Verse 1

When I became a Rotarian I didn’t have a clue

Any more than would a Barbarian of what I had to do.

Then someone mentioned Youth Exchange

Says I, "Well that suits me.

I’d like to go back to twenty-one

Instead of my forty-three."

Verse 2

They told me they’d got an Inner Wheel. "What can that be?" I thought.

"Perhaps it’s a secret Roulette Wheel the club has recently bought."

When they said it was the Women’s’ Group

Said I "Well that suits me.

Perhaps they rotate the ladies round

And there’ll be one there for me."

Verse 3

When I became a Rotarian they mentioned the four way test.

Thinking they’d check my heart and lungs I took off my shirt and vest.

I’d started to take my trousers off

When they said "Hold on a bit.

It’s all about how to behave,

Not whether you’re strong and fit."

Verse 4

I heard about Foundation from a very talkative chap.

It seemed so complicated that I thought he was talking …. nonsense!

But he sold me a pot of marmalade

And told me to Spread & Save

And he added nearly 30 pence

To every pound I gave.

Verse 5

So now I’ve been a Rotarian for over 30 year.

I’ve swallowed many a Dudley lunch, drunk many a pint of beer.

I’ve had some fun along the way

And done some good; and so

A toast to the fellows who started it

A hundred years ago.

President Ken will be commenting on this in his own message on the front page, but I would also like to put in my twopennorth.

It was truly a great Rotarian occasion with the joint theme of President’s Night and Centenary Celebrations.

The Dyke Golf Club done us proud and every one commented on the good quality of the food. (continued)

During the meal President Ken took drinks with various groups and after the meal we were royally entertained by, firstly, Ian Collington who presented a very amusing film entitled "The World Wide Web" and this was follows by a song from Bob Hinton (reproduced above) which involved participation by everyone present.

During the evening there were contributions from District Governor Peter Nightingale (The Centenary Toast), Bob Mulholland (Toast to our guests) and Inner Wheel President Brenda Couch (The response on behalf of the guests)

DG Peter also gave a short talk entitled "A Century of Service Above Self"

In between all these various contributions, President Ken also had the very pleasant task of awarding a Paul Harris Fellowship to Rotarian Jenny Saunders of Brighton and Hove Breakfast Club. The award was for her services to charity, these services being well known to all members of our Club.

A really terrific night, thoroughly enjoyed by all present.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

At the time of writing my last message, wishing everyone a Happy Christmas, little did we know that the Tsunami would effect countries in the Indian Ocean, causing such devastation and kill over 200,000 people. Also leaving millions of people destitute. As the story unfolded before our eyes on television many Rotarians telephoned me to ask how The Rotary Club of Hove could help.

As we were barred from collecting from outside all of the local supermarkets (who were doing their own collecting), all six Club Presidents in the area met and decided to carry out a joint collection for the Tsunami Rotary Appeal. So on the 8^th and 9^th of January all clubs in the area collected in Churchill Square raising £7,500.

My grateful thanks to all who gave time to help with the collection. It was nice to see Rotarians (and partners!) from the various clubs working well together.

I would especially thank Helen and Howard Attree, who were not seen on the collecting days, but were present in the basement of W H Smith counting, long after everyone had left! For their two days of hard work.

The £7,500 was sent to RIBI.

To date over £4,000,000 has been collected by the all the UK Rotary Clubs and is being put to good use at this very moment.

In addition many members of the Club have contributed to the Tsunami appeal and so far over £800 has been raised, including £109. from the Residents of Old Viaduct Court. Bob Hinton has Gift Aid forms to boost your contribution.

Roger Patterson and Ray Tiltman are investigating with Aqua Boxes with local schools helping. More later.

What we must not forget is that I did ask all of you prior to the above to help in the Christmas collections, and so you did. We broke all previous records with a fantastic collection of £2,670! Again my grateful thanks to all taking part.

Plus a big thank you to John Eaton, Peter Fowle, and Ray Tiltman in charge of the various Christmas Collection sites.

Last weekend was the start of the South Downs Walk, when a party of 10; 7 Rotarians and three partners, met at Winchester and walked to Droxford, with a welcome stop at The Milbury’s Inn for refreshments! That evening, all very exhausted, we stayed at the Uplands Park Hotel.

After at hearty breakfast our band of walkers left Droxford and headed towards Butser Hill, in all we reckon that we had walked 25 miles during which, but it felt more 200 miles (speak for yourself! Ed)

All present have decided that during 100 years of Rotary we will walk 100 miles, total length of the South Downs Way!

For anyone missing this weekend, Ralph maybe able to repeat the first two stages if there is sufficient interest.

Adrian Ball has been working on the social side, with a social evening at Hangleton Manor on the 10th of February. There is also a night out at The Pavilion Theatre on the 4^th of March.

He is also taking final bookings for 24^th February which is President’s Night and Celebrations of 100 years of Rotary, at the Dyke Golf Club.

Sorry that I have gone on a bit, but thanks to all of you, those people affected by The Tsunami Catastrophe might start to rebuild their lives.

And that’s just for one single NID.

In 20904, India conducted 5 such NID’s and 1 Sub National Immunization Day (SNID) targeting 100 million children.

Dear All,

As you are aware, I had the opportunity to spend some time with the Shelter box project in Cornwall yesterday .

I cannot begin to say how impressed I was with the set up at Shelter box – the team of Rotarians there have been working round the clock since 26^th December to ensure that their response to the SE Asia Disaster would be appropriate.

To date they have sent over two thousand Shelter boxes to the region and hope to send another two thousand boxes as soon as possible.

They expect to be involved in the area for up to six months.

The entire project runs like a military operation which may not be surprising given that many of the Rotarians involved come from a Services background.

The packing line for the boxes is manned by Rotarians and non-Rotarian volunteers – around seventy five non-Rotarian volunteers have been involved over the past three weeks and several of them have now expressed an interest in joining Rotary. Such is the efficiency they can pack one hundred and fifty boxes in a two hour session!

They have enjoyed remarkable support from surrounding clubs in the area and Tom Henderson is very grateful for that support – and of course the incredible support from around RIBI in the way of financial donations.

Whilst it is important that we begin to give consideration to the next phase of support required in the disaster area, something that the Shelter box people are the first to acknowledge, I can assure everyone that support for the Shelter box scheme is very, very worthwhile.

I enclose some photographs (these photographs are downloadable from D1250 website www.rotary1250.org.uk) of the project which may be of some use. Tom Henderson has promised me some more shots from the disaster area of the boxes following deployment.

If anyone has any specific questions, please get back to me. In addition, there is a lot of information the project website: www.shelterbox.org

All in all, it was a day well spent – even if Helston is a long way from Edinburgh

Yours aye, Gordon.

Dear President Ken,

Would you please at the earliest opportunity, offer my sincere gratitude to those of your members who were able to turn out last weekend and assist with the collection in Churchill Square.

They did so at very short notice and for those collecting outside, did so in a howling gale. Their efforts culminated in the joint clubs being able to contribute £7,500 to the RIBI S.E. Asia Disaster Fund, a figure of which we should be extremely proud, as circumstances determined that we were unable to collect until late in the campaign. My thanks also go to those members, who although they were unable to join us at the collections, made their own personal contribution to the fund.

My abiding memory of the weekend will be of our six clubs working together in total harmony and with a common purpose, unity prevailed. The fellowship was very evident and I hope that with encouragement from those of us in a position to foster it, we can build on that for the future.

Yours in Rotary Friendship – Terry.

Brighton’s Bargain Hunters Dig Deep for Tsunami Relief

January sales shoppers in Brighton gave well over £7,000 to Rotary’s Tsunami Disaster Relief Fund over the weekend. Members of Brighton and Hove’s six clubs were out in force around the town to support Rotary’s special nationwide collection – which could double the one million pounds raised to date.

Money from the collection will pay for many more life-saving Shelter boxes and Aquaboxes to be sent to the afflicted areas for distribution by Rotary clubs in the South Asia region. (The boxes provide tents, sleeping bags, clothing, personal hygiene supplies and cooking facilities as well as vital water purification equipment.)

For local Rotarians, the weekend’s spontaneous joint effort by the six clubs marked the beginning of a year of Centenary events to commemorate the founding of Rotary in 1905.

Just a headline to catch your eye, because Adrian Ball is organising a fun night on Thursday, 10^th February, 7.00pm and that is the theme! Only £2.50 per head and this includes light refreshments.

What a bargain! and it promises to be a very entertaining night.

4^th January, 2005

29 of own Members and one non-Rotarian Guest, David Kiely.

President Ken told members that Tesco and Sainsbury had been approached with regard to collecting for the Tsunami Appeal. They had refused permission, owing to having their own collection scheme in store.

He then informed members that the six Clubs of the Brighton Area were getting together to make their own collection in Churchill Square, this coming weekend (8/9^th January) and volunteers are needed.

President Ken was also delighted to tell members that the Christmas Collection had raised the record sum of £2670 and he thanked John Eaton for the sterling effort he had put in to make this possible.

He also thanked those members who had stood out in the cold and wet over this period.

Bob Hinton made an appeal for blankets, towels and items of clothing to be dropped off at his house during the next week because his son and daughter-in-law were arranging to put items such as this on a plane to one of the needy areas within the next several days or so.

Adrian Ball told members that he would like replies to be sent to him as soon as possible. He said that at present guests would not be invited but this could change if not enough tickets are bought by members.

Ralph Harrison informed members that the walk, a warming up before the main walk on the 22^nd, had been postponed because many of the walkers are needed for the Tsunami Appeal collection.

11^th January, 2005

35 present – 34 of our own members and one Rotarian visitor; Ken Guest, a Past President of this Club and now a member of the Rotary Club of Stourbridge, West Midlands. He was given a very fond welcome from President Ken Jones and all the members present.

Two of our members had returned from far away parts of the world, SVP David Henderson bringing greetings from Australia and Peter Savage doing like wise from all the Rotarians on the ill fated SS Aurora, which managed to limp home from a cruise to the Caribbean.

It was announced that the grand sum of £7,475 had been collected in Churchill Square over the weekend.

President Ken mentioned an e-mail sent to this Club, from Brighton President Terry Crimp, thanking us for our help over the weekend, collecting for the Tsunami Appeal (see previous letter)

President Ken informed those members who wished to attend the visit of the RIBI President on Thursday, 3^rd February that the money for the meal needed to be in by next Tuesday (18.1)

Secretary David |Burchell informed members that there were two spare tickets available for the Service of Remembrance at Arundel Cathedral on Friday, 18^th February.

Bob Hinton thanked those members for donations of towels, blankets and items of clothing for the Tsunami appeal. These had been shipped out last week.

Adrian Ball told members that there had been a good response to the President’s Night on 24^th February and he would like to know members’ choice of meals, with a cheque, within the next week.

He also informed members that there was to be a fun night on Thursday, 10th February. The theme of the night will be "Things we done before TV". Further details would be forthcoming.

President Ken reminded those intending to take part that the first stage of the South Downs Way walk is being held over the weekend of 22^nd/23^rd January. Ralph will need to know how many are going to enable him to book the hotel.

President Ken asked members to come up with names of four prominent people in Hove to accompany SVP Bob and himself on the special event at The Mayor’s Parlour on Wednesday, 23^rd February.

It was announced that a party of 15 people will be attending RIBI Conference on behalf of this Club. This includes PDG and District Secretary Michael Moore.

Better late than never, a letter was published in The Argus yesterday, thanking the general public for their donations, amounting to £2,670, collected during the build up to Christmas.

International Chairman Tad Phillips announced that 15 aquaboxes were to be purchased and ten of these would be filled by pupils of Portslade Community College. The 15 boxes will cost £45 each, £675 in total. (continued)

11^th January, 2005 (continued)

Bob Hinton informed members that he is setting up arrangements for members to pay into the Club’s charity account. With this in mind, he is to distribute Gift Aid forms at Club next week.

There were some available today for those people wishing to make an immediate donation.

The scheme has been pushed forward bearing in mind recent events

31 present – 30 of our own members and 1 non-Rotarian guest; Sheila Hinton, who is addressing us today in partnership with husband Bob.

Bob Hinton brought greetings from past member Robin Bellerby who had recently paid him a visit.

President Ken was pleased to announce that £5,000,000 had been collected thus far by Clubs in the RIBI.

There was also news of two efforts by local Rotarians. Jennifer Saunders had raised over £3,000 at a special "Elvis Presley Night" at the Hangleton Manor last week and Past President Stephen Neiman, shortly to become a member of Brighton and Hove Soiree, had raised approximately £8,000 at a concert, last Friday, at the Old Market.

Secretary David informed members that a party of 9 will be attending the visit of the RIBI President on Thursday, 3^rd February, at the Brighton Marina.

Adrian Ball made a further appeal for returns for President’s Night on 24^th February, and also gave further details of the "Fun Night" being held at Hangleton Manor on Thursday, 10^th February.

Bob Hinton circulated Gift Aid Forms for those members wishing to donate to the Club’s Charity Account.

Our speakers today were Bob and Sheila Hinton who were here to tell us all about their trip to Jerusalem at the end of last year.

This was a fascinating account, the trip having a certain edge to it because they travelled in the same week that Yasser Arafat was nearing the end of his life and in fact they were there when it was announced the he had passed away.

One of the highlights of the trip was the walk to the Mount of Olives, retracing the steps that Jesus took on his last journey.

One of the disappointments of the trip was the excursion to Bethlehem, a town that has changed completely from just a few years ago when it was absolutely packed with tourists and pilgrims from all over the world. Nowadays, it is virtually a ghost town.

Sheila read from the official pamphlet, which describes Bethlehem and it stated that it was 6 miles from Jerusalem, 2550 feet above sea level and was the most prosperous town in Palestine.

In reality it was nothing like this. Bob and Sheila were dropped short of the checkpoint to the town. There were huts at the checkpoint and nearby a wall, some twelve feet high, was being erected.

The party from Brighton were let straight through and they found that there were no other tourists to be seen, only the Brighton brigade. Tourism is nearly nil. There is a shopping mall being built just outside Bethlehem. When they arrived at the Church of the Nativity, they found that they were the only ones there.

All in all, their impressions of Bethlehem were that it was a very sad place to visit and they found the people had been drained of the ability to work.

Bob reported on Nazareth, which they visited on the morning of Arafat’s death. Whilst there they saw a party of some 20-30 armed police who were there to arrest a famous, recently released, Israeli traitor, who had breached terms of his release by talking to foreign journalists.

In the Jordan Valley, at Jericho, they saw a plum of smoke marking the death of Arafat and they said that the tension of the event was very obvious.

They said prayers in Nazareth, high above Nazareth Anglican School, run by Christians but attended by mostly Muslim pupils, who learn Christian ethos. They found it much more peaceful than Jerusalem.

It is hoped that that both sets of Methodists, those from England and those in Palestine will work more together as a result of this visit/

There is to be a reciprocal visit to this country in August.

All in all a fascinating talk about a visit to one of the most controversial areas in the world.

The vote of thanks was given by President Ken.

25^th January, 2005.

26 present – all our own members.

President Ken reported that a sub-committee led by SVP Bob, and consisting of David Burchell, John Eaton and David Knowles had visited the County Cricket Ground the previous Thursday. A report of this visit is in an earlier part of this bulletin.

President Ken also informed members that a party of ten, led by Ralph Harrison, walked the first two legs of the South Downs Way walk the previous weekend. (a report of this is also in an earlier part of the bulletin!)

It was also announced that there was a change of venue for next week’s Council. Owing to the management of the Dudley Hotel wanting to charge the Club £100 for a committee room, it has been decided to hold the Council meeting at The Hangleton Manor. It will be held at the same time as previously announced, 6.15pm.

Secretary David announced that notices of an EGM for next week, to discuss a possible change of venue for our meetings, are being distributed today.

Adrian Ball rose to remind members that a board was being circulated with regard to the Fun Evening on Thursday, 10^th February.

He also told members of the motorcycle committee that their next meeting had been postponed until 16^th February.

Foundation Chairman Bob Hinton told members that he had a fresh stock of marmalade for the spread and save scheme. They can be purchased at the price of £1.00 per jar.

International Chairman Tad Phillips/Filipowicz asked for a show of hands from those intending to travel to Evreux for the Contact Visit Weekend in May. He was gratified to see that there was an excellent response.

Housing Society Chairman John Eaton announced that there was to be a meeting of his committee, next Tuesday, after Rotary lunch.

David Henderson informed members that if members have trouble reaching him on the e-mail address shown in the club directory, he can be reached on davidhenderson@doctordoc.org.uk

Today was the occasion for the "40 Set" draw and the cheque for £25.00 went to Richard Langley.

A raffle was also held at this Club Meeting. The first prize was an assorted bag of chocolate from Thornton’s and it was won by Ian Collington. The princely sum of £26 was raised.

 ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN JANUARY 2005

Fellows,

Christmas is a time for families to get together and celebrate, over eat! And over drink! Then give one another presents that we don’t really need.

Christmas is a time to remember family members and friends no longer with us.

Spare a thought for those less fortunate as we tuck into another helping of turkey.

At the time of writing the Christmas collections are going well despite the indifferent weather conditions.

Well done to all taking part.

Gordon Cummings has again provided us with some more excellent speakers.

Doctor Brian Baker, he had us in stitches! With his wit under the guise of Occupational Health.

The evening meeting with partners and widows was saved with an interesting talk on diabetes presented by Dr. Michael Cummings.

At the Christmas lunch with partners we were entertained by the Reverend Martin Morgan, who started with gags then moved on to how Rotary is contributing to the local community.

At this same meeting Michael Nettell raffled a large box provided by the Alliance and Leicester which raised £90.00. The prize was won by the speaker so no one knows what the prize was!

I wish all of my readers season’s greetings, and a bright and healty New Year.

Already we have chosen next year’s Club Officers. Bob Mulholland will be President, David Henderson Senior Vice President and Michael Barley Junior Vice President.

On a sadder note I have t report the death of Mark, son of Ted Bartup.

To Ted and Veronica, may knowing that we all share your grief, comfort you at this sad time.

President Ken.

Final Thought. In the middle of Life is IF.

CLUB DIARY

2005

 8^th/9th  Tsunami Disaster Collection Days (Note the Walk on Saturday the 8th has been cancelled)

Mon 10^th. Club Council – Dudley Hotel 6pm.***

Sat. 22^nd / Sun 23rd. South Downs Way walk Winchester to Droxford and Droxford to Butser Hill (25 miles in total.***

Wed 2^nd and Thurs 3rd – RIBI President Gordon Mcinally in District to open any Centenary projects that may be taking place in the South East and South West of District 1250.

Mon. 7^th Club Council, Dudley Hotel 6pm.***

Sat. 12^th South Downs way walk, Buriton to Cocking (10 miles)***

Wed 23^rd. Civic Reception to celebrate Rotary Centenary, Mayor’s Parlour 7pm

Thurs 24^th. President’s Night and celebration of 100 years of Rotary, Dyke Golf Club details later.

Sat 26^th. South Downs way walk Cocking to Amberley (11 miles)***

Sat 12^th. South Downs way walk Amberley to Upper Beeding (13 miles)***

Sun. 20^th P.E.T.S. (Seminar for incoming Presidents) Ardingly.

Sat. 26^th South Downs way walk Upper Beeding to Ditchling (12 miles)***

Fri 1^st. RYLA Gala Evening. Further details forthcoming.

Sat 2^nd. South Downs way walk Ditchling to Rodmell (10 miles)

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

Sat-Wed 18/22^nd Rotary Convention, Chicago Illinois. See President Ken for details.

Fri/Sun 22^nd/24^th. District Conference, Torquay.

New Dates ***

Cash – Paul Thrasher. Care of Visitors – Roger Patterson.

CLUB PROGRAMME FOR JANUARY.

4^th. As there was no fourth meeting last month, 28^th December being a Bank Holiday, today will see the various committees meeting for the first time this calendar year.

11^th. Today will be devoted to a report of last night’s Club Council, which was held a week later than usual, owing to the 4^th January being a Bank Holiday. with various Chairmen reporting.

18^th. The meeting today sees the first and only speaker this month and what a special one, with Bob Hinton giving us a talk entitled "Methodists in Israel". The vote of thanks will be given by President Ken.

25^th. Back to normal with the last meeting of the month being taken over by meetings of the various committees.

7^th December,2004.

28 present – 27 of our own members and 1 Rotarian Visitor; Laurie Hillditch from Brighton.

The President announced that there were still plenty of spaces to be filled in on the Christmas Collection list if it was to be as successful as last year.

He also informed members that the price of the Christmas lunch on 21^st December was not yet known.

Today was the occasion of the Club’s SGM. This meeting is held annually in December for the purpose of announcing the election of Club Officer’s for the next Rotary Year and also to examine, discuss and approve the Club Accounts for the previous Rotary Year.

` Continued)

7^th December, 2004 (continued)

The Officers for Rotary Year 2005/2006 were announced as follows:

President Bob Mulholland

Senior Vice President David Henderson

Junior Vice President Michael Barley

Secretary David Burchell

Treasurer Michael Nettell.

It was decided that the voting delegates to conference will be The President and Senior Vice President and their deputies would be The Junior Vice President and The Secretary.

Following discussion of various items in the Accounts for year ending 30^th June, 2004 it was proposede by Ian Varley and Seconded by Chris Heath that the accounts should be adopted and this was agreed unanimously by all present.

Thanks were also given to Richard Langley for auditing the accounts in his usual proficient manner.

At the conclusion of the SGM, the meeting took its normal course with a report on the previous evening’s Club Council.

President Ken informed members that District Council is seeking the sum of £200 from each Club to cover the expenses of having a presence at the South Of England Show at Ardingly over the first weekend in June. It was felt that this was a wonderful opportunity for Rotary to make itself known in the area, with an estimate 100,000 people passing through the gate over the weekend. After some discussion the donation was approved.

Foundation Chairman Bob Hinton reported that Council had agreed to donate £500.00 to cover the cost of supplying Aqua Filters. The supplier of the filters is District 1030,who have established a Charitable Trust and there is no matching grant involved.

Bob also made a last call for those wishing to attend the RIBI Conference at Manchester in April this year.

International Chairman Tad Phillips announced that five emergency boxes had been filled and despatched. He gave special thanks to Paul Thrasher for his hard work in collating all the donations.

John Eaton informed members that a couch for the Nigel Porter Unit at RSCH would cost £750.00 plus vat and that the collection at Christmas for the Pink Dolphin Appeal will go towards that piece of equipment.

Members were reminded that there would be no meeting on Tuesday, 28^th December, as it is a Bank Holiday.

There will also be no meeting on Tuesday, 22^nd February because it was felt that it was too close to the President’s evening on the 24^th. It was also stated that dress for the President’s night will be formal.

It was also pointed out that the January Club Council will be held on the 10^th.

President Ken said that two walks have been held recently and there was to be another one this coming Saturday.

President Ken stated that a sub-committee had been formed to study the possibility of a change of venue for the Club. All suggestions and ideas from members would be welcome.

David Henderson reminded members that he has booked, and paid the deposit for, ten room in Torquay for the District Conference being held between 23^rd and 25^th September.

14^th December, 2004.

29 Present – 28 of our own members and one non-Rotarian guest, Dr. Brian Baker, our speaker for today.

Announcements were made with regard to the Christmas Collection Site.

Members were also informed that the President of RIBI’s visit to this area would be commemorated by a lunch at the Brighton Marina and the tickets will cost £17.00 per head.

Our speaker today was Dr Brian Baker, a retired occupational medicine practitioner.

I was really looking forward to Brian’s talk because I had the privilege of listening to him the previous week at a meeting of Hove Probus Club. He was absolutely hilarious on that occasion and he did not disappoint today either.

He pointed out to us that occupational medicine is often confused with occupational therapy but, of course, they are completely different field of medicine. (continued)

14^th December, 2004. (continued)

Occupational medicine is mainly preventative, with the doctor enforcing health and safety rules laid down by the authorities. Brian was employed by the coal board for some time and this entailed many healthy and safety regulations which must have been very difficult to keep track of.

To give you some idea of how complicated it was, he informed us that there were 90 doctors and 300+ nurses employed by the coal board.

In the old days occupational medicine was called industrial medicine.

I won’t go into any more details of the nitty gritty of his talk but would just like to say that he had us all in stitches with his stories, jokes and his absolutely professional comic timing.

He would be an ideal speaker for a future evening meeting.

The vote of thanks was given by John Ansell.

21^st December, 2004

55 Present – 30 of our own members; two Rotarian visitors; Chris Curson from Limassol Berengaria and William Bradford from Paubearn, France. The 23 non-Rotarian guests included The Reverend Martin Morgan our speaker for today, Stephen, son of Mike Peters, David Clair; brother-in-law and guest of Tony Woodthorpe and Anthony Wills, a guest of Sylvie Paulsson.

A mystery box, which possibly had a bottle of alcoholic drink in it, donated by Alliance and Leicester, was raffled this lunchtime and it was won by Martin Morgan, our speaker for today. We still do not know what the box contained but were pleased to see that £90.00 was raised for it.

President Ken was saddened to announce the passing away of Mark, son of Ted Bartup after a short illness from cancer. The funeral service will take place at noon, on Thursday, 30^th December, at St. John’s Church, Hove.

As this was the last meeting of the first half of this Rotary year there were two prizes in the "40 Set" draw.

The first one, a cheque for £50.00 was won by Ian Collington and the second prize, one of £25.00 was won by John Eaton.

Members were reminded that there was to be no club meeting next Tuesday (28/12) and the date of the next Club Council is Monday, 10^th January.

The Reverend Martin Morgan, vicar of Rottingdean, was our speaker for today and if we were expecting a spiritual talk, in keeping with the Christmas period, we were disappointed. Nevertheless it was a most amusing and informative talk and one most appropriate for the occasion.

He started off by telling us that he was a Seagulls fan and a "Gooner".(An Arsenal supporter!)

He said he approached this speech with some trepidation because after sitting down he realised that he was only two places from David Burchell, who as District Commissioner for St. John Ambulance

had seemed a most formidable character to a young Cadet Morgan those many years ago.

He regaled us with a string of jokes, too complex and too speedy for me to take notes of.

On the serious side, he also showed his great knowledge of Rotary projects, praising us for the good works that Rotary perform. He made special mention of Polio Plus, the Eye Camps and this club’s contributions to the Pink Dolphin Appeal.

Thanks are owed by all members to speaker secretary Gordon Cummings for finding such entertaining speakers as he does, particularly these last two of 2004.

The vote of thanks was given by President Ken.

CHRISTMAS COLLECTION.

It looks a though we have had another bumper year as far as the Christmas Collection is concerned.

The total raised this year was £2670.00.

John Eaton has sent letters of thanks to the stores that let us use their premises for collection purposes and has also sent a thank you letter to the general public via "The Argus".

ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN

DECEMBER 2004

Fellows,

Christmas time! Some of are religious and some of us are not! But we as Rotarians have agreed to put service before self.

So I challenge all Hove Rotarians to do say a minimum of three slots in the Christmas collections and help us break all previous records! So that the Community Service Committee has ample funds to help others less fortunate than ourselves. Thanks.

During the month Ralph has organised two excellent walks and the numbers taking part has risen to 20. Why not join Ralph on this next walk.

Richard Langley (Banker) had agreed to draw the 40 set draw for a small fee, but actually he drew out his own number and kept the lot!

On the 9^th November we had the pleasure of the District Governor Peter Nightingale, who was impressed as 28 of our own members were present together with 9 guests.

Which gave the meeting an extra buzz. Thanks to John for his short talk on the Housing Society.

One of the Rotary year highlights is the Mock Interviews, when Roger’s hand picked team attempted to interview possible some of the brightest girls in Sussex. Well done Roger.

George organised a Beetle Drive at Hangleton Manor, ably assisted by Howard and Helen. Lots of fun and an easy way to raise £240.00. Well done to all who attended.

On Remembrance Sunday John Eaton and I attended the cenotaph parade and laid the wreath, Many thanks to Ray Tiltman, who did the same at Portslade.

Two of our members, John Couch and Clive Chapple are under the Doctor! We all wish them a speedy recovery.

Ted arranged a Vocational visit to Calshot Activities Centre at Fawley. All present were amazed with the facilities provided. During our visit 160 children were skiing, climbing vertical walls and speed cycling. We were looked after by the site director Philip Quill. Fantastic visit Ted.

Still more good news. Adam Trimmingham was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Hove. Welcome Adam.

Coming Shortly:

21^st December – Christmas Lunch with partners and we have an excellent speaker lined up, Rev Martin Morgan, who also writes scripts for the BBC.

23^rd February – A service of celebration at Chichester Cathedral, details from David Burchell.

24^th February – President’s/Centenary Celebrations. Details shortly. Note limited numbers so get your tickets early. See Adrian.

Don’t say that we don’t offer you a varied and exciting programme of events!

So all that is left is for me to wish you and your families a happy, exciting Christmas.

President Ken.

Final Thought…. Many people will talk in and out of your life but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

2004

6^th. Club Council Dudley Hotel 5.30pm***

20^th. Carol Concert. Lancing College 7.30pm***

Wed 2^nd and Thurs 4^th – RIBI President Gordon Mcinally in District to open any Centenary projects that may be taking place in the South East and South West of District 1250***

Thurs 4^th. Centenary Concert at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, devised by Richard Stilgoe. Tkts must be reserved by 18^th November***

Wed 23^rd. Civic Reception to celebrate Rotary Centenary, Mayor’s Parlour 7pm

Thurs 24^th. President’s Night and celebration of 100 years of Rotary, Dyke Golf Club details later.

Sun. 20^th P.E.T.S. (Seminar for incoming Presidents) Ardingly.

Fri 1^st. RYLA Gala Evening. Further details forthcoming.

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

Sat-Wed 18/22^nd Rotary Convention, Chicago Illinois. See President Ken for details.

Fri/Sun 22^nd/24^th. District Conference, Torquay.

New Dates ***

Cash – Mike Peters Care of Visitors – Malcolm Clayton

CLUB PROGRAMME FOR DECEMBER.

7^th. Today is the occasion of the Special General Meeting where Club Officers; Senior Vice President, Junior Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer Etc... for the year 2005/2006 is elected. The Club Accounts for the year ending 31^st July 2004 will also be presented and discussed with a view to adoption.

14^th. Our speaker today is Brian Baker and he will be speaking about Occupational Medicine and the vote of thanks will be the very capable hands of John Ansell.

21^st. The Reverend Martin Morgan is our guest speaker for today and he will be bringing "A Christmas Message". The vote of thanks will be given by President Ken.

28^th. Today’s meeting, being the last of the month, as well as the last of this calendar year, will be devoted to musings of the various committees.

2^nd November 2004.

24 present – all our own members.

President Ken informed members that the District Governor will be making his annual visit to the club next week and he was hoping for a very good turnout.

It was announced that John Couch is recovering from his recent operation and a get well card was circulated for members to sign. It was stated that if anyone was intending to visit John, would they please telephone Brenda first. Paul Thrasher told us that John is up and about but is still very weak and he has to take it very easy.

The President read out a letter, received from Hon. Member Jack Wingfield, thanking everyone for the birthday card that was sent last week and he also wished the Club best wishes for the future.

President Ken informed members that this month’s Club Bulletin had been distributed.

Continued

2^nd November, 2004.

He also asked members to volunteer for as many hours as possible on the Christmas collection sheets that were being circulated as he spoke.

David Henderson has provisionally booked 10 rooms for the District 1`250 Conference in Torquay which takes place on 23/25^th September next year. The rooms have been booked for the three nights commencing the 22^nd.

It was stated that the goods for the five emergency boxes were coming in at a fairly satisfactory rate but it was emphasised that we need to receive all the contents by the end of this month so that they can be shipped off.

Roger Patterson informed members that the Mock Interviews at Brighton and Hove High School for Girls would be taking place tomorrow (3/11) evening.

Roger was also delighted to announce that this club would be sending 5 participants to the RYLA course next spring.

Bob Hinton told members that at the moment there are 6 members from this club and 2 members from other clubs requiring hotel rooms for the RIBI Conference in Manchester. This means that two rooms are now vacant and will be released if there is no further response by the end of November.

Bob, in his role as Foundation Chairman, also stated that this was the last day to order Foundation Christmas cards. He also said that he was in possession of the Foundation Calendars for 2005 and he would be selling them after the meeting at the price of £3.00. The print is much larger than the calendar of last year.

Bob Mulholland reported that the quiz team had finished a creditable third in the Breakfast Club Charity Quiz, held at Hangleton Manor last week.

President Ken reminded members that the Charity Beetle Drive would be taking place at the Hangleton Manor on Wednesday 10^th November. A better response is needed because prospective numbers are pretty low at the moment.

9^th November 2004

Unfortunately I was away and had to miss the visit of the District Governor but John Eaton kindly substituted for me and compiled this report.

38 present – 29 of our own members plus 7 Rotarian visitors starting with DG Peter Nightingale, PDG Tony Kerly and his wife Doreen members of Chichester Priory and Chichester Harbour respectively; President Phil Sketton, Kevin Brown, Bob Moore and Brian Wakeling all members of Swindon Thamesdown, and two non-Rotarian guests, Ambassadorial Scholar Julia Neiman and Mike Chittingdon a guest of Mike Peters.

