18,000 invitations to join the Tonbridge, Edenbridge & Malling Conservative Association - and participate in the parliamentary selection contest - have just been dropped at the local Royal Mail Sorting Office and should hit the voter's doormats tomorrow. Our largest ever membership campaign.
Signed off just a week ago, the mailing has been printed, personalised, folded and packed in five working days. Fingers crossed for a reasonable return. We don't expect it to cover its costs in year one, but if it can bring in 50-100 new members, who in turn will help revitalise the Association and introduce new ideas and fresh thinking, it will have been worth every penny.
Huge thanks must also go to members of the Chatham & Aylesford Association, the best envelope packing team in the UK. Working in shifts, they packed and bundled 18,000 membership recruitment letters in just one and a half days. This, however, is far from their record. Just before the 2010 General Election, working in tandem with Tonbridge & Malling, they mustered a team of 110 volunteers and packed 70,000 envelopes in a day!
Many thanks to all who, at very short notice, folded, packed and sealed. Another example of the army of volunteers without whose support and dedication the Party would cease to function.