Once a Marine always a Marine

Hello and welcome to my blog.
My name is Chris and I took over the running of the Wolverhampton Branch of the RMA a few years back as it was on a free fall into obscurity. I wanted the branch to succeed for a range of reasons all of which I think are the right ones.

Who wants to join the Wolverhampton Branch of the Royal Marines Association? I continually asked myself. The answer was painfully obvious; no one.

It was always a one foot in the past club with no plan for the future. After much talking, reading and experimenting I had a plan to shake things up and rebooted into a newer format.

The RMA was always a unique club for all people connected to the Royal Marines in any way but it needed modernising in the way it looked, what it did and how it recruited new members.

Like all associations, you get out of it what you put in and as much as the few members enjoyed the experience it did not have the diversity to meet the need for which it is set up.

At Wolverhampton we are developing a one stop shop style of branch which caters for anyone eligible to join. The one stop shop approach is to enable the branch to deliver everything from social and welfare activities to fundraising, outdoor, health and sports, links with Cadets and the serving Corps all done with fun and humour. We have literally brought the Commando ethos into the branch.

We decided that only meeting once a month was not enough contact so a virtual branch on facebook was put in place to maintain communication between members and raise our visibility.

More later, but please get in touch with me anytime and I will give you details of membership, or look on our website or the royalmarinesassociation.co.uk website.


Friday 28 May 2010

Exe Estuary Run

Had a great weekend last week, the weather was hot and great for camping which we hadn't done for a couple of years.  Met up with some guys from the Stourbridge Branch RMA and did the first fundraising run with them along the new path from Exmouth railway station to the Commando Training Centre.  Most had a guided tour of the camp after but I had to run back because the car was on a limited time ticket.

We are still collecting cash from sponsors and all money will go to helping our wounded.

During the weekend I tracked down and met an old oppo and needless to say the beer flowed as much as the catching up.  It's amazing how much the memory fades but the stories flooded back.  So all in all, great weather a great run and smashing to meet up with Scouse again even though he has lost his accent and gain some sort of janner/scouse speak.

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