Week 34 Olympics in the frame?

Rotary Engagements since July 1                              221

No, I’m not talking about hours lost watching the curling from Sochi!  Just that I went to a couple of meetings this week which brought the summer of 2012 all back again.  Monday Joan & I were lucky to be invited to Maidenhead Thames, not because we were there officially but we wanted to go and hear their speaker, Dr Katherine Granger, the most be-medalled female rower in Olympic history.  Really lucky to sit on the same table at dinner and discover what a super lady she is – wicked sense of humour – there are real perks with this job!

Tuesday we took our District Executive Committee all the way up to Bicester – continuing our policy of seeing the corners of the District in force.  Much to discuss this meeting with the updates from General Council the previous week and looking forward, in projecting our budget for 2014-2015.

Wednesday it was back to 2012 again – this time for the Paralympics.  Mike Reilly, CEO of Goalball and Michael Sharkey, a visually impaired competitor from the GB team, talked to my club (RC Elthorne-Hillingdon) about the sport and their ambitions to start 5 Goalball clubs in the London area this year, the first of which has started in Ickenham, just round the corner from where our club meets.

And Friday we were both off to the Metropole Hotel in Birmingham for the annual RIBI Assembly where we start to prepare for the 2014-2015 Rotary year (lasting thru Sunday).  In some ways this might be seen as a step back, as I’m helping out by acting as Assistant Governor for the clubs in Burnham, Slough, Langle, Windsor & Maidenhead but I see it as a challenge to focus on a great area and see where we can increase our Rotary service.  Great fun weekend including meeting incoming Rotray International president Gary Huang from Taiwan (seen with RI Director Mike Webb) and after launching the World’s Greatest Meal 2012 District 1140 Governor Mukesh Malhotra, with his Dsitrict 1090 counterpart Niall Blair offered advice to our incoming DG Tim Cowling – not sure how Tim’s taking the advice judging by his expression!

Week 33 A Very Mixed Bag – this year, next year, local & national, business & pleasure

Rotary Engagements since July 1                                                  215

Being a Rotary International District Governor is, as I’ve implied in the title of this post, a very mixed bag.  In a single week I’ve covered things relating to this Rotary year, things building up to the next Rotary year starting in July, lots of stuff to do with things happening locally but also national responsibilities, much pure business, some a mixture of business & pleasure, and some pure pleasure.

Began the week in Alcester, home of Rotary International in Britain & Ireland (RIBI) for a meeting of the General Council, the 29 Governors for this year of the Districts in Britain & Ireland who are responsible for the Administrative Area covered by these islands.  Actually a fair number of pretty important matters for the future of our Districts were discussed including the way on which the structures & processes need to change, and what the future may look like in terms of how many Districts we may reduce to, subject to agreement from our membership.  These will be taken forward to future meetings and will eventually form the basis for quite radical change.  Important stuff!  Definitely came under the national (but also parochially local) and business sides of the week!

Monday evening it was time to contact all our clubs with borders on the Thames to find out where we had cases of pressing need following the flooding.  Happily I’ve had no reports of urgent issues. Although many have acknowledged that our work may start when the waters go down and the extent of damage & recovery work is apparent.

Much of Tuesday was spent catching up with being in meetings all day Sunday & Monday, but an evening of pure pleasure with the first of two 1-0 home wins of the week for Watford FC – even if you win ugly it’s still a win!

Cancellation of the trip down to Torquay with Conference Chairman Jean was replaced by a comprehensive talk through all of the conference (just 31 days to go!) and a lengthy call with our conference centre contact Viki.  Please, because of the cancellation of the trip, to be at my club to hear a couple of our District visiting Rotary Scholars talk to us about their studies and what they hope to do next – aren’t young people great!

Thursday evening should have been a pleasurable experience that saw Elthorne-Hillingdon triumph & make their way through to the semi-finals of the District darts competition having defeated RC Henley.  Unfortunately two things went wrong 1) Henley clearly hadn’t read that script and 2) our usually reliable pairing couldn’t hit a double – at all!  We lost 3-1, deservedly and wish Henley all the best in the next round.

Friday saw us out at the Mill at Sonning for a memorable night watching Alan Ayckbourn’s “Absurd Person Singular”.  Played as a period piece it was great fun, especially the line “I see it’s still raining” which, coming in the midst of the storm, was truly appropriate.  RC Marlow organised for more than 100 of us to be there am0ongst a full house.  Rotarians having a great time while raising money for Polio eradication – what could be better?

Saturday morning we were off to Sonning again – this time for our District Officer Training – gearing up for the Rotary Year 2014-2015, followed by a quick dash back to see the mighty Watford to their second 1-0 win of the week.  Not quite so ugly, unless you count the two sendings-off – one for each side!