A brief history of the Housing Association was given with news of £40,000 received that morning from Ms Foreman and also confirmation of funds from The Alex Clarke Club of £70,000-£80,000. Deposits were also being taken for 29, Sackville Road even before building works started.

The District Governor was impressed with this news saying that he was not aware of our "Jewel in the Crown" of the Rotary Club of Hove, The Housing Association, and he mentioned the Jewel in the Crown of Polio Plus in Rotary and the centennial celebrations taking part in District, RIBI, and Worldwide.

His talk was very low key but at the same time very informative.

16^th November 2004.

29 Present – 27 of our own members, one Rotarian Visitor, Mark Bridgmount from New Zealand and one non-Rotarian guest, Adam Trimmingham our speaker for today.

The first duty of President Ken was a most pleasant one today. He had the pleasure to install Adam Trimmingham, formerly chief reporter on "The Argus", as an Honorary Member of this Club. This was for his work, over many years, in the community.

Adam gave a most amusing acceptance speech and promised us that he would help us in the future with regard to publicity.

Mark Bridgmount, our visitor from New Zealand handed over a jam jar, filled with coinage, to Bob Hinton. This was Mark’s first visit to the Club since he purchased one of our "spread and save" jars on his last visit. Another jar was handed in by yours truly before the meeting. Continued

16^th November, 2004

A letter of thanks from Brighton and Hove High School with regard to the recent evening of Mock Interviews, which had been organised by Roger Patterson.

A letter had also been received from DG Peter Nightingale regarding his visit to us last Tuesday.

It was pointed out that there were still many gaps to be filled in on the Christmas Collection Lists which were circulated once more.

Members were reminded that nominations for next year’s Club Officers were due in shortly to consideration at the SGM on Tuesday, 7^th December.

Adam Trimmingham, our freshly inducted Honorary Member, was the speaker today and he spoke to us of his long life as a reporter.

Adam started work in 1960 on a London local paper and moved to Hove in 1967. After two spells on the old Brighton Herald and one on the Argus, he worked for a local news agency before returning to the Argus in 1974.

While there he covered local politics and wrote the daily opinions as well as writing a column every week. He retired in August this year but the column continues to appear each Wednesday and he also writes pieces on old Sussex each Saturday. He is married and has four grown up children. The oldest one is a journalist "but the others have been more sensible".

As you can work out from the CV above Adam has been a reporter for some 44 years and he estimates that he has written some 50,000,000 words in that time.

His salary on starting in 1964 was £150.00 compared to his salary on retirement of £27,000 per year, which struck some of us present as pretty meagre considering the pressures of his job.

He told us that his biggest story was the IRA bombing of The Grand in 1984, this story, in Adam’s opinion, being the biggest ever in Brighton’s history.

Other major stories he has been involved in were the Great Gale of 1987, The animal rights demonstrations at Shoreham Harbour, The Maria Colwill case and, most recently, the Nicholas Van Hoogstraten trial and subsequent acquittal. He informed us that Mr. Van Hoogstraten insists that Adam is the only person he will speak to at The Argus.

He told us many interesting and amusing facts about the various stories he has covered, in one case upsetting a whole community when he made disparaging remarks about the residents of Kingswood Flats, which are almost next door to Brighton Police Station, which culminated in a protest march to the Argus offices when they were in Robert Street, in the centre of Brighton.

He was obviously very proud of the fact that he has never been sued for anything he has written and had never once been late for work.

He also never took a day’s sick leave from work for 30 years until he was struck down with malaria whilst on holiday in Kenya.

Adam came across as a thoroughly nice chap, disparaging of his celebrity status and charmed us all.

There were questions after from Clive Chapple and Gordon Cummings.

The vote of thanks was performed by our very own newspaper magnate Tad Phillips/Filipowicz.

23^rd November, 2004

I’m terribly sorry but I was unable to attend this meeting because my children arranged a surprise three night break in Dublin which they only told us of some two days before and I was unable to arrange a substitute reporter in time.

You haven’t missed a report of a speaker because this meeting was the customary one of committee getting together.

30^th November, 2004

42 present – 20 of our own members and one Rotarian Visitor, Brian Meaking from Brighton and Hove Soiree, who was accompanied by Mary. Dr. Michael Cummings, our speaker for this evening and son of Gordon, and Joan Thorpe, Phyllis Howell, Betty Raggett, the Club’s special guests for the evening. The rest of those present was made up of the significant other halves of our Members.

President Ken brought members’ attention to the Memorial Service being held at Chichester Cathedral on 23^rd February, 2005 which now includes a meal at the price of £10.00 Continued

30^th November, 2004

Secretary David reminded members of council that the next meeting, on Monday 6^th December, will commence at 5.30 because the President has to get away to another meeting.

Our speaker this evening was Dr. Michael Cummings and he was here to tell us all about diabetes, that most prevalent disease of modern times.

Michael’s CV was lengthy but most impressive. He is a consultant in diabetes in Portsmouth, and left Brighton in 1982, mentioning the fact he remembered one of Brighton and Hove Albion’s finest players, Peter Ward, in his time in Brighton.

Michael told us that diabetes was first diagnosed over 3,500 years ago, in 1550BC by Ebers.

The next major research into the illness was not until 5^th/6^th centuries and this was by Susruta, an Indian physician, who discovered the patients, change in urine smell and taste! a sure sign of someone contracting diabetes.

He mentioned that two members of the government, Frank Dobson and John Prescott, are both diabetics.

It was not until the 1920s that Dr. Branting discovered structure of insulin, using dog called Marjorie.

Michael, showed by way of a slide show, the effects, before and after, of insulin to a diabetes sufferer.

It was explained that most sufferers have type two diabetes, which, fortunately, is the mildest form with less severe side effects.

He gave the most alarming statistics that it is forecast that by the year 2020, there will be 350 million suffering from diabetes.

Type two diabetes is usually associated with middle aged people but recently there has been a trend towards younger people contracting it.

Michael also gave useful advice when he told us that watching what one eats can help. One way of lessening the chances of becoming a diabetic is to reduce one’s glucose intake and regular partaking of exercise can also be a great help.

Michael also told us that the very unpleasant means of taking insulin was necessary because it was found that when insulin was taken orally, it caused quite severe digestive problems.

It was a most fascinating talk about a very serious problem in this modern world but Michael’s talk was most lucid and I think most people present were made more aware of this very serious threat to the world’s population.

He appeared to cover every aspect of the subject, which included the history, symptoms, ways to lessen the effect, types of diabetes, and many others, a marvellous achievement in such a relatively short time of talking to us.

Members had obviously been engrossed and paying attention because there was quite a number of questions posed, funnily enough including two from Dr’s Barley and Henderson. Other questions were asked by David Burchell, Gilly Austin and Brenda Couch.

The vote of thanks was given by Dr. David Henderson.

Hi fans! This is your "frighten everyone once a year Rotarian" with news that he has got over his latest angina pain, which the Sussex County Hospital diagnosed as a mild heart attack!

The surgeon attempted an angioplasty, that’s cleaning a blocked heart artery, with catheter and balloon, but was blocked by blood clots. After a night on a pump, thinning my blood, he had another go, with success. He then inserted three stents, hopefully to keep it open for a few years.

I am now on a strict slow exercise programme and should be back to some form of normality by Christmas.

To all of you who kindly signed my ‘get well’ card, sent me letters and cards, have run up, and visited, my warm thanks.

JOHN M COUCH.

DISTRICT COUNCIL – 25^TH NOVEMBER. A REPORT BY PDG DAVID BURCHELL.

I know this is a long time off but I thought I would put it into your heads so that it will not be such a great surprise when it is publicised later on in this Rotary Year.

The good news is that David Henderson has booked ten rooms at a hotel very near to the conference centre and would be very happy to receive confirmation of a booking from you, because he has already paid the deposit on these rooms.

All of those of you who missed this year’s conference in Bournemouth certainly lost out because it was an absolutely fantastic weekend with great entertainment and great fellowship which made for great Rotary.

Please let David know if you want to join President/elect Bob and his party on what should be a most enjoyable occasion.

 ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN

Fellows,

2004

Mon 1^st. Club Council – Dudley Hotel 6.30pm

Wed 3^rd. Mock Interviews, Brighton and Hove High School. Volunteers needed

Wed 10^th. Beetle Drive, Hangleton Manor. 7.30pm. more details forthcoming.

Thurs. 25^th. District Council, Ardingly Showground 6.30pm for 7.

Wed 23^rd. Civic Reception to celebrate Rotary Centenary, Mayor’s Parlour 7pm

Thurs 24^th. President’s Night and celebration of 100 years of Rotary, Dyke Golf Club details later***

Sun. 20^th P.E.T.S. (Seminar for incoming Presidents) Ardingly.

Fri 1^st. RYLA Gala Evening. Further details forthcoming.

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

Sat-Wed 18/22^nd Rotary Convention, Chicago Illinois. See President Ken for details.

Fri/Sun 22^nd/24^th. District Conference, Torquay.

New Dates ***

Cash – Michael Barley Care of Visitors – Robin Chandler

CLUB PROGRAMME FOR NOVEMBER.

2^nd. This is the first meeting of the month and as usual it will be devoted to Business and Fellowship, with reports of the previous evening’s Council.

9^th. Today sees the annual visit of the District Governor, the post this year is held by Peter Nightingale, and no doubt the talk will follow the pattern of Governor’s in previous years.

16t^h. A very interesting speaker today. Adam Trimingham, Brighton’s most well known newspaper reporter is to speaker to us of "A Reporter’s Life". Adam has officially retired from "The Argus" but his by-line is still to be seen on many days, this time as a freelance writer. The Vote of thanks will be given by Tad Phillips, who was a newspaper publisher during his working life.

23^rd. The fourth meeting of this month will be devoted to meetings of the various committees.

30^th. Our second fifth Tuesday meeting of this Rotary year and the speaker for tonight will be Michael Cummings and he will be telling us about different forms of diabetes. The vote of thanks will be given by whom else but Dr. David Henderson.

A very memorable and exciting time was had by all at the Birthday Celebrations on 20^th October, 2004, at ‘The George Inn’ Alfriston, with a warm welcome, on a wet night at the door by the staff, armed with delicious champagne.

The convivial coach journey from Hove Town Hall made the trip so much easier, saved petrol, and no parking problems, with lots of banter, and a very affable driver, who kindly dropped people off at their own front doors on the way home.

The inn was wonderfully decorated with Inner Wheel colour themed balloons, bow, and table decorations, thanks to the artistic talents of Brenda Haycock.

A gigantic Birthday Cake made by President Brenda to her tried and tested Christmas Cake Recipe, was superbly decorated by Sheila Hinton in the form of a basket of colourful flowers with white basket icing. Absolutely fabulous.

The marvelous buffet consisted of a whole salmon, cleverly presented by the chef, delicious sweet ham on the bone, hot beef casserole with shallots, plus all the usual salads, with seconds for the very hungry.

The formal speeches from President Brenda Couch, District Chairman Eileen Cooke, and an amusing dialogue from President Ken Jones of Hove Rotary, and Barbara and Tony Slegg from Kent.

The Rotary Club of Hove had commissioned Cate Couch to compile a salutation to the Inner Wheel to celebrate the Birthday and this rendition was led by Past President Bob Hinton accompanied by members of Hove Rotary in the Chorus. (Copy of song follows)(.

Well sung gentlemen – to the tune of ‘Rule Britannia’ !!

Inner Wheel Members received a keepsake in the form of a solid red and gold enamel IW brooch. Thanks to the legacy of the late Grace Dean.

The warm noisy conversations all round the room led to the best of fellowship, and created an event which will go down as a special Birthday landmark.

Happy 70^th Birthday to Inner Wheel.

INNER WHEEL CLUB OF HOVE 70^th BIRTHDAY SALUTE.

1)

In the tenth money of nineteen thirty four a charter was drawn.

On the nineteenth day of October a brand new Inner Wheel Club was born.

Yes, on that special day, the Hove club was born.

Its purpose was good deeds, especially raising funds

In the spirit of Companionship and love each task should be done.

Chorus: Friendship and serve, the motto of the fold

The Inner Wheel Club of Hove is seventy years old.

2) What started as seventeen dear ladies, taking tea

Led by Mrs Galliers of the Brighton club at the Palmeira Stores Café

Has swelled to forty one members on the roll currently

With two lady members here longer than their peers

Marjorie and Phyllis combine to over ninety years.

Chorus: Friendship and Service the motto of the fold

The Inner Wheel Club of Hove is seventy years old.

3) Your fundraising over all the years, has had much success

Jumble sales and coffee mornings, fashion shows and charity dinners no less

You even send cows overseas, to countries in distress

"All in a good cause" you need to knit and sew

For orphans, far away, you’ll never know

Chorus: Friendship and Service, the motto of the fold

The Inner Wheel Club of Hove is seventy years old.

4) Now though you’re often hard at work, you have fun as well

Theatre trips and dinner dances, pantomimes are a few that we can tell

You even help us Rotarians, and we think you’re swell

So then dear Ladies, we raise our glass to cheer

A salute to you and you club in its seventieth year.

Chorus: (Sung twice, second time with a rit.)

Friendship and service, the motto of the fold

The Inner Wheel Club of Hove is seventy years old.

BEETLE DRIVE.

At the time of writing, George Robinson is still seeking members to take part in this excellent fundraising event. This is the second year of this event and it was a very successful occasion the first time round. It is being held on Wednesday, 10^th November, at the Hangleton Manor and the proceeds will go to The Pink Dolphin Appeal. Please let George know to enable him to make arrangements for catering etc...

A much reduced party set off for Bournemouth on Friday, with President Ken leading them. Bob and Ann Mulholland, together with President Ken, made their way on the comparatively short journey to Bournemouth on the Friday morning, giving them just time enough for lunch and booking into the hotel prior to the first session which started at 3pm. David Henderson and Christine, together with Ray Tiltman and Chrissie, were traveling together, because of prior commitments, at a later time and would arrive at about 6pm.

On arrival at the BIC, all delegates were given a very nice linen ‘tote’ bag, complete with Rotary insignia, filled with various goodies.

My first impression of the House of Friendship was that it was more a "bungalow" of friendship but on further investigation I found that it was split between three rooms and was quite substantial with stalls from many clubs and organizations advertising various projects and charities. There were also a few stalls selling Rotary Merchandise, which seemed to be doing a roaring trade.

The conference got under way a few minutes late with word from Sergeant At Arms Peter Martin. Then Conference Chairman PDG Jack Bennett introduced DG Peter Nightingale to the audience with a cutting from a newspaper about his stars. I lost track after a few sentences.

DG Peter then formally opened the conference and started the proceedings by introducing the Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr. Emily Morrell-Jones, a lady who originates from Manchester, and very proud of that she was too. She also took exception to being addressed by the name Morrell-Jones, much preferring to being announced as Morrell-Cross, the second half of her surname being the name of her present husband. She told conference that she divorced her first husband because she found out he was a closet Manchester City Fan, whereas she is an ardent United supporter.

The next part of the proceedings was the handing over of the John Preddy Banner, this being the banner that is held by the current District Governor’s Club. The banner was handed over to David Snowball, President of the Rotary Club of Godalming who then gave greetings from his Club.

All conferences have to follow the same format on the first session, which is normally quite tedious and seems to be completely unnecessary.

DG Peter Nightingale struck gold this weekend because the RI President’s representative was PDG Rekha Shetty, from Madras. Rekha was the first female President of a Rotary Club outside the USA.

She brought greetings from RI President Glenn E. Estess and then enraptured the audience with her inspirational message.

Next on stage was RIBI President Gordon McInally, which was another coup for DG Peter, because many District Conferences are given greetings from the RIBI President’s representative.

President Gordon is, I believe, at 46, the youngest ever RIBI President. In fact, if he decided to move to Hove and join our Club, he would be our youngest member!

This was an excellent opening address and was greeted with great applause by all present.

The next speaker was Eileen Cooke, Chairman of District 25 of Inner Wheel, who brought greetings from all of her members. The usual type of speech, thanking Rotary for giving her clubs such fine support.

This year, DG Peter gave the opportunity to a number of Clubs to inform Conference of their major projects, some of which had been in progress for some time. When I first read about this in the conference programme, I wasn’t too keen, and thought it was a cheap and cheerful way of filling in the gaps. As usual I was wrong. It was a great idea and there were some eye opening projects on show, and gave the rest of District the flavour of what was going on at the other clubs.

The first of these presentations was from Cuckfield and Lindfield and their project was a major building job at a local school for the educationally challenged. Most of the members took part in the manual side, which consisted of building a large conservatory for Court Meadow School, Cuckfield.

We were told that on top of the work involved, they also managed to raise £20,000 in the last three years, their main money spinner being a marathon darts tournament, the winners being the team that could compile the highest aggregate score in one hour at the ochi. It was just the first example of how we could benefit by taking on a new fundraising event if ever we feel our present major event is reaching its sell by date.

