Male member

Welcome to this post about my membership subscription renewal letter from the Historic Narrowboat Owners Club.

oh, bye....

On the whole I love the rather old fashioned approach and somewhat arcane language surrounding the conduct of the business of the Club, particularly in regard to membership issues. (The word 'shewn', I would hazard, is unlikely to be found in any other contemporary correspondence.)

However, I fear I had to draw the line at the phrase 'wife or partner's name (if applicable)' and have written to raise a wry eyebrow at this terminology. Sadly, I have written via the medium of electronic mail, when I would so much have preferred to have incsribed it with a trusty fountain pen upon best Croxley Script.

Afternoon update:
Action has been taken! I must therefore commend the membership secretary for his promptness in bringing this to the attention of the committee. It seems that the wording is to be amended to 'spouse or partner'. Apparently, when it was first introduced, it did just say 'partner' - a perfectly good term, you might think, for capturing the essence of all sorts of significant others, legally contracted or otherwise. But apparently someone on the committee objected to his wife being referred to as his partner. Just read that again. The woman in question did not herself object; it was the man that didn't like it. Well, let's just hope he's happy with spouse.