Twenty-six members attended and we were honoured to welcome our guests for the evening. Our first guests, Councillor Derek Townsend and his wife Janet and Phillip Linnegar, chief executive officer of the Hertfordshire Hearing Advisory Service.

We were also delighted to have the services of Lisa Cordaro, a palantypist from Hatfield. Lisa types out speech, as it occurs, and the words are projected onto a screen. A facility absolutely essential to the deaf or hard of hearing to enable them to participate in group discussion from which they would, otherwise, be precluded.

The principal reason for the success, however, was the fact that the Herts Hearing Advisory Service was donating £250 to the group. This amount covers the hire of St John's Church for 2008, and Phil Linnegar had brought the cheque to present to the group.

After the AGM we played a game of Countdown. This popular television game is ideally suited to our group as all the questions can be prepared beforehand on a computer presentation and shown on a large screen to enable everyone to participate.

Councillor Townsend turned out to be a formidable opponent but he was pipped at the dictionary post by the teamwork of five individuals, one of whom was a science graduate.

Why not join our group? Who knows, you might find yourself attending a social evening where you know exactly what is going on, all the time, for the first time.

All deafened people in the area can join in the fun. All you have to do is turn up at any of our meetings. These are held every third Friday in each month from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at St John's Church Hall, Station Road, Hemel Hempstead.

We have an annual subscription of £5, which includes a partner or carer, and an entrance fee of just £2 per person to cover refreshment and other expenses.

Call in you might learn something about cochlear implants, hearing dogs, of which we have four, and other services available to the deafened.

There is a photo quiz on April 18, 7.30pm in St John's Church Hall, Station Road, Hemel Hempstead.