Private party ?

[MikeWilliams]

I was interested to read the range of responses from committee members above! I also remember the very same problem about the BBQ at that venue maybe fifteen years ago when my brother and his wife arrived on the Sunday and were not able to lunch with us.

This all relates nicely to the point David Davies made less than a week ago, on how the Sunday can be made more attractive to visitors who are not inclined to spend all day in a car park. Perhaps it also ties in with his suggestion of a 5 year plan?

Although I am no longer a member, I am disappointed with the suggestion that none of this should be debated by members on a JOC forum but “in future feed back as such should be sent in via e-mail” – i.e. kept secret. How then are the views of members (and maybe non-members too) to be gained?

Mike

[Martin R]

Although I am no longer a member, I am disappointed with the suggestion that none of this should be debated by members on a JOC forum but “in future feed back as such should be sent in via e-mail” – i.e. kept secret. How then are the views of members (and maybe non-members too) to be gained?
Mike

Hello Mike, I suspect the fact that the Forum is an open forum, viewable by anyone, such discussions should probably be kept within the "members only" section, or via email as suggested.
The reason I say this is that these kind of discussions can descend (and have done so in the past) into heated arguments and give the appearance of "unfriendliness" within the club.

My own experience is that everyone I've met is friendly!

Was the weekend a success? I'd say definitely!
Was it perfect? I'd say not but, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Overall, given the problems all hospitality venues are going through recruiting staff, I think they all tried very hard.
I'm sure the issues raised here will be taken on board and hopefully attempts will be made to address them for future events.

I certainly wouldn't fancy doing the job (for free) and receiving all the fall-out when things don't go as originally planned!

[VFK44]

Can I make clear that my opinion, and probably that of everyone in the club, is that we are lucky to have such a well planned and successful annual meeting, and it is only because the basics are in place that we are able to build on this and discuss any improvements.

Just because I had a lovely time doesn't mean I should not think about others.

Also, I am personally in favour of letting in the light of day on club processes and prefer polite respectful forum discussion than emails: the views of people on this thread would not have come to light if we stuck to emails.

[DPP]

I gave my burger to Minty, Dave Pearce's dog.

I Love Minty, He is my Favorite person in the whole Club. I hope he feels the same about me
MINTY, ARE YOU HERE

Grant you know Minty loves you especially if you bring sausages, he’s very tired today after such a busy weekend though.

[VFK44]

[written two weeks ago] I remember one year a new owner turned up to find virtually everybody had cleared off on a road trip, and there was no central info point he could go to. Luckily I've seen him at events since...
Maybe we could try to decide if the event is just for insiders, or if we want to attract new blood.

We are making progress - a very smart and useful blackboard at this year's event meant that Colin at least knew where and when everyone was! I'm sure that, like me, lots of people have got brilliant(?) cheap and easy solutions to discuss. How is this best progressed?

We ARE a friendly club and most people ARE ready to reach out to newcomers.

[colin7673]

I don't think Colin was asked to leave as someone stated. Just wasn't allowed to the BBQ as he didn't have a ticket.

As working in the catering industry, all be it smaller, it's always difficult to get correct numbers,, the BBQ was, as someone said was burgers and sausage with salad and these's are always something that the hotel would or should have in the freezer, to cater for an exact amount isn't a good idea, because you never ever get an exact amount of people, so an extra person to feed shouldn't have been a problem even if Colin was asked to make a contribution, upon showing his membership card.
The hotel should shoulder a lot of the blame because they knew that the JOC was attending, as a returning customer, near two years ago, the pandemic stopped the JOC attending last year.
To have staff shortages is really bad planning, also it's been said here, that they were catering for three weddings over the same weekend so clearly they "over stretched" themselves thinking they could have managed.

[mikebyrne]

I fully sympathise with "Woodie's" experience and chagrin.
Was this exclusion fact well advertised in the Magazine and forum well before the event ?
If not, then I feel he was well justified in feeling put out of the inner sanctum.
If this failure was going to re-occur next year, then surely club members should be warned
of the possibilities and advised to bring picnic hampers and possibly tents in the event of
adverse weather conditions to avoid any further avoidable problems.
Re the national day, can anyone tell me when the event was last held in East Anglia ?
I realise that it is sited in the middle of the UK , or thereabouts, but now that many members
travel hundreds of miles from the continent, surely we should favour them once in a while
with a venue that is nearer the ports and the chance of several hunders of miles less for the to travel?
Mike.

