Newsletter. South East and Eastern Area. April Form 1056 and 1056A. Branch and branch club accounts

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1 South East and Eastern Area Newsletter April 2018 rafa.org.uk South East and Eastern Area Headquarters Royal Air Forces Association Atlas House, 41 Wembley Road Leicester LE3 1UT Form 1056 and 1056A Branches are reminded that in accordance with Branch Regulation (BR) 23, Annual General Meetings (AGMs) should take place between 1 January and 31 March 2018, and accounts together with 1056/1056a forms should not be being sent into the Area office. Unfortunately, there are still a number of 1056 and 1056A forms outstanding for 2016 and Letters have been sent from the Area Director to the individual branches, which are non-compliant. Branch and branch club accounts In accordance with Branch Regulation (BR) 32, branch and branch club accounts as at 31 December, including a report from the auditor or independent examiner, should be forwarded to the Area Headquarters no later than 31 March the following year. Unfortunately, there are still some outstanding and those branches will be receiving a letter in the near future. Your attention is also drawn to byelaw 10(1) b, which states that a branch shall be entitled to be represented at Area and Annual Conference of the Association, providing that its audited accounts for the preceding year have been submitted to Area Headquarters, no less than ten days before the first day of Conference. Obituary: Bill Lucas, 16 January 1916 to 22 March 2018 One of our longest serving members has passed away at the age of 101. Bill Lucas served as president of the RAF Association s Hayward Heath Branch and was a decorated pilot, flying with Bomber Command in raids over Germany for much of the Second World War. Bill trained as a pilot in the RAF in early He completed 14 missions flying Wellingtons, before converting to flying Stirlings, completing a further 26 operations. When he retired from the RAF, he had flown 81 missions and left with the rank of Squadron Leader. During his time in the service, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and received a mention in Despatches. Bill also found success as an Olympic runner, participating in the 1948 Olympics in the 5,000 metre race. 1

2 Our thoughts go to Bill s family and friends at this time. RAF100 Celebrations at Runnymede 17 June 2018 To commemorate the Centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force, South East and Eastern Area has organised a Service at the Air Force Memorial, Runnymede on Sunday 17 June 2018 commencing at 1045hrs. Sir Roger Austin, the Area President, will be attending along with Members of Commonwealth Air Forces and members of South East and Eastern Area Council. A reception will be held after the Service. Numbers attending the reception will be restricted, so places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis and a fee of 10 per person will be applicable for the reception. The RAFA Presidents Band will provide the music at both the service and the reception. Standard Bearers are invited to attend. Interested members and Standard Bearers should contact Area Headquarters stating if they are attending the service and the reception or only the service. Area Conference Resolutions The following is the result of the Resolutions submitted for Area Conference 2018 which was held at the Marriott Hotel in Peterborough between March Resolutions carried 1. Conference resolves that: Council examines and reviews the justification for the continued individual charity registration of branches vis-à-vis the merits of branches becoming part of the Association, as a charitable body, under a single all-embracing charity registration (under the current registration number and SC (in Scotland)) in consultation with the Charity Commissions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the Privy Council. Reporting to Annual Conference 2019, the outcome of the requested review, together with recommendations for related changes (if appropriate) to the Royal Charter, Rules and Bye-Laws, and Area and Branch regulations and any conjoined work on the consequential administrative structure of the Association. Area Council 5. This Area Conference resolves that the words who are adults be re-inserted after Cadets in Rule 7. Membership Classes of Membership (2) (c) It currently reads (2)(c) Adults WOs, Senior NCOs, Civilian Instructors or Cadets who are current or past members of the RAF Air Cadets and have served satisfactorily for a minimum of two years. Aylesford and Malling 6. This Area Conference resolves to apply to Council for a Local Variation to Area Regulation 8(1), increasing the permitted number of South East and Eastern Area Council elected members from 9 to 13. Aylesford and Malling 7. This Area Conference requests that Council updates branches more frequently than hitherto, on the progress of Resolutions proposed by branches and approved at Annual Conference. 2 Grimsby and Cleethorpes

