Well, where does the time go? The last 25 years have gone by in a flash. The first meeting of the Alcan LM Pensioners’ Association was started by a few of us who thought it would be nice to meet up with ex-work colleagues every month.

Christopher Streat was the first President, followed by Brian Nairn. As Brian was out of the country working, Bill Stokes took over as President, but had to resign due to his wife’s ill health.

At the moment we don’t have a President, but hopefully, next year, we will be lucky.

The first Chairman was Dennis Barter and after many years, Ron Penny took over. In 2006, after Ron resigned, Keith Ball took over and is still Chairman today. Keith has decided to retire at the end of this year and our new Chairman will be Philip Tarn.

The club has been very successful for many years, and with the loss of members and no new members joining, it was decided to open our membership to friends of full members. We now have a good membership, which includes Associate members. We enjoy a monthly meeting with guest speakers and a day trip once a month. We have two short break holidays every year, and these are very popular. One is usually in March/April, with the second being the Tinsel and Turkey trip in November/December.

Invitations were sent out for our special celebration last Thursday. Photographs taken over the last 25 years were placed around the room, which brought back good memories to lots of us. The afternoon started with an excellent buffet, followed by a visit from Becky at The Journal and then an hour of comedy from our old friend, Tank Sherman. Stuart Shepherd kept the afternoon going with his music.

A celebration cake was cut and given out, with a glass of sherry, and Keith asked everyone to toast the past and future of Alcan LM Pensioners’ Association.

AM