Our esteemed chairwoman Penny has been working hard on your behalf and you will not believe what she has done this time.

For the next issue of Comp-Elation and the September meeting she has secured over £1,500 worth of prizes from Sarah Beth Jewellers.

But that's not all, with the contribution from the club the total prize value will come to well over £1,600.  Yes you read that right - over £1,600 worth of prizes and that's not including our fabulous raffle.

We will be having the very popular Wheel of Fortune at the September meeting with a fantastic top prize.  Spins will be £2 a go so start saving your pennies now.  Any proceeds from the meeting will be going back into the club funds for the following meeting, with a portion (TBA) going to charity.

Keep an eye out on this blog for further details

SEASIDE SPECIAL SUMMER MEETING

This will be a packed day of comping and fun and a delicious buffet lunch
provided by outside caterers.

There will be lots of varied comps and puzzles to keep you busy:

Stephy’s Tie-Breaker Comp
Jane's Limerick Comp
Penny’s Caption comp
Win back the cost of your ticket prize draw
Postcard draw
Seaside Treasure Hunt
Jean’s Seaside Quiz
Bucket and Spade Sweetie comp
Sue’s Board quiz
Our fabulous raffle with top cash prizes!

All of this and a delicious lunch too!

The cost of a ticket is £22.
 
To apply for your ticket please send your cheque, made payable to the LCC, to:
Wendy Penney
15 Taw Drive
Chandlers Ford
Eastleigh
SO53 4SL
 
The closing date for applications is June 22nd, after which tickets are issued on a first come first served basis to guests and late applications, so get those cheques sent off to ensure that you get your ticket.

Napier Hall is not a large venue and for safety reasons there is a limit on numbers so apply as soon as possible to make sure you get your ticket!

If you wish to bring a guest please send 2 cheques, 1 for members and 1 for guests as priority will be given to members.

You will be issued with an e-ticket, so please remember to include your email address.

Please note, that while the caterers have endeavoured to provide a menu that will be enjoyed by most people. if you have special dietary needs please be aware that some of the food may not be suitable.

We have just confirmed the LCC meeting dates for 2014.  They are;

Saturday 22 March 2014
Saturday 28 June 2014
Saturday 27 September 2014
Saturday 6th December 2014

Put them in your diary now.

Are you one of the unfortunate people who've had their email account hacked?  No, well how about taking some steps to make sure you're not.  The fact that we've had some many hacked members says to me that your passwords are too simple.

Did you know that most of us use simple passwords, that are easily susceptible to a 'brute force' hack for lots of the same sites.  I'm guilty of it myself to a certain extent as I use the same password for lots of sites where you have to register to enter comps.  However, when it comes to emails, banking, etc. I'm much more careful and have a different and complicated password for each site.

Here are a few ways you can create a strong password;

1. Use a password generator like 1Password or Last Pass.  They will create and remember secure passwords for you.  The downside of this is that they will be something that you'll never remember, so you will need the software installed on all PCs and devices you use.

2. Think of a memorable phrase or your favourite line from a film.  Eg: These's aren't the droids you're looking for.  Then take the first letter of each word, add some upper/lower case, add a number and special character and you get something like Tatdyl4! this is hard to guess but easy to remember.

3. Same as above except take all the vowels out Eg. Thsrntthdrdsyrlkng4!  That makes a nice long and secure password

4. Choose two words that mean something to you and combine their letters to create the password, choosing one letter of the first word and one letter of the second word, and repeating this until you get to the last letter of each word. Eg: Words: house & plane become password: Hpolu4snee! (if you include the case, number & special character)

5. As above choose 2 words, then reverse them, then add the case, number & special character. Eg. 'Scarlet Pickles' becomes selkciPtelracS when reversed, then selkciPtelr4cS! for the password

4. Use any of the above as a 'base' password, then add a prefix or suffix that means something to the site you're using.  This is an easy way of using the same-ish password for several sites.  Eg.
for the bank; Tatdyl4!bank
for yahoo; emailTatdyl4!
for amazon; Tatdyl4!books


There are plenty of ways to create a more secure password and if you don't like any of those let me know and I'll find something else for you.

So think about your current email password, is it too simple?  If so, why not change it before you get hacked!

Here's a reminder of what to bring to the Spring AGM meeting

1. Your prizes for the raffle table must be in date, unused and have a receipt attached.  Remember no magazines are allowed and you will get yellow tickets based on the total amount.

2. We're still faffing about with the entry forms, please bear with us until we find the fairest system. Remember to bring as many spare forms as you can.

3. Bring stamped, unused postcards for the postcard draw

4. There's no sales table for unwanted prizes, so leave those at home

5. Only tea & biscuits are being provided, so if you want something more substantial please remember to bring a packed lunch

With our xmas meeting fast approaching, here's a few timely reminders for you.