Our next speaker was Ellie Richardson and the title of her talk was "New Generation Ex change"

Ellie had recently been to New Zealand as part of Rotary Youth Exchange and she related all her experiences during that time. She spent three months as a volunteer teacher at a primary school.

She was very enthusiastic about the benefits that she had received from the trip and told us that it had made up her mind to become a teacher and she was presently attending Chichester University, in her first year of training.

There was then another Club presentation, this time by Seaford, and their major fundraising project was the sale of special pen and pencil sets and ballpoint pens, celebrating Rotary’s centennial, manufactured by Parker Pen of Newhaven. They money raised from this will go towards Sailability; sailing for the disabled, SA Dream, which is to do with aids orphans in South Africa , involving the building of houses equipped for three children, each house costing £8,000.

Another very good presentation.

They say that the best things should always be left till last, and this certainly was the case this afternoon, when conference was privileged to have Richard Stilgoe along, telling conference all about the work he and many others perform at the Orpheus Centre. The Orpheus Centre exists to help severely physically handicapped people make an informed choice about their future and gain the skills to live more independently in the community.

This was a marvelous presentation by a consummate professional. He had us all in stitches with his comments and performed a wonderful short song about Tony Blair, which was not very complementary.

He also suggested a solution to the present trouble in Iraq, his idea being that we should bring home the Black Watch and sent Prince Harry over in their place!

Various handicapped students of Orpheus performed for conference and they were most impressive.

Chris, posing as Albert, gave a most marvelous sporting monologue, which had the audience ‘rolling in the aisle’. Another young lady performed a Spanish guitar solo, without holding a guitar, the sounds being produced by the movement of her head which was picked up by a laser beam and translated in some most wonderful sounds. The piece de resistance was an improvised rap song, sung by Chris (the monologue man) with the key words supplied by members of the audience.

As Chris was keen to point out, "Disabled is a label, but inside we are all able".

The whole presentation finished with Richard Stilgoe leading the audience in a new song, specially written for Rotary entitled "What Goes Around, Comes Around".

This was a fabulous all round presentation which last over an hour and topped off a first class session.

The session was concluded by announcements from SAA Peter Martin.

FRIDAY EVENING

We were contemplating going to the "Last Night of the Proms" concert, performed by the Godalming Sinfonia, which was an excellent show according to all those who went, but most of our part didn’t arrive until late afternoon and by the time we sat down for dinner it was felt that it would be all too much of a rush to attend.

SATURDAY MORNING & AFTERNOON.

All of the Hove party was up bright and early for an 8am breakfast at the hotel, far too early really because we had misread the programme and thought the session started at 9am instead of the proper time of 9.30.

Anyway, we arrived early at conference, to have a little look and shop at the House of Friendship.

The session kicked off some seven or eight minutes late DG Peter opening the proceedings.

Firstly, there was the keynote speech from Gordon McInally, President of RIBI.

He started off by telling us about one of his hobbies, collecting graffiti, and gave us a few very funny examples. One of these was a notice saying "drink kills slowly" and someone had wrote beneath it "That’s alright, I’m in no hurry!" and there was another one saying "The first two minutes of your life are the most dangerous" and beneath it some bright spark had wrote "The last two minutes are not too clever either". Two more examples were "Smoking stunts your growth" and written beneath, some nine inches from the floor it said "Now you tell me!"

Another example was one which stated "Jesus Saves" and below it was "But Wayne Rooney nets the rebound". And yet another example was

"To be is to do" – Rousseau
To do is to die" – Sartre" and this was "topped" by "Dooby dooby do" – Sinatra

His final example was one from Northern Ireland which read "Ulster Says No!" and the bit underneath said "But the man from Delmonte says yes and he is a real Orangeman"

After the jokes President Gordon got down to the real nitty gritty of his talk, setting out the ideas and aims of Rotary, telling us off all the projects designated by RIBI this year. Both of the main projects are health orientated and are on a ‘home’ and ‘away’ basis.

The home project is Rotary First Responders. This project, to do with saving lives of people who had suffered sudden heart attacks was dear to the heart of President Gordon, because his father had died from such an attack at the very young age of 56. This was just 48 hours after passing a rigorous health check taken out by his company doctor. Quick treatment could save many lives and details of this project would be shown later on during the conference.

The ‘away’ project was Rotary’s Africa Hope, a presentation of which will also be given later.

He went on to say that the Africa Hope problems seem to be almost insurmountable but he was reminded of a story about a chap who was on a beach which had an untold number of starfish on it and he saw a lad who was picking up the starfishes one by one and throwing them back into the water and when he asked the lad what was the point of it he replied "if I can only save one I would have done good".

The moral of that is that you shouldn’t let numbers overwhelm you and just do the best you can to alleviate the problem.

He also told us of when he visited a village in Africa and at one point he had introduced them to the song "Dinna throw your granny off a bus" and by the time he left everyone there was singing it all the time, and he told us that he wondered if and when an anthropologist visited that village in the future, what would he make of a bunch of Africans in a remote village singing such a stereotypical Scottish song.

He told us that he thought that his time in Rotary had also shaped the life of his own two daughters.

He went on to ask "What of Rotary hopes for the future?" and went on to quote lines from Rabbie Burns, written in 1795, 110 years before Rotary was founded, but which could have been written as though tailor made for Rotary ideals.

He said there were many chances for our District to foster International Standing.

President Gordon said that now he was coming to the end of his speech it reminded him of when he was once driving home from a Rotary function and he turned to his wife and said "what did you think of my speech" expecting her to make the usual response that it was either "not bad" or "very good" but on this occasion she said "you missed several good opportunities to sit down".

He finished up by quoting Albert Schweitzer who said "I don’t know what your destiny will be, but I do know that the only happy ones will be those that sought and helped others".

A most inspiring address by a very sincere man.

The next part of the proceedings saw PDG Jack Bennett giving a very amusing introduction to DG Peter Nightingale who then proceeded to give his message to conference.

He started off by wishing a happy 100^th birthday to Rotary, which he thought was a remarkable feat of service. He also mentioned that he was privileged to be asked to serve as Governor in what promises to be a memorable year.

He told us of a recent day in his year as Governor, visiting a quarry at Cranleigh on a rainy, muddy day in conjunction with a project for young children.

He asked that if Rotary was every put on trial, what would the verdict be. He thought that the verdict would be guilty.

Guilty of being large service organization in the world.

Guilty of doing good

Guilty of helping people in times of stress.

Guilty of helping young people.

Guilty of supporting local community.

Guilty of addressing health, numeracy and literacy problems.

Guilty of getting job done.

He also thought that we would certainly be here for at least another 100 years.

He remarked on the fact that he was amazed with the speed that Rotary reacted to the recent disaster in Sudan.

He set out the District 1250 programme to celebrate the 100^th anniversary including the services being held in Arundel and Chichester Cathedrals in February, both events well documented elsewhere.

He also announced that we had been offered a stall at the Sussex show at Ardingly in June,2005, which would give us an excellent opportunity to meet the over 100,000 people who usually attend on those three days.

He asked that members of this district give their usual generous support to Rotary Foundation both by giving financially and finding and counseling Ambassadorial Scholars and seeking our candidates for Group Study Exchange visits.

He reminded everyone that this year’s Rotary Convention would, appropriately, be held in Chicago, in June.

Another very good address to conference.

At the conclusion of his talk, DG Peter called Joan, his wife, to help him cut the magnificent cake baked to celebrate the 100^th Anniversary, pieces of which were to be given out with coffee during the next break.

The next item on the agenda was another Club presentation, this time by Haywards Heath, and they called theirs the Headway Project, which had been set up to support victims of vehicle accidents.

The project involved clearing a huge piece of land prior to carrying out building works. Haywards Heath is a club of 31 members with an average age of 64, but age did not deter them and they took three months to clear the site, some of which involved building giant bonfires to get rid of the rubbish. It turned out that it was most the older members, some in their eighties, who performed the bulk of the work.

The project cost some £5,796, mostly spent on materials, such as building bricks and this was raised by various methods, including a grant from Gatwick Airport Community Trust for £1,500 and a grant from the Community Association for £795. The remainder was gathered through fundraising, which included a Car Boot Sale, a Race Night and their annual Christmas Collection. This was another excellent presentation.

Next on stage was Barbara Broadbelt, who was here to tell us all about First Responders, the RIBI ‘home’ project. The definition of a "First Responder" is a person, trained as a minimum in basic life support and the use of a defibrillator, who attends a potentially life threatening emergency. This response may be by the statutory ambulance service or complementary to it.

Barbara firstly gave us a potted history of her organization, The Royal Life Saving Society, which was founded in 1891, mainly to save people from drowning.

This was yet another excellent talk about a very important subject. The amount of lives that can be saved it a First Responder can get to the heart attack victim before the arrival of an ambulance was quite staggering. She said that 300,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest of who half die.

If they are treated within ten minutes, 75% of victims survive and 85% have the potential to survive. She explained the reason that they die and told us what happens to heart at time of attack which mainly involved erratic electrical behaviour causing heart to get tireder and tireder before stopping. Ventricular fibrillation – VF – is the only treatment that will save the patient. The average time of an ambulance responding to a call is eight minutes, and this is too long, because the victim needs to be seen to in first few minutes. One of the aims of the society is to place a defibrillator prominently in most public places.

It has been found that there is a 95% chance of survival in a location where there is a defibrillator compared to 5% if there is not. She said it is also possible to buy time for the victim if CPR is performed

She spelt out how Rotary could help, by using our vocational skills, and liaising with local community groups.

Once again, at the risk or boring you, another excellent talk.

Following on from this we had another Club Project talk, this time a joint scheme run by Guildford and Guildford Chantries, and was presented by Hilary Byrne.

This was called Harambee 2003. This scheme involves sending parties of youths to a village in Africa and helps the villagers to set up a clean water supply. Before the scheme started the local population had to draw their water from muddy waste holes or rivers which they shared with wild animals, the water being contaminated with the animals’ waste products. The project would supply clean water for some 8,000 people. This was done with the building of four sub-surface dams. These dams would store the water which was held between grains of sand, thereby preventing pollution by animals.

The scheme cost some £21,000 which was donated by some 15 clubs in 4 Rotary districts in two countries. There was also a grant of £7,500 from Rotary Foundation and £5,000 from OCA Mutual PLC and the remainder was raised from various fund raising events.

This was another example of how Rotary can be of help in the Third World, at the same time fostering international relationships.

Immediately after this presentation there was another one from Horsham, which was their Centenary Project and was another scheme to supply clean water, this time to the town of Rumuruti, some 100 miles north of Nairobi, and only 25 miles north of the equator.

A pastor from Rumuruti had visited Horsham and told of the lack of water, the only source being one where the water was 35 times more polluted than the minimum allowed for bathing, according to EU regulations.

This was a more costly scheme than the previous one taken on by the Guildford clubs, because it involved the purchasing of machinery that could convert polluted water into pure water. This was a very advanced piece of kit which used permeable membrane technology to perform its task.

The good news was that when it is in place it will be of a quite low maintenance.

The equipment was built in the UK and shipped over in containers to Rumuruti and just needs to be connected to start.

The scheme is taking place in 4 phases and will be complete in July 2005.

The total cost of the scheme is £95,000 of which £60,000 has been raised thus far.

There was a coffee break at the end of this presentation and we all queued up for what seemed an interminable time, owing to the coffee dispensers being unable to cope with such an influx in such a short time. Still, we all had our pieces of birthday cake!

First up after the coffee break was Rekha Shetty, the RI President’s Representative, and what a talk she gave. This lady is amazing; she can make an audience laugh, and then cry, all within a minute or two. The opening remarks of her speech were mostly humorous.

She said that if you think she is fanatical about Rotary, you should meet her father, "who eats and drinks Rotary more than Coca-Cola".

It was amazing how she put the RI President’s message across to us, and after listening to her you were left feeling very happy and satisfied with being a Rotarian.

She emphasized that the most important challenge is bringing back brotherhood and tolerance in this world. I could have listened to her all morning, but time limits prevailed.

The speaker with the task of following on from such a great talk was Colonel Mark Cook OBE, who was here to tell us all about Hope and Homes for Children. Colonel Cook spoke to us at Conference some years ago and he was here really to tell us how his project was progressing.

Mark and his wife, Caroline, started Hope and Homes for Children in 1994 to provide homes for orphans of war or disaster. Their original idea was to repair or build orphanages to give these children security, but soon they realized that what they needed more than anything was the love of a real family.

I won’t go into great depth about his talk because we have all seen the video about his organization and much of it followed on from that. Needless to say it was a very professional presentation and gave everybody present food for thought.

A copy of the film that was shown as part of his presentation, which was a real tear jerker, will be sent to every Club in RIBI, so you will all have a chance to see it as some time or other.

Another Club presentation followed on from this talk and this one was provided by Chichester Harbour and they told us of their Kids Out – On Water.

They have been running this scheme for a number of years and quite simply it is just as it says, a Kids Out, but not in the way we know it, with visits to Chessington or Butlin’s at Bognor Regis, but with the help of many volunteers and helpers they supply a wonderful day out on the water for handicapped children. The presentation was given by Jennifer Pressdee aided most ably by various members of her club. There was the usual shambles with the power point display but despite this it went very well.

She told us that every year some 140-160 children with special needs and their helpers took part with some 60 vessels as transport.

A brilliant scheme which must bring joy to the hearts of those handicapped children every year.

Next on was one of the most amazing people I have ever listened to. His name was Paul Whittaker and he is profoundly deaf. This does not stop him from being one of the funniest men around, and he has enough energy to run a small power station. Despite his handicap he is a first class musician, specializing in the piano. He told us that he had this ambition to be a pianist since the age of five.

He graduated from Oxford with a degree in Music, after a great struggle to be accepted and founded Music and The Deaf in 1988. Unfortunately, the scheme is only available to children in the West Riding of Yorkshire, being based in Huddersfield.

A truly amazing talk by an even more amazing person.

His talk ran well over time but I didn’t hear anyone complaining.

There was one lovely statement he came out with and that was "Service is the rent you pay for living on Earth"

Paul was the last talker of the Saturday morning session and after messages from the Sergeant At Arms we all dispersed to find somewhere to have lunch.

Our party all stayed together during lunch and then we took advantage of having a free afternoon to do a bit of shopping before returning to the hotel for a couple of hours rest before the Saturday Evening happenings. There was no rest for the wicked, because President Ken attended a reception for all the current President’s in District 1250, which was held at the Headquarters Hotel.

SATURDAY EVENING.

Saturday evening was the occasion of the Gala Dinner Dance, held at the Purbeck Hall, which is part of the Bournemouth International Centre.

We were fed very well and royally entertained by a very good dance band.

One bonus for the night was the fact that my significant other half won a 14" TV/VCR set, which was second prize in the raffle. The only ironic part of this was that we had purchased a 14" TV just ten days before!

We managed to get it back up a very steep hill to the hotel with the help of a trolley, supplied by the lady from the Willow Trust, who sat with us at our table that evening.

SUNDAY MORNING

Sunday morning saw us up fairly early, a little bit fuzzy after the previous night’s entertainment, ready to attend the Act of Worship which was conducted by The Reverend Catherine Nightingale, niece of DG Peter. Following on the theme which had run through the weekend’s Conference, Catherine is profoundly deaf and the service was conducted with the held of sign language and Catherine’s words being spoken by someone else.

It was a most moving service and the proceeds from the collection were divided between various charities.

After the service there was an added bonus. To fill in time we had the return of Paul Whittaker, the speaker from yesterday, and he answered many questions asked of him, via a signer, in the most amusing way. He certainly was great value.

Then, to follow him, it was time for Rekha Shetty, RI President Glen Estess’s Representative to give her farewell speech to us.

Another wonderfully inspirational speech, with humour thrown in.

She told us of a teacher that asked her children to find out where God is.

Various children gave conventional answers such as "God is in Church" and "God is everywhere" but one little boy said "God is in the bathroom". When the teacher asked what he meant he replied that just as he was about to come to school this morning he heard his mother shouting at the bathroom door "My God, are you still in there!!"

PDG Rekha Shetta was by far the best RI Representative’s speaker I have listened to in many conferences. I can only wish she could be appointed to speak to us every year.

Another Club presentation followed and this time is was Worthing and this was about providing equipment for a school in Ghana. This scheme had cost $10,000 thus far and included used computers supplied by companies in Worthing. Yet another excellent project.

RIBI President Gordon McInally was next on stage to give his farewell address to Conference.

Once again he was most amusing and thought provoking, and telling us what a wonderful weekend he had had in our company. He ‘plugged’ his own Conference, taking place in April in Manchester, saying that attending Conferences was the best way to find out about Rotary life outside of the Club.

