London & South East Branch of the Institute of Physics
Retired Members’ Section (REMS)
The download area is at the end of this letter. 21 Coombe Gardens
London SW20 0QU
Tel: 020 8946 3399
Mobile: 07758 085741
Email: reinalt@physics.org
15 November, 2009 REMS visits in January, February and March 2010
Six events have been organised for you this quarter including one walk on the London Loop circuit.
The main method of distribution is by email. Those of you, who have requested hard copies for various reasons, will receive them by 2nd class post in a few days time along with members, who don’t have an email address.
You will find the details of the events in my REMS website, which is at reinalt.co.uk/rems.aspx (there is no www. in the address). You can display the home page by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the web address above or by copying the address to your web browser. If you use the former method and the table of events at the end of the webpage isn’t displayed correctly, please use the latter method. The home page contains a copy of this email (it is there for people, who join in mid quarter) followed by the table of events. You can see the details of an event by clicking on its name in the table. You can print this web page or you can download the details of the events in Adobe format by clicking the appropriate cell in the download column of the table. There are also links to download a copy of this email, the booking form and the organisers’ guide. If you prefer to download everything in one go, there is a link for you to do that also. You can download the booking form in Adobe or Word format. If you don’t have a copy of Adobe Reader, you can enter “Adobe Reader” into Google and select one of the free download options.
The website is provided free through Microsoft Office Live, so there must be some limitations. If you can’t access the site at peak times, please try again later. If you have a problem linking to an event page and downloading any document or documents, please let me know and I will send it or them to you as attachments as quickly as I can. If you are not sufficiently familiar with the internet to access the website or to download documents, please tell me and I’ll add your name to the list of members, who receive hard copies. I may grumble about the cost of postage etc., but it is important to me that you should receive all the details of our events.
I still maintain the REMS webpage in the IOP website. You can reach it from the London & SE Branch web page at london.iop.org (again no www.) and clicking on Retired Members. It is controlled by the IOP, hence its geeky look, and is updated at the beginning of each quarter. It is primarily intended for branch members, who want to see what we do. I don’t update it until after the last event of the current quarter.
REMS visits secretary
In my last letter, I announced that I would be retiring next year after 3 years as secretary. No one has come forward.
This is the third last mailing, which I shall be producing. We need one or more people to take over the job in time to produce the August 2010 mailing. I’ve written “one or more”, because I think that the job can be split between liaising with organisers and liaising with members. The secretary is not responsible for ensuring that there are enough events in a quarter; members come forward with proposals to organise all the events. We may have 12 events as in the last quarter or 6 as in this quarter. The secretary must be sufficiently familiar with computers to be able to handle emails and maintain the database of members and events. If you are interested in knowing more about what the job entails, please contact me.
Emails
I have 2 email addresses, reinalt@physics.org and reinaltvw@googlemail.com You can use either, but I always reply from the googlemail address. If you don’t receive some emails, which you are expecting from me, it could be because they have gone into your junk or spam folders or because you haven’t told me that you’ve changed your email address. If the former, please add my email address to your safe or trusted senders list.
I always reply to or acknowledge emails sent to me, except when there is obviously no need. So if you don’t receive a reply, when you expect one, please email me again or telephone me.
Method of allocation of places on visits
I will be allocating places to visits on about the 30th November according to your orders of preference (not the order of receipt of your application). Most people are allocated their first choice and many people get their second choice. This is why it is important that you fill in the order of preference column and only use each number once. 1 is first preference, 2 is second preference, etc. If you don’t do this, you may not get on your preferred visits. There is no need to enter an order of preference in the cells, which already contain zero.
The easiest way to return the booking form is to download the Word version, fill it in using Word and attach it to an email to me. Otherwise download either version, fill it in and mail or email it to me at the above address.
After the above date, I suggest that you contact me first to check the availability of places. If you telephone and we’re out, you may leave a message on the ansafone, but please speak your name and telephone number clearly and slowly enough for my defective ears to hear them properly. When an event is full, I’ll maintain a waiting list and use that to fill any cancellations. You will be able to see if there is a waiting list by looking at the events table on my REMS page, although I must confess that I haven’t updated it much this quarter.
Paying for visits
You can either send me:
one cheque with the words “Not more than £” and a maximum amount, when you return the booking form (this is our preferred method, because it reduces the number of credits, which I have to make);
one cheque for the total amount, when you receive your allocations from me;
one cheque for each visit, when you return the booking form, and I will tear up all cheques for visits, on which you didn’t get a place.
