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Founded 1933 RI No 3630 RIBI No 393
For previous years click on http://www.hoverotaryclub.name/2009.10 http://www.hoverotaryclub.name/2008.9 http://www.hoverotaryclub.name/2007 or http://www.hoverotaryclub.name/2006/7 or http://www.hoverotaryclub.name/2006/ or http://www.hoverotaryclub.name/2005 |
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ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN AUGUST 2010 Some August thoughts from President Ian Between all of our members, how many friends have we got? It will be interesting to see how many of us can bring along some new faces as we set up the Friends of Rotary project. I am very pleased that the idea has been so widely welcomed, with various useful suggestions coming from our recent lunchtime discussion. We can now fine tune the pilot scheme to launch publicly in September. I think that we have nothing to lose by it and a great deal to gain if some of those Friends become full members in due course. It was also very encouraging to meeting up with other, new, Brighton and Hove presidents to talk about more contact and co-operation between us. Last week ADG Neil Hills led an informal meeting with Colin Crookes of Breakfast, Stephen Grint of Soirée, Eric Gill of Brighton, Brian Dollings of Brighton East and me. It was clear that we are all keen to strengthen our clubs with joint efforts. I was pleased to hear Colin making great use of the expression "joined-up-Rotary", and we can look forward to seeing more of members of other clubs at our meetings. I hope that individually or in small groups we will also do more visiting. We discussed a number of initiatives which, if they bear any fruit, I will feed back on. To keep up to date, we intend to operate an e-mail group, also involving club secretaries. One cheery suggestion which we all liked was for a joint inter-club fun evening with partners in January. More on that, anon. We will be meeting up again in October. I would be grateful for any thoughts on how we should report on Club Council meetings. To have a long presidential droning-on at a lunchtime meeting (even if enlivened by expert contributions from Council members) is not exactly appetising. I am wondering if we might generate a Council minutes summary which could be included in the newsletter. If we were to do this, we would need to publish the newsletter a week later, immediately after the Council meeting. Please let me have your views. I am conscious that we could communicate better. Hopefully, my long drawn out distractions with work will soon slim down. I look forward to spending "more time with my family" and with Rotary!
CLUB PROGRAMME FOR AUGUST. 3rd. Today will be devoted to a report on the previous evening’s Club Council with a report on finances from Bob Hinton 10th. Today’s speaker will be David Hunt and he will be telling us all about "100 Years of Brighton Scouting". 17th Paul Myers is our speaker today and his talk is entitled "Adventures in a Revolving World" Don’t miss this one, it promises to be very entertaining. 24th. Tony Platt is here today and he will be covering a subject that we haven’t heard at Club for quite a while and that is "The Wey and Arun Canal" 31st This is an evening and what an evening it promises to be because we have Ann Blight speaking to us about "Starfish", an organisation that helps people with severe talking disorders. A party of us were fortunate to hear her in Jersey last year and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.
SUMMER LUNCH On Sunday 5th September, 12.30 for 1pm At 140, Woodland Drive, At the kind invitation of Inner Wheel President Gill Langley. Cost £10. Remembering Colly Many Club members were present at the funeral service for Colly Coulson on Friday 2 July. I myself missed it because we returned from holiday the same afternoon. I expect many of you would like to pay tribute to his memory in a tangible way and Margaret has made it known that she would like this to be by way of contributions to the cause which is the joint project of both Jill and Ian as Presidents of the Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs of Hove. The project is to contribute to the fund-raising for the proposed Sussex Macmillan Cancer Support Centre for which a site has been made available near to the existing Cancer Centre at the Royal Sussex Hospital. The easiest way for any of you to do this will be to make a payment to me as Treasurer of our Club’s Charitable Trust Fund. I will earmark any gift for the project and record it as coming from you. When all contributions are in I will let Margaret know the result of the collection. I will close the list at the end of August. If you make your gift by cheque it should be payable to The Rotary Club of Hove Charitable Trust. Most members of the Club who pay income tax have made Gift Aid declarations to cover gifts to the fund and any gift covered by a declaration will enable me to recover an additional amount of about 28% of the gift from Inland Revenue. This will be added to the amount now given. This has been very beneficial to the fund in recent times; I recently received Tax Refunds on member’s gifts totalling over £490 for the last 2 tax years. If you are a tax payer but have not yet given me a declaration and would like to do so (or if you are not sure whether you have made one), have a word with me about it. CLUB MEETINGS. 6th July 2010. 