Week 21 – “There is Nothing Like a Dame”

Club Visits since July 1                                                         59

Rotary Engagements since July 1                                          154

Official Club Visits with Chicken dinner since July 1                 10 !!

Unusually, on Monday I didn’t have any diarised Rotary engagements!!  However, the heavy load of the previous week put me into catch-up & preparation mode, catching up on all the emails etc from the previous week and preparing for the coming week, so I was in Rotary mode all day.

Early start and heavy day on Tuesday – the General Council of Rotary International in Britain & Ireland (RIBI) meets 4 times a year and two of those are one-day meetings with a 9:00 a.m. in Alcester – so I was on the road at 6:30.  Pretty productive day really & hopefully advancing the cause of Rotary in these islands.  Then a quick hare back down the M40 to catch Northwood School’s Year 10s at The Beck Theatre in Hayes as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival – Macbeth in 30 minutes which they did magnificently – our club is heavily involved in helping with reading & maths and we’re hoping to start an Interact club with them shortly – this what happens when a member is Chair of Governors!  Joan did a great job directing the students in Macbeth – really proud of her & them!

Wednesday was another full day with a morning meeting out in Benson (Oxfordshire) with the District 9 Inner Wheel District meeting – great group of ladies (I was the only man!!) (Note – when Rotary was a male-only organisation, Inner Wheel was started as a group of mainly Rotarian spouses, which remains the largest component of membership).  Decent lunch too, thank you ladies!   

 

And in the evening on to RC Faringdon – almost as close to the Western edge of the District as I am to the East!  Super bunch of people brightening up West Oxfordshire with their own brand of Rotary – splendid, and including a visitor from Bangalore who spent time in our District as part of a Group Study Exchange team 12 years ago.

Thursday I got to meet a Dame – again!! For the second week in a row Dame Marcia Twelftree popped up as Chair of Governors for a school where I was visiting an Interact club – but not just any old Interact club – the charter award celebration for the Interact Club of E-Act Burnham Park Academy.  President Paul and Secretary Sabrina led the group of Interactors newly inducted by RC Burnham Beeches President Neil.  They've already carried out their first project - a food collection for Slough Food Bank, well done to all of the

m  – a smashing evening.

I remember last year doing the rounds of meetings with all of the Presidents-Elect in the District – it being that time of year again my successor Tim Cowling is doing the same this year.  Seems likely that I’ll be helping him out by being an Assistant Governor next year, so it was off on Friday evening to a meeting of the Presidents-Elect in our Orange & Blue areas – they seem like a lively bunch.