He told us of a booklet he had received recently in connection with his work. This involved acupuncture and one of the cures for haemorrhoids was to put a needle into part of your gums. He said he couldn’t wait to see what the cure for a gum boil was.

Another excellent talk. Sorry, I hope you’re not too fed up with me saying that.

Next up was President Pippa of Brighton and Hove Breakfast and she told us about her Club’s project.

This was the last presentation (of nine) and was given most excellently.

Her talk was on the Sangath Bereavement Service, a project based in Goa, India.

To follow Pippa, we had the presentation of various trophies, the attendance trophy being won by Burgess Hill and District Rotary Club.

DG Peter then introduced DG Elect Ian Swales who, with the aid of two Chicago gangers and their molls, showed us a trailer of next year’s District Conference, which is being held in Torquay on 23^rd/25^th September.

The Chicago gangsters told us what the theme of the conference was to be and it was hoped that people would come dressed for the part for the celebrations on the Saturday night.

SAA Peter Martin then made final announcements before DG Peter Nightingale gave his farewell address to the conference which mainly consisted of thanking those who had made it such a successful weekend.

I hope DG Peter has managed to reach this part of the bulletin because I want to let him know that this year’s conference was the best ever by a mile, and I won’t be at Club next week, 9^th November, when he is due to visit.

It even outshone the many RIBI Conferences I have been to, and they are usually a much more lavish affair, with plenty more funds to get the best speakers.

DG Peter’s speakers were an inspired choice and he had the added bonus of having as his two Rotary speakers, President Gordon and PDG Rekha Shetty who were absolutely marvelous.

I feel a bit sorry for DGE Ian Swales for he has a really hard act to follow next year.

Talking of next year, why not make your mind up to go, even at this early date.

JVP David Henderson has already booked a number of rooms at a hotel very close to the conference centre in Torquay and would dearly love to hear from you.

Come along and support next year’s President (Oooh! that’s me) at what will most probably be a great occasion

Because of all the space I have taken up in reporting on conference, I have decided to hold over the reports of Club Meetings until next month.

Sorry!

 ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN

Fellows,

Our first evening meeting on 31^st August was with the ladies, and was at the Dudley Hotel, our speaker for the evening was Ian Gledhill who gave an excellent talk on the history of the Volk’s Railway, which was one of the first electric railways in the world.

Chris Heath was on cash, and decided that the meal price was too much and in business mode negotiated a healthy rebate! Future President material!

September 12^th was a day to remember LUNCH – CHEZ LES ANGLEYS.

A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and raise money for the International Contact visit fund. £430.00 in fact!

Grateful thanks to our hosts, Gill and Richard Langley, who provided a king’s buffet. The ladies who provided a delicious selection of desserts. Ann and Bob for providing bar services, and Tad for overseeing the day.

One unsung hero of the club is Gordon Cummings, who provides some excellent speakers to date. Ian Gledhill, Richard Mehmed and The Vicar of St John’s Church, The Rev. Christine Wilson. To name a few. Gordon told me that he has hundreds of contacts but reserves the best for Hove Rotary! Well done Gordon.

The RALPH walks have started, two have already taken place, please support Ralph on the next two outings, 16^th October and £1^st October, great fun, and helps you stay fit.

Have you tried making JAM? Bob Hinton has made over thirty jars full! Like to try some?

Bob still has a few jars left, all proceeds to Spread and Save.

Dates for the Diary. February 24^th – President’s Night and celebration of 100 years of Rotary.

On a more sombre note David Haycock has had to stand down from Chairman of the Community Service Committee and will be unable to continue as Junior Vice President, owing to personal reasons.

Consequently that leaves those two posts vacant. David Henderson has put himself forward to serve as Junior Vice President (President for year 2006/2007). If anyone wishes to put themselves forward for these two jobs, please do so.

Final Thought – Let’s focus on making Rotary better, not bigger!

Yours in Rotary

President Ken.

2004

nced

October.

Mon. 4^th. Club Council, Dudley Hotel. 6pm

Wed. 13^th.Berlin and Dresden get together, Hangleton Manor. £2.50 each for refreshments***

Sat. 16^th. One of Ralph’s walks – Details to be announced later"""

Wed. 20^th 70^th Birthday Celebrations of Inner Wheel Club of Hove, The George Inn, Alfriston.***

Thurs 14^th. Welcoming dinner for Ambassadorial Scholars at Brinsbury College, Pulborough

Fri-Sun. 22/24^th District 1250 Conference, Bournemouth

Sun 31^st. Another of Ralph’s walks – Details to be annouced

 later***

Wed 3^rd. Mock Interviews, Brighton and Hove High School. Volunteers needed***

Wed 10^th. Beetle Drive, Hangleton Manor. 7.30pm. more details forthcoming***

Thurs. 25^th. District Council, Ardingly Showground 6.30pm for 7.

Wed 23^rd. Civic Reception to celebrate Rotary Centenary, Mayor’s Parlour 7pm***

Thurs 24^th. President’s Night and celebration of 100 years of Rotary, Dyke Golf Club details later***

Sun. 20^th P.E.T.S. (Seminar for incoming Presidents) Ardingly.

Fri 1^st. RYLA Gala Evening. Further details forthcoming***

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

Sat-Wed 18/22^nd Rotary Convention, Chicago Illinois. See President Ken for details***

Fri/Sun 22^nd/24^th. District Conference, Torquay.

New Dates ***

Cash – Tony Woodthorpe. Care of Visitors – Ted Bartup

5^th. Today, being the first meeting of the month, will be taken over by reports of Council and various Chairmen of Committees.

12^th. Our speaker for today is Jo Thomas and she will be bringing us up to date with what is going on at The Pink Dolphin Charity. The vote of thanks will be given by President Ken.

19^th. The speaker today is our own John Eaton and he will be telling us of the workings and aims of the Osborne Charitable Trust. The vote of thanks will be given by Gordon Cummings.

26^th. As is customary, this meeting, the last of the month, will be devoted to the discussions by various committees.

Make a note in your diary. Wednesday, November 10^th, at the Hangleton Manor sees the second running of a Charity Beetle Drive. This event proved very popular last year, under the supervision of George Robinson, and made quite a substantial sum of money for last year’s President’s charity.

Try to support this event in good numbers and make it a success for the second year running.

As you are most probably all aware, Ralph has resumed his programme of walks, after a very long absence owing to various problems. The next two walks are on the 16^th and 31^st of this month.

I believe the first walk was fairly well supported but the second walk was not, this one consisting of just Ralph, Eileen and President Ken (and most probably Sam, their faithful Labrador!). (continued)

It seems a shame not to take advantage of Ralph’s expertise and hard work in organising these walks, and as President Ken remarked in his letter, it has the added benefit of keeping one fit!

It was with some amazement that I heard Bob Hinton announce that only five Rotarians from this club have stated their intention to attend the RIBI Conference in Manchester next April.

This conference promises to be one of the best ever, and being held in such a vibrant City as Manchester it should be very special.

Manchester has re-invented itself as a truly contemporary metropolis, with modern landmark buildings, a brilliant source of art and culture, great bars and a world class hospitality.

It’s a shopping destination in its own right, rivalling that of the capital, with the added advantage that you don’t have to travel far from one store to another. You just walk, take a tram, or a free Metro Shuttle bus. Manchester now has its own Harvey Nichols in addition to Selfridges and a wealth or other of chi chi designer retailers.

Manchester is an endlessly fascinating source of history and culture, not only in its vibrant streets and squares, but in its free to enter museums and art galleries, from the Imperial War Museum North at The Quays, to the delightful Manchester Art Gallery and recently free to enter, Urbis, in the city centre.

As the northern gateway to England’s North Country, the city is a short trip from some of the world’s most beautiful countryside and historic towns. Manchester is everything you’ve heard about, and so much more.

One other reason for going is to help the rest of RIBI celebrate 100 years of Rotary. We have been promised a very special weekend and we will also have the pleasure of entertaining RI President Glen Estess.

If you've never been to Manchester, you don't know what you're missing..

So, don’t hesitate, get in touch with Bob Hinton and support President Ken in this Rotary Centennial Year, by attending one of the highlights of any Rotary Year.

CLUB MEETINGS.

7^th September 2004

I’m afraid I was unable to attend this meeting, because I was in Prague, courtesy of my sons and daughters, who treated Ann to a break to celebrate our Ruby Wedding Anniversary two days earlier.

There was no speaker at this meeting, and there was discussion on what happened at the previous evening’s Council meeting.

14^th September 2004

28 present – 27 of our own members and one non-Rotarian guest; Richard Mehmed, our speaker for today.

It was announced that the first of Ralph’s walks would be taking place this coming Saturday. The rendezvous is at 10.15am at Ralph’s House in Lewes Road, Ditchling.

President Ken thanked everyone involved in the International Hospitality Lunch on Sunday, with special thanks to Richard and Gill Langley for being such marvelous hosts. Provisionally, it looks as though the sum of approximately £430.00 was raised.

Ian Collington informed that there was to be a visit, with members of all the Brighton Area Clubs taking part, to the Argus building in Hollingbury.

George Robinson told members that there was to be a Beetle Drive, Charity Evening, at the Hangleton Manor on Wednesday, 10^th November. Further details will be forthcoming.

President Ken stated that Ray Tiltman was progressing very well after his first operation.

Bob Hinton produced, for the first time, his first batch of bramble jam for the mini "Spread and Save" project, warning members to keep their slices on an even keel because the jam was "a bit runny".

Richard Mehmed, our speaker for today, was here to tell us all about The Brighton Wood Recycling Project".

On the face of it, this would appear to be a really boring subject, but in the hands of Richard it proved to be nothing of the sort. (continued)

14^th September, 2004.

He was a most enthusiastic speaker and opened our eyes to what went on in the world of wood recycling, and what a fabulous idea it is.

We realized where he inherited his enthusiasm from when he told us that he was a former insurance salesman.

Instead of it all going to landsites and being completely wasted, his company sorted out all types of grades of wood, tidied them up and sold them on to all manner of people, from DIY enthusiasts to professional builders.

With the aid of a slide show, he explained to us all the various cuts that they rescued and sold on.

He was one of the most entertaining speakers we had listened to for a long while and I think we were all disappointed when it came to an end.

The scheme started in 1998 and he set it up himself to see what he could do with discarded timber .

He was helped in the beginning by a wonderful story in "The Argus" and has expanded from there.

Questions, for there were many of them, were asked by John Eaton, Ian Varley, Colly Coulson, Peter Savage, John Ansell, Ian Collington and Chris Heath.

The vote of thanks was performed by Peter Fowle.

21^st September 2004

25 Present – 23 of our own members; 1 Rotarian Visitor Clive? From Cheltenham Cleeve Vale and the Reverend Christine Wilson; our speaker for today.

President Ken reported on the first of Ralph’s walks this last Saturday, saying it was a very enjoyable day out and the perfect way to keep fit. The next walk will take place next Sunday starting at the Golden Galleon, and there will be two more walks in October, on the 16^th and the 31^st.

President Ken was also pleased to report that the recent International Hospitality Lunch at Richard Langley’s raised the grand sum of £435.17.

It was announced that there was to be Thanksgiving Service, to be held at Chichester Cathedral on February 23^rd for 100 years of Rotary, the service is at 11.30am.

It was reported that Ray Tiltman is still progressing very well.

Our speaker today was the Rev. Christine Wilson. She started off by telling us that the Chichester Diocese, under which St. John’s Church comes under, is a very male orientated and conservative type Diocese with only one other lady vicar incumbent at present.

She said the great thing about her job is that you never know what is going to happen from day to day.

She cited the example of being stopped by a bunch of police constables in a police van who asked her to bless them and their van. Another time she was walking along, dressed in her usual church clothes and a fairly elderly gentleman passed by remarking "I think I’ll have to start going to church".

Oh, I think I forgot to mention earlier, but the Rev. Christine is a very attractive and vivacious looking lady.

She also told us that she was once walking along the High Street in Henfield, and she noticed that a lorry, that had just passed, turned round and came back towards her and as he passed he shouted "You can convert me any time!"

She said that on the whole people found approaching a lady vicar much easier than confronting a male counterpart.

She said she was going to base her talk on "What they don’t tell you about when you become a vicar"

She never realized that part of her job, because the church cannot afford a full time handyman, was that she was expected to perform mundane tasks, such as changing light bulbs. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t bother her but the lightbulbs in question are fitted, because of the tall ceilings, at a fairly great height, and Christine suffers from vertigo.

She also said that since the fire on the West Pier, the church has become a second home to all the birds that used to live there and one of the tasks she has to perform is to fumigate the place every so often. No one ever told her that this would be one of her tasks as a vicar.

There was also the regular amounts of vomit and excrement, the outside of the church sometimes being used as a toilet by revelers on the way home late at night.

She also came face to face with some very rough individuals and has sometimes had to signal to the florists, who rent a space outside the church, to come to her aid if necessary. (continued)

21^st September, 2004

She then gave us an example of a day in her life, these tasks performed only yesterday:

Act as registrar to sign marriage certificate Signed a reference, spiritual counseling, cooked lunch, took communion, prepared pew sheet, look after younger daughter, cook dinner, take prayers and attend a meeting of the Brunswick Development Committee. She said that the best part of her day was to get home, have a G and T, and put her feet up.

This was a very enlightening talk, by a marvelously able speaker, and certainly opened our eyes as to what a vicar does on their "six days off".

The talk was very well received and questions were asked by Peter Savage, Colly Coulson, Tony Woodthorpe and David Haycock.

The vote of thanks was given by John Eaton.

28^th September 2004.

23 Present – all our own Members.

Tad Phillips/Filipowicz brought greetings from the President and members of the Krakow Rotary Club in Poland. He also stated that there was a Rotary Club in Krakow which consisted of Ladies only. Some members questioned the legitimacy of this.

President Ken was pleased to announce that David Henderson has agreed to stand as Senior Vice President for next year.

He also asked if anyone was interested in attending the Veteran Car Lunch, hosted by the Brighton Club on Sunday, 7^th November.

Any nominations for a representative from this District to attend the Council of Legislation in 2007 must be entered by 6^th November.

Both Peter Fowle and David Burchell reported that Ray Tiltman appears to be making a great recovery after his two recent operations and hopes to be back at Club in the near future.

Peter also reported that he had met the Ambassador Scholar, who he was counseling this Rotary Year. Members were reminded that she was a young scholar from Pforzheim.

Bob Hinton informed members that there appeared to be some apathy as far as the RIBI Conference in Manchester next April was concerned. Only five of the ten rooms booked at the hotel had been taken up.

He pointed out that it should be a very good conference, bearing in mind we will be celebrating the Centenary of Rotary.

International Chairman Tad Phillips/Filipowicz will shortly be appealing for items for Aquaboxes.

Please give him you support by donating as many goods as possible. A list will be circulated soon.

There have been many natural disasters this year, with hurricanes in the Caribbean causing damage to many islands, therefore the stock of Aquaboxes has been depleted and they have to be replaced as soon as possible.

Youth Opportunities Chairman Roger Patterson is seeking volunteers to take part in Mock Interviews at Brighton and Hove High School, Montepelier Road, on Wednesday, November 3^rd. This is one of Rotary’s more worthy projects and Roger would appreciate as much help as possible from members.

There will also be, at a later date, a Careers Seminar at Hove Park School, where further volunteers, possibly people with the same qualifications to perform mock interviews, will be sought.

This Rotary year’s RYLA course is being held from March 27^th to the 1^st April, 2005.

This Club is sending four students on this wonderful scheme again. The total cost of putting forward the four candidates is £1,200. This is met by a donation of £600 from our Club, £400 from John Eaton’s Osborne Charitable Trust and £50 each from the four participants.

No doubt that some time later the four students will visit us and hopefully sing the praises of their time on the course. In past years students have emphasized how much it has changed their whole way of life and made them much better people. (continued)

Unfortunately, we do not seem to receive much publicity over this, which is a crying shame because I think it is one of the best things we do.

I’d like to re-visit our candidates over the last few years later to see if they still think the time spent on The Rotary Youth Leader Activities project was as worthwhile as they thought at the time.

ROTARY CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS.

Arrangements are now well in hand for the 100^th birthday of Rotary.

On Wednesday, 23^rd February, the actual date that Rotary was founded, there is to be a Civic Reception in the Mayor’s Parlour. Each Club in the Brighton Area will be represented by their President and Senior Vice-President. It is also asked that each club should bring along four people who the club thinks has contributed much to the City. Suggestions will be welcome.

On the following day of course, President Ken is having his own celebrations at the Devil’s Dyke Golf Club. No details are available yet as to the cost and what form the celebration is taking but please give President Ken great support for what should be a very special evening.

A decision was taken at the September Council meeting to carry on meeting at the Dudley for a while to see how things progress.