27 Present – 26 of our own Members, including Honorary Member John Ansell and one Rotarian visitor; David Bellamy from Burgess Hill, our speaker for today. Secretary Frances told members to contact Bob Mulholland if there is an incorrect entry under their name in the Club Directory. Amendments will be printed in later bulletin. It was reported that Bob Green is at home and progressing well. Paul Thrasher reported that Ian Varley is in pain and not at all happy after his recent operation. President Ian touched on a few highlights from the previous evening’s Club Council making special mention of "Friends of Rotary" and told members that there was a paper on each table explaining more on this scheme. There was also an update on what was happening at the forthcoming District Council in Warwick. Please see President Ian for further details. President Ian was then highly delighted to present a certificate to John Ansell commemorating John’s fifty years in Rotary and on him being made an Honorary Member of the Club. John was quite overcome with the whole occasion. David Bellamy, our speaker today, was here to tell us all about the Grafton Project, a scheme that district was involved in, in which they helped orphaned children in Sierra Leone. The scheme was also run in conjunction with Mercy Ships. The help took the form of building an extension to the hospital clinic and the erection of a classroom for the school. The whole thing was completed recently, with ten to twelve teams of Rotarians and friends carrying out labouring work and the building was opened by a government minister District 1250 carried out all the construction work but the task of feeding the 600 orphans was taken on by a town in Holland that contributed money on a weekly basis. David told us that just seeing the children on arrival makes you want to try to make their lives better. He found that all the children were desperate to learn and very proud of what they were being taught. When David first arrived, he was absolutely appalled by the conditions at the school, planks of wood being used as desks and seats and leaking roofs as well. Following on from that first visit, a sum of £70,000 was raised. Another £22,000 was raised as a result of a walk from the Sierra Leone Embassy in London to the town in Holland that was previously mentioned. Their aim then was to build a new secondary school, new latrines and a skill centre which would enable to orphans to learn the necessary skills to earn a living and become self sufficient. All these tasks were completed by December 2008, with all the supplies coming by Mercy Ship. Although we have heard of similar projects in the past, one couldn’t but help to be impressed by the speed and energy of which this project was completed. It meant that a huge difference in the life style of 600 war orphans was made, with good education facilities and much better living conditions An excellent talk by someone who has actually done something to make a lot of people’s life a lot better. Questions afterwards from Michael Peters and Chris Heath with the vote of thanks given by Howard Attree. 13th July 2010. 26 present – 25 of our own members and one non-Rotarian guest; Chris Neilson, our speaker for today. It was reported that Ian Varley is confined to wheelchair and is in quite a lot of pain and not expected to attend Club for some while. Bob Green still progressing quite well but not allowed out of the house yet. Treasurer Bob Hinton reminded members that their subscriptions were due. Bob also mentioned that Jennifer Moffatt, who was the first of Bob’s counselled Ambassadorial Scholars was visiting Bob’s home this coming Friday and that anybody who wanted to reacquaint themselves with her would be welcome. Detective Chris Neilson was our speaker today. Chris is head of the Sussex Police Economic Crime Unit, covering fraud, but he was here today to keep us all informed about MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) This agency was set up in an attempt to protect the general public from various criminals, predominantly those convicted of sexual and violent, or both, offences. These offenders are split up into three categories 1: Registered Sex Offenders, of which there war about 30,000 in 2004/5) 2: Violent or other Sex Offenders (12,600) and 3: Other Offenders, of which there were 3,000. Information is then shared about these offenders with different agencies and the police will share information with offender managers that they have gathered about an offender’s behaviour from surveillance or intelligence gathering. Local authorities will help find offenders suitable accommodation where they can be effectively managed. With the help of all these various agencies and the police force, the hope is that the offenders will not reoffend, but if there is a risk that they may, surveillance is stepped up on all of them. Although it may seem pretty straightforward, a visit to the MAPPA website will explain all the intricacies of the scheme. You will also find out how MAPPA, the result of various acts of parliament passed since 1997. These acts included the sex offenders act 1997 and the criminal and court services act of 2000, the one that actually created MAPPA. This also led to a host of departments, all with their own acronym, including SOPOS, ROSHOS, FTOS and NOS (please don’t ask!!) Quite a fascinating talk. The vote of thanks was given by Ken Jones.
