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County
Field Officer's Report Wendy from NFYFC stayed over following our AGM, as she had requested to see some of Kent's unique Farm Clubs in action! I organized an itinerary for her & a big thanks to those who showed her around their sites explaining club activities. Wendy said how welcome you had made her, so thanks to; Lorraine and members @ Oldborough Manor; Sue @ Cobtree & Tim Hare @ Valley Park. South East Farmer Magazine this month featured David, Jill and Colin Bastable (linked to Tonbridge YFC) with their expansion of dairy unit - well done! & nice pictures! …….. Across the county, November saw good attendance levels across the county; commencing with our own AGM @ KCAS, and this buoyant theme has carried on across clubs - well done all! At an Area level, I attended the SEA AGM. Visits were made to; Valley Park to assist with their first AGM! Where a very active voting system took place! On to Mascalls to explain more about the "wider" picture of YFC, i.e. at National and County level. KCAS was the venue for the welcome meeting of the newly formed Maidstone Open YFC. Also on the Open Club front, I visited Canterbury YFC, to meet their new officers to explain & complete the paperwork for the CRB police checking system. December's
diary included the traditional Ashford Fatstock Show, where our members always
have a high standard. Festive events that I enjoyed, included Ashford's Hamper
maker evening (which they then distribute as gifts to elderly people in the area),
and Oldborough Manor's Farm Nativity, complete with donkey! Other visits were
to Canterbury and Meopham Open clubs.
I visited Ashford Yfc to discuss various county activities and our policies including Child protection - which produced a lively debate among members of this mainly "senior club"! At the first 2005 County Meeting it was good to see a full room, the same scenario was at Teacher Leaders meeting, this time at Oldborough Manor. I also visited Acyrse, to finalize a few details for their CRB checks & to join their program-planning meeting. Then
there was "BLING", and lots of it! The "Chav's" (in their
mock Burberry) and enough fake Late January saw a lot of "white stuff" (snow!), which put pay to a few arrangements! In February, I visited Ash YFC to assist them in planning for this year and it was good to see some advisory members in attendance to with their support & ideas. At Sub Committee Meeting again there was a good room full of reps! The 200 Club AGM/ Bingo was fun - especially for those "in the money" (Ashford, Ash and Tonbridge were the lucky tables)! Cathy & I attended the Staff Conference @ NFYFC in Warwickshire for 2 days, with so much information to digest we nearly exploded! The County's 60th Ball was very enjoyable & well attended. The "ex - yfc" attendees particularly appreciated their invites and the chance to meet up with old/new faces. NFYFC hosted a Health & Safety Training Day, which Stephanie Dean & myself attended, the information from which will be particularly useful when planning events/ Kent Show etc. This
month, we welcomed our new County Treasurer, Mrs. Toyin Coker to Kent YFC. The QUIZ was good fun (if you discount the scary Gill Collins in her Ann Robinson mode as quizmaster!…….) Good food! And a Bar! - what more could YFC want for a night out!? Well done to Maidstone YFC, Gill and her family for all their hard work for this event, and KCAS for venue. Onto this year's Cattle Training Day, at Cobtree. We had a good day, including the weather! And members enjoyed getting in a "knot" making rope halters, and getting hands on at the Dairy Farm at Milking Time! - Thank-you to Cobtree & Nick Leggat for their support and venues! On Easter weekend, Brockhill YFC hosted their 10th Lambing Day, complete with Balloon Release, crafts, small fun fair, Viking reenactment and the local scary members of the Arachnid club! (I personally decided a room full of snakes and spiders was for the children rather than adults!) This was well attended, despite the damp drizzle! In April after the disruption we all had with the cold "white stuff" in January, February AND March! (the on the ground, rather than bottled variety!) Meetings were rearranged, before yfc life could get back on track! Nick Leggat and I then attended a meeting with KCC about our grant funding application, which subsequently proved more successful than we imagined. Meetings were held with Ash Yfc re programmes/ recruitment ideas, followed by a very good visit to Oldborough Manors Lambing Day, with the other new "arrivals" (piglets). The sun shone and the ice-cream lady decided it was worth staying - at one point the farm was full to overflowing with visitors! The RALLY DAY, was good fun, with open club members proving they were as game for a laugh as the school club members! - the course builder (Haggis) for the Blind Sheepdog Trials was particularly "creative" this year! - and WATER features were included; the only option being to get wet! - luckily for the competitors the weather was kind to them (even if YFC were not!)……THANKS to Kate Springett, Lucy Puttick, the Sports Sub-Committee, all the Judges, Stewards and Cobtree for the venue. The quality of static exhibits was once again very high, and classes well supported; even MALE YFC members it appears can cook cakes! AND flower arrange…………(so don't let them tell you otherwise!)………. In May, we enlisted the help of a very educated ex-YFC member! To Redesign our Website pages and get them LIVE AGAIN! Stephen Paine (ex Astor of Hever) who is now studying at Cambridge University (no less!) is our talent behind this! - A MASSIVE THANK-YOU to him for arranging this. Members, and animals! helped with 3,800 primary school children were at this year's KCAS Living Land event- WELL DONE and THANKS to Verity, Fred, and ALL that were involved! - Including those who took time off work to help steward (or should that be "herd") the crowds! Members also took part in the Sponsored Walk at Bewl, hopefully more money gained by clubs than blisters!……Clubs, Staff & Committee were all now busy in "pre Kent-show mode".
