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Powditch Family's
Second Family Gathering
Thursday, 14 September 2006
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| Thursday 14 September 2006 Preparation
(the parts that most family members didn't see!)
Ang and I were 'up with the lark', and after a quick breakfast, we drove to
Norwich airport to collect her sister Pam, who had flown down from the
Lake District for the Powditch Gathering.
Later, back at our holiday cottage (Blakeney) and after another quick lunch,
it was soon time for me to head for Morston, so I gathered together all my
material for the Gathering, and then I had a lift to Morston, and to Joc and
Sara's home ('Coastguard House', Morston) where Joc came out to meet
me, and to show me my room etc. For the next few days, this was going to
be where I'd be staying, and where I could sort out the paperwork and
display material etc for the Registration, and the rest of the event.
Early afternoon, Joc and I went down to Morston Village Hall, where I began
setting up several folding tables and chairs (for family members to sit down
and have a cuppa and some biscuits etc) I also put up about 8 tables on
which were placed display boards, as I was going to put lots of Powditch
'material on them for the family's interest.
Whilst I was sorting out the tables, chairs, Joc kindly took away all the
directional notices to set up in and around the village. The chairs and
tables set up, I then pinned up the notices which were to be in the lane
opposite the Hall, as well as one outside the Hall itself, following which, I
then returned to the notice boards, and began to pin documents, letters,
certificates, photographs, trees, etc. to them.
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| 1. Registration (4.15 PM to 6.40 PM at Village Hall, Morston)
Before I managed to finish pinning the hundreds of documents, letters, certificates, photographs,
trees, etc. to the Notice Boards placed around the Village Hall, our first two family members
arrived; Maureen and Don Jones from Essex.
As they were staying with Ned Hamond in Morston, it was but a short stroll for them to get to the
Hall, and as it was such a beautiful day (sunny and warm) they'd decided to come a little earlier.
Although I was rather embarrassed that I hadn't finished all the preparation (I'd been sorting things
out for a couple of hours by then!) I kept on pinning up the data, whilst chatting to them and
generally trying to get other things done as well.
Not being the perfect host - me having to say "if you want a cuppa, the cups are over there, the
coffee/tea is...... etc" - in the end I decided to get as much done as possible, which unfortunately
meant that not all of the information was put on display, but by the same token this allowed me to
be with the family members and greet more as they arrived.
By the time the Registration time had arrived, we already had several members in the Hall,
variously looking at the display material, meeting members of the family, old and new, and getting
on with everyone as though they'd always known each other.
All were welcomed to this year's event, and each family member was issued with name-badges,
an Information Wallet, a copy of the programme, and two new items for this year; a folder to keep
all leaflets collected over the weekend, and a pencil with which to write notes etc.
What with meetings and greetings, looking at all the family information and trying to work out who
was related to who (I had put up charts to show the connections and at which generation this had
occurred), drinking cups of tea and coffee and general chatting, the time soon went by, and it was
time for our second General Meeting.
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| 2. Powditch Family General Meeting (6.45pm - 7.15pm at Village Hall, Morston).
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Powditch descendants present at the Family Meeting were (in alphabetical order and highlighted in bold Blue);-
Welcoming everyone to the second Powditch Family Gathering, our 'host' for the event -
John C Algar (hereinafter referred to as John) - confirmed the details of the gathering and
explained what had been planned, and what everyone would be doing over the next few days, and
thanked all for coming.
Joc Wingfield gave a brief welcome to everyone and said about how he and the other Morston
Villagers hoped that everyone would have a wonderful Gathering, especially as so much had
been arranged.
After the welcomes etc, John gave a short Overview of why we were having a second Gathering,
and about how the format of this year's event had been based on the Questionnaire filled in by the
majority of family members who had attended the first (i.e. 2004) Family Gathering.
John also gave apologies from those not able to come this year, as well as providing details about
a few family members who had achieved different things over the past couple of years. He also
raised the topic of possibly setting up a Powditch Award for young people, for the person who had
done something special for others during the 'past year' (i.e. from the time the 'award' was actually
instigated). Everyone seemed to like this idea, so John will be investigating this idea further.
John also spoke about how the Powditch website has developed over the last couple of years,
and how, because the site now attracted so many visitors per month, a special page had been
added in order to raise funds for not only Powditch research and the furtherance of the website
itself, but also to create funds for the intended Powditch Award. Although John, as he said, didn't
expect a great deal of money to be raised in this way, the ability of individuals to purchase goods
from the site, or make donations from same, would all help to contribute financially to both the
website and to Powditch research in general. Furthermore, when purchases were made from
adverts placed on the www.powditch.plus.com/products.htm page, it didn't cost the purchaser
any more than it would have cost in a 'normal' online purchase - the only difference being that
when purchases were made from clicking on the advertisements on the
www.powditch.plus.com/products.htm page - the Retailer provided a small percentage of
their profits to the Powditch website.