3 8. This Conference resolves that the Area Council holds its meetings in Branches and on RAF stations across the South East and Eastern Area, where adequate facilities exist. Grimsby and Cleethorpes Resolution not carried 2. This Area Conference resolves that the Royal Charter be amended to read Membership 7(f) RAF Air Cadets it currently reads 7(f) An Air Cadet Organisation. Aylesford and Malling Membership Cards The RAF Association uses what is known as a fulfilment house for the processing of membership cards following membership renewal. Over the past few weeks we have learned that some members may have received more than one membership card in error, and some with membership end dates 2 years ahead. We are discussing these issues with the fulfilment house and we can confirm that such errors on their part do not incur any additional cost to us. We would be grateful if any members who have received more than one card, or if the date is wrong, could let us know and we will investigate and resolve. Thank you for your continued support. ATC Adoption RAFA Newark and Balderton branches recently adopted the 1260 Sqn ATC (Newark and District). Newark Branch Chairman, Richard Harcourt, presented a certificate to the Sqn OC, Flt Lt Martin Derbyshire. RAF100 Baton Relay The baton relay launched on 1 st April Details of locations can be seen below together with contact details for FS Jay Ferguson who is the coordinator for Oxon and South Downs who can help with any further details. 10/04 15/04 South East region 3

4 15/04 eve Princess Marina House, Littlehampton 16/04 Tangmere Military Museum 17/04 HMS Queen Elizabeth and MoD Southwick Park 18/04 Isle of Wight 19/04 Southampton 20/04 Off around the UK until the Henley Regatta in July Bertie the Befriender Bear will be on the relay too! Please contact FS Jay Ferguson on or most of the time. Attached is the proposed route and plan for when the baton reaches the Eastern Area. North Weald & Ongar Branch Ops Tonight On 9 th May 2018 Mark Smith (Antiques Road Show) will be giving a talk at The Squadron, Norwegian Wing Bar, North Weald Airfield giving the story of the RFC and RAF through the medals awarded to airmen. Seats are to be taken at 1145hrs ready for a prompt 1200hrs start. Tickets, at a cost of 5 can be purchased from Bill and Heather Lewis who can be contacted on or RAF100 Call for volunteers The RAF100 Appeal is a joint venture between The RAF, the RAF Association, the RAF Benevolent Fund, the RAF Charitable Trust and the RAF Museum working together to commemorate this historic event. What are we going to do? The RAF100 Appeal will be fundraising in 11 cities across the UK. The activities will involve interacting with the public, raising awareness of the work of the RAF, collecting donations and offering RAF100 Appeal celebratory merchandise. Five of these collections will coincide with the National Aircraft Tour, displaying historic aircraft. City collection locations Dates The National Aircraft Tour will be present Cardiff Friday 18 May X Newcastle York Reading Saturday 19 May Friday 8 June Friday 15 June London Tuesday 10 July X Bristol Peterborough Edinburgh Friday 27 July Friday 3 August Friday 17 August Birmingham Saturday 25 August X Glasgow Friday 31 August X 4

5 Manchester Friday 14 September X We would love our members, supporters and the public to be at the heart of the celebrations in a city near them as we honour veterans and serving personnel with flypasts, parades and special events. We need volunteers to help us collect for the charities that care for the RAF family. What next We have launched our RAF100 Appeal website to inform people about the appeal and the city collections: We have also launched the volunteering recruitment webpage, this is where people can complete the registration form and submit the information to volunteer for an event/s: Wings Appeal items We are pleased to announce that two new pin badges will be available to support fundraising for the Wings Appeal in The first is the RAF100 Appeal pin badge, this will be extremely recognisable with the national media coverage of RAF100 events. The second pin also commemorates the RAF centenary with it being a badge of the World War I Sopwith Camel. They both come in packs of 20 and can be ordered via your branch s Wings Appeal Organiser by calling RAFATRAD on In the last area newsletter, we advised that the 2018 Wings Appeal order form would be sent to Wings Appeal Organisers in their February newsletter. Unfortunately, due to a production issue with our supplier s factory, our 2018 Wings Appeal ducks have been delayed. We wish to include images of these ducks in the order form so branches can see what they are ordering, we will send the order form out to Wings Appeal Organisers in April. Branches can continue to order all Wings Appeal collecting equipment and donation items by visiting and logging into your account or calling If you need further support with your fundraising please contact the Wings Appeal team by ing wings@rafa.org.uk or call Ian Wright on Social Media The Area now has its own Facebook page, you can find Follow us to find out what is going in and around the Area. If you would like any articles to be considered to go on the page please contact cat.brooks-price@rafa.org.uk or christina.narayan@rafa.org.uk. Lapsed members As of 6 April, the Area had 1583 Ordinary members and 1448 Associate members who had not yet renewed for this year. It is incumbent upon all of us to try and recover these lapsed members. Once again we ask all branches to make every effort to personally contact those of their members who have not yet renewed. It should not be forgotten that a personal visit or phone call to someone who has not yet renewed their membership may highlight an underlying welfare problem. Personal Data Privacy branches and clubs 5

