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MEETING MINUTES
Minutes
of meeting ·
Welcome A warm welcome and thank you to all members and new members who attended the meeting – there were 56 of us, many who have joined since International Women’s Day – the numbers keep on growing! ·
Member introduction As
the group is growing it takes longer for all the members to introduce
themselves (it took nearly an hour),
but this is also an important part of the meeting, as
this is the time when members put faces to names and occupations. Any
(serious) suggestions as to how this can be improved please send to admin@WIBC-Spain.com.
Karla
– media report –
Firstly, specific thanks to Mark at Female Focus for sponsoring us and
printing our programme
for free; also to Euro Weekly News for their donations of
prizes and coverage of the event; plus all the other press for their
articles and Onda Cera Radio for their live broadcast and reporting. Also to
Candy Wright for arranging the TV and newspaper coverage from the local
Spanish network and press (we were on TV again that night!) She also thanked
Bobby Frost – our VIP liaison – for inviting Russell Thomson, the
British Consul from Alicante and Veronica Guillen Teniente of the Javea
Guardia Civil. Apparently Russell Thomson gave such an enthusiastic
description to the British Ambassador his wife has asked to be involved next
year! Suzanna
– interactive stage report
– Many thanks to all the performers and backstage people for giving their
time and making the stage such a success and especially her co-compčres
Candy Wright and Sally Cronin. Also many thanks to the technician, who
stepped in at the last minute and worked 10 hours without a break for only
his petrol money!!! The general feeling was that the performances on stage
contributed greatly towards the fantastic atmosphere that prevailed
throughout the entire 8 hours of the exhibition! Although there were
complaints of the music being too loud and the speakers being too quiet, and
some people couldn’t see, Suzanna reminded us that the stage events were
in fact for the visitors, not the exhibitors!
The stage made a profit of €40 as the performers were also charged
€10 for being able to perform! Lesley
– exhibition layout report
– Apologies for the squash in some areas due to the centre block of tables
being moved to cover the cables leading to the sockets. Although a lot of
the tables were close together it is very difficult to accommodate everyone
and give them space as well, especially as a lot more women want to be
involved next year! A marquee out by the pool was later suggested, together
with a female trained lifeguard! The only major problem was situating the
projection screen, but this was resolved and we had many positive comments
about how professional it looked. The Health and Beauty area needs to be
expanded next year, due to a misunderstanding that the therapists were going
to be in the room all day and their stands used just for promotional
materials. Car parking issues need to be resolved with the hotel management.
The information gained from the door prize tickets is being collated and
will be published on the website when finished. At the moment the major
interest was in Health and Beauty, with Arts & Crafts, Food and Drink,
Home and Garden and Language / Education close seconds. In answer to the
question of where the visitors heard about the exhibition more than 60% was
“word of mouth”, so well done to all our members for spreading the
word!!!! It was decided by the majority of members present that the
information on these forms should not be used as business leads. The issue
of an entry fee was discussed, but the importance of free entry was
stressed, so it was decided that we should promote the free entry more and
maybe have a donation box at the entrance table. Elaine
– raffle / door prize report –
Many thanks to all the raffle team for their hard work in selling the
tickets and organizing the prizes and specific thanks to Clare Cunningham
for organizing the door prize draw. Special
thanks to the Great British Computer Shop, Javea Port for donating the
computer system for the door prize! Also to Euro Weekly News for donating
the TV and hamper for the main raffle! Both the computer and the TV were won
by Spanish women! Elaine
requested that any donations of prizes, at any event, have business cards
attached – firstly for ease of identification and secondly as promotion of
your business! Over 100 raffle prizes were donated – some exhibitors
donated more than one, but some didn’t donate anything. As this was a
requirement of booking a stand at the low price of €10, any exhibitors who
did not realize this can either make a prize donation to the next fundraiser
or a financial donation to the fund. Next year it would be better to collect
all prizes prior to the event and to have fewer raffles throughout the day.
