Hi folks, lots of news from Thriplow Shop so here goes....

1. New staff required
2. 150 Club winners
3. It’s Subscription time again
4. Change of Sunday opening hours
5. Our AGM – a summary
6. Crop for the Shop
7. Shop Wine Club
8. We are urgently seeking a new member of staff in a part-time role. This job is available immediately to cover Sue’s sickness and other staff holidays. Hours will be flexible to start with to an agreed plan. The job can be made permanent in December when Keith retires. If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please let us know. Full training will be given. Minimum age requirement is 18. Rates of pay exceed National Living Wage.

Apply to Kevin Clarke, 01763 208727 or kwcblade@PROTECTED.

2. 150 Club Winners for June. These were Kit Jackson, Sue Whitmore and Mary Duff. Congratulations to all of them. The July draw will take place soon!

3. Margaret Jackson is collecting subscriptions for this coming year now. The AGM retained the subscription at £10 per person, if you would like additional persons from your household as subscribers, additional funds would be welcome!

4. We have noticed that we do very little trade in the period between 12 noon and 12.30 on Sundays, and since we run the shop with our team of volunteers on Sunday, we are going to give them back half an hour. From September 1 therefore, the new Sunday hours will be 8.30am till noon. Other opening hours are unchanged.

5. The shop AGM was held on that momentous day, June 23rd. Nothing as substantial as Brexit happened in the meeting but we did set subscription rates, all the committee members were re-elected unanimously and the organisation declared a profit of £1,000 for the year.

Several worrying factors need to be dealt with over the coming year: a) for the first time in 8 years, turnover in 2016 is down over a year ago. b) we have to deal with the annual rises in National Living Wage (we pay more than those statutory rates currently) c) we have to prepare pension offers for some of our staff

The hardest to deal with is the first. With a profit of only £1,000, downturn in trade soon turns into losses. We are a friendly bunch working hard to provide a service for the local area! PLEASE help us with your custom, and with vital fundraisers like the 150 Club, Subscriptions and the Wine Club. Each of these fundraisers nets us a profit of over £1,000 per year. The shop will not be able to sustain losses for long, and we need your help before we make them.

6. We have started getting contributions of fruit and vegetables from local gardeners, and thanks very much to those of you that bring in excess produce. If anyone else has overproduction, please don’t let it go on the compost heap, bring it to us while it is still good to go and we’ll sell it cheap. Thanks in advance.

7. Wine Club. Noel Young has provided another selection, the usual type of offerings. Let me know if you want anything, I’ll deliver and you pay the shop when I do. If anyone wants to see the selections again, or needs to be added to the list, let me know.

That’s all folks...

Kevin and TVSA