Presentation by John Thompson Festival Director
Festival Seminars a Great Success !
Our four Charity Stewards seminars have been a tremendous success with over 200 attending at Gateshead, Shiney Row, Ferryhill and Stockton as we covered the Province. Festival President Norman Eric Heaviside along with other members from the Executive were there in attendance to support the Festival Team. Eric opened the seminars and addressed all who attended before handing over to John Thompson, the Festival Director.
John along with Paul Quinn, Andrew Foster, Edwin Jeffrey, Andrew Thompson and many other members of his team, via a projected PowerPoint display, went on to explain the fundamental objectives the 2021 festival which was to raise funds for the RMTGB but equally to raise awareness for the charity and importantly how the brethren could access the support.
John went on to explain to the Charity Stewards that it’s important that we ‘keep the message simple and clear’ he pledged more support than ever for the Charity Steward.
The main announcement of the meetings was the qualification amount to become a Steward of the Festival, for the commitment of just over 26p a day which equates to £8 a month (not including gift aid tax) for 60months / 5 years the recipient if they wish would receive a festival Jewel free of charge.
The Festival Director encouraged everyone to start the continuous giving if they had not already done so. A monthly commitment now for the qualification amount would entitle them to receive the Jewel at the start of our Festival , which would allow them to wear it for the entire festival period.
John went on to thank everyone and the brethren of Durham for the fantastic support to date, through the continuous giving process or the ‘dripping tap’ as the PGM likes to refer to it we have raised £700,000 to date.
He pointed out repeatedly in the presentation the importance of Gift aid Tax, and how the donations through continuous giving, the gift aid envelope scheme and individual fund raising activities we could maximise the donations by an additional 25%, as he put it “Money for nothing”
The Gala Director Andrew Foster gave an update on the Gala preparations and encouraged lodges to book their stall and take part in what will be the biggest single fund raising event during the Festival.
With now less than 100 days away from the festival launch, Andrew Thompson, The Launch organizer, explained over 700 tickets have already been booked for the Sage festival launch, which is going be a variety performance highlighting children who have been supported by the trust along with local talent of which it is hoped every Lodge will be represented.
The final date for the allocation of Lodge tickets has been extended to 20th November.
Tickets can be posted out if a SAE is enclosed with the application or they can will be able to be collected from the Sage Box office from 2.30pm onwards on the day, January 24th 2016. The show will then start at 7pm, so book now!
The meetings was then drawn to a close and very close to which Eric Thanked John and his team for the hard work they have done so far in setting up all these seminars and the behind the scene works in providing all the information.
Similar 30minute lodge presentations can be booked by Lodges by contacting paul.quinn@durham2021.org