November 200 Club Draw

The November 200 club draw was held on the 24th. The lucky winners are
1st prize £50 Nbr 73 Mr J Beaven
2nd prize £25 Nbr 20 Mr S Morgan
3rd prize £10 Nbr 177 (unsold)

Congratulations to the winners.
The next draw will be the big Christmas £200 draw!!!
Numbers are still available for only £1 per month so please contact Jane if you would like to participate.

Building work under way

We are preparing for the knocking-through into the back room which is scheduled for 8 December and are busy scheduling the building works with electricians, plumbers etc. Most of the dust should have settled by the end of January we hope! Meanwhile we have been in touch with all the shareholders with a questionnaire and newsletter, and have had a great response - over 30% have returned their questionnaires within 2 weeks. Thanks to a handy contact we have been able to talk to people very high up within Post Office Ltd, who did some research and area-modelling and (as we expected) have confirmed we cannot have any kind of an official PO branch. However, our plans for alternative services continue to evolve, and we shall have PayPoint for paying bills, free cashback up to £50, and a Postal Point modelled on a couple of other community shops in the West Country where it has proved to be a very useful service.
We are delighted to have a new committee member in Alix Smith, who is bringing her energy to the project and has already helped us with tasks such as liquor licence etc. At the same time we are sad to say goodbye to Chlodia Morton who is having to resign from the committee due to personal and work pressures. She has been invaluable in setting up the project and we shall miss her support.
We are looking actively for volunteers in any capacity as this is a large but short-term project and the small committee is working flat out. Even an hour or two's Googling would help. Anyone know where we can get some old sweetie jars??

The Building Work Starts

Finally the building work has started. Last weekend Darren, with volunteer help from David Ludlow and Mickey, set about stripping the ceiling and the side room to prepare for the work ahead. They made great progress and it's exciting to see the transformation begin. The new shop front should be installed around Christmas. We have visited a similar project in West Meon and got lots of practical advice which is invaluable.
We are on course to open in mid March, so it's going to be a very busy time over the next few months. There are still plenty of opportunities for you to get involved, so please get in touch and join us as the vision becomes a reality.