Minutes from meeting number 1224
Minutes of the 1224th Meeting of the Manchester Pickwick Club held at the Moorside Social Club on 19th March, 2014
The March meeting of the Manchester Pickwick Club was, once again, sparsely populated with only 4 members being present one minute prior to the official start time although this number increased to 7 after a few minutes. Probably due to the reduced numbers, Dodson decided that this would be a free evening although he apologised to Snodgrass who was off sick but who always seemed to lose out when free evenings were proposed.
After waiting a few minutes to see if any more members would straggle in, the meeting was officially opened at 8.09 p.m. with Grummer as P.O.C sitting in solitary isolation. To pass the time in case other members had been delayed some discussion took place about past meetings which had proved to be unusual including a meeting in the Black Horse which was held in a bedroom due to a double booking of the normal meeting room, one at the Church where theft of drinks was taking place whilst the meeting was in progress which only became evident when the police invaded the meeting seeking information, another meeting at the Black Horse when Mr Pickwick leaned back in his chair only to disappear when the back legs of the chair sank through a hole in the floor, and a summer outing when the raffle prizes were on a table near an open window and were disappearing as the meeting progressed!
Dodson said that he had been fined for attending a football match when he should have been at a Pickwick meeting and he felt that members who watched a match on TV were in a similar position and should also be fined but this was ignored. He then apologised for failing to produce any Miau for Mrs Jingle after a recent trip to Spain but claimed that it was no longer available in Barcelona; he had brought an alternative but whether it was as good was not known at this time and the former Mr Jingle was no longer able to report back on its effectiveness or otherwise.
The current Mr Jingle apologised to members for failing to attend the January meeting; he claimed that he had misunderstood comments that there would be no meeting in December because of the Christmas dinner and had thought that the references were to the following meeting in January. He blamed Tupman for this misunderstanding claiming that Tupman had allowed him to reach the state of inebriation which had caused his error; Tupman accepted limited responsibility and agreed to make a donation to the Fines Box provided the minutes recorded that he had remained sober all evening.
Pickwick then told members about his recent accident when he mistakenly thought he was going to get a free ride in a helicopter but unfortunately the machine in question couldn't get close enough to the accident site - the moral being if you are going to fall off a ladder, try and do it in the middle of a field.
At Dodson's request the introduction of members was carried out by Tupman with his usual ability but Dodson was fined for referring to Tupman by his non-pickwickian name. Tupman then advised members that Weller had taken the copy of 'Uncle Joe's Mint Balls' with the intention of producing copies for all members; he had failed to
turn up this evening and should therefore be fined twice, once for failing to attend and secondly for failing to bring the copies.
Magnus said he had recently received a communication from the Philadelphia Pickwick Club enclosing their publication 'Eat & Swill Gazette' which he circulated for information.
Dodson visited the bar at the club where he found Stiggins who was asked to attend the meeting but refused because the meeting would be half over. It was suggested that Stiggins should pay a double fine for first failing and secondly refusing to attend the meeting but Grummer felt that was insufficient and that a triple fine would be more appropriate.
Pickwick felt that with so few members present there should be no P.O.R & I but instead all members should pay a donation of 20p to the Fines Box.
Grummer told members that Smangle was now the manager of the bar at St. Just Golf Club.
When the toast to absent members was taken it was pointed out that this toast did not include those members watching a football match!
The vote of Thanks to Pickwick and the Vice-chairman was proposed by Tupman who said Pickwick had done a good job keeping the meeting going and filling the time available when there were so many members absent and the support from his Vice-chairman had obviously helped. Seconding the proposal, Dodson said Pickwick had failed miserably to control a meeting of only seven members and the question had to be asked whether he would be able to cope with a full meeting. Despite Tupmans suggestion that the Vice-chairman had been of great assistance to Pickwick it seemed that his only contribution had been to gavel faster and louder than the Chair himself.
'Good Neet Owd Friends' was sung by all and followed by the National Anthem.
The raffle raised £3.50 whilst the Fines Box contained £4.80