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.

Week 30 With Scottish Themes & thoughts of Looking Forward

Rotary Engagements since July 1                                                  197

It’s quite odd – I look back at some weeks and think – where did all that time go!  Much of this last week has been involved with detailed things to be done before our conference – less than eight weeks to go now.  First official meeting of the week was our Conference Committee – good to see everyone there and all prepared for the weeks ahead.  Looking very positive – people still signing up – it’s a pleasure to think that so many will have so much to enjoy!

Wednesday I made it to my own club’s meeting again – they’re beginning to recognise me again now!

 

Looking at the diary, there’s quite a few celebratory events coming up and this week was pretty much the start.  Friday night we were out in the middle of Oxfordshire enjoying the company of the clubs of Wallingford, Sinodun & District; Wallingford & Didcot District and Didcot.  Local MP Ed Vaizey spoke of the role of service clubs in the community interspersed with a number of amusing anecdotes none of which I will repeat!  Great also to see Ed’s case worker Lynda Atkins receive a Paul Harris Fellowship for her work for the community.

It being the end of January it’s Burns’ Night!  Saturday at RC Bracknell’s annual bash – excellent hosts, very traditional meal, Celeidh led by their President, Alan Davis (he does do this for fun, he hadn’t been pressed into service amongst his other duties!).  Good to see lots of local clubs (Loddon Vale, Easthampstead, Wokingham) joining in the fun as well.  Each year they raise funds for Help for Heroes and by the way things seemed to be going, they should have had a great result.

 

Sunday and “deja vu” time.  Just goes to show how quickly time flies!  It was time for the “Welcome Home” lunch for District Governor-Elect Tim & his wife Linda on their return from Rotary International Assembly in San Diego.  Hardly seems possible that it was a year since Joan & I were doing the same thing.  I stood in for Immediate Past District Governor Judith to host the occasion & Tim spoke movingly of his ambitions of the year for our District.

Week 29 On Conference Looming & Floods now receding ….

Rotary Engagements since July 1                                                  192

It’s probably fair to say that now we’re getting into the “home straight” for this year’s District Conference so there’s lots of things to do and lots of things to talk about with members of the committee, which doesn’t really make for much in the way of visual imagery, so the picture this week is of the choir of Rotarians who did such a splendid job for us at the District Carol Service in December.

 

Yes, just under 9 weeks now until our Conference in Torquay (21^st-23^rd March) so the first meeting of the week was with Conference Chairman Jean and Stage Manager Phil on planning the events of the weekend on a minute by minute basis and working out how we squeeze everything in – and it seemed like there was so much time available before then!!

Tuesday a couple of hours spent talking with my fellow members of the Rotary International in Britain & Ireland (RIBI) Foundation Committee on how we’re doing with our charity in these islands.

Wednesday saw the visit of Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) attendee James Turner to our club, when he told us of his exploits on the course in North Wales last July (if you go to my Week 4 post there’s details of my visit up to the course).  It’s such a pleasure to hear how much the RYLAS experience helps the young people who take part & hearing it again 6 months on is terrific – it has a lasting impact.

The other topic that has been high on the discussion agenda this week has been flooding.  One third of the clubs in our Rotary District 1090 cover areas through which the River Thames flows.  With the vast quantities of rain we’ve had over the last six weeks the river has spread way beyond its’ banks in many places.  Fortunately, so far I haven’t found that any of our members’ homes have been flooded but there are some areas where homes have been flooded or community facilities rendered unusable.  We’re looking at how we can provided help to those communities.

On Sunday, I turned up at the end of RC Maidenhead Bridge’s meeting to see a couple of people about how we’re progressing with bringing one of our conference sessions together.  Suffice to say that it’s going to be great – if you want more details you’ll just have to be there on Friday March 21^st in Torquay!

Finally, last week I mentioned our Youth Exchange student, Lucinda, who’s away in New York State.  This week she managed to break her wrist roller-skating.  Keep up with her exploits at http://britabroad2013.blogspot.co.uk

Week 28 Highlights in Lots of Different Ways

Rotary Engagements since July 1                                                  188

Been a fascinating week with a big variety in what’s going on – lots of progress in lots of areas.

It’s usual for Rotary club Presidents to be in office for a full year from July 1 to June 30^th.  Occasionally clubs need to share the duty and Monday saw us at RC Loddon Vale for the handover from President Norman Moulsley to President Bill Soane.  Both great Rotarians helping their club to be able to continue to provide great service to their community.   A super evening in great company. Oh, and I got to present a certficate for the club's 40th anniversary!

Alongside the celebratory meetings there are also less formal duties – a couple of “webinars” last week, on the future shape of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI) and on the way in which we deal with Scholarships awarded by Rotary, either for scholars coming to study in the UK or from scholars we support in their studies abroad.

Wednesday evening the first of what I hope will be a larger number of meetings at my own club, having missed so many in the first half of the Rotary year.  Big turnout for our first meeting of the calendar year – lots to enjoy, the more than £5,000 raised by our efforts before Christmas being a highlight.

Thursday morning a fairly intense session looking at our conference registrations and hotel bookings – in some ways filling the hotel completely means we have to be extra careful that we haven’t overbooked – nice problem to have though!

And in the afternoon a very special occasion.  While Rotarians have an award, the Paul Harris Fellowship, named for our Founder our inner Wheel organisation has one of its own, similarly named.  More recent than the Paul Harris, the Margarette Golding award has only been in existence since 2001 and has been given to only a little over 200 people.  So it was an honour to be invited to see Evelyne Philpott , President of the Inner Wheel Club of Marlow receive her award, only the second to be given in our District.  

To quote the Inner Wheel website “successful Margarette Golding Award recipients have generally been involved with a variety of charities or organisations for a very long time, often involving a great deal of commitment on a very regular basis. This work must be completely unconnected with Inner Wheel membership, Inner Wheel or Rotary fundraising activities. Alternatively or in addition they must have made great personal sacrifices for the benefit of others. The awards are given to Inner Wheel members as well as members of the general public. The criteria for success are set high so that the award remains a truly significant marker of an individual’s commitment to others”.  Congratulations to Evelyne.

On Saturday morning I was at the first meeting of our Vocational Training Team since we found out that our grant application had been successful.  It’s nice to see that all the hard work that has been put in by our team in preparation for this event is going to come to fruition.  Special mention of our Team Leader, club member Gillian Pearce whose visit to Kamuli Mission Hospital gave us the idea and who has put an immense amount of time into getting us to this point.

And finally, to introduce you to another blogger!  We have a young lady sponsored by the Banbury Rotary Club for a Youth Exchange trip to New York state.  She’s writing a blog too – so please keep up with her as well at http://britabroad2013.blogspot.co.uk