[zacmarshall]

I'm not sure about East Anglia but it was in Hull recently, I know some of the European members actually did far fewer miles than UK members to get there (not including the distance on the ferry )

Re the national day, can anyone tell me when the event was last held in East Anglia ?
I realise that it is sited in the middle of the UK , or thereabouts, but now that many members
travel hundreds of miles from the continent, surely we should favour them once in a while
with a venue that is nearer the ports and the chance of several hunders of miles less for the to travel?
Mike.

[Stuartjensen]

Morning Mike

We had provision for poor weather, the marque was big enough to accommodate members if the monsoon conditions we had on Thursday recurred.

It has always been the case that the hotels we use need meals to be ordered and paid for in advance; the issue this year was that staffing and delivery issues resulted in the provision of sandwiches etc at the bar was not possible. These issues are affecting all of the hospitality industry, not just our hotel.

If there is demand we could happily make provision for Sunday lunch on the booking site? Like all the other aspects for our booking it would have to be paid for in advance.

The preceding International Weekend was just outside Hull (2019), one of the tongue in cheek "complaints" from one of our Dutch friends was that he used the International to allow his Healey to stretch its legs annually but had only covered 62KM door to door!

I would be happy to go further afield (our Norwegian friends seem to have a keenness for the Scottish Highlands). Often the determining factor is our hotel requirements, mainly a big carpark we can make private and enough bedrooms and function rooms. It helps if they are not licenced for weddings! Yours is only the second mention of East Anglia but if you know of anywhere suitable please get in touch.

[colin7673]

Morning Mike
the issue this year was that staffing and delivery issues resulted in the provision of sandwiches etc at the bar was not possible. These issues are affecting all of the hospitality industry, not just our hotel

Sorry Stuart, but making my living in the food industry, the only thing that has effected my business in the last year has been Covid, where people have been working from home.
All our bread comes from Nottinghamshire and we haven't had any problems receiving our weekly order, or any of our other products. And to fulfill our customers needs we use 5/6 different companies
Staffing may have been an issue but with the events that was held at the hotel on the same weekend they should have planned better.
It would be interesting to see if the wedding parties had any issues.

[Martin R]

Colin, virtually every hospitality business in England, possibly the UK, is suffering from a lack of workers.
It's been widely publicised in the news and, I have personal experience of the difficulties restaurants are having recruiting staff post-lockdown. Hotels are in the same boat.
Many workers moved into different roles in other industries, rather than sit at home, not sure they'd have a job or if the restaurant they worked for will even ever re-open. Many haven't.
Some foreign workers moved back to their home country during lockdown to be with families, in part as many live-in pubs, which were closed, meant they lost their accomodation when the pub shut.
Some of those workers will never come back. Some may not have the relevant paperwork to live & work in the UK now.
A lot of products and produce comes from across the UK and far beyond. There is a huge shortage of lorry drivers, again very well publicised everywhere. Many supermarkets have large gaps on their shelves where they haven't received deliveries. Maybe the ones near you aren't affected?
You appear to be unaware of this current well publicised situation.
The number of rooms for the JOC weekend was actually reduced from normal levels to help to alleviate staff pressures / shortages.
Having said all of that, I personally never had to wait long at the bar, breakfast went well (cold plates on Sat / Sunday aside) and the food was "OK" for the mass catering.
It's rarely if ever "good".
Compared to some previous JOC weekends, where I recall waiting outrageous times for beverages or service, this one was comparatively superb.

[VFK44]

Our local Shell garages in Essex ran out of Diesel and normal petrol last night. Only 99 octane available. Due to lorry driver shortage.

[MikeWilliams]

Our local Shell garages in Essex ran out of Diesel and normal petrol last night. Only 99 octane available. Due to lorry driver shortage.

My local BP garage near Olney has been like that for three years - no diesel 10% of the time. Maybe there were driver shortages back then?

Mike

[Chris_R]

Our local Shell garages in Essex ran out of Diesel and normal petrol last night. Only 99 octane available. Due to lorry driver shortage.

My local BP garage near Olney has been like that for three years - no diesel 10% of the time. Maybe there were driver shortages back then?

Mike

There has been a lorry driver shortage for many years. In 2018/2019 before the pandemic and before Brexit the RHA estimated a 60,000 driver shortage. They added to that about 20,000 EU drivers that returned to their homes in the EU and didn't come back either because they decided their home family was more important than working away from home in the UK or because they couldn't come back due to the ending of free movement of labour. Then there were 30,000 driver tests that didn't happen in 2020 due to the lockdown. Which gives us our (approximate) 100,000 driver shortage. I did read there is also a lorry driver shortage across Europe as well.

[VFK44]

Still no diesel or 95 RON tonight. All the nozzles tied up with hazard tape.