October 2009
Oct 30, 2009 3:30 PM
It is hard to believe 2 years of preparation for an event can just pass so quickly and before you know it the weekend is over. It started with me having to hit a golf ball to start the golf competition (a real challenge for a non golf player) followed by a tea for a group of Young Carers which they thought treated them like 'royalty'. We had a brass band on the Friday evening who were certainly entertaining and had a great repertoire which made us laugh, tap our feet, clap our hands and...
Oct 28, 2009 1:00 PM
The Mayor visited the club to meet the GSE team and then gave them a few of her hours to show them around. 3 other clubs were represented by their Presidents at the meeting - Henley in Arden, Kidderminster and Leamington Spa Regency.
Keith inducted a new member which was great to see who I am sure will enjoy being a member of this club. It was great to meet long established friends again and to see the activities the club is arranging.
A nice way to spend the lunchtime before getting down...
Oct 27, 2009 8:00 PM
It was good to meet up again with the GSE team at Redditch Kingfisher's meeting. We also had our outgoing team there to meet them and to see what a club presentation might look like. I was also delighted to see Wendy Moore there as she continues to support the GSE Team through their journey in our District. They were also supported by Lickey Hills and one of their prospective members.
The team did a great presentation and are obviously enjoying their stay here. I think all...
Oct 27, 2009 12:30 PM
It is obviously not my week for travel this week. Managed to get myself stuck in traffic on the A46 which added an hour to my journey. Fortunately, people were only going into lunch as I arrived. The event was held at the lovely Barcelo Billesley Manor Hotel.
After a nice lunch Cordelia, the dress shop in Stratford, did a fashion show. I must admit I started to panic when the owner said the jackets were well over £200. As much as I loved some of the evening dresses which were...
Oct 26, 2009 6:00 PM
Fortunately managed to get to the club despite an accident blocking the motorway. It was good to see several prospective members there. A good atmosphere was evident in the club and several events were in the planning stages.
The club has many projects both local and international which it has shown a long term commitment to. It has also been a club that supports the Foundation. What was great was the presentation to me of a cheque for £1200 to Foundation - I was almost lost for words....
Oct 26, 2009 12:45 PM
A lovely welcome met me from club members. Conversations bought back memories of Rotaract. Of course I hold the club responsible for my moment of weakness in signing up for the tandem dive as it was their Bulldog Bash that sparked the idea.
What was nice was to see the Mayor in attendance as an honorary member - it is very rare that I have seen a Mayor make use of their honorary membership.
A good atmosphere was present and it was great to have so many conversations with different people...
Oct 23, 2009 6:30 PM
A slow drive up the A1 eventually bought us to York for District 1020's conference. It is usual for District Governors to support each other at their conferences and Alastair and I agreed early on in our year as DGE that we would support each other's conference. Then he asked me to speak on Youth Exchange!
Well we certainly got to learn something about Scotland - the band on the Friday evening Scocha was amazing - a mixture of scottish folk song and rock. They were very entertaining....
Oct 22, 2009 8:00 PM
David Littleford deserves a medal for taking me to a second Rotary meeting this week. This time over to Hasbury and Cradley at Clent. This club makes you feel really welcome and immediately draws you into their conversations in the bar. Lively discussion took place throughout the meal.
The first club where questions were asked or comments made as I went through the speech which worked well. The questions and conversations after the speech were really interesting as many people got involved...
Oct 22, 2009 12:45 PM
It was lovely to come back and visit the Lichfield Club. It was very touching to be greeted so warmly by the members of the club and to be involved in several conversations before the meeting began and to meet their recently inducted member.
It was great to hear of the club's donation of several thousand pounds to a local special school that morning which will make a huge difference to them and should give the club a real feel good factor.
A really nice friendly atmosphere is evident when...