20th July 2010. 24 Present – 23 of our own members and one non Rotarian guest, Stephen Love, our speaker. Volunteers are being sought for a Military Tattoo at Ardingly on Saturday, 4th September. Michael Nettell announced that there would be a meeting, immediately after this one, to discuss the setting up of the "Friends of Rotary" scheme. Letter read out from Gill Langley, President of Hove Inner Wheel, thanking this Club for its £1,000 to her Club. Howard Attree, wearing his District Treasurer’s hat, informed us that there had only been 300 registrations for the upcoming District 1250 Conference and has now been reduced from Fri/Sun to one of Sat/Sun, but the programme will be just as extensive as before. Howard also mentioned the Focus on the Crocus project, which is a reinvention of Thanks for Life next February, and as February is the month for crocuses blooming, RIBI aims to get in the Guinness Book of Records for the biggest crocus displays up and down all the country, and with this in mind all Rotary Clubs have been invited to purchase vast amounts of crocuses (croci!!) and make impressive displays in their home town. It was suggested that maybe the six Rotary Clubs in the Brighton area could get together to make one big display. Howard said that £50 buys ten thousand crocuses. Stephen Love, our speaker today, was formerly head teacher at Boundstone Community College at Sompting for many years. It was on a visit to Indian, with a party of six formers as part of an unnamed project. He fell in love with the country and on a subsequent visit to plant thousands of trees on behalf of the Greening Project. On another trip he heard, to his horror, that babies born, many as a result of rape, to unmarried mothers met very inhumane deaths. Following on from this he set up the Love Trust for Indian Children". He came back home determined to raise enough money to do something about this problem and with the help of charities such as John Eaton’s Osborne Charitable Trust set about his task. He also contributed a large amount of his own money to the project He managed to raise about £40,000 and with this set about building an orphanage for these unfortunate mothers and their children in a town about 500 miles inland from Mumbai and about 50 miles from the nearest decent sized town, and this opened about ten years ago. Initially there were only a small amount of babies but to date they have saved about 150 of these "little human beings" from a horrible fate. Every child they take in is taken in with the aim of getting them adopted. All the babies are adopted in India and none is taken out of the country. Stephen said that bureaucracy is very complicated, with many rules and legislations, courts and reports, much like the forms that are necessary in the UK, not surprising because the bureaucracy is very much on similar lines to this country, a legacy from their days under British rule. He also said that there was a great deal of corruption in India, but if you face down the people that want "backhanders" and show you are very intent in dealing with them, the people wanting backhanders will fall away. Luckily for him, his organisation now has a reputation as an honest and straightforward one and not many people now ask for a bribe before agreeing to doing or supplying anything. He told us that a lot of the young pregnant girls will often be the victims of support. They have usually been assaulted while they work in the fields and cannot go back home to Mum and Dad because of the disgrace involved. They still get a chance to keep the baby but this has never happened so far. Stephen’s organisation will keep the baby for up to a year but by then they want to get the baby adopted. The project has managed to make adoption a respectable thing to do, which wasn’t so previously. Money is received in all the various ways, with covenants, legacies, and donations from companies but most of the money has to be raised by conventional means, with donations from members of the public. This was a very straightforward story of someone who had a mission and carried it out, thereby saving many babies from a nasty death. Stephen took questions at the conclusion of his talk and Bob Hinton asked what happened to handicapped children, who obviously wouldn’t be easily adopted by anyone and Stephen said that they were normally passed on to a similar Indian organisation that had the facilities to cater for them more easily. Howard Attree asked if, in the future, the girls were likely to be encouraged to keep their children but Steven thought that this was unlikely because in the countryside there is a very strong Hindu culture and there were what, in this country would be called old fashioned views on babies born out of wedlock Peter Savage wondered if it was more difficult to place a female baby rather than a male and Stephen quoted the old saying of "Boy is a son until wife, but a daughter is a daughter for life". The final question was from John Eaton, who asked what equipment his organisation needed and Stephen replied by saying that he would have to speak to his trustee in Indian as to what is required. A really good talk by an excellent orator, who was obviously passionate about this very worthwhile project. The vote of thanks was given by John Eaton. 27th July 2010. 29 Present 28 of our own Members and one Rotarian visitor; Hugh Peters, our speaker today and a founder member of Brighton East RC. There was a discussion during lunch with regard to this Club taking on Friends of Rotary whereon it was agreed that it would be an idea worth trying but details of the scheme need to be ironed out. Application forms for members to find friends of Rotary were on each table. Ron Loadsman was poorly. He was also pleased to report that Bob Green has been out walking and is making good progress. Derek Clouting told members that Ian Varley is still unwell. Today was the occasion for a "40 Set" draw and the cheque for £25 was won by George Robinson. Speaker Secretary David Henderson made an appeal to members for speaker suggestions. Our speaker today was Hugh Peters, a 94 year old veteran of the Sicily Landings in World War II and this was the subject of his talk. He started off by telling us that he was very aware that war was likely when growing up in the thirties and he trained annually with a regular regiment of the artillery. He was subsequently called up on 30th August 1939, four days before the outbreak of the war. In 1940 he found himself in France and was one of the 300.000 or more evacuees from Dunkirk. He went on to tell us of his adventures over the next few years, including a voyage he made with a flotilla of ships, heading for North Africa, which took about nine weeks owing to the huge diversion that convoys such as this had to make to avoid enemy fire. He and his men, for he was a Captain of Artillery, then spent nine months in the desert, going on to Tunisia and with "clapped out" transport a further three weeks to reach the Southern end of the Suez Canal where they boarded a 22,000 ton liner to Sicily, where they were greeted on the horizon by the magnificent sight of Mount Etna. He then went on to tell us about the many battles he took part in on this very volatile island. He told us about the chaotic things that happened at the initial invasion, including the fact that the Royal Navy were not told that American Air Force planes would be flying over them and consequently fired on them. Communications at the time were not very sophisticated and the range of wireless communication was only about six miles, which isn’t very useful if you were seven miles from base trying to communicate with headquarters. It was a wonder that the invasion was a success at all because of the aforementioned chaos, but history shows that it was one of the most famous exercises during that time. This was an amazing talk by a very brave and modest gentleman. He had terrific recall of the whole experience which was an amazing 65 years ago and everyone present was fascinated with this account of what must have been a nerve racking period of his life. There were many questions asked by members afterwards. The vote of thanks was given by David Henderson.
