BBP Annual General MeetingJanuary 25th saw the BBP AGM take place in the Bordeaux Room at City Hall. It was a well attended event and we were very lucky to have the Lord Mayor of Bristol hosting the AGM and introducing the various speakers. The Lord Mayor talked of how important twinning was to help to foster relations in these difficult times. In addition to the usual annual reports on finances and membership, Thomas Sanchis described the busy year we've had both in Bristol and in Bordeaux and took the opportunity to thank everyone for their help and support throughout the year as he stood down from the role of Chairman. Mike Healey has taken over the role of Chairman for 2024. |
Community of PurposeThe Guest Speaker at this year's AGM was Amy Kington from Community of Purpose. (CoP) Amy gave a very inspiring presentation that described the great work that CoP do with young people in Bristol. This includes taking a group of those Bristol youngsters to Bordeaux each year to take part in sporting and cultural events in our twin city. For a lot of the children it was their first time abroad and their first time on a aeroplane. If you want to know more about CoP and its activities, click on the link above or look at the recent news article on our BBP website here |
Sharing Memories EventFollowing on from last year’s 650th Anniversary of Bristol becoming an independent county, a Community Atlas is being created which will, when completed, be available in all Bristol Public Libraries. The last page will be devoted to the 7 Bristol twinnings and, at the end of January, an event designed to capture individual memories of past visits was held at City Hall. Participants from each of the 7 twinnings were invited to share their memories of their visits. The participants included David Vowles, who took part in the Bristol Bordeaux Exchange in 1949; Sylvia Supple who took part in the Bristol Hannover Exchange in the same year; Rod Shepherd who travelled to Bordeaux with the School Exchange in 1956 and again in 1960 and then took part in 2 visits with groups of adults in 1976 and 1978; and Gill Slee and Warwick Moreton who took part in 1961 and 1962. So a lot of experience and memories. All enjoyed the afternoon and were happy to talk about old times. There wasn’t time to interview all individually but it is hoped that it will be possible to do that in the near future. All four past Bristol Bordeaux Exchange students have also expressed an interest in being involved in any future audio recordings of their experiences. |
Annual Membership SubscriptionsA reminder for all members of BBP that the annual membership subscriptions are due for 2024. The annual individual membership fee remains at £15 for adults, £10 for students/seniors, £20 for a household or £40 for a corporate or non profit organisation. If you don't know the BBP membership bank details, please ask using our Contact Us and we'll help. |
Mini AssistantsNext month sees the arrival of 7 students from Bordeaux as arranged by BBP as part of the Mini Assistants scheme (last year's visiting Bordeaux students are shown in the photo). They will work in Bristol primary schools for 2 weeks, helping the children to learn some French and a bit more about France. We will tell you all about how it went in the next newsletter.. |
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We hope that these updates on the recent activities of BBP are of interest and may even prompt you to want to become more involved and to help us with some of these initiatives. If you want to know more, please reply to this email. We'd love to be able to spread the message re twinning in general and Bristol's links with Bordeaux in particular. A bientôt! Thomas Sanchis (outgoing Chair of BBP), Mike Healey (the new Chair for 2024) and Mark Atherton (Secretary) for Bristol Bordeaux Partnership www.bristolbordeaux.org |