Spring Newsletter 2015

SPRING NEWSLETTER 2015

Play reading

Another successful Foal evening with an excellent turnout. Many thanks to the people who made it possible, Katharine Claringbull for directing, Caroline Di Miceli and Adam Gauci for taking the two roles, Philippe Marchand, our organiser par excellence and Phil Claringbull.

Thank you

We forgot to thank you in the last newsletter for the generous contributions to the raffle at Christmas, the quiz and the play reading. (208€ for the former, 200€ for the latter)

The monies we raise at these events go towards the purchase of books and into the war chest for when we get permanent premises and will need to equip them.

 Party and AGM  20th June for FOAL members

 I hope this date is already in your diaries, it is a big event for FOAL ; 5 years already despite all the vicissitudes we have encountered, we are still going from strength to strength.

The party will take place at 256 rue des Grèzes in Montpellier. You are invited for 11.30 so that we can hold a brief Annual General Meeting before moving on to the festivities.

To get to the venue which is a large garden and swimming pool kindly provided by Françoise Sorro : Rue des Grèzes is a street just opposite Celleneuve. To get to the Rue des Grezes the best thing is to take l'avenue de la Liberté and follow the direction La Paillade / Millau. You go past le Géant Casino which is on the right (going towards Millau). Keep on going a little further but you cannot turn left when you see the Lidl. You need to turn right as if you were entering Celleneuve to be able to cross l'Avenue de la Liberté. There is a sort of  half circle that enables you to do this. The Lidl is just on the corner. You go up this road and Françoise Sorro’s house is 256 metres from the bottom on the right. It has a white gate. Bus n°7direction La Martelle, get off on the last stop but one and the stop is practically in front of the house.

Deadline for signing up : 20th May to foal@dbmail.com When you sign up, please indicate whether you will be bringing sweet or savory dishes; FOAL will be providing the drinks and there will be music and maybe dancing ? It goes without saying that spouses are welcome.

 CD and DVD sale

We don’t have enough space in our current premises to hold the permanent book sale but a recent clear-out of my CDs gave me an idea. I don’t really want to get up at 5am to go to a flea maket and sell them and I thought we could have two or three boxes of CDs which we would sell for 2.50€ apiece to raise money for the book fund. I have already taken mine to the library and maybe you could also do some spring cleaning and bring along CDs you don’t listen to any more. We can also do this with DVD’s

Treasurer

The association is looking for a new treasurer. This is a crucial role but certainly not as daunting as you might think. Apart from the day to day bookkeeping (which is reduced to a minimum in a small association like ours, especially as we will have harmonised dues at the beginning of January 2016), the only other task is the preparation of a profit and loss account and a balance sheet for the AGM and the grant application. Former treasurers and myself will gladly give advice about this. We would rather have someone who is prepared to do this on a longish term basis (a few years) because ; one, practice makes perfect and two, changing the treasurer within the association entails quite a lot of red tape which we would prefer to avoid.

If none of you feels up to the task, maybe you know someone who would be happy to do so and become, if only nominally, a member of the board.  Please send an email to foal@dbmail.com about this.

The new catalogue (Author Alphabetical Order) is now online. To download it, just click Here.
Also available : Alpha Order by Title Here.
Scroll down to middle of page to a small red PDF file and click on "télécharger le fichier"... hey presto !

February 2015 Newsletter

FEBRUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER

• Our Famous Literary Quiz on 23rd January was a great success. We had an excellent turnout and a good time was had by all. Many thanks to the organisers and to the American Womens Group for their generous donation. You will find photos on our Facebook page and on our blog (for the latter you need to go to foal34.free.fr and click on « blog ». We have decided to try and get more traffic on these two media and hope to come up with some new ideas shortly.

• Upcoming event : a date to put in your diaries  Friday 10th April, usual venue Espace Martin Luther King. Doors open at 6.30 pm so that you have time to pick up a glass of something before the event which starts at 7 pm. Remember the success of our event « Love Letters » in 2013.This time Foal will present a special reading of the comedy-cum-romance play Two Across by the American playwright Jerry Mayer which is in the same vein. Katharine Claringbull directing and Caroline Di Miceli and Adam Gauci taking the two roles. The reading lasts an hour which will leave plenty of time for a drink and a chat afterwards.

• New Books are now in the library,  we placed a significant order to inaugurate our change of (temporary) premises. What is happening at City Hall ? As I believe you know, an audit of premises allocated to associations was commissioned. It was due to be handed in at the end of October 2014. The date has been moved back to end of March ! It will obviously take time to get some associations to vacate premises which they should not be using and then re-allocate them. However, Foal is in good position on the waiting list and the situation is being monitored closely.

• PARTY    This year Foal will be celebrating its fifth anniversary. We have had plenty of vicissitudes during that time  (and you have supported us through thick and thin, for which heartfelt thanks), but we are still going strong and this  anniversary deserves a party ! The midday event will  be held on June 20th. One of our board members has kindly suggested we hold the party in her large garden which contains a swimming pool if you need to cool off. Foal members only and their spouses will bring along food and Foal will provide the drinks and we hope, music. More details about this nearer the time but please put the date in your diaries. We have decided to hold a short Annual General Meeting beforehand to give you an overview of the past year.