Editor: Ann Mason
Published: Winter 1993

Editorial

Welcome to the Winter Newsletter. Since the last one, the AGM weekend has come and gone. Many thanks to Ripley Green Garters for organising such a great weekend. Somehow they managed to arrange for some of the best weather we have ever had at an AGM, with clear skies and bright sunshine for the massed stand. Not only was the weather good, but so was the dancing – very enjoyable.

It was also pleasing to see such a good turnout for the meeting itself. The discussion on the EFDSS Training Programme was valuable. It’s difficult to get feedback from MF members, so the AGM can be a useful way of hearing the views of at least some of the membership. 

After the AGM, the next big Morris event was the rally for the Campaign for the Preservation of May Day in London on October 23rd (more details of which are elsewhere in this Newsletter). If you weren’t there, bad luck, you missed the chance to join hundreds of Morris dancers processing down Whitehall and around Parliament Square, accompanied by dozens of police and photographers.

For me, the highlight was going into Downing Street to deliver the petition to number 10. Can you imagine for assorted Morris Dancers, a young May Queen and a bush (well – a Jack in the Green) posing on the doorstep of number 10 for a battery of photographers? And later the Fabulous Fez Heads performing a sand dance on the plinth of Nelson’s Column? The rest of the weekend, after the rally, was taken up with a committee meeting. Late on the Saturday night Ann Mason and I took a taxi back to her house. Ann had her bells in her bag, which jingled as she got in the car. This started a conversation about Morris with the taxi driver. Within a few minutes we had discovered that he used to dance with Bath City Morris. In fact he (Steve Naylor) remembered me from when I danced with Bath. An odd end to a most agreeable day.

Contents

• PRESIDENT’S PROLOGUE
• EDITORIAL
• FINANCE
• GENERAL
• NOTICEBOARD
• DIARY
• TECHNICAL
• MORRIS ARCHIVE GROUP
• SIDE ISSUES
• PUBLICITY
• EVENTS
• MAY DAY PROTEST