There are two stand out figures on the attendance numbers and they are both the Davids, Burchell and Henderson with 100% attendance, one being our senior (in age) and the other still working full time and yet able to get to club meetings every week. DIRECTORY CORRECTIONS. Please add Gordon Cummings and John Eaton to the list of Paul Harris Fellows. Michael Nettell’s email address should be michael.nettell@talktalk.net Peter Fowle’s email address is p.fowle@talk21.com Add F. du Toit to members of RC of Hove Housing Society Frances du Toit email address is francis.dutoit.ntlworld.com (please note i in Francis, not as she spells it in real life.
ROTARY CLUB OF HOVE BULLETIN JULY 2010 Some Thoughts from President Ian A Happy New Rotary Year! My grateful thanks for the good wishes and support that I have already been given. Let’s hope that between us we can defy some of the woes of the recession and enjoy some growth and prosperity in the life of our Club. I am determined that everyone should be able to get what they personally want from their membership. This means I will appreciate lots of feedback – positive or negative – so that we can keep things on track. By this time next month, we should have some specific pointers for the months ahead to talk about. I already have some of my own ambitions for the year ahead. At the end of July the new Presidents of the Brighton & Hove Clubs will be meeting to discuss better links. We are all already agreed that we would like to increase the amount of contact and joint efforts between us. I would hope that we will see individuals from other Clubs visiting us more often, not just through raids. I also hope that we can work together in making Rotary more visible in the community. I have chosen as the President’s Charity the Sussex Cancer Fund which is working with Macmillan Cancer Support to set up a £5.7m centre for patients, family, friends and carers. I was delighted to discover that Gill Langley, my counterpart in Inner Wheel, had quite co-incidentally chosen the Cancer Fund as her charity. It would be a great achievement if Rotarians in Brighton & Hove and across Sussex could share in the fund-raising for a cause which has great resonance for so many of us. I have already asked the Pforzheim and Evreux Clubs if they will give some support. The Contact Visit to Pforzheim was most enjoyable, interesting and very sociable. Although only nine of us were able to go this year, there are great hopes that next year, courtesy of our friends in Evreux, we could travel in force to Beaune the centre of great Burgundy wines. I would like everyone who is interested to support Peter Fowle and Paul Thrasher in exploring how we might make or even extend the visit, set for 27-29 May. More about this soon. Sadly in recent months, numbers attending Club meetings have dwindled. I hope that we can reverse this trend with the continuing attractions of excellent speakers and with some new faces. Please do invite guests to join us when you can. The membership team will also be working on the pilot Associate Membership project to open up the Club to some key folk in our community who cannot devote time to being fully active members. We will be working to create a programme of events and outings that will appeal to as many members as possible. There are certain jobs in life that you think you will never do! For me, that included presidency of our Rotary Club. I know that I was not alone in feeling reluctant to take it on. I joined back in 1982, left in the nineties because work got in the way and then re-joined in 1999. After all these years, I have been appalled to discover how ignorant I have been about some aspects of Rotary. So I am particularly grateful for all the help and advice that I have had. I will continue to seek it! CLUB PROGRAMME FOR JULY. 6th. Our speaker today is David Bellamy from the Rotary Club of Burgess Hill and he is here to tell us all about The Grafton Project. 13th. Hello, hello, hello – we have a policeman speaking today and it is Inspector Chris Neilson and he will be giving us his view on "Managing Dangerous Offenders". 20th. Steven Love will be addressing us at this meeting and he will be publicising his own personal charity which is "Love Trust for Indian Children in Need". 27th. For the second time this month we have a Rotarian to speak to us, this time it is Hugh Peters from the Rotary Club of Brighton East and he is to speak to us on "Sicily – An Invasion Experience". HEADED NOTEPAPER. An up-to-date version of the club’s headed notepaper is available for downloading from the Club website (see front cover of directory for address). CLUB MEETINGS. 1st June 2010. 