 Each year, our District holds a “Paul Harris Fellows” Lunch (Paul Harris founded Rotary – fellowships are awarded to recognise significant contribution and represent a donation to our charity, The Rotary Foundation in that person’s name).  Brilliantly orgainsed by RC Slough member Robin Weathersbee, 150 of us gathered to celebrate and were addressed by Past President of RI John Kenny who flew down from his home in Edinburgh especially for the occasion.  Great lunch, great company and a stirring address.

 

Week 32 Cooking Up a Storm

Rotary Engagements since July 1                  208

Much of the early part of this week has been spent (again) on preparations for our District Conference – Conference Chairman Jean & I have now had to cancel a planned one day visit by train to Torquay thanks to the horrendous weather we’ve been having – when will it ever stop raining?  (I had a look at the statistics for our local weather station and we’ve already had one third of a year’s rainfall in just 6 weeks!).

First meeting (other than conference discussions!) was on Tuesday with those who will follow me as District Governor for the next three years discussing the proposals for changing the shape of Districts within Britain & Ireland and the way our central organisation may change.  These ideas are to be discussed at our General Council (the administrative body for Rotary in Britain & Ireland) Sunday & Monday, so it seemed like a good idea to find out what everyone who’ll be leading our District as far as we’ve determined it thinks before representing our common view at Council (yes I know that some of you will find this a novel concept for me, but there you go!).

At my club on Wednesday we had our monthly Business meeting, but also a really pleasant surprise for a visitor from the Samaritans.  The generosity of the public in Hillingdon for our annual Santa rounds raised a singficant sum this year and we were able to present the Samaritans with a cheque for £2000 – don’t think I’ve ever seen a more shocked and delighted lady!  (She said she thought she was coming to collect about £100).  Great to make such a difference to such a worthy cause.

My year as Governor has been marked by many happy occasions and a few rather sad ones.  Thursday I attended a service to celebrate the life of one of our Rotarians who died suddenly in late January at the age of 64.  The extent of the work he did in his community was a reflection of the gaping hole that many of our members leave when they are no longer with us, for the communities and clubs, but particularly their families.

Friday night and a quick burst up the M40 saw Joan & I at the celebration of 60 years of the Rotary Club of Bicester, including a short address by a founder member – yes that’s right, John Jackson joined Rotary in 1954 and 60 years later he’s still around to tell the tale – not quite as active as he one was, but it makes you think – 60 years of Rotary service!!

Saturday took us over to one of our favourite events – the District final of one of our competitions for Young People, this time Young Chef. The kitchens were an oasis of calm as the 8 winners from previous rounds cooked up a selection of super looking meals (I’m told by the judges that they also tasted great – we mere mortals weren’t allowed to taste unfortunately).  They had to cope with a dram on arrival, no gas or electricity in the kitchen!  Thankfully that as solved and they took it in their stride.  The competition winner and runner-up will now go onto a Regional heat in 4 weeks time – looking forward to being there to support them.  And no apologies whatsoever for all the pictures of food and the brilliant competitors.

 

 Busy Sunday – first to the lunch for the incoming Club Presidents for 2014-2015 (this is seeming very odd – it only seems like yesterday we were doing this – but it’s a year ago!).  Joan & I have both taken on the role of Assistant Governor for next Rotary year so we’ll be supporting the clubs in Hillingdon and Gerrards Cross, and Windsor, Maidenhead, Slough & Burnham respectively.

Followed by a quick burst up to Alcester for the General Council meeting – I’ll report on that next week as it goes into Monday.

Week 31 Looking Back……. & Looking Forward!

Rotary Engagements since July 1                    202

Been a week of meetings to review how we’ve done so far this Rotary year, and what we’re getting up to the rest of this year plus what we might do next year, always good to be looking at continuity!

With that in mind on Monday I went to a meeting of our Finance Review Committee, looking at the figures for this year so far, checking what we think is coming up and what plans we’re thinking up for the year 2014-2015 and what that might mean so we can set a budget.

Then on Wednesday managed to go to my own club again – we had our partners join us for the evening, although for us that’s pretty usual with Joan being a Rotarian as well.  Our speaker for the evening was also a member of our family, son-in-law Alex, who enlightened us on how TV pictures get from sporting venues to our screens and the vast numbers of people needed to make it happen (and how that number might potentially be reduced by technology in the future).  Great evening!

On Thursday a meeting with our District’s Assistant Governors, looking at how the clubs in our District are getting on and how we can combine to help them.

Terrific workshop on Saturday morning with 25 Rotarians keen to “Get their Message Across”, with presentations on creative ways of marketing our Rotary clubs and encouraging people to join us and hands-on time learning how to update websites.  Looking forward to seeing the results of their efforts in the future.

Saturday evening it was off to Oxford to celebrate the Oxford club’s 90^th anniversary.  One of the oldest clubs in our District, the club remains one of the largest in our District and some 70 of us met at the Randolph Hotel, which has been the club’s meeting place for 75 years.  Guest of honour was the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Tim Stevenson OBE, who praised the club’s contribution to the community over 90 years.