Didcot–Meylan Twinning Association

Newsletter no.4, April 2001

Editorial
This newsletter is to bring you up to date on future events. For both the French and our Didcot councillors, this will be a time of change with local elections and new Mayors. Meylan already have their new mayor, Madame Tardy and a new set of councillors. Congratulations to them all and may our links be further enhanced.
    The next trip to Didcot by the Meylannais is planned more as a relationship building activity and we are in the process of organising accommodation for our visitors. There are more details in the ‘Chair’s word’ below and elsewhere in this newsletter.
    The sports event that we were planning, with the schools, has been postponed until 2002. We are still collecting ideas for this and names of interested sports groups but there is less urgency now.

From the Chair
You will be aware that we are currently planning for a visit by the citizens of Meylan over the weekend 7-8^th July. Further details about this visit are given elsewhere in this newsletter. I would just like to mention that if you have any ideas of the things that we could do (the theme for the visit is sustainable transport), please could you let us know either by telephone, letter or email.
    Our website is up and running. It has been quite an effort to get this off the ground. If you would like to get involved in maintaining and updating the website, please let me know.
    Our next Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Thursday 7th June at the Civic Hall, Didcot commencing at 7.30 pm. The officers of the Association have to be elected every year. Current officers are eligible for re-election. If you wish to make a nomination, please could you let me have the details of the nominee? I hope to see you all at the AGM.

Visit by Meylan
This is provisionally scheduled for the weekend 7-8^th July. It is anticipated that the citizens of Meylan will actually arrive on Thursday evening (5^th July) and depart Sunday morning (8^th July). The committee thought that a suitable theme for the visit would be sustainable transport. Regionally, nationally and globally, this is a relevant current topic. So it will be good for us to do our part in this area. If you have an idea or a topic that we could include in the programme, please let me know by email to chairman.
    We would also like to make this visit somewhat less formal than that in November 1999. The programme will therefore be drafted on that basis and we would anticipate that the guests would be able to spend more time with their hosts and also to have more time for less formal/leisure activities.
    We anticipate a total of 50 visitors and are currently compiling a list of hosts. Many of you hosted our guests back in November 1999 and some of you have already offered to host again in July. If you would like to host one or two guests, please let our hosts officer have your details. We will endeavour to supply more details about your guest/s so that you will be better prepared for their visit.

Facts & Figures
Population of Didcot: 22000
Population of Meylan: 19044

New Members
Welcome to our 13 members since our last newsletter. Membership fees will stay the same for the next year, which will run from the A.G.M. in June to the A.G.M. the following June.

• Family membership- £5
• Corporate membership- £10

Didcot-Meylan Twinning Association Website
The site address is http://www.didcottwinning.org.uk. This website has been live since the beginning of February 2001. It has been quite a lot of effort to get it up and running. Now we need to maintain the site on a regular basis. If you would like to be involved in this task, please let the chairman know – even if you do not think that you have the skills but are willing to learn. This could be an opportunity for you to develop new skills or to release that creative genius in you!

Publicity
We are currently planning a small blitz on this in order to publicise the Association and also to recruit new members. A number of posters have kindly been designed by Jean Wernham and have been posted on a variety of public notice boards (e.g. Didcot Library, Didcot Parkway Station).
    If you are a commercial organisation, you may like to consider sponsoring our activities. Sponsorship funds will normally not be used for travel to Meylan. These funds will be used to cover the costs of hosting, publications, and related activities.
    We are always keen to receive help or ideas about how we can publicise the Association or to recruit new members. If you have any ideas or wish to get involved, please let the chairman know.

Word Search
Why not try your hand at this French Word Search? The theme is transport. Our thanks to the Didcot Girls School teacher who provided this word search.