MEMBERS were welcomed to a well attended February meeting, and items of news were read from the County News.

Sheila Martin agreed to act as delegate at the AGM at the Royal Albert Hall in June, and members were invited to attend the Annual Council Meeting on March 25 when the speaker will be Graham Walton of Sextuplets fame.

Names were taken for the Group Meeting held by Drakes Cross on March 19 and the Group Quiz in April.

Sue Russell asked members if they would help to form a starter pack to support the Birmingham Mission for the Homeless.

Everyday items that were needed to start life in a home were listed in the pack.

The speaker for the evening was John Smith who spoke about The History of Musical Theatre.

He had been an enthusiast all his life and had seen most of the shows he described, illustrating his talk with musical excerpts from many shows such as Kiss me Kate, The Boyfriend , Pickwick and The Music Man.

He even had some music from shows that never reached the stage. Gwen Bent thanked him for a very interesting talk.

The March meeting was members' night so Sheila O'Shaughnessy and Jo Chandler were joint presidents and Josie Morgan was the secretary for the evening, with other ladies being roped in as committee for the evening

The evening's competition was for a wartime item to be taken to the group meeting, which Brenda Rudge won.

Sue Russell thanked members for their generous donations to complete starter kits for The Birmingham City Mission's appeal to help homeless men. There were sufficient goods to form more than two complete kits.

Rosemary Beeston asked if members would be interested in a guided tour round Oxford Colleges in the summer.

Sheila then introduced the entertainment for the evening which had a musical theme. First of all, the Whizz Bang Jazz Band played many old favourite tunes and had everyone's feet tapping.

They did a musical quiz where all the answers were girls' names. After tea a newly formed group, so new they hadn't decided on a name yet, took members back to the 60s with Shadow numbers, the Everley Brothers and the highlight of the evening, a Sonny and Cher number.

Sheila Martin thanked the band and Julia Tremlett thanked the evening's committee for all their hard work.