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Speaker Meeting Monday 11th March: Toby Pinn, Valuer and Former Auctioneer

Speaker Meeting Monday 11th March: Toby Pinn, Valuer and Former Auctioneer

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    Toby Pinn, who has entertained us on a number of occasions gave a most interesting talk at our Speaker Meeting on ‘The Fine Art of Valuation. Price is what you pay, value is what you get‘.He had brought a selection of objects and used these to show how prices change because of fashion and popular demand and because of the change in the value of gold and silver.The value of an item is dictated by market forces and therefore subject to constant change.Toby said that platinum used to be the most valuable metal, but its value had been overtaken by that of gold, while the value of silver had dropped.This affects the monetary value of objects but he pointed out that objects often have a value beyond price.Thank you Toby, it was a fascinating evening and we are already looking forward to your

Speaker Meeting Monday 12th February 2024: Welcome to our Regional President and The History of the Royal West of England Academy  – by Alison Bevan, Director/CEO

Speaker Meeting Monday 12th February 2024: Welcome to our Regional President and The History of the Royal West of England Academy  – by Alison Bevan, Director/CEO

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    We welcomed our Margaret Parkinson our Regional President  who joined us at our Speaker Meeting .  Thank you Margaret is was lovely seeing you here in Bristol.       Alison Bevan, Director/CEO gave a  fascinating talk about the history of Royal West of England Academy (RWA).      The RWA is Bristol’s first Art Gallery, described by Sir Nicholas Serota as one of the most beautiful galleries in the country.  The RWA began its existence in 1844 at the instigation of a woman artist, Ellen Sharples for the promotion of Fine Arts. It soon became an important and well-regarded art institution. One of the main activities has been to hold an Open Exhibition, with a brief break during the Second World War (when the building was requisitioned for use by GI’s stationed in Bristol). The annual exhibition has shown thousands of artworks by amateur artists as well

Speaker Meeting 8th January 2024: Welcome to Sharon followed by Bristol’s Lost City – Clive Burlton

Speaker Meeting 8th January 2024: Welcome to Sharon followed by Bristol’s Lost City – Clive Burlton

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    Welcome Sharon:   Before our Speaker Meeting we were delighted to welcome Sharon.  We know she will enjoy our programme work and will settle in quickly        Clive started by telling us that that the following story came about because of a photograph he found of his grandfather in the first world war.      He then told us that in 1914 a large area between Ashton Gate and Cumberland Basin was developed to house the Bristol International Exhibition.  They planned a trade fair and amusement park supported by the great and the good of Bristol.  200 workmen a week worked for just 10 weeks and then it opened.  He showed us many pictures of the site as it developed, and it was nicknamed “White City”.  It was an amazing site, that could be viewed from Bedminster Down.  The funds £100,000 were

Speaker Meeting 13th November 2023: The Wave – Nick Houndsfield

Speaker Meeting 13th November 2023: The Wave – Nick Houndsfield

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  At our evening meeting on November 13th the speaker was Nick Houndsfield whose vision and determination was the inspiration for The Wave, an inland surfing lake just outside of Bristol. It is an amazing story of how the Wave was built in 2019/2020, his philosophy behind the company focussing on the environment, health, sustainability and accessibility for all, men, women, children and for those with disabilities.  It was born out of a passion for technology, nature and human health. All should have enjoyment and fun. The team is working towards the ultimate goal of Paralympic inclusion for surfing. It was a truly inspiring evening given by a very modest man, thank you Nick.  

Speaker Meeting 9th October 2023: the Hunger Project – Rebecca Burgess CEO

Speaker Meeting 9th October 2023: the Hunger Project – Rebecca Burgess CEO

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    Rebecca came to talk to us about the Hunger Project which is part of a global charity founded in the 70’s.     Rebecca said that it will take another 132 years for women to reach gender parity and that 60% of the world population feeling hunger are women and girls.  This is not helped by the fact that 12 million girls are married as children under the age of 15. The Hunger Project works with communities to realise their own future, free from hunger and poverty.  They have 13 Programmes across Africa, South Asia and Latin America. All adapted to meet local challenges and opportunities, focusing on empowering people to lift themselves out of hunger. To date 11.9m people have been helped.  Hunger is caused by various things such as gender issues. The charity has three essential pillars: Start with Women Mobilise

