Note that Nottingham organised Conference in 1965, 1975, 1985 and 1997. This makes them the only club to have hosted Conference four times. But we should be fair about it. Many clubs, even quite large ones, have never hosted. No need to mention any names. They themselves know who they are!
There is no reason why any club cannot host Conference. You get all the help you need from the AIVC Committee. Certainly it's a lot of responsibility, but in terms of workload, it's much less involved than an ordinary AIVC Weekend. With the Conference, you pay someone to do all the work. You give instructions and they must produce the goods!
You can make a Conference work with only a small handful of helpers. In recent years the practice has been to employ a professional secretary to take the minutes. So even that task is taken care of. Colin Jackson [C.J. to his friends] said he was a "one man band" and it worked quite well.
One of the smallest clubs ever to organise Conference was Fylde with only 66 members in 1979. I remember it well! Fylde must have been quite a young club at the time - just out of short trousers or even younger! There was a reception attended by the Deputy Mayor of Blackpool, a ceilidh in a German Beer Keller and to round off a splendid Saturday night - a ride back to the seafront hotel in an illuminated tram.
So any volunteers for 2020 and beyond?
From an article by Walter F (Manchester IVC) in Newslines - September 1993 Updated by Bob C (Basingstoke Friends IVC) - July 2018
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