Chairman's Newsletter - May 2022
Sunday 1st May 2022
Dear Members,
This is my first opportunity since becoming Chairman to welcome you all to Friends of Osborne. Osborne went into its summer opening on April 1st and I hope many of you took advantage of the glorious Easter weather to enjoy the beautiful grounds.
The new card system seems to be working well and there is no longer a need to book in advance. Over 500 members have renewed their membership, we have 50 new members and we have just over 100 members whose subscriptions are due in June, September and December. It is wonderful to see so many people keen to support Friends of Osborne.
We, of course, want to start the events calendar going. Osborne like so many other organisations has had to contend with acute challenges relating to staffing. Osborne’s food and beverage outlets, which are now inhouse, have also been impacted by Covid and recruitment issues. This is the reason why no events were organised in April as hoped. However, we now have a date for a welcome drink outside on the Terraces. It is Thursday May 26th at 6.00. More details about cost and booking tickets will follow shortly.
Also our planned Quiz night for May has now been moved to June and details will follow as soon as we have organised the final arrangements. We also hope to have a beach party and Cowes Week drinks party.
It has been an incredibly difficult two years for everyone and I’m certain members will be patient as we try to build up a schedule of events. We may not be able to have the full calendar of events this year but we will try as hard as possible to make sure there is something for everyone.
As a joint organization the trustees and committee meet together every month. We have had several new committee members and if any of you would like to be part of helping to organise events or have ideas on the direction you would like to see our charity take, we would love to meet you.
As many of you know Michael Hunter has retired but Osborne hopes to have found a new Curator by the end of May. Michael’s talks were always very popular and as soon as a replacement for Michael has been found we hope to reintroduce them.
Our old rooms are in the process of being refurbished and becoming a new site for use by educational groups and school parties. We will have access to these rooms to host events and talks. I am hoping to get our Autumn talks up and running and I am contacting various speakers including Stephan Roman, author of ‘Isle and Empire: Romanov Russia, Britain and the Isle of Wight’; about giving us a talk.
Hoping to meet many of you at our first event.
Kind Regards
Allison Rogers
Contact: Helen McComb, Secretary – secretary@friendsofosborne.org