It
was difficult to believe that Kent Show was approaching JULY
started with a County Meeting (with rather a lot of
This was in ADDITION to our invited VIP's; NFU's John Leigh-Pemberton, William White and Muerig Raymond; SEEDA Jeremy Bolas and Fiona Wickens, Catherine & Wendy from NFYFC, Mick Price of KCC Youth & Community, KCAS Malcolm Chamberlain. Over the show, we also had visits from; Barry & Marion Clout-KCVYS, Graham Clewes -Kent Youth, various Head Teachers & Governors, and ……Andrew Wells the High Sheriff of Kent, who has since sent me a very complimentary letter saying "All I saw was inspiring, and it was nice to talk to some very enthusiastic young farmers"…"the animals were spotless, and clearly many hours worth of grooming had gone into their appearance - and the young farmers were pretty tidy too!" ……"and rightly proud of what they'd achieved. I shall make a point of visiting again. Thank you so much, yours sincerely"… Saturday featured also with BBC Radio Kent interview, and further "LIVE TV" coverage! With Meridian choosing to film the Fancy Dress - shame we were all on site so could not see the programme! - there were a lot of members of the public viewing BOTH RINGS this year; helped by their new "roadside location" which worked very well. The SECRETARIES PORTACABIN was as busy as usual! - CONSTANTLY all week!…..HUGE THANKS (especially for their patience)! to ANNE Helbling, NICOLA Dean, & CATHY Sherwood for dealing with all the enquiries, judges, stewards and results & to CHRISSIE Lawrence for providing us with the contacts for this years Judges; some of whom were prepared to travel from Suffolk etc to judge for us. THANK YOU, THANK-YOU …….TO STEPHANIE DEAN and her Committee - with whom the show would not be possible. Loyal helpers return each year & many give up their "holiday" from work to assist us, such as HAGGIS (how would we manage the commentary without her)?, WILL LEEVES (to many helpful moments to mention)! MICHAEL BUTCHER (who despite the heat this year managed to do his fabulous ushering competitors into/out of Rings without getting burnt)!, Many hours of work over months go into the planning of this event; which takes a lot of dedication from a lot of people and this does not go unrecognized… Each year we work really hard to make the show even better, and it really does somehow manage to improve each year. It REALLY is APPRECIATED by a lot of people, and the fantastic comments we received from visitors saying "how professionally we run our area", the results at the show and the team fun had, makes all the hard work worthwhile…
NEWS
- Astor of Hever ex/members are looking positively forward to launch a new (non-farm)
open style club; this has now happened and they are called "North Downs YFC".
Good Luck all! Kent YFC sent two attendees to Warwickshire to a course organised by NFYFC, their LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 2-weekend part course; Chris Bowley (Ashford) and Stuart Jakeman (Canterbury).
BELIEVE IT - OR NOT! * * This is just a FEW of the HIGHLIGHTS of the last YFC Season! * *
KENT YFC continues, after 60 years! - with 2005 being our "Diamond Year".
We are VERY FORTUNATE that: I
am CONVINCED that: WELL DONE TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR PART IN THIS "TEAM". Carry on the good work! - Philippa Stedman-Collins
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YFC (c)2006 is registered charity #302905. |
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