3:20pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Flora Drury
A VILLAGE club which has been running for more than 40 years was saved from closure at the last minute.
Wychbold Flower Club, near Droitwich, only managed to remain open when a couple of members came forward to offer to be the society’s treasurers at a meeting called to consider closing the group.
Chairwoman Ruth Bottomley had called an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the problems facing the 42-year-old club.
A combination of the advancing age of the group’s membership – as well as a fall in member numbers – combined with rising costs of transport, flowers and demonstrators’ fees meant there was a real danger the club might have closed.
Mrs Bottomley said: “We didn’t close, but we did come really close to it. Our membership dropped severely last year, so it meant that we didn’t generate enough money.
With the credit crunch, the price of flowers went up, as did the price of petrol.”
The club’s committee was desperately in need of new blood to help run it – but no one had come forward.
It was only during the meeting, which 24 people attended, that they managed to solve their biggest problem – one of having no treasurer for the club.
“In the end we got the treasurer,” said Mrs Bottomley, who has chaired the club for 10 years.
“We still have one or two problems, but with the positive mood of members I’m sure it will be fine. I think the situation will improve.”
Wychbold Flower Club started as a village society in 1968, when the ladies walked to the meetings, but over time the make-up of the club has changed dramatically.
Mrs Bottomley said: “Villages are changing. They are not filled with country people anymore, but now the club is not just for people within the village.
“Unlike in the beginning, we are getting people from surrounding areas because now people have transport.”
But Mrs Bottomley still thinks the village needs societies like theirs. She said: “It’s an aim to try and keep this village club going, as it’s still important for the village in this day and age.”
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