Steak Appreciation Society

Meeting #5 Hawksmoor Guildhall

9th February 2012

Attendees

• Chris Mair
• Ed Aldwinkle
• Dave Cosgrave
• Adam Morgan
• Dylan Amlot
• Ben Ashby
• Simon Fickling
• Charles Fraser
• Omar Ali
• Matt Howe
• James Allen
• Chris “Dosser” Childs
• Patrick Schrijnen
• Paul Greenan
• Lee Marshall

Meeting #4 Hawksmoor Seven Dials

Attendees

• Chris Mair
• Ed Aldwinkle
• Dave Cosgrave
• Adam Morgan
• Dylan Amlot
• Ben Ashby
• Simon Fickling
• Karim Halwagi
• Charles Fraser
• Omar Ali
• Matt Howe
• Adam Trehane
• Chris “Dosser” Childs
• Patrick Schrijnen

Welcome, Roles & Responsibilities:

• A hearty welcome by the Chairman, outlining the course of events for the evening ahead, met by much jollity and excitement by the Members.
• Reiteration of current roles and responsibilities, no change to the positions of Chairman (permanent role), Bishop, and President (because he’s Irish!), Adam Morgan Esq elevated to dizzy heights of Vice President, freeing up the position of Recorder, independently delegated by the Chairman to Ben Ashby. The position of Boots automatically passed to Adam Trehane, the last member to officially join the Society – however, Chris “Dosser” Childs was a very last minute inclusion, so therefore should assume title of Boots for the Summer 2012 meeting.
• Mark Savage evicted from the Society with immediate effect – good riddance hailed by all!

Resolutions – outlined by the President:

• Addition of note to Clause vi – if a suitable date is not found in either of the said months, then the nearest date appropriate to all members will be chosen.
• Stringfellows was suggested as a location for the Summer 2012 Meeting, with “Beef Curtains” considered as an appropriate après dinner delight! Next location to be confirmed.

Rules – reinforced by the Chairman:

• Amendments/additions/comments to the rules are as follows…
• Rule 1 – A member may opt out of attending the next pre-arranged dinner provided one week’s notice is given, changed from one month, with all reasons explained and members vote kept as before.
• Rule 4 – monthly direct debit contributions to be increased to £20, met with differing levels of opinion, eventually ratified.
• Rule 5 – failure of Chairman to issue membership cards as promised leads to suggestion by fellow members of crème de menthe as punishment.
• Rule 6 – Recorder unsure as to how this was left – President still to source club tie?
• Rule 7 – a/a
• Rule 8 – update on Gromet – generally doing very well, but she does have concerns that she may well eventually be eaten by the S.A.S. Suggestion of setting up a Facebook page ratified (Charles Fraser to sort) and Poking is allowed as this may well increase her tenderness.
• Rule 12 – the lack of the subtle and covert use of our tag “Beef & Liberty” when signing off email discourse was raised. Efforts must be doubled to reinforce this Rule. NB – definitely not “Steak & Liberty” as said be new member Childs, punishable by crème de menthe (although he did admit to feeling a cleansed palate thereafter!).
• Rule 13 – Evening of Meat – the President did suggest hosting the first such session, seeing as he is going through “a messy divorce”! The “Historical Attire” is to be based on a Black Adder theme – codpieces and winklepickers for example.

Swearing of the Oath – Recorder:

• New members sworn in include Adam Trehane, Patrick Schrijnen and Chris “Dosser” Childs.

Song of the Day – Bishop:

• A hearty remix of a 1735 classic from Brother Theodosius Forrest… “A joyful theme for Britons free, Happy in beef and liberty”.

Any other business…

• Recorder’s notes were largely eligible by this stage, large red wine spill, and inebriation, to blame!
• The following two issues were raised however – (1) Meat left on plates, Chairman got rather irate about this, and (2) there was a mention of a Direct Debit Society by the Chairman – the Recorder cannot recall what this was about, but noted massive objections from the Bishop, a dull silence all round, and general scratching of heads! Was this possibly in relation to the increased £20 contribution? As said, the evening was getting hazy by now!

Game of the Day:

• Huge amounts of general debacle and jeering of the President. Recorder generally unaware of what the hell was going on or who was the eventual winner.
• The Irish President assumed role of a bookmaker, and issued various fines amongst the members, notably £30 to the Treasurer and £40 to Patrick Schrijnen, but again, why, the Recorder does not know to this day!