Oct 21, 2009 7:30 PM
After a busy day it was great to come out for an evening and just relax. After managing to find the Wolvey Bowling Club I walked in on a room where there was a lot of laughter and frivolity. There were frogs jumping around the floor being pulled by strings (very badly in some cases). It was lovely to see people from Nuneaton and Tamworth Rotary Clubs there and friends of the members of Bedworth Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs.
There was a lovely supper available to us all which was very...
Oct 20, 2009 7:45 PM
It was nice to be taken again by David Littleford to this club meeting. A lively club throughout the meeting with good humour. A good attendance and the induction of two new members made it a great evening. It was also good to hear what the club is doing in each of the areas of service - there is plenty going on.
It was also great to meet a member who was an ex Rotaractor from my era - I used to attend the Sutton Coldfield Christmas Party every year (an event he helped to create)....
Oct 20, 2009 12:45 PM
It was great to be back amongst old friends and at a club where the President is very proactive in getting the club involved in the Thanks for Life project. What a good way of getting a new member involved. It was nice to meet a new member that I have written to to welcome to Rotary.
The speech seemed to go down well and people were very welcoming to me. It was nice to see previous events I enjoyed helping the club with when an Assistant Governor were still continuing. I shall definitely be...
Oct 18, 2009 11:15 AM
Had a lovely drive over to Hanbury. As I drove down School Road I wondered where the church was but as I went round a corner I couldn't fail to see it up on the hill. A lovely church to go to although it was strange to have to drive around the church and park right up the side of it (one corner was a little tight but managed to keep away from the stone work).
Admittedly, the church was cold but the service was lovely and the 2 Presidents read...
Oct 16, 2009 2:30 PM
Paul and I took the 4 hour trip down to Torquay on Friday afternoon to join Nigel, District Governor of District 1110, and his conference delegates for their conference. Their plenary sessions had started in the afternoon but we could only get time off work to get there in the evening. We just about managed to drop our bags off in our room before dinner. It was lovely to see some other friends we have in the District from our Youth Exchange and Rotaract experience.
After dinner we went to...
Oct 15, 2009 8:00 PM
It was nice to receive such a warm welcome from the members of Hasbury & Cradley Rotary Club and it was lovely to catch up with all the members of the GSE team. A full room made a good audience for the team. It was more a conversation than a speech as the Rotarians chipped in along the way.
The atmosphere here tonight was great - very good humoured and entertaining all evening. The company was great, the food was plentiful and the presentation very good.
All in all a really...
Oct 13, 2009 7:30 PM
John Clegg, my driver for the evening, could probably do my speech for me - as could Roger Phillips as both have heard it several times already.
Vice President Mike made a good job of leading the meeting. A good sense of humour was displayed all evening around the room and it was a great relaxed place to be.
It was nice to see responsive faces as I spoke - I still get a little nervous before I get up and speak and it is not always easy to tell if it is going ok....
Oct 13, 2009 1:00 PM
A nice drive across to the Ramada Hotel at Chesford Bridge. It was good to see Aquaboxes out ready for filling. Amazingly this club, last year, filled 40 of them. I suspect they will do just as well this year.
A great jovial atmosphere pervaded the meeting picked up really well by the SAA in his fines. We tried out the new PA system which seemed a neat little tool.It was a lovely group of people to be with for this lunchtime and served as a reminder to me just how much work Rotary Clubs are...
Oct 12, 2009 6:30 PM
Phil Head took me across through the Monday evening traffic to the Greswolde Hotel for the Knowle & Dorridge Rotary Club Meeting. A lovely hotel and it was great to have a Rotarian at the door waiting to welcome me (it felt a bit like being the Queen). The welcome was lovely and it was great to be involved in conversation around the table for the whole meal.
The meeting ran very smoothly and was all over by 8pm which meant I had a strange experience of being at home in the...
Oct 11, 2009 11:00 AM
A fantastic day - humbling and inspiring! Several of the Coventry Clubs have been working on this event for nearly thirty years. What is amazing is to see the dedication of school staff who bring the children for the day and the dedication of the Rotarians and Rotaractors to make it a great event for all of the children.
