About Christchurch Round Table
Christchurch Round Table is all about fun, friendship and fundraising!
Our club has been around for more than 65 years now and it’s open to men aged 18 - 45. We get together every 2 weeks for a meeting (dinner in a pub — nothing too formal) or a social event (go-karting, kayaking, bowling, cocktail making … you name it!). We also donate a few hours of our time every couple of months to raise money for local causes.
Overall, Christchurch Round Table offers a great way for us to help our local community, get to know more people locally and have a lot of fun.
Who We Are
We are a group of about 20 guys from all walks of life. Most of us live within about 5 miles of Christchurch town centre but this isn’t a requirement. We all work in different jobs (all trades and professions welcome). Some of us are Christchurch born and bred, and some of us have moved to the area recently.
We try to run a fair, friendly, fun club. We elect a different Chairman and Vice-Chairman every year to keep things fresh. We’re not secretive or hierarchical — we’re just here to have fun, make friends and do our bit for our fantastic home town of Christchurch.
What We Do
We typically get together every 2 weeks. We’ll either meet up for a bite to eat (maybe a beer!) and a chat to discuss how we can help the local community, or we’ll do a social event of some sort. Every couple of months, we team up and donate a few hours of our time to raise money for local causes.
As a group, we take part in three main types of events:
Charity & Volunteering events are all about serving our local community. Sometimes that involves running a beer stall or selling hot dogs at a local festival. Sometimes it might mean doing a bit of DIY for a local school or someone in Christchurch who needs our help. We have an informal rule that — whatever charitable work we do — it has to help people locally and it has to be fun.
Social events are our parties, activities and get-togethers. We might go golfing, play 5-a-side football, catch a gig or just meet for a pint and a pizza somewhere in Christchurch. We have lots of social events throughout the year, from black-tie dinners to skittles nights and bike trips across St Catherine’s Hill.
Business meetings are our regular meetings in a local pub. Business meetings aren’t too formal. We sit down over dinner and plan out our upcoming activities, decide where to donate any money we have raised and welcome any new members. Business meetings typically take place once or twice a month (always on a Tuesday night).
Who We Raise Money For
The money we raise together goes into a ringfenced charity account and is passed directly to local causes on an as-needed basis. A local cause might be a school or a charity, or it might be a small community initiative. It might even be an individual who needs help but can’t access support through the council or other means.
A lot of the money raised goes to long-standing initiatives like the Christchurch Food Bank, but we welcome applications for funding from all sorts of causes. For instance, we recently donated some money to an adaptive surfboard project working out of Southbourne.
We try not to hold too much money in our charity account — as soon as we raise it we try to give it away to the organisations and people who need it most. You can see all our stats on the Charity Commission website (Christchurch Round Table Charitable Trust, charity number 1060052).
Who we’re looking for
New members are welcome at Christchurch Round Table. As long as you meet our membership criteria (you have to be a man aged under 45), we want to hear from you!
Lots of our members have busy family and work lives, so members aren’t expected to attend absolutely every meeting or volunteer at every single charity event. If you can only commit a few hours every few weeks, then you can still have a great time here. The golden rule is ‘family, then work, then Table’ … that said, the more you put in, the more you get out.
We have been described as a drinking club with a charity problem, but we welcome teetotallers too! If you would like to come along and see if Table is for you, please get in touch. We’ll book you in for our next meet-up, and we’ll even cover your first beer.
