After taking over this role in June I wanted to prioritise two tasks. First, to ensure I had a working template of every document needed by show secretaries, a task made easier with Ruth’s invaluable help. Second, to track down the whereabouts of all the NMC cups and trophies.
In 2019 the committee decided to sell-off a number of trophies and this process was not completed before Covid struck. This muddied the waters about who had what, but once again Ruth was able to supply me with a helpful list of the ‘sold’ ones. By deducting the ‘sold’ ones from earlier cup show lists, I was left with a list of retained NMC trophies that I needed to trace for future competition. As I write this, there are still ten missing trophies. I am hopeful that some or all will surface, but if not, they will probably have to be declared as lost.
These days, most winners do not want to take trophies home. If you do, please ask and I will sort
it. I intend to keep a close track of every trophy while under my watch, so will ask you to sign a receipt. It has been suggested that a cup certificate is given to winners as a permanent memento of winning a cup, and I hope the executive committee might agree to this.
In case you are wondering, there are still forty-nine cups and trophies to be won at five cup shows throughout the year (minus the ten that are currently missing).
Another task I have undertaken is to photograph and write a brief description of every trophy that has passed through my hands so far. Using this resource, I have introduced a Trophy of the Month feature in NMC News so that members have a chance to see the awards they can compete for. My aim is to always feature a trophy coming up at the next cup show.