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Wednesday 8th April 2009
I joined Round Table and all I got was this lousy tankard thing
 . . . which isn't of course strictly true. The tankard only arrived recently and is actually meant to be a trophy, but more about that later. It's only recently dawned on me that I joined Lancaster Round Table just over a year ago (well, technically, I didn't join, but was asked to join) but I think I've barely mentioned this on my web-site. That's kinda weird. I tend to find most people have either never heard of Round Table or have a bizarre/incorrect notion of what it is, but this is partly because most members of Round Table aren't exactly sure what it is either. So here's some clarity: Round Table is a charity that raises money through various means (erm . . . beer festival) and then redistributes this to local good causes. Round Table is kind of unique in that money raised is not subject to any kind of 'administration fee'. All the members raise money as volunteers, in their spare time. I guess there aren't many charities that can make that same claim. And that, in a nutshell, is primarily what goes on. There's also a social side to things and business meetings where we decide where the money should go, and who should do what, when and how . . . blah di blah, stuff like that. The tankard/trophy was given to me at the end of the last AGM; it bears the text, "Lancaster Round Table; The Change Challenge Tankard; Presented by Trevor Bargh; 1998" (where a semi-colon represents a new-line) and I was given this (I think) for . . . well, now how do I put this? I was given the trophy for implementing (or attempting to implement) change within Round Table (at least I hope that's the reason). See, membership of Round Table has been declining in recent years and no-one really knows why or, if they do, knows how to reverse the trend. See, when you strip out all the extraneous elements of Round Table (which is, I guess, what I'm trying to do), you're left with a charity that actively contributes to the local community, improving people's lives, but also a network of people getting together for social/sporting occasions (is clay pigeon shooting a sporting event?!) . . . That kinda thing should surely sell itself, if enough people knew about it.
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