26 present – all our own members. President Bryan was delighted to see the return of Ray Tiltman and Ray thanked everyone for their get well messages and cards. President Bryan was also pleased to see Ron Loadsman back after a lengthy absence. Ted Bartup reported that Bob Green is still receiving physiotherapy in hospital but hopes to return home sometime this week. Congratulations were given to Isobel and Paul Thrasher on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary and Paul gave a cheque for £50 to be placed in the Club’s Charity Account. Today saw a report on the previous evening’s Club Council and President Bryan started off by saying that the Motorcycle Rally raised £2.500 approximately which he felt was pretty good in the present economic climate. He also informed members that Rotary no longer refers to young people as youths but is now using the term "new generations" (dear me!!) There is to be a meeting with the remaining members of Hove Round Table next month to discuss how to "spend their money", this money left over from the disbandment of the Club. A donation of £100 has been made to the Girl Guides to help them celebrate their Centenary at the gathering in Hove Town Hall. Following the talk from the representative of Chestnut Tree Hospice a cheque for £200 has been sent to that very worthwhile organisation. £100 is also to be given to Sarah Sells, a recent speaker, for her Ethiopian Charity. All final arrangements are in place for the joint project with Evreux. It was recommended that John Ansell, who resigned from the Club after over 50 years of service and this matter will be dealt with at the Club AGM, which follows on from this council report. Council is quite perturbed about the "thin" attendances" lately and it has been noted that apologies are not being formally given. It was felt that the hotel is not being fairly treated and could even charge us more for our meals if they have no idea of numbers to cater for. Secretary Frances to take responsibility for absentee book and also to inform hotel of how many members to expect at each meeting. Membership – still no new members for a while despite Mike Nettell’s efforts. Hove Actually to run an advert, costing £60, to do with recruitment. Community Awards have been Okayed for Portslade Community College, Hove Park and Blatchington Mill schools. Ralph Harrison to look into possibility of entering a skittles team in the Lewes RC skittles tournament. Hanna Young, 19 year old daughter of Paul Young, founder of "Off the Fence" going to Ethiopia shortly on charity mission asked for support and club agreed to give her £250.00. As stated earlier, today was also the occasion of the Club’s AGM. I will just give you the highlights of this because minutes of the meeting will be available later. There were reports, written or oral, from the Chairmen of the various committees. Treasurer Bob Hinton recommended that next Rotary year’s subscription should be £107 but after some discussion it was decided that it should be at the increased sum of £110. The concluding business at the AGM was to elect Adam Trimingham and John Ansell as honorary members. 8th June 2010. 24 present – 23 of our own members and one non Rotarian guest; Gemma Cornwell, our speaker. President Bryan had the very pleasant task of presenting Gordon Cummings with a Paul Harris Fellowship for his great service to this club over the last 40 years or so. Ted Bartup reported that Bob Green is still awaiting assessment to see if he can cope when he goes back home. It was announced that the Club Quiz team are competing in the final of the District 1250 Quiz competition tonight and President Bryan wished them well. Bob Hinton told members that they must have many jam jars at home with "Spread and Save" money in them and he would be grateful if the money was brought in as soon as possible. Our speaker today was Gemma Cornwell, who is the Community Fundraising Office for Prostate Cancer Research. She started off with a small quiz on prostate cancer statistics which we all failed miserably. She then gave us a brief history of her own organisations, telling us that it was founded in 1996 when it was felt that the time had come for prostate cancer to be publicised more because it was killing some 10,000 males every year. She then described to us what the prostate is and what function if performs and then listed the symptoms of prostate cancer that included frequent passing of water, unable to empty bladder properly etc. She also told us that any diet rich in fat, dairy products or red meat may increase the risk and said that prostate cancer is the largest incidence of all the cancers. There is some ignorance among the general public about the condition, with one in ten people thinking that it affect men and women but this is obviously untrue. Gemma told us of a lady she knew who swore blind that he had contracted prostate cancer three times and had been cured every time. I won’t go into great depth about her talk because I’m confident that most of our members know a lot about this particular subject. Gemma gave an excellent talk and fielded many questions, very efficiently, at the conclusion of her talk. The vote of thanks was given by John Eaton.