Partly because of the possibility of the above, but mainly because of the need to have a safe
depository for the funds of those members of the Powditch Family who attend the 2006 Gathering
(as well as for any funds for the 2008 and any other future Gatherings) together with the ability to
have a cheque book to make payments for Coach Hire, Meals, Admission Fees and Guides etc,
John advised that he had opened a Bank Account in the joint name of himself/the Powditch Family,
and that in order to ensure that enough funds were in same, he had already 'loaned' to the account
a substantial sum. All felt that the opening of such an account was a sensible idea, although John
did express his concern at what should happen to the account should anything 'untoward' happen
to him! (he is investigating the 'ins and outs' of this and will report back to the family at the 2008
Powditch Family Gathering).
Because John was concerned that distance and cost for our southern hemisphere family members
could be prohibitive, he raised the possibility that any future Powditch Gatherings could either be
hosted as ‘smaller’ (i.e. non-worldwide) events, and in individual Countries, such as (but not
restricted to) Australia, Chile and New Zealand, OR that the Gatherings could continue in the
‘mother’ (i.e. England) country.
Although we did have 2 New Zealand family members present (Fiona and Cameron Buchanan)
who possibly might have welcomed smaller Gatherings being held 'closer to home' (and indeed,
might hold such at some time), others' comments were swift in coming, with the majority of the
voices being for the Gatherings to continue being at Morston.
The family were also provided with an ideal opportunity to discuss what should happen - in view
of recent ‘fears’ - to the Powditch website after my decease? As was pointed out, any website's
life is continued for as long as it is funded, and although John advised that funds should be
available from the Bank Account (see above), it would be best if someone else (at that point of
time) could continue making the payments (presently £14.99 per month).
Soon afterwards, the second Powditch Family Meeting ended, and after some general chatting
etc, and with the thought of a lovely meal awaiting us at the Red Lion, we all left the Village Hall,
and made our own way (by car) to the nearby Village of Stiffkey.
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| 3. Powditch Family Meal (at the Red Lion, Stiffkey)
As was mentioned in the Overview, only three weeks before this year's
Gathering had been due to start, there had been a disastrous fire at our
original venue (The Anchor, at Morston), which meant that we had been
forced to make a 'last minute' change of plan.
Thanks however to Joc Wingfield's prompt attention, and the kindness of the
owners of the Red Lion at Stiffkey, who rose to the challenge magnificently,
and really 'saved our bacon', we were not only well looked after, but we all
were able to tuck into a veritable feast of local fare.
When we all arrived at the Red Lion, we met Anne Willoughby (who had
unfortunately been unable to get to the Meeting in time due to bad traffic on
the motorways), and then we all went into the room which had been
allocated to us for our first evening meal of the weekend.
Although the room was rather on the 'small' side, it could genuinely be said
to have been very cosy! With us all crammed together, with not much room
to move in any direction (elbows in!) we all had a good laugh when Shirley
discovered that rather than the room being very dark (it was fairly dark
anyway), the reason for her comments and the laughter, turned out to be that
she was still wearing her sun-activated sunglasses, and that she hadn't
realised it!
Having looked at the Menus, as well as the Specials Board, everyone
ordered their food, and when it arrived, by gum, not only did it look really
fantastic, but it also tasted delicious (and there was plenty of it too)! Before
the meal, John read out the Powditch Prayer, and then everyone tucked in.
Over the next few hours, there was lots of chattering, getting to know each
other, and much more that first evening (yes, including drinking!) but all too
soon it was time to finish there as we all had to be up early the next morning
for the first of our day trips, which was due to start at 9.00am prompt!
Later on, Ang dropped me off at Joc's, and half-stumbling in the pitch black
of night, I made my way to the property entrance. Joc and Sara were still up
and having said hello and having a chat with Sara for a while (I hadn't seen
her since my arrival) I then appraised Joc of all the happenings of the
evening, before I went to bed, just taking some time sorting out all the needs
for the following day, before I put my head on the pillow, and went to sleep
almost immediately.
To read about the where we went and what happened the
following day, please following have a look at
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m
Powditch Family's
Second Family Gathering
Thursday, 14 September 2006
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Site best viewed with Internet Explorer 5+ at 800 x 600 pixels
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