The Livery Newsletter and Gazette Issue 32 Spring 2020 | Page 28

Membership Committee Report
New members are the lifeblood of any organisation,
and it is particularly true of Livery Companies,
many of whom are no longer able to rely on a healthy
stream of new recruits from within the industries to
which the Companies relate. Whilst we remain very
fortunate that businesses involved in pipe-making,
tobacco and their associated trades provide us with
many new members each year, it is important that we
continue to cast our net as wide as possible.
not been to one of our evenings before - to come along
and enjoy an evening of fine company and fine cigars.
All the better, if you can bring along someone who
might be interested in joining us!
Jerry Merton
Renter Warden
Chair, Membership Committee
The Membership Committee was established
several years ago with just that brief – to identify
a pipeline [apologies!] of potential new members,
and to inculcate in them a sense of who are, and
why joining the Company is something that they
really should be doing. One way that we have been
doing this is through our quarterly Smoking Club
evenings. These evenings are an opportunity for
existing members to gather and connect with friends
old and new in a relaxed, social environment, but are
also an opportunity for potential new members to be
introduced to the Company, and its Members, in a less
formal setting than one of our dinners or banquets
would present.
The Pipe Makers Company is well known in
the Livery Movement as a Company that is fun,
welcoming and sociable, and our Smoking Club
evenings are just that. In the past year, we have
held events at venues as diverse as The Savage Club,
The Rosewood Hotel, JJ Fox St James’s and Le Coq
d’Argent. The evening at JJ Fox in particular was a
great evening, and we were grateful to Robert Fox for
his hospitality, and for sharing with us some personal
reminiscences on his family’s involvement in the
reformation of our Company in 1954.
In addition, in October last year, the Membership
Committee organised a hugely informative and
stimulating trip to British American Tobacco’s (BAT)
Research and Development facility in Southampton,
courtesy of Dr David O’Reilly, BAT’s Director of
Scientific Research. We were due to hold our March
2020 Smoking Club event at the Caledonian Club, but
unfortunately COVID-19 put paid to that. We will
reconvene once this current hiatus is over, and I would
encourage all Members – particularly any who have
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