My dear CADS,
How are you all? Finally, I was able to sit out in my garden yesterday with a nice glass of wine. Don’t think that inaugural evening ritual has ever happened so late in spring! Did you enjoy the Koningsdag celebrations? I enjoyed Koningsnacht with friends including fellow CADS, Stephen Huyton and Alison Smith, and then on Koningsdag itself, Alison and I went out boating with a crowd of friends on the canals of Amsterdam. We were the oldest bods on the water by far, but we had an absolute blast. (I have to say that my long career at ING has made a helpful contribution to my ‘orange’ wardrobe.)
CADS out and about
This month I attended the NBCC Flying Start event at the UK Ambassador’s residence in Den Haag. This was a flag flying event by the UK trade folks to encourage Dutch entrepreneurs’ investment in the UK. There were lots of presentations from various Trade Development organisations, including Northern Ireland, Wales, and England (no Scottish representation for some reason – maybe they had a foreboding about the political unrest up there!). My objective for attending was to try to recruit some new members to CADS. The Chair of the NBCC, was good enough to include a reference to me in his opening remarks and this certainly helped with the introductions. My recruitment campaign has already been successful with one prospective member attending our April event and I’m meeting up with 2 others, today and tomorrow.
April meeting
We had a super CADS lunch this month at the IGC. We had a great mix of diners – old and new CADS members, guests, and some prospective members. We really showed CADS off at its finest! Our speakers were Fonger Ypma and Tom Meijeraan of the organisation Arctic Reflections.
Fonger was an interesting character, a Dutchman with a DPhil from Balliol College, Oxford. His co-founder Tom came along for support, but it wasn’t needed. Fonger clearly articulated their plans to restore the arctic ice by thickening the ice in winter through pumping sea water on top of it, which will then freeze quickly and produce thicker ice sheets. This concept has featured in both the Guardian and on BBC News, and there are also other organisations attempting the same. Our CADS members were really interested in the funding of such operations and there was much discussion on how Arctic Reflections could proceed once they have established their proof of concept. If anyone is interested in helping this organisation with their endeavours, please reach out to Fonger through their website and do mention CADS!
Board news
I do keep mentioning, (probably haranguing is more accurate!) that we have a couple of vacancies on the CADS Board. It would be super if members could come forward to take on the role of Secretary and Treasurer respectively. It really isn’t a lot of work running CADS when the tasks can be shared. At the end of the day, this is a social business networking club, so none of the roles are particularly onerous, but it would be very helpful if some more of you could step up to assist in the running of our lovely club!
Annual CADS news
Our plans for meetings for the rest of the year are coming together. Our Lustrum (Golden Jubilee) celebration dinner will be in November. It would be super if members who have perhaps moved away from the NL or don’t manage to come along to many events could make a special effort to come to that event, so that we can celebrate in style. I will confirm the date with the IGC shortly, so that you can make definite plans.
Please also remember Dorette’s kind invitation (see below) to her garden in June. Please do let me know if you intend to come along (there is no charge) so that Dorette can prepare:
Dorette Ouwehand Schilte, one of our newer members, has extended an invitation to all CADS members to her place in Amsterdam, on Friday June 14th from 5 to 8 pm. Dorette is taking part in the Open Garden Days along the Amsterdam Canals when visitors can purchase a pass to view around 23 gardens (including Dorette’s, on June 14,15, and 16. CADS members could buy a pass to visit all the gardens and then come along to Dorette’s garden, or simply come straight to Dorette’s place where she will welcome you to join her neighbours and other guests for drinks and nibbles. It sounds like a lovely evening, so please put this date in your agenda. Thank you Dorette, for the kind invitation.
See our events page for the latest schedule of events for your agendas. Many of you are super busy so please put ALL these dates in your diary NOW!