Since then, there has been many rumours about what is happening the hotel and that there is some disquiet from members, particularly on not only having to pay extra for what is a very average meal but also that the extra car park charges, whether the hotel car park at £5.00 or the meters on the sea front which I believe are £2.00.

It would be helpful if any members that are dissatisfied and would not object to moving could let either the President or myself know.

We have made enquiries at various venues, including the Coral’s Greyhound Stadium and Langford’s Hotel in Third Avenue but these are being left on hold.

SPORTS.

All your avid darts players in the club may be wondering why no matches seem to be on the horizon yet, for October is usually the time when the first rounds of the District Darts Competition are played.

Well, according to PIPP Howard Attree the original sports officer appointed for this Rotary Year has been transferred to other duties and the new sports officer appears to have not got his head round it yet.

I will keep you posted as to developments because I know how much you all look forward to playing against other Rotarians in the District because it is such a pleasant night out.

It is only a short couple of months to when we will be holding our special general meeting, the meeting where we elect our officers for the following Rotary Year.

Following the resignation of David Haycock from the posts of Junior Vice President and Chairman of Community Service David Henderson has kindly volunteered to fill both positions.

This still means that we will be seeking a Junior Vice President for Rotary Year 2005/2006.

Please give this great consideration, bearing in mind that you won’t have to take the job of President until the year 2007/2008.

 ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN

Fellows,

Our first social event was on 7^th August, when many of us attended a NIGHT AT THE PROMS at Borde Hill Gardens, Haywards Heath. The evening had everything with excellent weather, a great venue and an excellent programme of music to suit all tastes. Including fireworks, and even a fly past by the Carolyn Grace spitifire accompanied by a hurricane. Well done to Adrian Ball for organising our party.

On the 21^st August we had our first fund raising event which was held at Storrington, in the form of a barbecue. 86 people attended with many more disappointed as we had to limit numbers. It was a great evening with once again an excellent venue and marvellous food. Ray Tiltman and his family provided and did the barbecue cooking.

Our ladies provided a delicious selection of desserts and Bob and Ann provided a well stocked bar.

A large number of raffle prizes were donated, ranging from a £15 butcher’s meat voucher to a toilet brush set.

Money raised at this marvellous event came to the magnificent sum of £941.00

A BIG THANK YOU to all who attended and helped in any way – and thank you to Ray Tiltman and your daughter and son-in-law for all their hard work which resulted in the event being such a success.

Rotarians to avoid disappointment, please ensure that you book early for future events.

The next two are:

First…. Lunch Chez Les Langleys on Sunday, 12^th September, when our hosts will be Richard and Gill Langley. Please support our contact visit team headed by Tad.

Second…. DISTRICT GOVERNOR Peter Nightingale will be visiting the Hove Club on 9^th November. Please make an effort to attend and meet the new District Governor Peter.

Other News:

Ray Tiltman has had his operation and is now taking it easy for a while – get better soon Ray… missing you already.

Dudley Hotel increase prices? Some of you might have noticed that car parking and meal prices have increased.

Club Council are looking at ways to limit increases by seeking alternative venues. If any members have suggestions then contact Bob Mulholland.

Yours in Rotary

President Ken – 30^th August 2004.

Final Thought … For Rotary to be perfect it should always be accompanied by a dash of humour.

2004

Mon 6^th. Club Council, Dudley Hotel 6pm.

Sat 11^th. Foundation Event. Goodwood Race Day 2pm Tkts £13(reduced from £21)

Sun 12^th. International Hospitality Lunch – Richard and Gill Langley’s residence. 12 noon.***

October.

Mon. 4^th. Club Council, Dudley Hotel. 6pm***

Wed. 20^th 70^th Birthday Celebrations of Inner Wheel Club of Hove, The George Inn, Alfriston.***

Thurs 14^th. Welcoming dinner for Ambassadorial Scholars at Brinsbury College, Pulborough

Fri-Sun. 22/24^th District 1250 Conference, Bournemouth

Thurs. 25^th. District Council, Ardingly Showground 6.30pm for 7.

Thurs 24^th. President’s Night and celebration of 100 years of Rotary, Dyke Golf Club details later***

Sun. 20^th P.E.T.S. (Seminar for incoming Presidents) Ardingly.

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

Cash – George Robinson. Care of Visitors – Keith Upton

Sep 7 Business/Fellowship Title Vote of Thanks

Sep 14 Richard Mehmed Wood Recycling Peter Fowle

Sep 21 Rev. Christine Williams A Personal View John Eaton

Sep28 Committee Meetings

3^rd August 2004

29 present – all our own members.

Today, being the first meeting of the month, was devoted to reports of various happenings at Club Council of the previous evening

President Ken informed members that PP Howard Attree has agreed to serve as Fellowship Officer, the office that has fallen vacant with the resignation of Past President Stephen Neiman.

President Ken was also pleased to announce that the club has agreed to purchase 5 Aquaboxes and that a £250 donation has been made to the Sudan disaster fund.

Council also agreed to donate £600 towards funding four candidates for this Rotary year’s RYLA course. The total cost of this will be £1200 and the balance will be made up by a donation of £400 from John Eaton’s Osborne Charitable Trust and the remaining £200 will be raised by the RYLA candidates themselves.

A joint dinner meeting, with all the clubs from the Brighton Area taking part is to be organised by this Club. Details will be forthcoming.

A vocational visit to "The Argus" is in the pipeline.

Foundation Chairman Bob Hinton remarked on the popularity of the ‘spread and save’ scheme from earlier on in the year and intends to continue with this scheme on a ‘cottage industry’ basis. (continued)

3^rd August, 2004 (continued)

Bob will make the marmalade. He felt this was a relatively painful way of raising funds for Rotary Foundation, at the same time helping us reach our ‘giving’ target.

Bob also informed members that there was to be a Foundation fund-raising event at Goodwood Racecourse on Saturday, 11^th September. Tickets for this event have been reduced from £21.00 to £13.00.

He also told members that hotel rooms in Salford have been booked for the RIBI Conference in Manchester, to be held from 14^th to the 17^th of April, 2005.

Adrian Ball informed members going to the Borde Hill Concert that the grounds of the concert will be open from 5.30pm

Robin Chandler asked that forms for the "40 Set" draw be returned as soon as possible with cheques for £20.00

A letter was read out from Kit Harries-Rees, a tenant of the Housing Society, thanking us for the gift of flowers on her recent birthday.

Ray Tiltman was pleased to announce that he had been given the all clear regarding his cancer treatment and will be "getting the use of his waterworks back" in the near future.

10^th August, 2004.

29 present – 28 of our own Members and one non-Rotarian guest; Jenny Oakshott, our speaker for today.

President Ken gave thanks to Adrian Ball for the way he organised the outing to Borde Hill Park for the Promenade Concert this last weekend.

President Ken was not pleased to announce that he had received a letter from the new owners of The Dudley Hotel who have raised the price of the lunchtime meal to £10.50. This is on top of the charges of £5.00 they have imposed on car parking at the hotel.

President Ken told members that a board was being circulated with regard to the evening meeting at the end of this month.

Secretary David said that Bob Mulholland and he would be attending a membership seminar at Ardingly Showground on Thursday, 19^th August.

He also stated that a club banner would be taken to Ardingly for forwarding to an Argentinean Club which was collecting banners from every Rotary Club worldwide..

Treasurer Michael Nettell said that the donation of £250 to the Sudan Appeal had been sent to District 1100 which had connections with The International Red Cross.

Richard Langley reminded members that there was to be an International Hospitality Lunch at his house on Sunday, 12^th September at 12.30pm.

George Robinson appealed to members for raffle prizes to be taken to the barbecue being held at Ray Tiltman’s daughter’s house on Saturday 21^st August.

Today’s speaker was Jenny Oakshott and the title of her talk was "Facts and Myths of Arthritis".

Jenny is the Area Appeal Manager for ARC (Arthritis Research Campaign) which has 40 volunteer branches in the South East of England.

She informed us that arthritis is the greatest single cause of disability in the UK today.

Many patients find that when they visit their doctors with aches and pains they are told by the GP that "it’s your age" and consequently many arthritis cases are not diagnosed.

We were all surprised to hear from Jenny that there are 200 different forms of arthritis, including gout!

Actually, gout is one of the success stories, because in most cases it can be cured. Gout sufferers were also flattered to be told that it normally attacks the more intelligent of us.

She was pleased to tell us that 90% of all money collected goes towards research. ARC even moved there offices to less than fashionable Chesterfield because office space was that less expensive than places such as London or Brighton.

Jenny also said that people can help themselves by taking advantage of complementary medicine.

She told us of many so called cures in this field, including the wearing of copper bracelets, soaking raisins in gin every morning or a liberal dose of cod liver oil, devils claw, glucosamin. 1000mg of the latter for six weeks helps some and not others.

She told us in the old days that people were advised to go to bed if they suffered from arthritis whereas today people are told to exercise as much as possible to relieve the suffering. (continued)

10^th August, 2004 (continued)

She also spoke of joint replacement, which attracted Colly Coulson’s attention because he related his own experiences in this field before Jenny was allowed to continue.

She even brought along samples of the various joint replacements that are available.

She also mentioned that the smallest forms of arthritis were also the most inconvenient giving the example of arthritis in the fingers making it impossible to perform every day tasks such as opening bottles and cans or even negotiating putting a key into a door lock.

She also said that ankle and wrist joints were almost impossible to replace and most people suffering from this form of arthritis invariably asked for those joints to be fused.

There were many questions from members at the conclusion of the talk which was one of great enthusiasm and interest.

The vote of thanks was given by Paul Thrasher

17^th August, 2004

30 present – 29 of our own Members and one Rotarian Visitor, Richard Tilley from Seaford.

President Ken stated that Clive Chapple is having a course of physiotherapy to relieve the suffering in his hands.

Ray Tiltman issued mini-maps for people going to the fund – raising barbecue this coming Saturday.

He also stated that raffle prizes are badly needed for this event. Seventy people have stated their intention to attend thus far.

Our speaker today was Secretary/PDG David Burchell and his talk was entitled "The Order of St John."

David is a past Commissioner of St. John Ambulance and he stated that most people recognise the uniform worn by St. John personnel. Whenever there is a request for trained medical personnel at a public event, invariably it will be the St. John Ambulance organisation in attendance.

It is not commonly known that the St. John is the oldest order in the world.

The St. John Ambulance has members in over 40 countries.

The order dates from the 11^th century when a hospital was set up near the Holy Church of the Sepulchre to aid travellers and pilgrims to the Holy Land who had arrived weak and ill after their long journey.

The new order of St. John was confirmed by the Pope in 1113.

They lasted there until the year 1291 when they were forced to leave after Jerusalem was taken over by the Muslims. The order moved to Cyprus and subsequently seized the Island of Rhodes. Here they re-established their headquarters and hospital and built many galleys to continue their crusading role as the defenders of Christiandom. Rhodes was eventually invaded by the Muslims and the St. John then established a base on Malta where they stayed for many years as The Knights of Malta.

Domestically, the St. John, or Hospitallers as they were known, acquired great wealth and they used it most efficiently until all their property was seized by Henry VIII.

This included the Priory, their headquarters in Clerkenwell, London – a gift made to St John in the 12^th Century.

The St. John was redundant for some time until its revival in the 19^th Century.

Permission was requested from the Pope to revive the order but because Anglicans as well as Catholics were involved, he refused.

Nevertheless, a determined group of people set of the St John Ambulance group with its main aim being to help working people, which was particularly important as this time, being the start of the Industrial Revolution.

This organisation evolved into what we now recognise as the St. John Ambulance Brigade.

Many of the St John Ambulance Brigades were set up in former Commonwealth countries, but unlike the Commonwealth they still survive in those countries.

This was a most entertaining talk by David, and I have taken the liberty of filling in some of the history (briefly) from the St. John website.

The vote of thanks was given by President Ken.

24^th August, 2004.

30 present – 29 of our own members and one Rotarian Visitor; George Kaps from Beacon Bay Club, East London, South Africa.

24^th August, 2004.(continued)

President Ken informed members that the fundraising barbecue was a great success, both financially and socially.

86 people attended the event and President Ken remarked on the excellent venue and the marvellous food laid on by Ray Tiltman and members of his family. He also thanked Bob and Ann Mulholland for providing a well stocked bar and thanked those who donated so many prizes to the Raffle. Prizes ranged from a £15 butcher’s voucher to a toilet brush set.

The estimated profit was in the region of £946, which will be donated to The Pink Dolphin Appeal.

Ray Tiltman thanked the "good ladies" for making such a wonderful range of desserts.

There was a reminder given that District Conference was only two months away and if members wanted to take advantage of a discount for early booking, they had until 31^st August to do this.

There was also notice of a Youth Activities Seminar, to be held at Brinsbury College, Pulborough on Monday 6^th September. Unfortunately this coincides with Club Council.

31^st August, 2004. (evening)

38 present – 20 of our own members and 18 non-Rotarian guests including 17 ladies and Ian Gledhill, our speaker for tonight.

President Ken informed members that Ray Tiltman is still in hospital, recovering from the first part of a two stage operation. It was anticipated that he will be in hospital for a further two weeks.

President Ken was also delighted to announce that Chris Heath would be giving a rebate of £2.50 per person because the meal price should have been £12.50 and not the £15.00 ‘coughed up’ already.

Tonight was the occasion of the "40 Set" draw and the cheque for £25 was won by Malcolm Clayton.

Robin Chandler, who is in charge of the "40 set" draw this year, appealed for more people to participate in this year’s draw, there only being 36 opposed to the 49 of last year.

Secretary David announced that there was a change of time for Council next Monday. Council will now meet at 6.15pm to enable members to park legally, bearing in mind the outrageous £5.00 being charged by the Dudley Hotel Management to park in their car parks.

Ian Gledhill, our speaker tonight, was here to tell us all about the history, and current state, of The Volks Electric Railway. He is chairman of VERA (Volks Electric Railway Assocation) so I suppose we should have given him a big hello (aloe vera!! Gedditt)

He said his interest in the Railway started on one of his first visits to Brighton in the sixties.

The railway is operated by Brighton and Hove City Council but any money needed to restore the carriages, tracks, or stations, are raised by volunteers who work outside the normal operating hours of the railway.

The talk was given with the aid of an excellent slide show, with some fascinating pictures of Victorian Brighton.

Magnus Volk, the founder of the Railway, was a fascinating character. Born of German parents in Western Road, Brighton, in 1851, he had a fascination for everything electric.

When he was 29, married, and living in Preston Road, he became the first user of a telephone and the first person to have a domestic electric light installation in Brighton. I’m not sure who he talked on the telephone to!

He graduated to installing the Volk’s Railway on Saturday, 4^th August, 1883. This was only seven weeks after being granted permission by the Brighton Council.

Ian then went through the history of the Railway, informing us of the various changes to the length of the track, brought on by a seemingly running battle with the local council year after year.

It has now been running for some 121 years and is still very popular.

Ian said it would be even more popular if it was allowed to extent right upto the Palace Pier, saying that those few hundred yards would make all the difference to the number of passengers using the train.

Ian also touched on The Seashore Electric Railway, which ran through the sea from Brighton to Rottingdean. This only ran for a comparatively short time and was known as "Daddy Long Legs".

If you want to learn more of the Volk’s Railway, I suggest that you purchase the excellent book published by Plateway Press at £4.00, which covers anything and everything you wanted to know of this, the longest surviving electric railway in the world.

The vote of thanks was given by David Haycock.

This letter should have been in last month’s bulletin but I ran out of space.

If you wish to reply to it, or get in touch with Robin, his address is as follows:

"Glenamour", The Queen’s Way, Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, DG8 7AE Tel/Fax 01671 404387

Mobile; 07966 413679 e-mail: robin@glenamour.com

The letter as addressed to Mike Peters.

"Dear Mike,

Greetings to you and all Hove members, sunny, damp, wet, Scotland.

We don’t do badly for weather, and this south-west corner is rarely cold; yesterday was hot and sunny, but today is miserable, so a good day to catch up on letters.

I understand that the Rotary Club of Newton Stewart recently contacted you? They have access to Rotary data, but I’ve had to get an address for you from the Internet, so I hope it is current.

Richard and I moved up here two years ago, and haven’t regretted it. We have 8.5 acres, two old cottages that we have knocked into one, and enough work on the house still to do to last us several years! Work has gone very slowly because we have both had health problems. I’ve now had two new hips this year and Richard is waiting for an operation to try to fix his ankle, which he broke falling off a ladder soon after we moved here – two crocks, and no mistake. We’ve managed to have three trout ponds dug out. They are not yet stocked, and waiting for us to be fully mobile again. We have lots of plans, but not the strength to carry them through as yet. I haven’t even erected my large radio mast, but yesterday did some work on the foundations, so that is a good sign.

