Following the Annual General Meeting on September 29, 2009 - Newark Carnival 2010 will take place on Sunday, July 4, and the theme is Newark in Rhyme - celebrating the wonderful array of nursery rhymes there are. Registration forms will be on this site in a few days time.

Three groups made their choice at tonight’s meeting - Ring a Ring o’ Roses, The Queen of Hearts and Oranges and Lemons have all gone.

We also appointed two new directors - Jeannette Tokeley and Derek Graham - following the resignation of chairman Rachel Brown. And our existing committee members - Andy Jackson, Stuart Graham and Howard Newport - were all re-elected for another year’s service to Newark’s leading community event.

Derek is managing director of Newark-based project management firm Graham Associates, delivering project management and consultancy solutions to the public and private sectors. Before moving to Newark in 2004, he spent nearly 30 years in a variety of roles with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London - his most recent role being a Project Manager. He also served as Vice-Chairman on the Executive Board of the Association of Local Authority Business Consultants. His background is in internal consultancy, in both management services and business analysis environments. He brings a wealth of project management experience with him to his role as co-director on the Newark Carnival committee.

Jeannette is the Managing Director of Dash Corporation training and consultancy. Dash specialises in strategic work with a broad spectrum of businesses including Buying Consortiums, Financial Services Companies, and Manufacturing clients. All Jeanette's work is focused on helping increase company profitability and growth through the most valuable resource of any company - its people. As well as being a Director of Newark Carnival, she is also a Director of a property development company.