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If you enjoy reading the monthly website statistics, the reports have now moved to its own page under "About Us"

Unfortunately, The President's Letter was not included in the June edition of "The Veteran". It will be included in the next issue but we are fortunate to Have a sneak preview here.

We were much relieved when we started to receive the long-awaited membership renewal forms.  Kathy and her team of helpers have processed them all as quickly as possible.  The renewals have been accompanied by many, many donations, some of which have been very generous.  We are obviously grateful for these but all donations of whatever amount are important to the association and we thank everyone who has helped in this way.  If for any reason you still haven’t received either my original letter and renewal form or the copies sent with the Spring issue of The Veteran, please contact the office for further copies.  I have to add that so far there have been fewer renewals than in previous years which is causing concern.  This may be due to all the major disruptions of deliveries caused by Royal Mail industrial action which reportedly should end soon.

I am delighted to be able to say that my appeal for an events organiser has been successful.  Helen Loveridge, a London member, has volunteered to take on this role.  This is great news.  It will take her a little to build up our events programme, not least because all events have to be linked to the publication of our quarterly magazine.  A consequence of this is that every event has a long lead time in terms of planning and organising.  I wish Helen well in her endeavours and shall be looking forward to attending as many of her events as possible.

There have been some changes to the President’s Council.  Membership of the Council is in the gift of, and personal to, the President.  I am therefore very pleased to announce that Iain Smith OBE, Chairman of the British Film Commission’s Advisory Board, has accepted my invitation to join the Council.  As many of you will already know Iain is a very successful international producer associated with many major films including Seven Years in Tibet, The Fifth Element, Children of Men and Mad Max: Fury Road.  In 2005 he was awarded a BAFTA for Outstanding Achievement in Film.  He has also contributed much to our industry serving on the boards of or chairing many important associations.

At the same time, Stan Fishman has decided that he should stand down as a member. I first knew Stan over 40 years ago when we were both employed by the Rank Organisation at a time when it was still heavily involved in filmmaking and cinemas.  When he retired as Odeon’s film booking director Stan contributed to the industry in other ways and most definitely to our association.  He was one of the four people who made up the Think Tank which reviewed the association and its activities and recommended some changes.  One was that we should become an incorporated association to protect us all in a changing world, which we did in 2010.  Stan was a member of the Executive Committee for many years and served as President from 2000-2004.  He then continued to provide his knowledge and very wise advice as a member of the President’s Council (which he had founded). He invariably attended every committee meeting and we benefited greatly from his contributions to the proceedings.  I am sure you will appreciate what a valuable veteran he is and we have been fortunate to have Stan as an active member for so many years.  We thank him now for his huge contribution.

My second President’s Lunch took place in Birmingham last month.  There was a picture of the venue in the Spring issue of the magazine.  It is now called the Old Joint Stock and the reason for the grand exterior and equally impressive interior is that it had been the headquarters of The Old Joint Stock Bank.  Subsequently, this bank became part of Lloyds Bank which was also founded in Birmingham and had an equally impressive banking hall.  Our Midlands area is geographically very large so we were very pleased to welcome those members who were able to attend.  One was the manager of the Kings Norton Cinema for 20 years.  As a child I lived in this area of Birmingham and visited that cinema many times.

I hope I shall see as many members as possible at our AGM on July 20th.  As planned when I was elected as President last year, I shall be retiring from this role at the end of this year’s meeting so this, therefore, is my last President’s letter.  I hope you have found them worth reading.  I wish my successor well and him/her the best of luck.

Tony Williams

2022 ended with the sad news of the death at the age of 97 of a great man, Sir Sydney Samuelson CBE, who gave so much to the film industry in this country.  Sir Sydney was Britain's first Film Commissioner.  He was a member of the Veterans for over 44 years and his service to the association was remarkable and continued almost to the very end.  He served as President in 1980 and 1981; later he became a founding member of the President's Council and was an active member of the Executive Committee for over 38 years.  Samuelson's Film Services and the Panavision cameras they supplied were known all over the western world.

The 2022 Membership list is now available 

We are attempting to make sure that our Archive contains every single copy of our magazine the Veteran, from its inception.

There are 9 missing copies, all from the 1970's, if you have issue numbers 1 through to 6 or 9, 11,12 do please consider donating them to our Archive, we would be most grateful.

The current Association's  Men's Ties [£12]; Ladies' Scarves [£8]; and our special Lapel Badge [£8] are alwaysl available from our Secretary - contact details here.