February Report – Andy Lenaghan

The Hayling Island Businessmen’s Club held its AGM in January, at which outgoing Chairman Peter Blake thanked all members for the support over the past year. He stated it had been a successful year, especially for the funding raised and how it had been distributed to local good causes, as well as keeping the Community Mini Bus in use seven days per week for local groups and charities to use. He left the club in a good position, with new members joining so he was delighted to hand the role of Chairman over to Marcus Foot. Marcus has been a member for some years and is looking forward to his year in the Chair, having had several roles within the club. Many of our members were at the Club in 1989 when Marcus’s Father Geoff was Chairman. Geoff sadly died some years after this but is still fondly remembered by all of us. The older members all recall Marcus as a young lad coming along with his dad and helping at our annual BBQ at Northney Farm, however Marcus, now dwarf’s nearly all of us at the club.

The Club put on a very successful Christmas Party at Sinah Warren with over 200 tickets being sold. It was a wonderful event to celebrate Christmas and particularly good to see so many local firms attend. A great time was had by all, so a great big thankyou to the Management, staff and entertainers at Sinah for hosting the evening.

On Friday the 21st December the club held its annual street collection in Mengham at which a very healthy £349 was raised. All monies raised with no expenses deducted will be distributed to local good causes or to support the running of the Community Mini Bus.

On a sad note our Secretary Malcolm Newnes has had to retire from the club for personal reasons. Malcolm has been a willing volunteer since joining the Club in 2008 having found his niche in the role of secretary at which he excelled. I think though, most of you reading this will remember Malcolm as the Race Marshall at our very successful pig racing nights each year. We all sincerely wish him the best of luck for the future.

I look forward to keeping you up to date with club happenings over the next year and sincerely hope to see many of you at our fund raising events. You can keep in touch by visiting our Facebook page or our website HIBC.org.uk

Andy Lenaghan

Publicity HIBC