Tag: Rotary Events
Jun 20, 2010 1:30 PM
We arrived early for the Convention so Paul could attend the Youth Exchange Officers' Pre Convention. I took the opportunity to meet some relatives and see something of Montreal. The weather was good for most of the week which made it a good trip. The Convention opening ceremony was very good especially the entertainment by the group Celtic Thunder who covered a wide range of genres but their talent was obvious.
The Convention plenary sessions took place every morning and the afternoon...
May 27, 2010 9:00 AM
No words can describe the way I feel after today. The week leading up to the event had moments of feeling sick, nervous and worried. We drove down the night before to Amesbury to make sure the journey this morning was not long (Warren came down this morning as he had an event last night). Chrissie and Eric Dance came down with us and it was great to have friends there with us.
We arrived at the airfield and found ourselves with almost 30 other jumpers and their friends and family. The...
May 22, 2010 6:15 PM
A great evening awaited us as we drove to Stratford Racecourse to join members of the ICFR. As we arrived there were almost 90 caravans in the caravan park facing onto the racecourse. A lovely sight was the 3 hot air balloons taking off from the racecourse into a blue cloudless sky.
We were made very welcome and joined the President of ICFR for drinks at his caravan before heading to the room where the meal was to be taken. It was great to see so many people enjoying true Rotary fellowship...
Feb 13, 2010 4:04 PM
It was great to attend an event that was just five minutes drive from home. It is the first time I have been to the Bedworth Civic Centre (it won't be the last I am sure). The Nuneaton Rotary Club had gone to great lengths to get the hall set up to display Rotary. There was a big Rotary symbol above the stage all evening and a shelterbox to the side of the stage which really gave people a good chance to see what they were raising money for. The scouts certainly made...
Jan 31, 2010 12:30 PM
It was lovely to be invited to join the caravanning fellowship members from Districts 1060 and 1210 for lunch and their general meeting, even if we don't own a caravan.
A lovely lunch was provided at the Lea Marston Hotel and we had the chance to meet up with old acquaintances and to get to know some new people. The atmosphere was very relaxed and congenial and all seemed to enjoy themselves.
The business meeting was interesting and it was good, as an 'outsider', to hear about all of...
Jan 21, 2010 8:00 PM
The Sailing Club at Draycote Water was a lovely venue for the Burns Night. Nearly 100 people were there to enjoy a traditional meal and of course the whisky (others of us were there to drive those enjoying the whisky home). I was well catered for with a vegetarian haggis which was lovely. The traditional elements were there with the haggis being piped in and the Address to the Haggis.
Peter Rollason gave us a tour of Scotland via the distilleries. He has been at Southam 2000's Burns' Night...
Jan 1, 2010 11:00 AM
A bright day with hardly a cloud in the sky met us at Shustoke reservoir where we started our gentle walk through the countryside with another family from Bedworth Rotary Club. It was amusing to see ducks and gulls walking on ice where there should have been water but around the other side of the reservoir to find swans, geese and grebes swimming and diving in the water. The frozen ground was a godsend as you could see how muddy it would normally be. The weather was perfect for a walk (not...
Dec 21, 2009 11:00 AM
We took Hana and Niki (from the Czech Republic) and Asca and Maiko (2 Ambassadorial Scholars) to St. David's on the Pembrokeshire Coast for a couple of days. A lovely Landmark Trust property became our home for our time there with the most fantastic view over St. David's Cathedral. It was incredibly icy which made the walk down to the Cathedral lethal and quite amusing to watch us sliding down and trying to find sloping grass verges to walk on to keep upright for a short period. We went to...
Dec 13, 2009 4:00 PM
Although a wet and cold afternoon many people turned out for the Carol Service at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry. My thanks go to Peter Isherwood for organising the event on our behalf. We had carols sang by the choir and others by the congregation. The choir certainly produced a lovely sound. The readings were designed to tell the nativity story from different characters perspective.
A few Inner Wheel members of my own club helped to prepare the room for refreshments as well as serve...
Dec 12, 2009 9:30 AM
A Saturday morning when people might have been thinking of completing their Christmas shopping a group of 22 people came to the Arden Hotel for the Health & Safety and Protection Seminar. An important area for clubs and one with serious consequences if not done correctly.There were plenty of questions and I certainly have things to take back to my own club as a result which I always think is the purpose of seminars.
