IRSE York Section annual dinner - news (April 2023)
The York Section has held its annual Dinner in the Spring for many years. It was held in one of the halls or hotels in York and typically 120 attended. In 2017 we moved the dinner to The National Railway Museum and numbers have steadily increased. In 2022 we hosted a record 330 diners and regulars have already asked for details of the next Dinner.
Unfortunately, we are now faced with two unhelpful problems. The NRM cannot hold functions such as ours for the next 3 years while considerable rebuilding takes place. The result is that we will not be able to return to the NRM until Spring of 2026. That gives us a huge problem because, with 330 attending, we have grown far too big to be accommodated anywhere in York except for the NRM or York Racecourse. Using the Racecourse presents us with some organisational problems so no decision has yet been made.
Then there is the question of the date. The 2020 Dinner was held in March, just escaping lock-down. However, the 2021 Dinner could not be held in the Spring thanks to Covid and was moved to October. Traditionally the Scottish section Dinner is held in the Autumn but, because of Covid, was not held in either 2021 or 2022. The York Dinner therefore took its place in the calendar for those two years. However, York must now return to the Spring giving us two problems to solve at the same time.
We have therefore decided that there will be an 18 month gap between the York Dinner of October 2022 and the next York Dinner in Spring 2024. This means that we will only hold 2 Dinners away from the NRM, Spring 2024 and Spring 2025 and will be looking forward to returning to the NRM in the Spring of 2026.
We expect to finalise our choice of temporary venue in the coming weeks and, later in the year, will publicise the details of the Spring 2024 Dinner.
Quentin Macdonald Committee Secretary, IRSE York Section– April 2023