Welcome to the November edition of our newsletter. The Chamber have been active in the last month promoting fund raising for the Christmas lights for which we have received excellent press coverage from both the Marlow Free Press and Maidenhead Advertiser – thank you to both for highlighting the need for support. We are also all systems go for the Late Night Shopping event held on the 3^rd December which starts at 6.00pm with carols on The Causeway – it is now a case of fingers crossed for the weather.

 

I was honored to represent the Chamber at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on November the 8^th at the war memorial in Marlow. I was particularly heartened by the number of people who made the effort to attend and believe that this may have been due to the heightened awareness of supporting our troops with the recent events, particularly in Afghanistan. I hope that the poppy appeal this year has been a success despite the current economic climate.

 

The November business meeting was held at Harleyford Golf Club – many thanks for your hospitality and updating us on the golf club together with the business and social facilities available. It was also very generous of you to offer preferential rates to Chamber members.

 

The meeting attracted over 35 members and guests and not only did we have the presentation from Trevor Collingwood from Harleyford Golf Club but also an update on the Marlow Experience from Vice President, Annie Mulady. Jo Braybrooke asked for marshals for the late night shopping event and also reported that the recent article in the Bucks Free Press had generated more sponsorship for the Christmas Lights. Martin Spittle gave the audience an informative presentation on the taxing subject of tax returns, VAT returning to 17.5% in January and rate evaluations. The latter resulted in members requesting a specific meeting about how to challenge rate evaluations which will be arranged for the New Year. Finally, we asked for venues and speakers for the meetings in 2010 – full minutes of the meeting are available on the website.

 

This month, our featured business is Glade End Guest House and we have articles about the Christmas lights, the Late Night Shopping event as well as some general business information.

 

We will not be producing a newsletter in December and so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members a Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.