I am longing to get out fishing the many rivers and lochs here, but I haven’t been fit to do so, and I was determined to make the place liveable before going off for fun! We have had major problems with a water supply, and lived for a while with containers fetched from the nearby town, had no power in one half of the house, and then had a collapsed sewer pipe to our septic tank. I’ve managed to fix all these problems and we now have a working kitchen, having survived with one camping Gaz burner for 18 months.

I said to myself when I moved up here that I would not join Rotary until became fully fit, and recently felt able to apply. Unfortunately, the club have moved to an evening meeting, as of this month, and I was not aware of that. As it is on Thursday, when I already have a weekly meeting in Stranraer (25 miles away), I don’t think I am going to manage. If the club keeps to its intent of finishing on the dot of 7.15pm I can manage to be at my next meeting at 8pm, but last week, my first visit, it over-ran. The club has decided to change to evenings, by a very narrow majority vote, to try to pull in some younger members. On the strength of one visit, I can see why. Out of an attendance of about 20, only three members were ‘active’ and I only recognised one person. It reminded me more of Portslade and West Hove in its final days than of Hove, but I am sure they are determined to make the club grow.

I do get down to Hove occasionally as my daughter lives in Worthing, but it is usually a flying visit. I still have the Isuzu Trooper which I bought in Oman, and have a much older Discovery to keep down the mileage on the imported car, for which I have difficulty with spares. I’ve just had them both converted to LPG, and filled up at a supermarket for 28.5p a litre, so driving to the South Coast now is more attractive.

I’ll try to attach a few photos of the house and area from my amateur radio card to give you an idea of where we live, and I’ll let you know if I am invited to join Rotary again, and if I go ahead with the application. Best wishes to all – Robin.

Secretary David and I attended a seminar on membership at Ardingly Showground recently.

I did intend to include a report in this bulletin but owing to lack of space I have had to leave it over until the October edition.

Next Sunday, 12^th September, is the occasion for one of our International Hospitality Lunches. They are normally very sociable and enjoyable events. This one is at Richard and Gill Langley’s house at 140, Woodland Drive, and judging by the weather forecast for early September it should be a lovely day.

Please return your forms, filled in with how many people you are bringing and join your fellow members to raise funds for our next Contact visit in Hove in 2006.

ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE  BULLETIN

Fellows,

Our first vocational visit for many years was to the National Archives on 10^th July with all present enjoying the outing. Many thanks to Ted Bartup for organising such a great day. Ted is already planning more vocational visits. Those who missed this visit should make sure that they join in next time.

I had the privilege of presenting the RYLA award winners with their certificates; in discussions with them they say it changed their lives!

Great work by Roger Patterson and his team.

After the recent Rotary Housing Society meeting a group of us visited the newly purchased property at 29, Sackville Road, a large Victorian house which is to be converted into five self contained flats. As luck would have it a £85,000 legacy has been left to the Housing Society which will help fund the conversions.

Best of luck to John Eaton and his team on this worthwhile project.

Our first social event is being organised by Adrian Ball. A night at the Proms on Saturday, 7^th August. See Adrian for full details.

Please note… our first fund raising event... Summer BBQ at Hampers Lane, Storrington. A great venue… Details from George Robinson and Ray Tiltman.

Can’t go? Then give a prize for the raffle.

Last Tuesday was committee meetings, and I am expecting great results in the near future from Vocational, International, and Rotary Foundation.
Another great bit of news. Howard Attree has taken on the Sergeant At Arms following John Couch’s retirement. His first comments were "let’s make Rotary un …. All agree!

On a more sombre note, Immediate Past President Stephen has tendered his resignation from the Club and I would like to take this opportunity of thanking him for his year as President.

We have lost a good Rotarian. All the best for the future Stephen.

Enjoy Rotary.

President Ken.

Final thought… Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.

2004

August.

Mon 2^nd. Club Council. Dudley Hotel 6pm.

Sat 7^th. Prom in the park Borde Hill 3pm onwards.

Sat 21^st. Fundraising BBQ at Hampers Lane, Storrington. 7pm. Tickets £10.00 from George Robinson and Ray Tiltman***

Mon 6^th. Club Council, Dudley Hotel 6pm.

Sat 11^th. Foundation Event. Goodwood Race Day 2pm Tkts £13(reduced from £21)***

October.

Mon. 4^th. Club Council, Dudley Hotel. 6pm***

Thurs 14^th. Welcoming dinner for Ambassadorial Scholars at Brinsbury College, Pulborough ***

Fri-Sun. 22/24^th District 1250 Conference, Bournemouth

Thurs. 25^th. District Council, Ardingly Showground 6.30pm for 7. ***

Sun. 20^th P.E.T.S. (Seminar for incoming Presidents) Ardingly.***

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

Fri/Sun 22^nd/24^th. District Conference, Torquay***

New Dates ***

Cash – Chris Heath. Care of Visitors – Tad Phillips/Filipowicz

Aug 3 Business/Fellowship Title Vote of Thanks

Aug 10 Jenny Oakshott Facts & Myths of Arthritis Tad Phillips

Aug 17 David Burchell The Order of St John President

Aug 24 Committee Meetings

Aug 31 Ian Gledhill Volk’s Railway David Haycock

6^th July, 2004.

I am afraid that my laptop, on which I took details of this meeting, has suffered a serious illness, and I am unable to retrieve my records.

From memory, the highlight of the meeting, of course, was the Induction of Ken Jones as our President for the Rotary year 2004/2005. Chains of office were also conferred on Senior Vice President Bob Mulholland (me!), Junior Vice President David Haycock and Secretary David Burchell.

13^th July, 2004.

32 present – 28 of our own members and 4 non- Rotarian guests. The four guests; Ryan Chapman, Laura Wilcock, Lottie Moore and James Wright were our speakers for today and they were the participants in the RYLA course earlier this year.

It was reported that Ray Tiltman was in hospital and he was in some discomfort last night following an operation.

President Ken informed members that there was to be a meeting of District Council this evening at Ardingly; 6.30 for 7. (continued)

13^th July, 2004 (continued)

President Ken announced that Sergeant-at-Arms John Couch has had to stand down from that position, because of failing health, and President Ken asked for a volunteer to take over this fairly arduous task.

Secretary David Burchell apologised for there being no Club directories yet for this year, citing trouble

with the printers. Michael Nettell also reminded members that subscriptions for this year were due and that the receipt for the subscription would be the said Club directory.

Members were reminded that there is to be a barbecue held in Storrington on Saturday, 21^st August, tickets £10 each and George Robinson was the man to see.

Written details of the arrangements for the Symphony Concert at Borde Hill on Saturday, August 7^th were handed out.

As mentioned above, our speakers today were the four candidates that we sent to the RYLA Course in High Wycombe earlier this year. As is usual, they spoke in turn, each speaking of parts of the course and the benefits they received from this wonderful project.

Every year, members are impressed by the quality of these young people. Apparently this course is a life changing exercise. Ray Tiltman tells me that the difference between these young people between when they turn up for the original interview and when they arrive at our Club some three months after the course is absolutely amazing. Their whole outlook seems to have changed. Whereas before they may have been quiet and quite shy, on completion of the course they are much more outgoing and confident.

Long may this club support this scheme, because it is obviously doing a great job in shaping these young peoples’ future.

You will be pleased to know that at the next Council, the Youth Activities Committee Chairman, Roger Patterson, who performed the vote of thanks today, will be asking for funds to finance another four candidates for the next course which takes place next April.

20^th July 2004.

29 present – 27 of our own members, one Rotarian visitor; Terry Crimp, President of Brighton Club and one non-Rotarian guest; Ian Butlin, our speaker for today.

Richard Langley brought greetings from various members of the Pforzheim Club. He has been visiting there, at the invitation of Bernard Meyer, who was celebrating his 60^th birthday.

Colly Coulson reported that Clive Chapple is fairly poorly, but he would welcome any telephone calls.

Secretary David gave a short report on District Council, which met last Tuesday at Ardingly. A fuller version is published elsewhere in this bulletin.

President Ken was pleased to announce that PIPP (Previous Immediate Past President) Howard Attree is our new Sergeant-at-Arms and he was pleased to adorn him with his sash of office.

Ian Butlin, our speaker today, is the East Sussex Mediator for The Sussex Family Mediation Service.

To quote Ian "Family Mediation is a way to consider and agree the range of decisions which need to be made following the ending of a relationship. For example, arrangements for children and finance and property.

They provide couples with a private, quiet place to talk, an impartial, trained mediator who will safely manage their discussions in a carefully structured way, the opportunity to remain in charge of their own decisions, a detailed summary of their proposals at the end of mediation and respect for all concerned.

They will not; judge people or their families, take sides, offer advice, or talk to other people about whey they tell them (unless children are at risk).

The trickiest part of mediation is the business of settling property and finance matters after the split is final.

This service does not come free, but it is normally a lot cheaper than finding yourself involved in a legal battle.

He said that a long course of mediation could amount to some £1,000 but a lengthy consultation with lawyers involved could be anything from £2,000-£10.000.

A very interesting talk and one had the impression that Ian is most probably very good at what he does, judging by the calming influence he puts across.

The amount of interest in the talk was shown by the many questions from the floor.

Questions were asked by Bob Hinton, Gordon Cummings, John Couch, Paul Thrasher and John Ansell.

The vote of thanks was given by Derek Clouting

27^th July, 2004.

28 present – all of our own members.

President Ken read out a letter of resignation from Immediate Past President Stephen Neiman.

Club Council will discuss this at their next meeting.

Secretary David informed members that registration forms for the coming District Conference, in Bournemouth, are in the current District News.

George Robinson said a few words about the fundraising barbecue, being held on Saturday, August 21^st. He said that raffle prizes will be welcome.

Colly reported further on Clive Chapple’s illness, which is affecting his hands.

Today was the occasion of the "50" set draw and the cheque for £25.00 was won by David Haycock.

JOHN MAINWOOD.

Please note that there are two changes to be made to the entry for John Mainwood in the Club Directory.

His e-mail address is now hove@wilsonsandford.co.uk and he has a mobile telephone and the number is 07907 138886.

Be warned! There is now a charge of £5.00 for parking in either of the Dudley Hotel car parks.

It may be just as well to allow yourself an extra five minutes or so before Club meetings because it is difficult this time of year finding a space on the seafront.

INTERNATIONAL LUNCH.

Richard and Gill Langley have kindly let the Club have the use of their house at 140, Woodland Drive, for a hospitality lunch. It is on Sunday, 12^th September at noon. Tickets are £10.00 and raffle prizes will be very welcome.

Whilst sitting on the coach one evening in Dresden, one of our Pforzheim friends queried the origins of the word "OK" and I even went as far as contacting my daughter at home to ask her to look it up in the dictionary, which she did, subsequently texting a reply to me. The explanation was pretty vague, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the following in the Daily Telegraph last Saturday"

"OK – This is without doubt the best-known and widest-travelled Americanism, used and recognised everywhere, even by people who hardly know another word of English. Amateur etymologists have been obsessed with the origins of OK, and theories have bred unchecked for the past 150 years.

Suggestions abound of introductions from another language; from the Choctaw-Chickasaw "okah" meaning "it is indeed"; from Greek "olla kulla", "all good"; from a mishearing of the Scots "och aye!", "yes indeed!"; from West African languages such as Mandingo ("O ke", "certainly") or Wolof("waw kay", yes indeed"); from Finnish "oikea", "correct"; from French "au quais", "at the quay" (supposedly stencilled on Puerto Rican rum selected for export, or a place of assignation for French sailors in the Caribbean); or from French Aux Cayes (a port in Haiti famous for its superior rum). Such accidentally coincidental forms across languages are surprisingly common and all of these are quite certainly false.

Some other theories I’ve seen mentioned are that it comes from Old Keokuk, the name of a Native American Fox chief; from "Oberst Kommandant", the German for colonel in command, because of some German officers who fought on the colonists’ side in the American Revolution; from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials often appeared on bills of lading; an abbreviation for Open Key, popularised by early telegraphers; or from the initials of Orrin Kendall biscuits supplied to the Union Army during the Civil War. One persistent theory says that President Andrew Jackson used to write OK to abbreviate the illiterate "ole korrek" on documents, a grievous calumny on a well educated man. None of these theories can be supported with documented proof.

The true story was researched by Professor Allen Walker Read in the 1960s, He records that "beginning in the summer of 1838, there developed in Boston a remarkable vogue of using abbreviations. It might well be called a craze." He quotes many examples, including RTBSW (remains to be seen), GTDHD (give the devil his due), and SP (small potatoes, for something considered to be of little importance).

Professor Read traced the earliest recorded use of "OK" to the Boston Morning Post of March 23, 1839, in a report about a "frolicsome group" called the Anti-Bell Ringing Society, which campaigned to rescind a law banning the ringing of dinner bells. It seems to have been short for "oll correct", a fanciful way of writing "all correct" that was itself part of another popular craze of the time for misspellings as a humorous device, which echoes the story about President Jackson from the previous decade.

What ensured that this one example survived out of many in a hugely popular but short-lived fashion was that it was picked up by the Democrats in New York. They created a body called the Democratic OK Club to support their candidate, Martin Van Buren, who was standing for re-election in the 1840 presidential election.

"OK" here actually stood for "Old Kinderhook", Van Buren’s nickname, takem from Kinderhook, his birthplace near Albany in New York State. The abbreviation became widely used during the campaign and survived Van Buren’s losing the election.

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tool and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the last from what could have been a slow and terrifying death

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. 

"I want to repay you", said the nobleman. "You saved my son’s life."

"No, I can’t accept payment for what I did." The Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer’s own son came to the door of the family hovel.

Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied.

"I’ll make a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he’ll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of."

And that he did. Father Fleming’s son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman’s son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son’s name? Sir Winston Churchill.

The following is a copy of an excellent article about Gordon McInally, President of RIBI, published in The Times last month.

The Rotary Club, long a bastion of middle-aged respectability, is seeking to ditch its stuffy in an attempt to persuade the "Live Aid generation" to join.

As it prepares to celebrate its centenary next year, the club, best known for its long and formal business lunches, is starting an aggressive recruitment drive, backed by its first nationwide advertising campaign.

Gordon McInally, 46, who was inaugurated last week as the youngest president of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) said that he would use his year in office to attract a younger and more diverse membership.

"I am determined to change the public’s perception of Rotarians as people like Captain Mainwaring of Dad’s Army going off for long lunches." he said "I want to show people that we are a vital organisation in the sense4 that we are very much alive and very active.

"It’s not all bank managers in pinstriped suits, shopkeepers and postmasters any more. We are far more inclusive nowadays. Ten per cent of our members are women and a lot are from minority ethnic groups. Meetings are far less formal than they used to be.

Rotary no longer insists that members hold their meetings at lunches. Instead, in an attempt to fit in with the lifestyles of busy working couples with young children, it has 7.30am breakfast clubs as well as 8pm clubs for those who want to go home and tuck the children up in bed before attending. For those with older or no children, there are twilight clubs that meet at 6pm.

The organisation, started in 1905 to offer volunteering opportunities and social contacts to businessmen and professionals, is even considering copying its American sister, which runs virtual clubs where members meet over the internet.

Members are no longer required to attend a minimum number of meetings. Instead they can maintain their membership by being actively involved in project work. An hour surfing the net for a Rotary project, for example, would count as the equivalent of attending a meeting.

Rotary is also encouraging members to get their families involved in voluntary activities.

"That way we help to shape the lives of a new generation of children." Said Mr McInally, a dentist from Edinburgh who has daughters aged 18 and 19.

The club, which charges an annual £40 subscription fee, is also preparing an advertising campaign throughout the local and regional press in Great Britain and Ireland next February. This is part of an international drive to raise membership of Rotary International from 1.2 million to 1.5 million. Together with other community organisations such as the Lions Club and the Round Table, Rotary has suffered from changes in modern lifestyles.

Having more women in the workforce and the culture of long hours at work has resulted in a big drop in voluntary activity across society.

At 59,000 Rotary’s membership is well below its peak of 63,000 recorded more than a decade ago. It compares relatively favourably, however with the Lions Club, where membership has fallen from 30,000 to 20,000 in the last decade and the Round Table where there has been a fall from 30,000 members to 13,000 over the same period.

"I don’t think that people are more self-centred now than they used to be. But they don’t have so much time and they have a different outlook." Mr McInally said "You have to make volunteering available to them and you have to realise that people are more interested in identifying with a cause than with a particular organisation."

With this in mind, the causes that Rotary is championing in its centenary year have been chosen to appeal to the Live Aid Generation. In partnership with the charity Hope and Homes for Children, it is seeking to raise £1 million to help 5,000 children orphaned by Aids or Genocide in Rwanda and South Africa.

