Note for the Second Edition - 1952

Compiled by Stanley J Phillips who brings to your notice the following :-

Important.  Read Slowly, Learn and Inwardly Digest !

On reading some of the lyrics or excursion notes in this book, you may be tempted to remove some particular page to take with you on an excursion, intending no doubt to return it later.

---- DON'T !! ----

With the best of intentions you may forget.  Compiling this book has been an undertaking of some magnitude.  I don't want to have to do it again because some lazy "birdbrain" can't be bothered making a copy of what he wants !

Also you will appreciate that many "tricks of the trade" are in print here.  It is not therefore general reading matter for the guests, but is only intended for the use of Excursion Leaders only.

See That It Does NOT Leave The Office

Note for the Third Edition - 1967

During the Summer of 1967 Auntie Lena and I were talking about this book and the hard work that our friend Stan had put in compiling it.  Auntie asked me if I would bring the book up to date (Stan couldn't do the job himself, he was out of the country) this I have done.

It would help if in the future excursion leaders would NOT make any alterations, if you feel you must then do it in pencil NOT IN INK or make a note on a slip of paper, this will help when the book is being revised.

On page 225 you will find a talk on C.E. lasting about 5mins, this you will find will be of help when having an informal C.E. meeting, and remember every body who comes to Plas is not a C.E. member and may never have been to a C.E. meeting.  I feel sure that this talk will be of help to you

Charlie F. (probably Excursion Leader Charlie Farnsworth)

Note for the "Fourth" Edition - 1974

Well the old firm returns and looks back on 23 years of "publication".

My first impression on re-reading these pages is how little has changed over the years.

One of the current generation of leaders - one Phil Kennedy - has read the book with me and made a number of suggestions (e.g. "burn it").  Where the remarks were factual and not merely reh rhetorical (I had to ask him how to spell it) they have been included.

I have been most flattered over the years at the numbers of leaders who have found the book useful and have said so to me - it made the initial work worthwhile.  As I am now back in the country we might even have a shot at more frequent overhauls and updates.

We decided to leave the historical things unchanged - this is mostly the price of things.

This year we have a new hostess and correspondent to Plas-y-Nant, new in the sense that they have not filled these offices before, the various references to Auntie Lena have therefore been changed.

I hope that the book continues to aid leaders, especially the first timers - for whom it was originally compiled.

Stan Phillips 10 March 1974

Note for the "Fifth" Edition - 1985

Well Really !!  To be reviewing this publication yet again, over 34 years since I first compiled it - is to say the least a strange experience.

A host of memories are stirred, apart from the "ghost of jokes" and serious discussions, the scores of friendships that started at Plas-y-Nant are remembered - not least that the girl who did most of the original typing has been my wife for 32 years and that our four sons have been leaders here (the youngest this year for the first time)

The contents are now becoming somewhat dated and you need to be cautious in using some of the data - particularly the town plans.

There are some other changes in routines.  For example people make their own lunch arrangements on Friday - so the reference to phoning the cafe with the numbers are redundant.  But apart from these obvious small points the great bulk does not require revision.

I hope it continues to provide a source of information, advice and some amusement, it continues to give great satisfaction to me to receive the complimentary remarks from today's leaders, who remind me so much of myself all those years ago.

Stan Phillips 11 July 1985

Post Script - 2005

C.E. Holiday Homes stopped operating Plas-y-Nant in 1985, not long after this last entry was written. 

Stan Phillips youngest son - who was doing his first year leading in 1985 - is now Plas-y-Nant proprietor Tony Phillips.  Stan Phillips - and his typist wife Barbara Phillips (Nee Hayes) lived in The Lodge at the bottom of drive by the entrance to Plas-y-Nant before passing on in December 2005.