The Great Get Together 2014
Report written by Tim Surtell for our September 2014 Newsletter
Saturday 28 June 2014
Royal Artillery Barracks
Woolwich
The annual Great Get Together has become a regular outing for our club. When it started five years ago Greenwich Council hosted four such events all around the borough. Now it has become one huge event held at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich to coincide with Armed Forces Day which, this year, was on Saturday 28th June.
Members attending were myself, Chris Fry, Chris Warrell, Peter Clay, Douglas Windibank, Brian Elvidge, John Gay and Cathy Claydon.
Our display, before the rush (and the rain) started
On arrival this year the weather was looking good — despite the forecast for sunshine and showers — and our tables were ready and waiting in the Craft Marquee, though there was some confusion about whereabouts in the marquee we were supposed to be.
A generator to power our models was soon provided, but unfortunately stopped working just as the event opened, leaving us with mostly static models (some batteries kindly lent to me by Chris Fry kept my Spanish Knight running!)
The weather forecast proved to be spot on, with frequent torrential downpours throughout the day sending visitors scurrying into the marquee. The weather also forced the cancellation of some of the events in the arena.
The Make It With Meccano area
For the first time this year we created a ‘Make It With Meccano’ area in a corner of the marquee which proved very popular. Ralph Laughton had asked Meccano if they could provide sets for our use, and they obliged by sending us twelve of the current Multimodels 3 Models Sets. Ralph had also happened to design three simple models that could be built from this set, featuring them on his blog, and I created instruction sheets for them. The simple aeroplane model proved to be the most popular model, followed by the baby robot and the Angel of the North models. A few participants attempted the aeroplane or helicopter models from the set instructions, but soon abandoned them when they realised how long they would take to build!
Make It With Meccano instruction sheets
Download these instruction sheets in PDF format
Around 40 participants got their first experience with Meccano and went home with their ‘I made it with Meccano’ certificate and free club membership. We look forward to welcoming them at our next meeting.
Most of the children were very enthusiastic
You can see more photos from the Great Get Together in our Facebook album.
[Editor’s note: I’d just like to thank Tim for all his hard work in making the ‘Make It With Meccano’ work. Without all his preparation in getting the instructions printed and laminated, printing the certificates and ordering the large banner that ran along one side of the build area, and spending most of the day supervising the children, the whole thing would not have happened. Thanks also to the other members who helped.]
It got quite busy in the marquee when it rained!