Accident books, risk assessments, the different types of abuse, how...
Dec 4, 2009 7:30 PM
After a very busy day it was lovely to drive over with Paul to Shipston to visit their Christmas Fayre in the town centre. The first thing that struck me (apart from when could we move here?) was the prominence of Rotary. Well done to the Rotary Club that had placed big banners and displays on the stage that could not be missed by anyone and also had several stalls themselves. You could not fail to notice what a difference Rotary is making to this community.
It was great to...
Nov 14, 2009 9:00 AM
This event was held at Chesford Grange on the 14th and 15th November for Zones 17 and 18a (RIBI). It covers many areas of Rotary's work with this year's focus being literacy, water and health. We heard good news about polio and the great steps taken in India and Nigeria that means they are now over the critical point and polio can be eradicated there.
The 2 days included a lot of discussion groups which worked very well and gave the chance to look at RI's strategic plans and the...
Nov 13, 2009 10:00 AM
Chesford Grange Hotel hosted the RIBI Foundation Seminar. It was good to meet up with several of my fellow DGs at the event and several members of our own District. We heard from 2 great Peace Scholars, Bob Scott who shared with us the positives that have arisen from the polio campaign, Ron Burton about the Future Vision Plan as well as the amazing life story of a man who contracted polio at 6 months old and is now 60. As he so ably reminded us we will still have polio to deal with after we...
Nov 12, 2009 7:30 PM
A fantastic evening! Traffic had meant I only got to Kidderminster Town Hall at the start of the concert but I would not have missed it for the world. The band was fantastic. The tone of the playing was beautiful and the choice of music great. The band leader was a good MC and gave the history to the music pieces played and the soloists played exceedingly well.
The music played included my favourites - a Rodriguez' guitar concerto (my favourite all time piece of music), a...
Nov 11, 2009 7:00 PM
Some club members had invited friends and contacts to the Village Hotel for an information evening. There were many members there to welcome them and have conversations with them. We had a buffet and then short information inputs on the history and internationality of Rotary and the social and community aspects of our own club.
The good news is people stayed on talking after the inputs. The test will be if any come to our future meeting but even if they don't they might just support our...
Nov 9, 2009 12:30 PM
The annual Leverton Lunch was held at the Copthorne Hotel with guests of honour being the Lord Mayor and Mayoress and RIBI President David Fowler and his wife Daphne. Many clubs were represented at the lunch and all bar one of the Leverton Clubs. David Fowler gave a good history of Leverton and the Lord Mayor made a good link between Rotary and the City of Birmingham.
It was good to see so many people there to enjoy a lunch together. It was especially nice to see Past RIBI President Neill...
Nov 8, 2009 11:30 AM
I had visited the Disabled Sports on Saturday 7th November and enjoyed watching the swimming, darts, kurling and boccha to name a few. Sunday was the chance to spend the whole day there. My own club runs the Pitstop event so I joined in and helped with that event. It was great to see one of my fellow DGs taking part helping one of the teams taking part.
This is one of my favourite events of the year when you realise how fortunate you are and learn how those who face many more challenges than...
Nov 3, 2009 7:30 PM
I was grateful to Warwick Avon Rotary Club for their kindness in allowing us to use their meeting as the Farewell Dinner for the GSE Team. A great crowd turned out to hear and see them and to wish them well on their return to New Zealand. They shared with us their final thoughts of their memories and a large number of photos of their visit.
We presented them with a small gift to take back with them and people took the opportunity to say their goodbyes individually with team members. Hosts...
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 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 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 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 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...
Sep 26, 2009 7:00 PM
Paul and I were invited to attend the Conference of District 1080 held at a Country Hotel in a village near to Thetford, Norfolk. After dropping the two Ambassadorial Scholars off at Leicester for the Link Weekend we travelled across the country to reach the venue in time for the evening meal. The Friday evening had a dinner for about 50 people where we watched some Mollies ( a version of Morris Dancing)and listened to a fascinating talk by an eel catcher about life on the...
Sep 25, 2009 7:30 AM
You couldn't miss that it was the Macmillan Coffee morning on this morning as Birmingham Breakfast were obvious in the walkway through the Symphony Hall. As people came through the centre they were met by Rotarians with collection tins and could grab a coffee or tea from the club. The mayor and mayoress were there as well collecting from people as they passed through.
