There was a good turnout to match the excellent sunshine at what the dozen members present agreed would prove a most suitable new venue for our London meetings. Thanks were due to Richard Wheatley for making the arrangement. The historic coaching station has a cool and airy room upstairs, and a large courtyard where we enjoyed a pint and a pub lunch before the meeting. Those present were David Ogden (Chairman), Mike Murphy (Secretary), Sami Sadek (Treasurer), Neil Hitchens (Webmaster), Mike Bramwell, John Clarke, Paul Green, Keith Nickol, Atef Sarian, David Sutton. Guest: Mrs Letty Nickol. Apologies were received from too many to mention. Jon Aitchison said it was with proud but mixed feelings that he addressed members on account of the fact that he was to stand down after six years of progress as Vice-Chairman and Chairman.

Mike Murphy reported on a good Circle attendance at the funeral of John Sears, for so long our mentor, after which Sami Sadek detailed the recently closed Auction 66, which realised £6,000 in sales (so £900 commission for the Circle) and 35 per cent of the360 lots sold, many of them small. This raised a comment from one member not present, to the effect that it seemed that material entered was simply surplus to requirements rather than desirable. But that is precisely why the auction was started - to allow members to dispose of their unwanted items to other members who would appreciate them.

To attract full members from our Facebook group, Hani Sharestan suggested that those Facebook members joining the full Circle after June should have their subscription extended to the following year. The idea was accepted unanimously.

The meeting proper was led by David Ogden, who showed a wide variety in age and topic of postcards of the Suez Canal area on the unusual home-made frames in 5x2 format. We were most grateful for the loan to their owners and inventors, the Czech Society. David was backed by short displays of cards from Paul Green and Mike Murphy