6 The Association has a legal obligation to protect personal data in conformance with UK data protection legislation (currently the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998). The Association s Personal Data Privacy Policy, together with the associated Standard Operating Procedures, describe the measures necessary for the Association and its members to comply with the DPA. At branch level this means that any personal data held about branch members must only be used for legitimate Association purposes and that all personal data must be kept under strict control and not inadvertently shared or made available for unauthorised use. The Association is only able to share personal data with branch officials who have agreed to use such data in compliance with the policy and have signed the annual Certificate of Compliance for the protection of personal data. Some of our branches and clubs have not yet returned the signed certificate regarding compliance with the Data Protection Act, which was sent out last year. Until these certificates are returned, we are not able to provide those branches or clubs with membership lists. We would request those branches that have not yet returned their certificate to do so as soon as possible. If required, further copies of the certificate can be found on the Members Log-In Section of the RAF Association website or from the Area Headquarters by request to: eastern@rafa.org.uk. addresses We would be grateful if Branch Secretaries would encourage those members who have addresses, but do not yet receive the Area newsletter electronically, to get in touch with the Area Headquarters to ensure we have their address recorded. Standard bearers dress regulations Standard bearers are reminded that the guide for branch standard bearers is at Chapter 8 of the Admin Handbook. Contained within this chapter at paragraph 8.3 is guidance on the wearing of medals. This states: When applicable, full sized medals should be worn on all parades and ceremonies. Standard bearers should not wear commemorative or other unofficial medals. No insignia or badges should be worn except that of the Association. A Veterans Badge in addition to the Association s badge is also acceptable. The RAF Association President s Band The RAF Association President s Band is a successful and friendly band that performs music to a high standard and is comprised of approximately 40 talented players, including former RAF and military band musicians, music teachers, and many other walks of life. It gives regular performances around London and the south east of England, and has toured Ypres in Belgium, where it took part in a major Remembrance festival, France, Luxembourg, Brussels and most recently Malta. The band has also played at several RAF Association conferences including; Eastbourne, Hayling Island, Bexhill, and Bracklesham Bay. If your branch is planning an event, you might consider hiring the RAF Association President s Band for the occasion, or two or more branches might get together to hold a concert to raise money for the Wings Appeal. For more information visit the website at or contact the Band Manager at bandmanager@rafapbmusic.org or

7 Volunteering update Sam Squire, Area Volunteer Coordinator, South East & Eastern Area and Northern Area Volunteering update Since my first volunteering update, I have settled into my role as South East & Eastern Area and Northern Area Volunteer Coordinator and have greatly enjoyed getting to grips with the work it entails. It has been a really positive time for the Volunteering Team who have been working with those eager to volunteer with the Association in both welfare and fundraising roles. Indeed, with the celebration of 100 years of the Royal Air Force it really is an exciting time to become involved with the Association, and many prospective volunteers have mentioned how they have been enthused by the recent media coverage of the RAF100 events and celebrations. Information about how to support an RAF100 event can be found at It has also been a very positive month regarding the Volunteering Team s work with branches. We have been able to place several enthusiastic individuals within branches across the South East and Eastern areas. A notable example of this was my recent work with the Oxford and District Branch, where we were able to successfully place a volunteer who has been voted into the role of Secretary within the branch. Here is what Branch Chairman, Steve Guppy, had to say about his experience of the volunteering programme: Our new volunteer, Johanna, was very taken by what we are trying to achieve and asked that she be considered to take on the role of Secretary. She has since been voted into the role, and as result we now have a committee and are able to keep the branch going for another year. This success is just one example of how volunteers can be a great asset to branches as they can provide support to the branch where it is most needed. If your branch requires any volunteers then please do get in touch. I am also pleased to highlight further positive news regarding fundraising volunteers. We have a newly recruited fundraising team leader in Winchester, as well as team leaders undergoing training for other key locations across the South East and Eastern Area. These locations have been identified by the Fundraising Team using some detailed analysis which involved finding areas close to either current RAF units or where units closed in the last 30 years. This means there is a greater probability that families of personnel may have settled in the area. The analysis also took into account population size the larger a place the more supermarkets, businesses and shopping areas there will be to arrange collections as well as a sense check on whether they think personnel and their families would have lived in the area. Area Directors were consulted on each location to inform the Fundraising Team whether or not there are any active branches already collecting in the areas. Through this process it was identified that some areas did have activity already taking place, but it was agreed that the location could benefit from additional fundraising support. 7

