance to reminisce.
Jane explained that the organisation had been founded in 2008 after Jane had been approached by San Pedro Town Hall who had funding available to support an initiative for foreign members of the community. Jane felt there was aneed to support English speaking people in the San Pedro area finding it difficult to learn Spanish and to promote integration.
AT the inauguration in April 2008 at the Thalasia Hotel80 people had expressed an interest with 8 people offering to be on a committee. 6 interested groups with links back into San Pedro were quickly established including a camera group.
The ADAPT logo in blue and green reflects the San Pedro flag.
Over time more initiatives developed including the Sea Horse Conservation Group, beach cleaning days, book stall donations funding books in English for the local library, Access for All which had a notable success in changes in access at the San Pedro Post Office.
Members also contributed to a local radio station presenting “Adaptamania”, a chat show in English covering topics from cooking to the environment which ran for nearly 2 years,
After the financial crash in late 2008 there was a change of emphasis in supporting the local community via charities under the guidance of the Town Hall.
Holidays in Peace was one earlyproject supporting children in southern Algeria who had been displaced from Morocco who were Spanish and spoke Spanish.Children visited the area on holidays,returning with books to share with other children in Algeria.
The El Samaritano project was established offering support to local families and has now been running for 6 to 7 years.
The Choir was another initiative along with other establishments has particularly supported AIDEMAR which is a school for children with learning disabilities where the reception has always been fantastic. AIDEMAR was also the final recipient of the ADAPT skittles equipment, the skittles group which had at one time been very popular with ADAPT members.
In past years the English/Spanish exchange conversation group was established, now run by Celia and Yolanda.
The tonne of money, Adrian’s hobby, collected at the monthly meeting provides funds for school materials for local children whose families can’t afford these.
From inception ADAPT has had a presence in the San Pedro carnival. At the first carnival, the theme was “guiris”, Spanish slang for the Brits! Everyone enjoyed that from the socks and sandals to the fake sunburn. Jane’s favourite carnival theme was in year three involving dressing up as chickens!
The yearly Panto produced by the theatre group has been key in raising funds for local charities and is engaging with the local community. Themes have ranged from Cinderella to Snow White and the Seven Guiris, which included Bossy, Noisy and Posh. Shows in English have been delivered to San Pedro school children, one was based on the “Bright side of life”. One of Jane’s favourite slides was of a class of infant children listening intently to a show.
There have been, and continue to be, many,many groups. One of the biggest and most successful has been the metal detecting groupnow with Spanish members and some have found items being displayed in the local museum.
Jane ended her presentation with some amusing slides from behind the scenes!
DECEMBER AGM
Janet informed the meeting that at the December AGM she will not be standing again as President. She is still passionate about ADAPT but wants to have more time to do other things. Adrian has also indicated that after 8 years he is standing down as Treasurer in December.
Janet asked that members go away and consider putting themselves forward in these roles at the AGM. Anyone wishing to discuss the roles please contact Janet .
Janet thanked everyone for attending the meeting.
Next meeting 7 October 10;30 at the Lo Pagan Pensionista.
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