15th June 2010. 28 present – 27 of our own and one Rotarian Visitor; Assistant District governor Neil Hills, our moderator for today’s Club Assembly from Oxted and Limpsfield. Senior Vice Ian Collington was in the chair today and he had the most pleasant task, together with ADG Neil to give a Paul Harris Fellowship to Paul Thrasher. SVP Ian gave a big welcome back to Patrick Douch after his lengthy sick leave. Ray Tiltman informed members that Bob Green is having house assessment in the very near future and it is hoped that he will able to return home soon. Congratulations were given to Joan and David Burchell on the celebration of their 69th (yes! 69th) Wedding Anniversary. Bob Mulholland was delighted to announce that the quiz team, consisting of himself, Paul Beaken, David Henderson and John Mainwood had won the District Quiz Competition at the first time of asking. He also thanked Ian Collington and Ralph Harrison for their single appearance contributions to this achievement. I/C President Ian presided over this year’s Club Assembly and started his remarks by saying that he was quite optimistic about the coming year and that ongoing feedback was needed. Any ideas and more participation in activities is a must and he also said that we haven’t "done committees" very well these last few years. He suggested slimming down of the committee structure with key members in the club being asked for help when needed. He also said that, thanks to ADG Neil Hills, there are going to be more get togethers with other club Presidents in the coming year. He informed members that Gill Langley is his Inner Wheel counterpart and they are intending to hold a Fund raising lunch in September at Gill’s home. He also thought it was important to keep an eye on the Probus diary to avoid clashes that occurred last year. He announced that his project for this year is the Sussex Cancer Support Centre, run by George Deutsch, who has agreed to become an associate member. New programme secretary David Henderson was the first of the various officers to rise, saying that he had a number of speakers in mind, who he hopes will match Ralph’s efforts this past year. Ken Jones and George Robinson are to organise a walk every month and have a few social and vocational visits in mind and hopefully will get together with other club officers to feed each other with new ideas. Sports Officer John Mainwood informed members that the number of darts teams is diminishing and ten pin bowling is only just surviving but is looking forward to another year of getting involved as much as possible. It was stated that Bryan Meakin will be happy to arrange visits to concerts and shows. Mike Nettell = Membership Chairman – said that this time last year he was hoping to meet other membership officers from the Brighton Clubs but this didn’t come to fruition. Hopefully this year he will have more success. He is to work on associate members and hopes that local free newspapers will cooperate with us with any good stories. He is also looking at local schools with the hope of attracting head teachers to our club meetings. John Eaton, speaking on behalf of community and vocational said that requests for funds from various organisations had dried up so community now concentrates on seeing what support is needed by local organisations and charities. Fare Share will be supported once again and a barbecue at Knowles Tooth is due to take place shortly. Support will also be given to SERVE, known as Blood Runners, and St John Ambulance Brigade, particularly with regard to their help at Stroke Awareness and the Motor Cycle Rally. He then went on to a list of various charities that will high in our priorities for the coming year. Gordon Cummings then spoke of the plans for the motorcycle rally next year, with 250 motorcycles taking part in helping to raise thousands of pounds for charity. It was usually held on the last Sunday in April but next year this day is Easter Sunday so the rally will be held on 8th May – watch this space! International Chairman Peter Fowle told us that his committee will be doing their usual thing and he will be seeking guidance from his counterparts in German and France this coming weekend as to what project they wish us to support with them next year. Contact visit in 2011 will be held in Beaune, heart of the Burgundy wine district on Fri/Sat/Sunday 27/29th May. Aqua boxes are another thing to look at but he said we have no storage facilities at the Courtland’s Hotel. He suggested that Shelter Box is a better proposition because it is just a case of buying the box. Foundation Chairman Yveline Milner went through the various projects that her own particular branch of Rotary supports including ambassadorial scholars, matching grants, spread and save. She said that the emphasis has been on larger projects enabling joint club efforts which, with the help of a matching grant, huge sums can be donated. ADG Neil Hills summed up at the end of the meeting without telling us what he thought of our programme for this coming year. 22nd June 2010. 