It was great to see Wendy Moore there as well as the members of the club and visitors from other clubs. It was a very...
Sep 23, 2009 7:00 PM
Probably the meeting I most worry about as District Governor especially as a new element was added. I was grateful to Tamworth Rotary Club for doing all the room preparation, car parking and refreshment provision.
A new approach was tried in terms of giving those there the chance to have a discussion topic (this time on the environment). We had past RIBI president Rodney Huggins with us to give some input on the environment followed by some questions to discover.
Over 100 Rotarians were...
Sep 21, 2009 4:10 PM
Christmas may seem a long way off but it is certainly never too early to start preparations. I drove over to see PDG Peter Isherwood to discuss the joint Carol Service to be held on 13th December at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry.
I knew asking Peter to arrange this event was a great idea as he is so organised and has so much musical knowledge and resources available. We were able to choose possible carols for the congregation to sing and others for the choir.
The challenge was choosing...
Sep 19, 2009 9:30 PM
Approximately 80 people came out early to the Arden Hotel for the membership seminar. It was lovely to see so many clubs represented. Ray Burman came and started our session for us in an amusing way which led onto a good discussion session around the tables. After coffee Tony Cotton came to talk about the Formation of New Clubs which was then followed by another discussion.
The good thing about today was the discussion between people. I hope they got a few ideas from each other and...
Sep 17, 2009 7:00 PM
This was a lovely evening for me. Although I don't play golf, it was nice to see people having enjoyed a day around the golf course come together to spend an evening of fellowship together. The event was held at the West Midlands Golf Club which I have to admit only having been to previously for their tribute band evenings. It is a lovely venue with the club house overlooking the fountain, lake and feature hole (on an island in the lake).
I have to admit the working out of the...
Sep 17, 2009 11:00 AM
A lovely day was spent at Moxhull Hall Hotel for the Inner Wheel District Rally. Inner Wheel members gathered for refreshments in the hotel and its lovely grounds and had the chance to meet the Association President who has beenvisiting the District for a few days.
It was lovely for me to meet so many ladies from various clubs and I felt very welcome. Lunch was lovely and was served in a large conservatory made to look like a marquee. I normally don't eat all of the courses but I...
Sep 13, 2009 3:00 PM
Paul, I and Andrew Page met with 2 outbound New Generations students from Bewdley who are hoping to go and spend between 10 and 12 weeks in Brazil working in veterinary practice and in South Africa working at a children's home. Both students prepared a presentation in advance of the meeting - both were very good and only needed a little tweaking.
Their mothers were with us as well so that they could talk through their daughters' experiences and needs in advance of their trips.
It was also...
Sep 13, 2009 10:30 AM
Paul and I were asked to join the DGE's from RIBI this morning to share our experiences of the International Assembly (DG training) in San Diego last January. We drove across to Stratford to meet with them.
Unfortunately, for me it was a day that I did not feel very well and the hot room did not do much to make me feel better. I am not sure that Paul and I added much to the proceedings but it was interesting to see the group 'following on our tails' formulating their plans for next year...
Sep 10, 2009 7:00 PM
Droitwich Spa Saltway may be small in numbers but they are large in commitment, drive and service. They were supported by representatives from 9 Rotary Clubs and the mayoress this evening for their Shelterbox presentation. 2 members took a little while to get the tent up before the evening began (all good practice for the event in the town on Saturday) but it was worth it as it gave us all a better undertsanding of what the tent looks like and the resources sent out with it.
David (from...
Sep 6, 2009 12:30 PM
I spent a lovely relaxing afternoon at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens at Edgbaston Convention's Extravaganza. The first thing that grabbed your senses was the Country Music (which as a keen country and western fan was great) and the number of people line dancing to it on the lawns of the Gardens -whether they were expert or novice. There wasn't a moment at any point in the afternoon when a group weren't up dancing.
There were several other charities there with their stalls...
Aug 22, 2009 12:00 PM
Thanks to Peter Styles who took me to Mablethorpe to visit the children given the opportunity of a holiday through the generosity of Rotary Clubs from our district. It was a lovely day and as we arrived earlier than expected we had the chance to go round the seal sanctuary (which had far more animals than just seals).
Helen made us very welcome and showed us around the house. The dormitories are lovely and bright and you get a real sense of space in the building. The girls had spent the...