Speaker Meeting 11th September: Welcome to Bridget followed by The M-Shed – Clive Brain

Speaker Meeting 11th September: Welcome to Bridget followed by The M-Shed – Clive Brain

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  Welcome Bridget: Before our Speaker Meeting we were delighted to welcome Bridget.  We know she will enjoy our programme work and will settle in quickly      The M Shed  – Clive Brain gave a sparkling talk to us about the M Shed Museum explaining that it’s called that because each shed along the docks was given a letter when Bristol was a working port with boats directed to the relevant one for unloading.      Clive showed interesting videos of behind the scenes at the museum along with current exhibits – including the double-decker Bristol bus that many of our grandchildren have had fun playing in over the years.  We learned that the well-known saying ship shape and Bristol Fashion resulted from the roping together of  boats moored alongside each other to provide stability and stop them toppling over because of the Avon’s 11 metre tidal drop. 

Speaker Meeting10th July: Louise Mitchell CBE, CEO of Bristol Beacon

Speaker Meeting10th July: Louise Mitchell CBE, CEO of Bristol Beacon

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Speaker Meeting10 July: Louise Mitchell CBE, CEO of Bristol Beacon Our July speaker was Louise Mitchell CBE, the CEO of Bristol Beacon.  She first came to speak to us in 2016 at the beginning of the massive refurbishment project.  She headed up the project which has transformed the Bristol Beacon (previously known then as the Colston Hall) into what promises to be a world class music venue of international standing. Her aim in 2016 was that the Hall would have wider use as a music venue and education centre.  In its refurbished state, the main Concert Hall will offer a diverse and dynamic range of music from orchestral classical to jazz to pop and much more in between!  Styles to attract not only a variety of audiences but also top-class performers. Besides the main Concert Hall there are also smaller, adaptable rooms suitable for conferences,

Speaker Meeting 12th June 2023: Amy Wade from Bristol and Avon Rivers Trust

Speaker Meeting 12th June 2023: Amy Wade from Bristol and Avon Rivers Trust

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  At our Speaker Meeting last night, we had a talk by Amy Wade from Bristol and Avon Rivers Trust.    The Trust encourages and provides opportunities for volunteering to help with monitoring rivers and taking action to prevent their further degradation among other things.   She began by illustrating the problems involved and then provided ideas for ways we could help including citizens’ science projects, joining the Riverblitz project between the 7th and 14th July and putting political pressure on our MPs by writing letters. Also our warmest congratulations to Anne, our longest serving member who was presented at the meeting with a Certificate for 55 Years of service as a Soroptimist. We were also delighted to be joined by three visitors who are considering joining our club

Speaker Meeting Monday 13th February 2023: Gary Best, Historian – Slavery in Bristol

Speaker Meeting Monday 13th February 2023: Gary Best, Historian – Slavery in Bristol

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  Gary started by telling us that his talk would be a brief outline of slavery in Bristol and Bristol’s involvement.      He said that all ancient civilizations had slaves and quoted the Bible on a number of occasions saying that it was pro-slavery and that slaves should be treated better.  Eventually slavery started to die out because it was said that if you were a Christian you could not have a slave. In the 15th Century John Cabot, encouraged by Henry 8th, was Bristol’s the first link to the slave trade.  John’s son Sebastian Cabot was a slave trader, at first only one or two people wanted to get involved then many more as they realised that amount of money it would attract.  Bristol’s involvement started with the sugar trade where they relied on the use of African slaves.  Due to the civil

Speaker Meeting Monday 9th January 2023: Andy Fraser of Bristol Community Magazines Ltd on “Being a Publisher”

Speaker Meeting Monday 9th January 2023: Andy Fraser of Bristol Community Magazines Ltd on “Being a Publisher”

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Andy started by covering the last 40 years of his life.  At the age of 16 he had career guidance, and it was suggested that he may like to become a journalist.  26 years later he is now doing media work as a publisher, publishing 2500 magazines per month.     There then followed a resume of his career and life. In 2006 he was made redundant and reached for a magazine “Prima” and he bought the rights.  He then bought BS9 and 17 years on it is still going strong.  He showed us copies of the original BS9 and the current version. After running BS9 for a few years he bought BS6 and BS8 which he then merged. BS9 is a monthly magazine on a four-week cycle and a Welsh company does the print run as there are only a few companies with the