Meeting #3 Goodman

Thursday 17th February 2011

Attendees

• Chris Mair
• James Allen
• Ed Aldwinkle
• Mark Savage
• Dave Cosgrove
• Adam Morgan
• Dylan Amlot
• Ben Ashby
• Simon Fickling
• Karim Halwagi
• Charles Fraser

Introduction by Chairman

• Introduction and welcome to nominees

Roles and responsibilities within SAS

• Although on the last occasion Dave Cosgrave was stripped of the title “Bishop” due to his non attendance, he claimed to have been  involved in an impromptu performance of animal hospital, this time round DC performed an expert volte face and was instrumental in the coup d’etat that resulted in  his resurrection  with Paul Brown being declared deceased and  DC being elected as President.
• Dave Cosgrave (El Presidente) – performed his role as President in an outstanding manner during the course of the evening and demonstrated that a popular uprising really can effect meaningful change.
• El Presidente also used his power to quash an embryonic uprising which sort to accuse our chairman of possessing semi-permanent prowess only!!
• Boots – C Fraser originally ratified then it was pointed out that in fact K Halwagi was last member in. Consequently KW designated as boots and membership numbers switched to reflect this

Hand signals

• We are grateful to our president for demonstrating some official “SAS” hand signals. In particular;
• Feeding the pony
• The five fingered shark (Emphasis on using the thumb in the appropriate manner)
• Grateful to our treasurer for the immortal line “2 in the pink and 1 in the stink”

Resolutions

• El Presidente – As one of his first official acts DC demonstrated, producing a variety of photographic evidence in support, that former President Paul Brown, had joined another group, the “Meerkats”. DC also produced evidence that PB now sold “Vegetables in a pot” on behalf of a huge multi conglomerate. As a result of behaviour inconsistent with the ethos of the society PB is hereby excluded from the society and declared deceased.
• Mr B Ashby – given an official warning regarding his use of “Hampshire” as an excuse for previous non -attendance.
• ‘Spussy” – further defined

Rules

Rules ratified and updated here

Oath

• New members introduced. All 3 new members delivered good limericks but the outstanding effort came from Simon Fickling.
• “When asked to fashion a rhyme, I struggled to find the time. So let it be know, I eat cow to the bone, Whilst washing it down with fine wine”
• All new members accepted and oath administered to new members
• Song sung by the Bishop

Misconduct

Unfortunately there were 2 instances of misconduct following the meal;

• A fall from grace – Our respected Treasurer was seen to drop meat under the table. Our President promptly investigated the offence before the integrity of the scene could be contaminated. Although FSA regulated, but in his defence clearly under the influence, our Treasurer was offered the opportunity to come clean about his misconduct. He demonstrated some deceitfulness in that he flatly denied the offence for nearly 2 minutes. DC then found the said meat under the table and at that point our Treasurer made a full and frank confession. As punishment he had to eat the meat and drink 4 shots of Crème de menthe as punishment. ( I did not witness the drinking of the 4 shots but am interested to note the effect they had upon our well oiled, but still much loved, Treasurer!!!) **Please refer to subsequent e-mail correspondence between members re. appropriate punishment**
• Similarly, Mr Charles Fraser left an unacceptable amount of meat on his plate. This was deemed to be a clear “abuse of SAS funds’. His Proposer, Mr B Ashby, is therefore to eat fish and drink white wine at the next meeting. CF adopted, subject to PAY PAL confirmation, a male cow called ‘Gromit” as part of his punishment. (Charles, in response to your question “Can I milk it?” – I would point out it is a male cow but please let us know how you get on with the milking process!!!)

AOB

• Suggested that summer meeting be in the form of an outdoor BBQ – venue and date to be confirmed in due course
• Jeff to be given a more prominent role in all subsequent SAS communications

A Morgan (Recorder)

19/2/11

Meeting #2 Santa Maria Del Sur

Thursday 26th August 2010

Attendees:

• Christopher Mair
• James Allen
• Dylan Amlot
• Mark Savage
• Paul Brown
• Adam Morgan
• Omar Ali
• Edward Aldwinckle

Minutes:

• Introduction by Chairman
• Roles & responsibilities defined
• Resolutions presented and passed by all members
• Rules presented and passed by all members with some amends agreed
• Oath administered to new members
• Song sung by Bishop
• Miscellaneous - Largely at the insistence of James Allen the phrase ‘Spussy” is to be recognized by members of SAS and designated a legitimate aim of the society.

Meeting #1 Hawksmoor

Thursday 26th February 2009

Attendees:

• Christopher Mair
• James Allen
• Dylan Amlot
• Ben Ashby
• David Cosgrave

Full minutes and account available here.