8 We are still actively looking for fundraising team leaders for the Ipswich, Nottingham, Worksop, Didcot and Southend-on-Sea areas, as well as fundraisers to support these s. If you know of someone who could coordinate fundraising activities and manage a of fundraising volunteers in any of these areas, or would simply like to collect donations, then please direct them our website: to register their interest. In addition to branch volunteers and fundraising volunteers, we continually seek volunteers in the welfare roles of caseworker and befriender. Below is a list of the current volunteering roles we are advertising and the up-to-date list can always be found at To those of you who are interested, or know of someone who may be interested in a volunteering role, please visit our website at where you can see further information on our volunteer roles and how to get involved. Alternatively, I can be contacted directly on or via using sam.squire@rafa.org.uk Eastern Area Role vacancy required Number of vacancies Location of role for role Web Controller 1 Bedford Branch Wings Appeal Coordinators 2 Bedford Branch Branch Treasurer 1 Bedford Branch Membership Secretary 1 Bedford Branch Befrienders 4 Cambridgeshire area 11 Ipswich Fundraising Team Leader 1 Ipswich Wings Appeal Coordinator 1 Keyworth Branch 11 Loughborough Fundraising Team Leader 1 Loughborough Befrienders 3 Leicestershire Befrienders 8 Lincolnshire area Caseworker 1 Lincolnshire area Befrienders (urgent) 20 Norfolk area Caseworker 1 Norfolk area 11 Nottingham Fundraising Team Leader 1 Nottingham Caseworker 1 Nottinghamshire area Befrienders 7 Nottinghamshire area Assistant Wings Appeal Rushden & District 1 Officer Branch Social Events Coordinator 1 Cranwell Branch Wings Appeal Coordinator 1 Cranwell Branch 11 Skegness Social Events Coordinator 1 Scunthorpe Branch Wings Appeal Coordinator 1 Scunthorpe Branch Branch Treasurer 1 Scunthorpe Branch Branch Secretary 1 Scunthorpe Branch 8

9 Caseworker 6 Suffolk area Befrienders 4 Suffolk area 11 Worksop Fundraising Team Leader 1 Worksop South East Area Role vacancy required Number of vacancies Location of role for role Wings Collectors 2 Basingstoke Branch Wings Collectors 5 Bognor Regis Branch Fundraising Team Leader 1 Didcot 11 Didcot Befrienders 6 East Sussex area Caseworkers 4 Essex area Befrienders 8 Essex area Caseworkers 2 Hampshire area Befrienders 6 Hampshire area Befrienders 1 Hertfordshire area Branch Volunteer 1 Kensington Branch Caseworkers 2 Kent area Befrienders (urgent) 22 Kent area Caseworker 1 London area Befrienders 6 London area 11 Maidenhead Caseworker 1 Oxfordshire area 11 Portsmouth & Hayling Island 11 Slough Fundraising Team Leader 1 Southend on Sea 11 Southend on Sea Caseworkers 3 Surrey area Befrienders 4 Surrey area Caseworker 3 Sussex area Befriender 2 Sussex area Wings Collector 1 11 Winchester Witham & Rivenhall Branch 9

10 Ailsa Gough South East and Eastern Area Director Enc: 1. Ops tonight poster 2. RAF100 Baton Relay East of England Plan 3. RAF100 Baton Relay East of England Route 10