Bathford-Artannes 2005
The good relationship with our friends in Artannes continues to be forged. As indicated in my pre-Christmas Newsletter, it is intended that the formal twinning will commence in summer 2005 with a signing of the Twinning Charter in Bathford followed by a similar event in Artannes in 2006. As far as the Bathford signing is concerned, we as an Association will have to raise funds towards the programme of activities that will then take place. We hope to obtain EC funding towards this but that may be slow in generating and we must build up a reserve to stay solvent! Our current reserve stands at about £500 but we anticipate that this will need to be raised to about £2000. It is our intention therefore to hold several fund raising events over the next 18 months. Details of the first two of these are given below so please note them in your diary as we do hope that we can look forward to your continued support in achieving our objectives. This support may vary from giving specific help with the events or just buying tickets and coming along to enjoy yourselves. Don't forget to bring your friends!!

Safari Supper
Planning is already underway for this, the first of our fundraising events and it will take place during the evening of Saturday 5 June 2004. Most of you will have experienced this type of function and know that it involves enjoying dinner whilst moving between 3 venues, taking one course at each stop - finally all meeting up for coffee at the end. Colin Priston is organising the event (he has set up a number of successful such suppers in the Kingsdown area) and he is looking for offers from people willing to host a course in their home for about 6 - 8 participants. Although each course will be prepared in the hosting house, the costs of ingredients will be re-imbursed from the takings. If you can do this, do please get in contact with Colin on 01225 743499 as soon as possible. Safari Suppers are very jolly events and a great chance to meet lots of new people.

Open Gardens Day
This will be the second event of our programme for 2004 and will take place on Sunday 18 July in Bathford and Kingsdown. Four gardens will be open for the afternoon and, for the price of a single entry ticket, you will be able to visit all four as well as taking afternoon tea at one of the venues. More details will follow nearer the time but if you have any questions about this event, please contact me on 01225 859132. Offers of help with cake making and serving teas would be welcome - but most of all, sell lots of tickets to your friends!

Parish Plan Quiz Night
The Association has agreed to join with the Parish Council in the presentation of this event that is being organised at 7.30pm on Friday 23 April in the Parish Rooms. Entry is £6 per head and there will be a quiz, raffle and supper. Our role will be to lay on the simple supper (our catering talents are becoming famous!) and we shall receive a share in any profits made. (Tickets - reputed to be going fast - Ring Stan Cherry on 859344). We welcome this chance to co-operate with the Parish Council and to further raise our profile in the village.

Meeting with Batheaston Twinning Association
The committees of the two Associations had a useful and thought-provoking evening on 23 February at the Bathford Rugby Club. Subjects discussed included membership recruitment, fund raising and handling exchange visits. The evening was judged a success and will be repeated in the autumn. The meeting was followed by a ploughman's supper and skittles.

Youth Involvement in Twinning
Right from the outset, we have been hoping to stimulate interest from young people in the village in the benefits to be derived from the twinning contact. Thus far, any success in this direction has been minimal. The matter is all the more embarrassing because there is distinct interest coming from Artannes. This is particularly true in the case of their primary school where the head teacher, Philippe Diard, is Secretary of their twinning committee. Philippe has been on both of the visits to Bathford. Some contact using e-mail exchanges has now been set up between the two primary schools and we are resolved to try to encourage more interest in Artannes and France in our local school in their geography teaching etc. Additionally we intend to contact our secondary school, St Mark's, with a view to similarly encouraging interest there.

However there are other young people in the village who go to school elsewhere and we would like to spread our contact more broadly to reach all youth sectors in our village. In this connection, Richard Lees, along with one or two friends, has been using some spare time in his gap year to further our interests in this direction. Richard himself spent several weeks in Artannes last year, working within their primary school and so he is well placed to know what is going on there and what the opportunities might be. He has come up with a number of very positive suggestions that have been enthusiastically welcomed by the committee. I have invited him to use this newsletter to present these ideas to our membership. His contribution is set out below.

Progress of Youth Twinning
A fter such a long period of inactivity, it is wonderful to be able to bring you news of the direction of our youth twinning programme. This has moved forward in several directions simultaneously. Firstly, we now have the full support of the primary school, both for youth twinning and for the Twinning Association. There was a small misunderstanding which caused a breakdown in communications and this has now been fully restored. We also have a new organisation involved in the link. The Bathford Youth Twinning Forum had its first meeting on 5 April and is taking the responsibility for building enthusiasm for the link amongst the young people of Bathford. The Forum will be responsible for a club, which will be open to all young people in our area aged between 8 and 25. It is generally agreed that a full exchange involving this club is a very long way off but the club will aim to foster interest in the link by the use of a regular newsletter and a series of events.

Letters inviting membership of this club will shortly be delivered to the under 11s with the support of the primary school. It now remains for us to develop a link with St Mark's School so that the 11 - 16 age group can be contacted. If anyone known to you is interested in joining, please do let me or anybody on the Twinning Association Committee know. I have been able to represent the Forum at the Twinning Committee meetings and the cooperation between the organisations is strong. We discussed the possible ways in which our groups might work together and this proved fruitful. The outlook for our link seems more positive than ever and this is an exciting new opportunity to bring another group of people into something that has already given many of us a lot of pleasure and interest.
Richard Lees
(Contact Richard on 859508)

Visit Information
July:
We hope that the our French visitors will arrive on Friday 2 July, but failing that they will certainly be coming on Saturday 3 July and departing Tuesday 6 July. Planning for this visit is about to start and we shall be looking for hosts in due course. I would welcome hearing from anyone who would like to go on the list for hosting. During the visit we are hoping to give more time to hosts to spend with their guests both to get to know them better and to ensure that they see any items of personal interest. There will, of course, be group visits as well and the usual social get-togethers in the evenings. Keep a space free in your diary for the evening of Saturday 3 July when there will be an open-to-all social event with supper in the Parish Rooms.

September:
With regard to the dates for our own visit to Artannes in September, these have yet to be agreed due to a clash in events there. More news will follow as soon as I know the outcome.

Need any help in the Summer?
A young man (20) from Artannes would like to spend the month of July in Bathford to improve his English. He would be happy to do any kind of work for his board but payment is not important. It is possible that his time could be split into 4 separate weeks or 2 fortnights etc. Interested? - Ring John Lees 859508 or Maureen Breeze 852444.