It has also joined forces with the Royal Lifesaving Society UK to establish a network of Community First Responders: volunteers who will learn resuscitation techniques using defibrillators.

President Ken Jones, Secretary David Burchell, District Community Service Chairman Howard Attree, SVP Bob Mulholland and John Couch made up the party from the Club for this meeting of District Council.

This meeting commenced with the handing over ceremony from IPDG Barry Hopkins to DG Peter Nightingale and his team for the start of the new Rotary year.

It was quite disappointing to find that 9 Club President’s failed to attend.

There was then a short speech from DG Peter, emphasising this year’s theme, which is "Celebrate Rotary" He said that there would be many themes in this Centenary Year with the usual special emphasis on Membership.

There was then a short address from Eileen Cooke, the Chairman of District 25 Inner Wheel, who said that she was very glad to see old friends and familiar faces again.

There then followed routine reports from all the District Officers.

One of the highlights (maybe the only one!) was the very lively report from Tony Johnson.

He reminded us that the membership of RIBI is only in fact 5% of membership throughout the world and this means that things we feel most strongly about are not necessarily felt so strongly about in other parts of the world.

A motion was put forward at District Council "To distribute annually a sum of money from any surplus from the District Sports Account to Sports Aid for the benefit of young sportsmen and women in this District to a maximum £250 each. This was carried unanimously.

 ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE  BULLETIN

Fellows,

Panic…….What do I write for my first message to the club members as President?

Last Monday afternoon, on the bowling green, I spoke to the Rottingdean Bowling Club Captain Brian, and asked what it was to be Captain?

After a long though he replied……."It’s a PRIVILEGE."

Later on at the same bowling match I received a telephone call to say that one of my close bowling friends had died.

I visited his partner that same evening and tried to console her, there was little else I could do.

Both gave me food for thought.

Being President is indeed a PRIVILEGE and I thank all members for giving me this once in a life time opportunity to head the Rotary Club of Hove during the Centennial year.

Secondly, let’s not wait until it’s too late.

Can I ask all Rotarians to give 100% effort during this year of celebrating 100 years of Rotary?

Finally, let me earn that PRIVILEGE, which will only come with the full support of club members.

Help me to help you and let’s have a great year

Enjoy Rotary.

President Ken.

Final thought.

Rotarians give little when they give of their possessions.

It is when they give of themselves that they truly give.

2004

Mon. 5^th Club Council, Dudley Hotel 6pm

Sat. 10^th. Vocational Visit to the National Archives at The Public Record Office, Kew Gardens Tkts £10.

Limited amount of seats for this visit so please fill in the form, issued by Ted Bartup, as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.(Now Sold Out!!)

Tue. 13^th. District Council, Ardingly 6.30pm for 7.***

August.

Mon 2^nd. Club Council. Dudley Hotel 6pm.

Mon 6^th. Club Council, Dudley Hotel 6pm***

October.

Fri-Sun. 22/24^th District 1250 Conference, Bournemouth

Mon-Wed 11^th/13^th. National Inner Wheel Conference, Blackpool.

Thu-Sun 14^th/17^th. R.I.B.I. Conference, Manchester.

Sun. 24^th. Motorcycle Rally Fundraiser. No holidays please!!!

New Dates ***

Cash – Adrian Ball Care of Visitors – Howard Attree

6^th. a very important date in this year’s Rotary Calendar sees the induction of President Ken.

13^th. today’s meeting highlights the great work that Rotary performs with regard to the youth of the world. We will be hearing from the members of the RYLA team that we sent to Milton Keynes for a week in April. The vote of thanks will be performed by Youth Activities Chairman Roger Patterson.

20^th Our speaker today is Ian Butlin and the title of his talk is Family Mediation. The vote of thanks will be given by Derek Clouting.

 27^th. this being the last meeting of this month, it will be devoted to the getting together of the various committees.

1^st June, 2004.

28 present – all our own members.

President Stephen informed members that Malcolm Clayton is feeling unwell, but has no further details.

The "40 Set" draw, which was held over from last week’s Club AGM provided a winning cheque for £25.00 to Colly Coulson.

John Eaton asked members to supply a few volunteers for the upcoming Car Boot Sale, being held at the Portslade Community College on Sunday, June 6^th.

Incoming Secretary David Burchell invited those who wanted to, to attend a Communications seminar at Brinsbury Agricultural College on Tuesday, June 8^th.

He also said that all incoming Chairmen of committees should submit their lists of committee members as soon as possible.

Howard Attree reminded members that this is the last week for letting Brighton East Rotary Club know how many people are intending to take part in the raid on that club on Thursday, 10^th June.

Foundation Chairman Bob Hinton told members that over half of the "Spread and Save" money is in and he will be sending off the first instalment to District Foundation this week. He also said a few words on "Spread and Save" saying that it has gone very well and District has attained its target for giving already this year. The average give for each member is about £10.00 per annum. He said that in addition to the various Clubs contributing we are also taking money out of our own pocket and he would like to see this continue. He remarked that he hoped someone at top level comes up with another idea which takes money so painlessly. Continued

1^st June, 2004 (continued)

John Eaton reminded members that the Housing Society AGM will be held immediately after this lunch with a tea for the tenants at Courtland’s Hotel immediately after that. He also informed members that there are plenty of seats left on the coach trip for the elderly ladies of the borough. All members are welcome aboard.

Incoming International Chairman Tad Phillips/Filipowicz asked if anybody would like to volunteer their home for an International Hospitality Lunch sometime in the next Rotary Year or so.

8^th June, 2004

26 present – all our own members.

President Stephen was most pleased to welcome John Ansell back after his fairly lengthy illness.

Two letters were read out, the first one from St Patrick’s Trust thanking us for the donation of food, which was left over from the tea given to the Housing Society tenants at Courtland’s last week. The other letter was from Bishop Ken Barham thanking us for our donation of £2,500 towards his memorial trust in Ruanda.

IPP Howard Attree brought those members going on the "raid" to Brighton East up to date with the arrangements.

President Stephen asked members to give it their best shot and make a success of the President’s night, being held on June 29^th 7.30pm for 8, at the Old Market. Tickets will be £25.00 per person.

Ray Tiltman rose to speak on the outing for elderly people, being held tomorrow. He said there were now only three seats left vacant, because, owing to lack of demand, the number of coaches has been cut from two to one.

Foundation Chairman Bob Hinton made his weekly statement on "Spread and Save" saying that if anybody still wants to give money to him he will be pleased to receive it. He won’t be chasing anyone because the whole scheme is voluntary. He was pleased to announce that the total amount sent off thus far is £461.05. This consists of £371.05 from members and £90 more from the government’s gift aid scheme. He pointed out that this would be half the amount that we normally give to meet the district target.

He said it may be a good idea to do it again, because it is quite painless as well as being fun.

As President Stephen was unable to attend Council last night, it was left to Sergeant At Arms John Couch, having took the minutes of the said meeting, to report

He started off by reading out the treasurer’s report which included the fact that the Motorcycle Rally had made a profit of just over £4,000, and a £1,000 cheque has been sent to the Inner Wheel Club of Hove.

The Sergeant at Arms also reported that he had collected £98.00 through various (and nefarious!) methods and this had been given to The Pink Dolphin Appeal.

On the social side, it was reported that Adrian Ball and Ted Bartup are working out a programme of events. It was also reported that ADG Ian Swailes had suffered a severe heart attack and is to have surgery. It was also sadly reported that the incoming president of the Brighton Club has passed away, just a few weeks before she was due to take office.

John Couch went on to report that there had been a very poor turnout for the Car Boot Sale, held just this last Sunday at Portslade Community College. One consolation is that Ray Tiltman is following up on a possible new member as a result of the event. It was also reported that Mike Peters and Adrian Ball have asked that a discussion by held by club members about the future of the Engineerium event.

It was also stated that Peter Fowle is to host an ambassadorial scholar during the next Rotary year. Incidentally, she is from Pforzheim.

John was also pleased to announce that there is a possibility that we may, once again, have four candidates for the RYLA course of 2004/2005.

John finally announced that Bob Hinton and Peter Savage are in charge of accommodation and registering arrangements for the RIBI Conference in Manchester next April.

There was also a shadow council held at which Ken Jones announced the remainder of his personnel for next year.

Continued

15^th June, 2004

26 present – 25 of our own members and one Rotarian visitor, ADG elect Mike Harvey from Chichester Priory, who was the moderator for Club Assembly, being held today.

President Stephen reported that he had attended the Brighton and Hove Soiree President’s night at Borde Hill.

David Burchell informed members that 11 of our members took part on a "raid" of Brighton East Club at East Brighton Golf Club, on Thursday, last week, and they had a most enjoyable lunch with a talk from David Panter, the Chief Executive of Brighton and Hove City Council.

Today was the occasion of the Annual Club Assembly and without any further ado Stephen handed over the meeting to I/C President Ken.

My thanks to David Burchell for supplying the following report of Assembly:

The principle intention will be to observe the R.I. President’s theme "Celebrate Rotary". He also wishes to take as his primary objective the support for Breast Cancer, continuing where President Stephen finished and doubling the total to £3,000. First Responders will also be considered and monthly events will be held. Support for the Housing Trustees. Meetings will be held with the other Clubs in the City and supporting the rose garden project in Preston Park.

2. Ralph Harrison. Hopes to hold a number of walks, including the South Downs Way, which was done 7 years ago. Also Winchester to Beachy Head was suggested. The walks are intended to encourage fitness.

3. Bob Mulholland (Club Service) Intention to ensure that the Club runs smoothly. The team is virtually the same as last year.

4. David Haycock (Community) to continue to serve and help the community. To arrange days out for the elderly. To work on the Christmas collections and the associated use of the funds.

5. Ted Bartup (Vocational) One visit has already been arranged for 10^th July to the Public Records Office, Kew and others will be considered.

6. Tad Phillips-Filipowicz (International) to continue with the water filtration plants together with Rotary Foundation. Further aqua boxes and sweets for the children as last year. It is hoped to arrange fund-raising events, such as Sunday lunches.

7. Bob Hinton (Rotary Foundation) to arrange for grants to cover 3 to 5 water filtration units for Accra East. We will be receiving an Ambassadorial Scholar from Pforzheim, to be hosted by Peter Fowle. There will be a visit from the G.S.E. team from India in which we hope to take part. Rotary calendars and Christmas cards will again be available. The target for the year will be £1,000 and this will be helped by continuing with the "marmalade jar" collection.

8. Roger Patterson (Youth Service) We will follow the guidelines of the Youth Activities Mission Statement from R.I.B.I., continuing the existent programme with schools – Mock Interviews for Brighton & Hove High (for University entry), Hove Park (for work interviews) and for Portslade Community College, the sending of 4 candidates to R.Y.L.A.

9. John Eaton (Housing Association). This will be the golden Jubilee year. Whereas all residents in the past have been female, it has now been decided to admit males. We have 39 flats on 4 sites (originally costing £350 and now worth £3.5 million. We recently purchased another property in Sackville Road costing £500,000 plus £200,000 for renovations, which will comprise 5 modern flats. We have also adopted Rotary Point, with 42 flats and a warden.

10. Adrian Ball (Social) Arrangements have been made for "A Night at the Proms" at Borde Hill Gardens on 7^th August.

The District representative A.D.G. Elect Mike Harvey summed up the proceedings and was most complimentary.

22^nd June, 2004.

31 present – all our own members.

President Stephen informed us that 55 people had signed up for his President’s night thus far but he was expecting the total to be much higher. He then gave further details of the event, telling us what the programme would be on the night.

Continued

CLUB MEETINGS (CONTINUED)

22^nd June, 2004.

This was to have been the occasion of President Stephen’s "year in office" talk but he decided to postpone it until The President’s Night next week.

It was also announced that the formal handover and induction of I/C President Ken will take place at the meeting of 6^th July and will this year’s officers please bring in their badges and chains of office for handing over purposes.

Foundation Chairman Bob Hinton rose to give the final total for "Spread and Save" which was the magnificent sum of £523.45 although it was pointed out that two marmalade jars have been found in the Old Market which could increase that sum.

It was announced that District Council will be meeting on Tuesday, 13^th July, at Ardingly 6.30pm for 7.

The President then told a joke, which I won’t repeat because he has already done so in the past!

Adrian Ball then informed members that he had 23 names for the concert at Borde Hill Gardens on 7^th August and tickets had to be booked this afternoon at the latest.

He also told us of a barbecue being held at Rushfield’s Garden Centre on the 9^th July, tickets are only £2.00 all proceeds going to the Trevor Mann Baby Unit at RSCH. Rosie Broadley is the contact for tickets, or pop into Rushfield’s itself.

29^th June, 2004. (President’s Night)

92 Present – 30 Rotarians with the remainder being wives and partners of various members. President Stephen also invited numerous guests in appreciation of help he had received from them for the last year or so. Honoured guests of the Club were Jennifer Saunders, President of the Inner Wheel Club of Hove and Robin Wilson, President of Brighton and Hove Breakfast Club.

The evening was most impressively compeered by Sergeant at Arms John Couch.

Before an excellent three course meal, the main course being the most gigantic spit roast wild boar, there was a champagne reception, enabling members and their guests to mingle in a most convivial way.

Members were under the impression that President Stephen was going to give us his "year in office" talk but he decided to dispense with custom and entertained us by telling us about his first contact with Rotary, which was through yours truly. He said that he was confused when he began in Rotary and he was still confused despite serving as President. He then spent ten minutes or so explaining to our guests what Rotary is all about.

He stated that Rotary does a great deal in unsung work of which must is at a local level. He said that through various means we have raised £10,000 with donations to St. Patrick’s and St John’s churches, Blatchington Mill School and others including The Martlets and a donation to a Doctor in Ventnor Villas to enable him to purchase necessary equipment for the surgery.

Overseas projects included, apart from the tremendous task of eradicating polio from the world, were Water Aid, operations to remove cataracts from the eyes of people in the Third World and a donation to Bishop Kenneth Barham in Uganda to. He said that this totally confirms that we are not just a lunch club.

He then went on to mention all those projects that are familiar to Rotarians including RYLA, Mock Interviews and probably the most secret of our good works, The Rotary Club of Hove Housing Society. This Society has 41 tenants and has recently purchased another property in Sackville Road for £500,000; with another £200,000 to be spent on converting it into five self-contained flats. He remarked that this shouldn’t be our best kept secret and we should try to get maximum publicity when incoming President Ken performs the opening ceremony, hopefully sometime early next year.

He concluded by saying that he thanked the Club members for putting up with him throughout the year.

Jennifer Saunders, President of the Inner Wheel Club of Hove, replied on behalf of the guests.

The remainder of the evening was taken over by The Doughnuts, a mainly saxophone band, some sixteen strong, with Katie (daughter of the President) Neiman on the microphone.

Katie’s singing was impeccable, and the orchestra certainly knew all the notes, but they seemed to have trouble putting them in the right order, or in the right key.

Even though I have wrote this up as an ordinary Club meeting, there was no concluding toast.

Our Sergeant at Arms John Couch purchased last year at National Conference the Heart of Gold Rose, and it is now out in glorious bloom in a pot, boast to guests at his front door.

The description in the Crocker’s Rose catalogue is as follows:

"HEART OF GOLD" approx height 75cm. Fragrant.

A beautiful large flowered Hybrid Tea rose of classical form. The colour of the scented blooms reminds one of a warm ripe peach with the underside of the petals being a little lighter. There is an overall hint of bronze in the colouring, and is very attractive. The plant is bushy and upright with an abundance of large dark green very glossy leaves which are a perfect foil to the colour of this rose. Highly disease resistant. "Heart of Gold" has been specially commissioned to mark the occasion of the centenary of Rotary International in 2005, and to highlight the work of its official charity called "Rotary Foundation". Rotary Foundation is a worldwide association of men and women who collectively aim to provide humanitarian service and resources to the community at local, national and international levels and who work for goodwill and peace in the world. By way of example, Rotary Foundation’s "Polioplus" project has contributed substantially towards the eradication of Polio worldwide.

From the sale of each rose a donation of £1.50 will be made to the "Rotary Foundation".

Should any member wish to purchase a rose, John Couch has details. Cost £6.95

A turkey was chatting with a bull "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven’t got the energy."

"Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull.

"They’re packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally, on the fifth day, there he was, proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon, he was promptly spotted by a farmer who shot the turkey out of the tree.
The moral of the story is; Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there!

I know that at the moment this seems a while away, but I am trying to formulate a party for this usual very entertaining weekend. Please give your support to President Ken by supporting him in numbers at the District 1250 Conference.

Details of the conference do not appear to be available at present, but I am sure they will be circulated at the next District Council, which is on Tuesday, 13^th July, 6.30pm for 7 at Ardingly.

This is also an occasion when President Ken should receive support from members. If anyone is interested in going, please contact me, and I will be quite happy to supply transport.