The 2013 CRA Dinner

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This year's CRA Dinner will be held at Southover on 7th June.

Invitation letters will be sent in the post towards the end of March but it will aid planning (and cost!) if members respond to the email invitation sent on the 9th March.

For convenience, the invitation letter can also be downloaded directly from the CRA website or via the link below.

http://www.zen113982.zen.co.uk/cra/Dinner2013.pdf

This year, following extensive discussion, we are extending the invitation to the wives and partners of Centarians and we hope that this will encourage greater attendance levels. We will also be reducing the number (and length) of speeches in order for the social nature of the evening to come to the fore.

If you haven't attended a CRA dinner for a while, this may well be a good year to return.



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Ricochet 2013

Dear Members

We are intending to produce the next edition of our Association magazine "Ricochet" in time for the annual dinner on 7th June.

I'm sure you know that any magazine is only as good as its content and that club and association magazines such as ours rely largely on its membership for content.

So I'm writing today to ask you to put pen to paper (or these days fingers to keyboard). 

We would like to hear from you if you have any news that might go in "Notes and Jottings" or maybe a longer article that will stand on its own.  This might be recollections of your time in the cadets or during any form of military service or a more recent trip or visit with a military or similar theme or any other subject which you think might be of interest.

Photographs, drawings and cartoons are always welcome. 

We can receive material by email or post and can copy any original photos or negatives, etc which will then be posted back to you.

We would like to receive any material by Easter but our very last deadline would be the first week in May.

Please do not ignore this request and simply delete this email in the assumption that "someone else will produce something".  Remember if we don't get any articles we won't be able to produce our magazine.  Its up to you - our members.

Thanks in anticipation.

Look forward to seeing lots of you at  our dinner on 7th June,

Regards

Mick Crick

(Chairman & Magazine Secretary)

CRA Dinner 2012

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The invitation letter for this year's dinner can now be downloaded from www.c-r-a.org.uk

The dinner will be held on 8th June at Southover and this year's event promises to be the best ever with some very distinguished speakers lined up.

Information will be circulated by post and email, on the CRA website, Facebook, Twitter and of course here on our blog.

If you haven't attended a CRA dinner in a while, make this the year of your return. Timings are slicker these days and you are guaranteed an enjoyable evening in good company.

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CRA Dinner 2011

The 2011 CRA Dinner was a great success. A full report will follow in due course - but here are some images. As always, click on an individual image for a larger version but if you would like a full resolution copy for printing at home, please email me.

The 2011 CRA Dinner

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The 2011 CRA Dinner will be held at Southover on the 3rd June.

The usual letters and emails will be going out shortly - but make a note in your diary and please make every effort to attend this year. You can save a great deal of administration time (and postage costs) if you download the invitation letter directly from the CRA website at www.c-r-a.org.uk

If you were at the 2010 dinner you will know that the change of caterer allowed us to achieve sensible timings so that member with great distances to travel were not inconvenienced (and more local members could spend more time at the bar).

Our innovation this year is the ability to pay by Paypal which may be more convenient for some members. Simply email dinner@c-r-a.org.uk for a Paypal invoice.

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CRA Dinner 2010

The 2010 CRA Dinner took place on 4th June at Southover. A more detailed write-up follows shortly. In the meantime, a slideshow of images has been uploaded which can be found in the right hand side-bar

CRA Dinner 2010

The 2010 CRA dinner will be held at Southover on the 4th June 2010.

Please watch this space for further announcments. The dinner invitation letter wil be sent out in the next week or so and a downloadable version placed on the main CRA website.
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CRA Dinner 2009 Images Uploaded

Images from the 2009 CRA Dinner have now been uploaded and can be viewed in the slideshow on the right.

The pictures have been reduced in size for easy online viewing. Please contact the webmaster if you would like full resolution copies for printing at home.
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CRA Dinner 2009 - The Newsletter

This year I have decided to send e-mail newsletters to members advising them of progress with the preparations for the Dinner. If you did not receive the first newsletter, I have copied the text below for your convenience. If you believe that I do not have your e-mail address (or I have it recorded incorrectly) please let me know.

CRA Dinner 2009 Newsletter No 1

Welcome to the CRA Dinner 2009 newsletter. Now that I have the Membership Secretary “hat” as well as the one for the Dinner Secretary, I thought I'd use my newly acquired database to provide you with an update on preparations for the dinner.