28 present – 23 of our own members and 5 non Rotarian guests; Stuart Mclaughlin, principal of Portslade Community College together with four members of the RYLA team from his school, Beth Ansell, Tom Jackson and Harry and Joanne Kent (twins!) SVP Ian Collington was in the chair today and he brought back greetings from both Evreux and Pforzheim’s club Presidents on the occasion of the Contact Visit. Ray Tiltman ported that Bob Green was home and feeling pretty good at the moment. There was news of Ian Varley, who is currently in Worthing Hospital with kidney problems but hopes to be home this coming week. There was a final call for anyone who wants to make a late booking for the joint Presidents’ ‘do’ this coming Friday. Ray Tiltman kicked proceedings off with regard to the RYLA team, introducing Principal Stuart McLaughlin and the four RYLA candidates (see above). Ray said he has never been disappointed with any of our RYLA candidates throughout the year and this year was no exception. He remarked that the only school pupils that seem to be mentioned in the local paper are the ones who get into trouble and never such as the four who visited us today. Tom Jackson was the first of the team to speak, telling us that as a volunteer at a local youth club this course was great for his leadership. Harry Ken was of a similar mind. Joanne Kent said that she had wanted to work on her teamwork at school and found the course very helpful in this regard. Beth had a completely different reason, wanting to enhance her orienteering and map reading skills and she found plenty of scope for this. They then, individually, went through their programme for the week, a programme that has never changed much throughout the year and I think you are all fairly familiar with what goes on at this wonderful course. The highlight for all of them was the show that all the participants had to compile, choreograph and perform on the final night. I’ve seen a few of these and they never fail to impress me in what they can turn out at such short notice. All of the candidates were full of praise for what they had got out of the course and they all spoke in a very confident manner. They all thanked Ray Tiltman for giving them the opportunity, together with this club for agreeing to his choice of team. They also said they hope to be able to be involved in further Rotary projects in the future. SVP Ian said that it was one of the best accounts of the RYLA project that he had ever heard and Ray Tiltman piped in by saying that he hoped we agreed with what he said when he remarked that the first time he had met this team he had not been able to get a word out of them but now, with the confidence they have, they had given a very good presentation to us. Acting president Ian presented the candidates with their RYLA certificates and then gave a Rotary Community Service Award to Stuart Mclaughlin for Portslade Community College’s fine work in the community. Stuart thanked the Club for the award and for our hospitality to him and the pupils present today. At the meeting’s conclusion SVP Ian gave a brief account of the visit to Pforzheim. The main part of the weekend was an introduction to the workings of federal government. He also mentioned the Pforzheim club’s main project that was devoted to funding of educating immigrant children in the German language, teaching immigrant children to read and speak German. Speaking personally, I really enjoyed the whole weekend which was a very busy one, with no hardly free time as such. We firstly met up with all of our friends from Pforzheim and Evreux at the Park Hotel on Friday afternoon before setting out to the City Hall to listen to Judge Wolfgang giving us a rundown on what Federalism is. We were then addressed by the equivalent of our Mayor, giving us a further explanation of Federalism. At the conclusion of this, it was back to the hotel to prepare to go out to various Pforzheim members’ houses for the evening meal, although one or two groups of people were treated to dinner at restaurants. First thing Saturday, two coach loads of us were taken to Stuttgart for a visit to the Porsche Museum. This was most fascinating to those of us interested in automobiles. We were all then treated to lunch at The Cube, a rooftop restaurant in the centre of Stuttgart, a restaurant blessed with magnificent views over the city. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the State Parliament where we were treated to another lesson in Federalism along with a comprehensive explanation as to how their "Parliament" operates. Saturday evening saw us all gathered for the banquet at Konigsbach Castle, home of Bettina and Achim von Saint-Andre, past President of RC Pforzheim. Although we had been warned to wrap up, some of were still surprised as to how chilly it was on the evening. Nevertheless it was a memorable occasion, enjoyed very much by all of us. There was supposed to be an official farewell at the Park Hotel on the Sunday morning but may be the enjoyment of the previous evening led to this event not happening. On arriving back in the UK I/C President sent the following letter to his Pforzheim counterpart .
"Dr Thomas Wüst President Rotary Club of Pforzheim Händelstrasse 38 75417 Mühlacker Germany 23 June 2010Dear Thomas, I would like to thank you and all the members of your club on behalf of all of us from Hove who were at the Contact meeting in Pforzheim. It was a very enjoyable and memorable experience. As always, we were pleased to meet up with old friends but also to make some new ones. We very much appreciated all the fine food and hospitality – whether it was in members’ homes, restaurants or in the historic setting of Königsbach Castle . Our thanks again to Bettina and Achim von Saint-André for a wonderful evening.It was very interesting to hear about the German federal system at a time when we in England are going through a period of considerable political change. We felt very privileged to be entertained by both the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg and the Mayor of Pforzheim. Of course we all enjoyed the amazing Porsche museum and found the tour of Norbert Ratzlaff's jewellery company fascinating.Above all we want to express our appreciation for all the hard work and organisation that must have gone into hosting such a smooth-running visit. Scilla and I went on to have a wonderful walk in the Black Forest with Burkhard Thost and Stefan Jung.Now we look forward to next year and the visit to Beaune – followed by our next chance to entertain you in 2012. In the meantime, I repeat my invitation to your members to let us know if they come to England so that we might meet up.With very best wishes to you and Cornelia – Ian."