The venue is great as it keeps the events together and so people can support each other really well with their events. It is the first time I have seen table...
Oct 10, 2009 7:30 PM
Had a great evening at Nuneaton's Foundation Evening in memory of Gerry Dison. A good number of people attended including our 2 ambassadorial scholars. We were entertained by Phil Holt who did a great talk on the Red Arrows - their history, the planes used, the pilot training, how the formations work and how they make the coloured smoke to name a few areas covered. It was a really interesting talk and kept everyone's attention for almost an hour. It was a very relaxed evening and one...
Oct 10, 2009 10:00 AM
Although the venue itself was not really ready for us we eventually got breakfast and onto the important part of the meeting...the scholars' presentations. Ryoko had been practising all night and was very nervous before her speech but she needn't have been as she did exceedingly well. Asca also performed really well and although they both come from Japan their presentations were very different.
It was great to have 24 of us there to support the students including Clement who was a previous...
Oct 8, 2009 7:00 PM
A slow drive along the M6 and into Halesowen meant I was slightly late for the Finance Committee Meeting. If nothing else these meetings remind me why I am not Treasurer! I am full of admiration for our finance team who put so much effort into getting the accounts done and who are so patient at explaining everything to people like me who find it all mind blowing. We spent over 2 hours looking at the accounts for last year so that they can be taken to Executive and then discussed at the...
Oct 8, 2009 12:30 PM
It was great to find myself back with the members of Handsworth. More importantly it was great to see President Geoff and his wife Edwina back from their mammoth walk along the Northerm Camino (the blisters are now healing).
I think everyone should have a John Goss (Foundation Chairman) in their club as I have never seen anyone manage to get Foundation Christmas Card orders out of so many people at one meeting!
It was nice to sit in on the club's business meeting after I had done...
Oct 7, 2009 8:00 PM
It was great after a long day at work to drive over to the Regis Restaurant for Oldbury's event in aid of the End Polio Now campaign. One of their members has a band that plays music from the 60s onwards. They entertained us all evening and I must admit it was great to just sit back and listen. The company was great and the ambience was lovely. The buffet was great and I just enjoyed the opportunity to relax.
It was also great to see Ray Ashman, a former member of the club, there as he is...
Oct 6, 2009 5:30 PM
The evening started with a briefing meeting with the team and Peter Ramage and Carolyn McLaughlin. When we had finished we already found guests arriving and the team got down straight away to mingling and talking to those there. The room was set out really well thanks to the hard work of Wendy Moore, Carolyn and her husband Gerry.
We moved the GSE team members onto different tables after each course so that each table got to meet 2 team members. The team briefly...
Oct 6, 2009 12:45 PM
It was great to be back amongst friends and to find a few wives here as well. Had a little difficulty finding venue as since last time I went a large primary care centre had been built in front of the Rugby Club so I missed the entrance. However, I still arrived in plenty of time.
Although quite small in number the club shared with me its projects which certainly make a difference to their community. It is certainly a club that fulfils Rotary ideals with friendship built in as a strong...
Oct 5, 2009 8:15 PM
A group of 7 of us met at Birmingham Airport to welcome the GSE team from District 9980, New Zealand. Having arrived early I made the most of the chance to grab some tea before moving to the arrivals area to wait for the team to arrive. After watching what seemed like an endless stream of Emirates stewardesses come through our visitors arrived with luggage in tow but all smiling and chirpy.
We all escorted them across to the Ramada Hotel where they were staying overnight and settled down to...
Oct 3, 2009 8:30 AM
A group of five Rotarians spent the day interviewing candidates for the GSE Team at the Arden Hotel. A busy day for all of us as the candidates undertook a presentation, interview, written activity, focussed discussion and a team activity. After deliberating over the candidates performance in the elements of the interview and their team spirit four candidates were chosen to make up the team to visit New Zealand in April next year. We all agreed they will make a great team.
It...
