My dear CADS,

I hope you are well!
On Wednesday 16th October we held the CADS AGM. We only had 8 members at the meeting (and 2 guests), so although we were quorate, and had a very nice evening, there were not enough members present to get a good discussion going. The Board and I are very keen to get feedback from the members on a couple of topics covered under Agenda item 6 – “The Message from the Chair”, so I attach a synopsis of my speech on these key topics. Could you please read this carefully and send any comments, or feedback via email.

Message from the Chair

“Good evening! Today I start my 5th year of being the CADS chair. In my time as Chair, I have pursued several objectives:

1. make the club more attuned to the ‘C’ of Commercial Anglo Dutch Society
2. increase the membership number to get closer to the 125 limit of our Articles
3. increase the number of attendees to each event back to pre-Covid numbers
4. maintain the high levels of fun and friendship that members get from being in CADS.

There has been some success:

1. having the fixed venue gives the club a certain level of kudos
2. feedback from the members is that the quality of the speakers has been high
3. monthly lunches regularly attract around 20 people, (after COVID it was more like 12-14)
4. we have several new members from a wide variety of backgrounds.
5. membership numbers now into the 70s having dropped as low as 61. Please note: We are re-starting to offer an incentive for finding new members. If you successfully nominate someone, then the first lunch that you attend after they join, will be ONCADS – so you will get a free lunch!!
6. long standing members are beginning to attend events again, and bring guests, who also want to join – so it’s all working!

However, with this success has come some challenges:

1. The newer members expect a more professional organisation in the background, e.g. an up-to-date website, membership directory etc
2. There is a call for more events to be organised outside of the monthly lunches to take the networking to a new level
3. Running the club is a lot of work for the very few Board members. The Board gets involved in a lot of additional activities, such as chasing payment, being the postman
   between members, dealing with tardy RSVPs and providing invoices and so on and so on.
4. I think the Board do a really good job. BUT there is a downside to good delivery – we have 2 vacancies on the Board, and no one wants to volunteer to take over (it seems to be a case of why change what is working well).

Last month we had an interesting presentation from Benno Pieters and his colleague Shokoofeh about AI and ChatGPT which really inspired me and the Board to look to technology to facilitate CADS becoming a ‘grown up’, more effective, business networking club.

What we propose to do is twofold:

1. Secure the services of a quality website designer who can design and set up a brand-new website for running CADS. I use the word ‘running’ deliberately as the many tasks that need to be done each month – will be automated on the website. For example, we’ll have:
   a. A home page of welcome and introduction to CADS
   b.an events page for signing up and payment (via IDEAL or equivalent) and invoice production
   c. a membership directory (accessible only to members) where people can decide how much of their personal details they want to share and whether they will receive
   emails from others. (I will no longer be the mail person).
   d.a business directory for marketing member’s businesses
   e. Annual membership renewal will be done automatically
   f. Newsletter section for members only
   g. We’d also like help with our social media for a more cohesive online offering.

We would be very interested in other ideas from the members on what should be included in the website; perhaps you already have an example of what works well in other clubs that you are a member of; do any of you have ideas, or know of good examples of effective websites?; or can even recommend a website provider.

2) And secondly, Benno is going to teach me how to use ChatGPT to help me write more professional newsletters, that are better suited to the more grown- up CADS of 2025 and beyond.
This website re- design will require money. I’m getting quotes at the moment. You will have seen from the financial statements that CADS has some money in the bank, and I ask the meeting today for the go ahead with this plan. It looks like it might cost around €5000.

You will have seen from the Annual Report from the Chair that among the few donations that CADS made to charity last year, was a donation to the charity that supports fellow member Alistair Cranmer with his assistance dog, Wellington – (Builtersmekke Assistance Dogs). In fact we also donated in 2024.
Alistair has sent this message to the CADS members:
“Please may I thank CADs again for not one, but two donations to the charity who train my asssistance dog, Wellington. I was in deep financial and health trouble when I started this journey, and these charitable donations kept me away from having to shut down. Their impact has been marked. As a CADs member of long standing (since 1996), I am incredibly proud that one of my clubs has such an impact on & almost direct support for a member in trouble. And so apart form all the other benefits of CADs, this was a spectacular decision by the committee, of which I am very proud. If it were not for this, and Wellington, I would be restricted to my house if unaccompanied. Now I can continue to try to get back into society. Thank you.”

That letter from Alistair touched me greatly and served yet again to remind me what a fabulous club CADS is. We want to choose one charity to be the beneficiary of the raffle
prize money at the Gala dinner. I think its important to have a chariy that benefits both NL and UK folks here – so if you could have a think of an organisation that you would like us to support, please let me know.
Finally, earlier this year we got the very sad news that Mike Hayes, had passed away. Mike was a previous Chair of CADS and was such an active and fun member of the club. In December at the Jokathon, Mike Waters is going to a host a tribute to Mike. This is absoultely the right event to do this, as as Mike Hayes actually sponsored the Jokathon trophy way back in 2012!

I thank all of you for continued contribution to the club and hope to see all of you at the Gala Dinner next month when we can really celebrate how fabulous we all are!
And can some members please come forward to take on the roles of Treasurer & Secretary!”
End of Message from the Chair

CADS Gala Dinner 
November 14th, IGC Amsterdam

Thank you so much to the many of you who have already applied for tickets for the Gala Dinner. At the time of writing, we have already sold 46 tickets!
CADS is holding a raffle at the dinner. If any of you are willing to donate a top-class prize, please shout! We are only going to have 3 prizes so want the top one to be a ‘belter!’. Something like a weekend away at a CADS member’s second home? or a voucher for dinner at one of your favourite restaurants – perhaps you could ask the owner to provide such a gift!
Please be creative and help CADS to make the raffle extra special and raise lots of money!

Thank you for your continued support and engagement with CADS. I look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.