9th June 2010 33 present – but only a paltry 12 Rotarians. Visitors, mainly wives of Rotarians also included Richard Draycott, our speaker for today, Bob and Dorothy Allen, guests of David Henderson and Dave and Rose Hills, guests of Keith Upton. Being the last meeting of this Rotary year, the "40 Set" draw consisted of two prizes, the cheque for £25 was won by Paul Beaken and the £50 prize went to Ann Mulholland (whoopee, less housekeeping to pay out this week!!) Sickness reports: It was said that Patrick Douch is unwell but not sure what is up with him. Bernard Greaves is also "laid up" and feeling quite poorly. Ron Loadsman is convalescing in Dorset and Bob Green is making steady progress but will not be back at Club for some time. Finally, Ian Varley is back home from hospital but is in some discomfort. Today was also the day for the handing over of office from President Bryan to I/C President Ian. Bryan said a few words of thanks to various people for helping throughout the year. These were Ted Bartup for his work on housing society, Peter Fowle for his help in working with the French in their joint project and for the Contact Visit to Pforzheim. Ralph Harrison for his "super" range of speakers, Mike Nettell for "working his socks off" in trying to recruit new members. Ray Tiltman for the fish and chip lunch at Easter and his 23 years of finding RYLA candidates, Adrian Ball for chairing the Motor Cycle Committee, John Eaton for his work in Community, particularly the Christmas collection and the Stroke Awareness Day, me for "churning" out this newsletter every month, Bob Hinton for his immaculate work as Treasurer and finally to Frances du Toit for taking the secretaryship in her stride in her first year. He then thanked everyone else in the Club for "putting up with him". After this short farewell he then handed over the badges of office to President Ian and his team. New President Ian then gave a Past President’s badge to IPP Bryan. Ian then gave a short speech, very similar to the one at Club Assembly, saying that he wanted to make Rotary more visible in the Community and telling us that went to the launch of the Sussex Cancer Fund yesterday, which is his charity project for his year. He also said he wanted to liaise more with the other five Presidents in the Brighton area. After all this, we still had a talk to listen to and tonight’s speaker was Richard Draycott, a chartered surveyor by trade, who was here to tell us all about the Sussex Air Ambulance. This worthy scheme has only been in operation for about three years but needs enormous amounts of money to keep it going. It was launched in June 2005 by Kent Air Ambulance the first stage needed £50,000 to enable Kent to cover Sussex. The second stage needed a further £200,000. Sussex actually raised over one million pounds and in June 2007 a dedicated air ambulance for Sussex was raised. I think you all know the workings of this service so I won’t go into great details about it except to say that it was a most comprehensive, and long, talk but nonetheless very informative. Members were obviously very interested in what Richard had to say judging by the amount of questions that were asked of him at the conclusion of his talk. One quite pertinent question came from Bob Allen, one of our guests, when he posed the question to Richard, as to why the various helicopters in Sussex did not liaise more, thus saving money. Richard didn’t really have an answer to this fairly difficult question. He could most probably come up with one after a great deal of thought. The vote of thanks was given by IPP Bryan Meakin. COLLY COULSON. All members were saddened to hear of the death of Colly, such a huge part of this Club for many years, serving as President in 1992/93 before he resigned a few years ago. Colly died suddenly on Saturday 19th June and his funeral took place at Worthing Crematorium last Friday. Colly was a larger than life character and was a keen supporter of everything in Rotary. Being such a natural sportsman he excelled in Ten Pin Bowling, having been a member of the GB team in his pre-Rotary days.He was also a European Champion at speedboat racing, the cause of his permanent limp after a nasty accident. Colly was always someone you could go to for advice, even though sometime this advice could be fairly unorthodox to say the least. I also believe Colly was the last member of this Club to attend an RI Convention, him and Margaret going to Portland many years ago, lodging about 50 miles from the actual Convention site. It was very appropriate that I heard of his death in a telephone call from John Eaton while I was strolling round the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. Colly would certainly have enjoyed this part of the visit. I’m not sure about the Federalism part! Because of the timing of his passing it was also possible for the members of Pforzheim and Evreux to show their respect to such a regular, and popular, participant on Contact Visits with a two minute silence that same evening. Colly’s parting has left a big whole in many of our lives and will be sorely missed by many people. This was reflected in the vast amount of people that turned up last Friday. If anyone would like to write a more comprehensive tribute to Colly, I would be quite happy to include it in next month’s bulletin. MOTORCYCLE RALLY. The following letter, together with a generous donation, was received by Mike Peters from one of the (happy) participants of this year’s event. "Dear Mr Peters" I am pleased to enclose a cheque in the sum of £360 in respect of sponsorship raised for my successful completion of this year’s Engineerium Run on my 1926 BSA 1000 V Twin. The run was most enjoyable and completed without problems, despite the age of the machine. I was particularly pleased to be rewarded with the best Vintage Machine Award. I would like to thank you all for the hard work that I know such events require. My father was a long term Rotarian and is Past President of the Eastleigh Rotary Club and I well remember the commitment of him and his colleagues in support of the deserving causes around the world. Keep up the good work and thanks for a great day – yet again. Yours Sincerely. Paul Gandy"
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