I really would prefer you not to send me a cheque with the total amount written in along with the booking form. It is highly probable that you won’t get on all your selected visits and you’ll end up having a credit with REMS.
All cheques should be made payable to the IOP.
The January 2010 At Home
The IOP is no longer paying for alcoholic drinks at meetings. Starting with this At Home, we will be paying for what we drink. REMS has sufficient funds to pay for the drinks this time, but it may not be possible to do this every time and the cost of the day will have to be increased to cover this extra cost.
Future At Homes
The July 2010 At Home will be on the subject of medical physics and will take place on Thursday 8th July 2010and the January 2011 At Home will be a miscellany of speakers and topics and will take place on Thursday 13th January 2011. Please make a note of the dates – if your diary stretches that far ahead.
Our At Homes are always an enjoyable occasion and an opportunity to bring guests and to talk to fellow members and the speakers. The room hire and refreshments are paid for by the branch. All we pay for individually is our lunch.
We are looking for more people to chair our At Homes. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know. Your reward is a free lunches
Can you organise a visit?
Since I became the REMS visits secretary, some 30 members have organised visits. Some of them organise two or more visits in a quarter. We are relying on a small number of people to keep us supplied. We have another 200 members, who are not organising visits. Some of you must have ideas of places to visit or favourite places, which you could introduce other members to. As an added incentive, organisers don’t pay for their visits (REMS doesn’t pay for lunches except at At Homes) and I give them additional priority on other visits. We will also pay their incidental expenses incurred while organising visits.
If you have suggestions for a visit or would like to organise a visit, please enter the name of the place or places on the visits form. If you need help or guidance, please let me know. I can add maps to the flyer, if you don’t have the facilities. There is a file containing guidelines for organisers, which can be downloaded from the REMS web page or I can email or mail it to you.
There is no need to wait until you receive these mailings to give me your suggestions. If you know of any exhibitions or places, which require a more immediate visit, you can let me know.
Badges
Most of us wear a badge with our name on it, when we are on a visit. It helps the organisers to identify members and is a useful aid in getting to know other members. If you would like a badge, please write your name in the appropriate place in the booking form. As a guide, most of us just show our first name and surname, but you can write your name in your preferred way. I should stress that a badge isn’t obligatory.
Cancellations
It is disappointing when members cancel at the last minute and even worse when they just don’t turn up. When this happens, people on the waiting list are deprived of the opportunity to attend the visit instead. Please give as much notice as you can, if you decide not to come for whatever reason.
Late comers
Some of the visit flyers tell you how to find the group if you arrive at the meeting place late. For the others, I suggest that you make a note of the organiser’s and my mobile phone numbers and ring one of us as soon as you know that you will be late.
Admin charge
I am continuing to add a small admin charge of £1 or £2 to the visits this quarter. It helps to cover the costs of organising the visits and any losses which an occasional visit makes.
Future visits
To see future visits, which have been organised or are being planned, please click here.
If you notice any mistakes in the web pages or flyers, please let me know. I will correct them as soon as possible. Any suggestions for improving the website will be gratefully received.
Regards
Reinalt Vaughan-Williams
REMS Visit Secretary
End of the secretary's letter
Start of download area
If you have a problem downloading a file, it may be because there are too many other members accessing this webpage. I suggest that you try the download a little later. I’m using Microsoft Office Live for the website. The advantage is that it is free; the disadvantage is that I don't know its limitations.
My latest letter can be downloaded by clicking here.
The booking form can be downloaded in Word format by clicking here or in Adobe format by clicking here. Alternatively, you can open the booking form web page by clicking here and copying or printing that.
You can download and print my latest letter, booking form and details of all the visits in one large file by clicking here.
The guide for organisers can be downloaded by clicking here. It also contains a list of REMS visits since 2002, which may help potential organisers to find a visit, which they would like to organise.
You can view the details of individual events by clicking on the name of the event in the table below. I’ve attempted to make the pages as similar to the flyers as my limited knowledge allows. You can print the pages if you want to. Alternatively the flyers for individual events can be downloaded by clicking in the appropriate row of the Download column in the table below.
If you have any problems downloading a file, please email the secretary, who will be happy to mail a hard copy to you. I have written most Word files in an old format, which can be read by all versions of Word. But those with pictures are in Word 2003. If you can't read those, please download the Adobe version.
The programme for January, February and March 2010 is as follows:
You can still download the Glyndebourne and Capital Ring Walk 2 flyers by clicking on the names.
This page was last updated on 17/11/2009.