Shaftesbury Town Twinning Association.

Activity Report for the year 1st January 2009 – To date.

The last year has been very busy fund raising, also very expensive with visits ect.

Our AGM went very well in February, with a talk and slide show, on the MARY ROSE by Bill Moore who is the curator of Gillingham Museum.

On the 14th March we held a free members dinner, to chat about the past and the present and how we can recruit new members and what events our members would like us to provide for them.

In April we arranged a Casino Real night when many members and their friends gambled away their chips at Roulette or Black Jack, with black tie and good food to complete the evening.

Mid June we had 43 Germans arrive from Lindlar for 4 days, on Friday they enjoyed our wonderful countryside with their hosts, finishing with 50 people playing skittles and Boule with a sausage and chip supper. On Saturday we took 60 people to Windsor Castle for a conducted tour, then a boat trip down the Thames with a cream tea to complete the day free to our members and their guests.

At the end of June we were able to provide a wonderful Bar B Q for our members, Sue and Nigel provide the garden and Shaftesbury provided the good weather.

Gold Hill Fair gave us the opportunity to promote the twinning with balloons sailing in the breeze, with the winner reaching 167 miles away in Northamptonshire, a good fund raiser with lots of new people knowing more about our twinning association and more members.

Our trip to Lindlar, our twin town in Germany would not normally be in the same year, but they were celebrating the towns 900 years of being a town, so we were invited to join the weekend revelry with them and their other twin towns, Brionne in France and Kestelar in Croatia, we gave them a special gift of a flag celebrating their 900 years form Shaftesbury.

During the summer we have been trying our best competing in the annual Boules league. Unfortunately we came last again but we are getting better.

Members and their friends are playing skittles on the 10th October, good food and company.

The trip to Brionne was called off this year, but we will be going in October 2010.

We have arranged our Annual Boules Challenge Shield again this year for 18th October.

And the last event of the year will be our annual quiz in November.

We will be glad of a rest until our Robbie Burns Night in January. Terry Piper Treasurer.