To be honest, I also have an ulterior motive. After the losses of recent years, it is of paramount importance that the dinner covers its costs. The only way it does this is with a good attendance and I hope this newsletter acts as a reminder to you to put your cheque in the post if you haven't done so already.

Even if you know you are going to attend the dinner this year please respond promptly. A number of payments have to be made in advance of the dinner and this year the inestimable Pierre has insisted on payment on the night for the balance. This seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable request in the current climate and in would help me enormously if members paid as far in advance as possible.

A number of members have already responded and I am happy to report that after only a few weeks, we are looking at a healthy attendance. This year promises to be another memorable dinner and it gives me great pleasure to confirm that our main speaker this year will be Tom Harrison (CCF '47-'54) not forgetting the fact that our own Chairman Mick Crick is in his Presidential year of the OF Club.

You will be aware that this year, your committee has decided not to include wine in the cost of the dinner. There are a number of reasons for this, including the fact that some members choose not to drink (or choose to drink large amounts !) and others have long distances to drive. Members may be wondering what arrangements are in place for the purchase of wine and I can confirm that ample stocks are being laid on and members can purchase wine at the bar on the night.

I hope to have a wine list with prices for the next newsletter which I intend to send out at the end of April
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CRA Dinner 2009

The "book" is now open for the 2009 CRA Dinner to be held at Southover on the 29th May. Invitation letters will be sent out before the end of March but keen members wishing to be ahead of the game can download a copy of the letter here:

http://www.zen113982.zen.co.uk/cra/webinv09.pdf

I look forward to seeing you all on the 29th May.

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A message from your Chairman - OF Dinner 20th March

Dear Association Member

I am sending you this email as a reminder that the Old Finchleians Dinner is to be held at the Clubhouse, Southover on Friday 20th March 2009. You should have been sent a letter a couple of months ago but may have forgotton or not got around to responding. It is not too late to decide to attend.

As this year's OF President I would welcome your support at this function. If you are able to attend please email me either through the CRA website, by reponding to this blog post or if you still have the dinner letter, contact John Bowra by phone.

I look forward to seeing you in two weeks time.

Best Wishes

Mick Crick

CRA Dinner 2009

Members who like to organise their diaries early will be pleased to note that the date for this year's CRA Dinner is announced as:

Friday 29th May 2009

Members will of course receive their usual invitation in the post in due course.

This year, our Chairman, Mick Crick is also the Old Finchleians President so we can be assured that all our speakers will be of the highest calibre.

Please make every effort to attend so that this year, we can crack the 50 diners target.

One change for this year is that as a result of comments received, wine will no longer be included in the price of the dinner. This will allow us to reduce the price and your committee hopes that members will prefer this approach.

CRA Dinner 2008 - Report

28 Centarians and their guests sat down to dine on the 30th May 2008 at Southover. This was a disappointing turnout and I suspect that members who hear about the outstanding speeches and excellent food will wish that they had attended the 2008. I hope that next year will see a return to numbers of diners in the high 40's or even the elusive 50.

Pierre’s catering was, once again, exemplary and I suspect that once again Centarians will have anticipated the late finish. However hard we try to finish at a reasonable time there is always something that conspires against us - and this year was no exception.

Our speakers this year were Steve Goldsmith, Gary Tucker and Peter Johnson and a number of members were heard to remark that Peter's speech was the best in living memory (and that's a very long time).

The low numbers always puts pressure on costs and this has lead to a loss for the association. Please make every effort to attend next year if only for the sake of the CRA's bank balance

Thanks as always to Mike Crick for his assistance with menu cards, Geoff Owen for the drinks arrangements and to Pierre for the catering.

Photographs from the event can be seen in the slideshow further down this page. Alternatively, visit http://www.c-r-a.org.uk/ and follow the link to "Photographs and Reports from CRA Dinners" to see the 2008 pictures. Also on the 2008 page is a link to the text of Peter Johnson's excellent and thought provoking speech.

CRA Dinner 2008

This year's dinner will be held on Friday 30th May at Southover. If you have not yet responded to the dinner invitation please do so as soon as possible to help with planning. If you have lost, or did not receive the invitation, you can download another copy from:

http://www.c-r-a.org.uk

As always, the food will be excellent, the speeches illuminating and you will have the chance to catch up with old friends in a convivial atmosphere.