Also to have the raffle drawn at the raffle table, not on the stage. A
tombola was suggested for some
of the smaller prizes. More raffle ticket sellers will be needed next year
and it was suggested that they have a balloon attached to them saying
“raffle” for easy identification. The raffle and door prize together
made approx €2,350.00!!! Christine
– bake sale report
- Thanks to all the people who
donated towards the bake sale tables – it was all of such good quality and
there was so much that they were raffling it off at the end! Many thanks
also to the brilliant team of ladies who ran the tables. Health and Hygiene
matters were raised as some of the savoury items had to be thrown away after
a time in the heat of the room. There are refrigerators behind the ballroom
and it can be asked if we may use them. A member also told us afterwards
that a lot of the beer / ice cream manufacturers lend their fridges for free
as it has their promotional material all over it! The bake sale made a
profit of €556.57!! Gail
– Therapy Room report
– Thank you to all the therapists that came, for giving up their time and
for staying all day. Everyone helped each other and developed into a great
team and Gail was very proud to be part of it. The amount of response from
the visitors, the questions asked, the feedback, all show that there is a
real need for therapists in the area. Due to the popularity of this area the
therapists will next time need more space! A possible suggestion was that
the 3 rooms in that area be used for different therapy demonstrations at the
same time and the beauticians have a larger specified Beauty area. Mary
– Treasurer’s report
– Many thanks to Lorraine McDougall for acting as Mary’s “slave”
throughout the day! Also to Sue Coley for always being on call. On
top of all the totals already mentioned there was €45.05 from the donation
bucket in the Therapy Room; €75.00 from Ray, who was giving much needed
Indian Head Massages to the exhibitors and €72.50 from Julie at Panache
for nail treatments. Money was flying in from all directions that day, and
you know Mary – she never refuses money from anywhere!!! So apologies if
you gave money to Mary but she hasn’t mentioned you! So – how much did
we raise altogether? OVER
€4,000.00!!! And there’s still more to come in! Also
€2,000.00 was donated by the ladies of the Roundabout Charity Shop, Javea
to purchase computers for the Javea Women’s Workshop. These are to be
supplied by the Great British Computer Shop, who donated the computer for
the raffle. We
made a loss on the cheese and wine, but El Cid Leisure Oasis bought the
cheese and crackers (supportive New Member – many thanks) and we still
have loads of bottles of wine left for sale or future use, so it should show
a profit soon. Well done to Kathleen, our Grecian Goddess, who did it all on
her own. We
also made a huge loss on the Orientation Night on March 7th. Some
members reserved a place but didn’t turn up or came late and there was
no-one on the door. We had to pay for all the numbers booked, so if you were
one of these members and would like to pay for your tickets to help make up
for the short-fall, I’m sure Mary would be glad to accept your money! ·
Where
do we go from here? Members suggestions for what they would like to include
at meetings We
didn’t have time for this item, but it will be included in the next
meeting. If you would like to make any suggestions (headings only – not
details) to be included in the next agenda please send to admin@WIBC-Spain.com
Karla
is asking all new members who joined since December last year if they would
like to organize the next fundraiser for May. All Team Leaders will be
available in an advisory capacity. To co-ordinate with each other, Karla has
set up an e-mail registration for this purpose fundraisers@wibc-spain.com
Please register to join this group if you would like to volunteer your help
at this event. Any
suggestions for future fundraisers, social events, other causes etc. to be
included in the next agenda please send to admin@WIBC-Spain.com ·
Bonus
bags Karla
will be sending a separate advice about this idea. ·
AOB Jenny
Flew informed us of a Clairvoyant Evening arranged by Alfaz Spiritual
Foundation on Saturday 2nd April at Forum Mare Nostrum, Alfaz del
Pi from 6.30pm. Tickets €5 from 96 574 5606 / 96 687 8469 ·
Next meeting –
Hotel Ifach, Calpe on Monday 4th April at 2pm. - Hotel Marriott, La Sella on Monday
18th April at 2pm. ·
Contact Us Karla
Darocas (Director)
96 597-3234 Suzanna
Mace (Events)
96
648-0248 E-mail:
info@wibc-spain.com For
more details of any of the above, or items to be included at the next
meeting, please contact Lesley Ellis (Administrator) at admin@wibc-spain.com
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