1. Remember you won't get in if haven't applied for a ticket, you cannot just turn up at the door.
2. No magazines allowed on the raffle table
3. Till receipts for EVERY raffle prize
4. Make sure raffle prizes are in date and unused
5. Yellow tickets are given out for the total amount, not individual amounts
6. New entry form table rules apply, please see previous blog post for details
7. If you turn up early, you may be asked to help
8. Most importantly - HAVE FUN!

In a club the size of ours, we believe it is only fair that every single member should have the chance of taking part, especially as it is one aspect of the club that is accessible to those who don’t come to meetings and even the few who aren’t on the email group.

We expect such a high demand for the Lucky Numbers Club that we are anticipating almost all members will want to join. Therefore your 2013 renewal form will ask you for a payment of £20 to include your renewal AND a Lucky Number, with the option to opt out of the Lucky Numbers Club and pay the normal subscription of £15.

THE LCC LUCKY NUMBERS CLUB

1. The number of Lucky Numbers available for each year is equal to the number of fully paid up and official honorary members the LCC has at 23.59 on December 31st of the previous year.
2. Every paid up or honorary member shall be entitled to buy one Lucky Number at the price of £5. This can be paid along with the membership fee as a single cheque. Requests must be received by 23.59 on December 31st. If a member has not requested a number by then, they will not be able to have one for the year in question. When requesting their Lucky Number, members may express an interest in purchasing further numbers at £5 each. Once all requested numbers have been allocated, if there is a difference between the number allocated and the number of members, the remaining Lucky Numbers will be allocated by random drawing. So if a member has requested one further number, they will have one place in the draw; if they have requested two, they will have two places and so on.
3. Members who join or renew after 23.59 on 31st December will need to wait until the following year before requesting a number.
4. Once all numbers have been allocated, each member will be contacted by email to tell them their number(s) for the current year, and, if applicable, how much they need to pay for their extra numbers. Members without email should enclose an SAE with their application so they can receive this information.
5. Requests for specific numbers cannot be considered.
6. Prize fund Once all numbers have been allocated, 10% of the total takings will be deducted for club funds. The remainder will be divided into 12 equal sums, to be awarded in the following way: 3 draws at the AGM, 3 draws at the Summer Meeting, 3 draws at the September meeting and 3 draws at the Christmas meeting.
7. Value of prizes The total prize fund for each draw will be divided into three prizes as follows: 1st prize 50% of total, 2nd prize 30% of total, 3rd prize 20% of total.
8. Prizes will be sent as soon as possible, but bear in mind that the Committee are spread out around the country and sometimes the Treasurer will not be able to get cheques countersigned immediately, so please be patient.

After much discussion the LCC committee have come up with some changes to the entry form table that we hope will make the distribution of forms a bit fairer.  These rules have come into effect because entry forms are getting harder to find.

1. We are keeping the draw where someone will win one of all the forms we receive
2. You still only get a ticket if you bring forms to the table
3. You will still get called up to the table in groups according to your ticket number
4. Instead of being issued a ticket number on a first-come, first-served basis, you will pick a ticket at random.  Which means that even if you're late you may get to come to the table in the first group.
5. There will be 2 tables of forms, one for easily available forms where the usual rules apply and you can take one of each.  The second table will be for rarer forms where you will be limited to how many in total you can take.  The amount you can take will vary based on the amount of forms we have and will be announced at each meeting

We also ask that you don't read all the small print on a form at the table.  If the prize appeals then take it and have a read through it when you get back to your seat.  If you then find for some reason that you can't use it please bring it back to the table so someone else can have it.

Please bear with us at the next meeting where we will implement this new system for the first time and we welcome feedback (good or bad) afterwards.

Please let us know if you have any questions

With the increasing number of children's comps, especially from magazines, now being posted on our email groups, perhaps we need a reminder that we should use our common sense so we do NOT enter those comps aimed specifically at children or where an obvious children's activity is involved, e.g. colouring comps.

Obviously, many people have children or grandchildren and would like to win a prize for them. That is completely understandable. However, any comp aimed specifically at a certain age group or hoping to attract entries only from that age group, should be avoided. Compers love to win, of course, but it would be a shame to gain the reputation of being so keen that we are happy to swipe a prize from under the very nose of a child!

Please use your judgement if and when entering children's comps.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has noticed the downward trend in the availability of entry forms.  It has been getting increasing difficult to get a good supply for the EF table at the meetings and the one yesterday was the most sparsely populated we've ever had.

We've tried to come up with the fairest system possible for the distribution of forms and I think the current system, whilst not perfect, has been working quite well.  However, what I noticed yesterday is that even though we do hold forms back for each group that comes up there really wasn't enough to go around.

We don't want to go back to the free-for-all that we used to have, so we're calling for ideas from all of you on how we could best organise things so everyone gets a fair chance of forms, or do you think we should just stick with the way we are doing it?  All ideas will be considered.

Thanks