Welcome 2009

Well, that's Xmas done. On a personal note it has been awful. Our grandson Oliver was taken into hospital with a severe ear infection. He has now been in 6 days and we had to live through the horror that an operation was necessary as there was a possibility of meningitis. He was admitted to the same ward as his sister Grace was nearly two years ago, so what his Mum and Dad went through we can only imagine. Sue and I have been in Reading since it happened and will be returning there next week to help look after him when he is discharged. Fortunately, the operation went well and they discovered a very bad infection around his grommet which was removed. However, they were able to confirm that there was no sign of infection in the bone marrow which is such a relief. He is due out in a couple of days but is still on intravenous antibiotics. 

So I will miss our first Rotary meeting of the year but will be back in harness for the council meeting the following week. I am suffering severe man - flu as are several others but not quite as bad as mine. Even I can't moan about it though, it seems so pathetic after what my son's family has gone through. 

Let's hope 2009 is better for us all. 

Christmas Collection

Total for both weekends was £2,849.07. Brilliant! well done everyone nearly a thousand up on last year!

Merry Xmas one and all

A Busy Week

In addition to the SGM this week we have had a lot going on. Terry did his Santa routine for the kids at Bellwood School and was accompanied this year by our elf-ess Carolyn. Poor Terry was brewing a nasty flu-ey cold but he got through the event but by last night neither he nor Beryle were well enough to attend the Xmas Dinner at Sissinghurst. That was a great shame.
Peter B with support from Lorraine, masterminded the Dinner, which this year was aimed at being a nice quiet social evening with gentle accompanent from the Tamarisk Quartet. We finished quite early but the evening was well received by nearly everyone I spoke to. Unfortunately, one member did not feel it was a good evening and expressed the fact verbally in public which was disappointing to put it mildly. As the saying goes .... you can please some of the people .....etc etc .
We also did the 100 Club draw. The President's wife was asked to draw out the winning ticket, and guess whose it was was?! No not the disgruntled member, it was yours truly. I happily accepted it as I have waited a few years for my ticket to be drawn.
Even more good news. Earlier this year I applied for a District Simplified Grant (DSG) of £500 towards the cost of sending The Friday Club, a disabled group from Parkwood to an Ice Show in London. I had to make a case and it was assessed alongside many others at District, we were shortlisted and were in the 13 successful projects chosen. Although the money doesn't arrive until May/June as it is an American Rotary award, we intend advancing some of our funds now so the cost of the trip is covered now when it is needed in January.

As I write, members are just completing day 1 at Tescos collecting. Tomorrow to go and then we will see what we have collected over the two weekends. Well done to Chas and his team for organising this popular regular event.

Well, for those who might read this- a very Merry Christmas. 2009 is nearly here and I am halfway through my year. It has flown by but by keeping this Blog going it enables me to look back to see just how much we have achieved already.

Give us a Bash at the Bangers and Mash......

Last night was our Special General Meeting to vote in next year's officers. Hardly a major attraction and bearing in mind we have our Xmas meal on Friday I was pleased that we were expecting 22. However, 31 turned up including John and Wendy who had been on leave pending a decision as to whether to continue or not due to personal and business pressures. They are going to stay which is great news. Unfortunately, we had only booked 22 bangers & mash (£6) so there was a considerable delay in preparing the extras. So I decided to do the business first and then have the meal. The positions of officers were formalised, no need for votes and I expressed my gratitude to those new members coming into the team and also those who are continuing on for a little longer. It is good to know that we have a Vice President in Martin who will follow Peter. It is great to have continuity. We then had time to cover a number of items which was carried out in a great spirit if fun albeit that the troops were somewhat boisterous. However, we finished at 9.15 and a few are are asking should we have all business meetings with a £6 bangers and mash meal. We will see how it develops.

On Sunday I did my collection stints at Morrisons. Cold day but OK unlike the day before which was atrocious very wet and cold. Well done all those who turned out then in particular. We raised about £1200 in two days so if we do that again next weekend at Tescos then it will have been worth it especially in this economic climate.

Two Elderly Gentlemen outside Morrison's

Electric Scooter

It was nice to represent the club today at the handover of the the new electric scooter to David Anderson who is a young stroke victim. His wife and two children were there and the event was lead by Maidstone Rotary who managed to get local BBC TV to do a bit wahich was shown this evening. All 3 Maidstone Rotary clubs donated towards the cost of the scooter and were also represented. It now means that David will become more independant and will be able to get to the shops etc. It was one of those nice satisfying moments that I enjoy as Rotarian. I am following the story up and I may be able to get David along to the Disabled Swimming Club where I help out. We will see in due course.

Carol Service

Lovely evening at our carol service at Sutton Valence School as usual, good turnout and a total of £580 raised. We have half that and it is going to the Christian Care Centre who help the homeless. Mulled wine and mince pies were up to the normal high standard and I took the opportunity to welcome everyone and thank Joe Davies the headmaster for his help over the years, he is moving on next year to a new job. A good turnout from Rotarians, it probably highlights the difference between our two recent events in terms of what many Rotarians expect to get involved in. Whilst I welcome tradition I think we mustn't be too stayed in what the club needs- oh and the final word on the social evening- it raised over £1,100, that says it all.

Snookeroke

Perhaps it was the name of the evening that put off some club members from attending, 10 attended, including Maria and Clare the organisers and some came with partners . Of course several genuinely couldn't make it and many of those gave very generously towards the fund raising evening last night at the 147 Snooker Club. Having said all of that M&C did a fantastic job and whilst I have yet to hear how much has been raised there is every indication that it was a success. I use these Jottings to reflect my thoughts so I must record that M&C were ambitious in going for an evening which potentially included a game of pool and the chance that they might be grabbed to sing in a karaoke. So I was pleased with those members who did come to support a function which if I am truthful they wouldn't normally attend socially. The majority did leave before the karaoke started but by that time the auction and raffle had done really well. I am sure when we have the final figures we will see what a splendid job M&C did. They didn't need to have worried about the karaoke either because John the compere and Maria managed to hog it most of the evening plus a bloke that did Elvis very well.
We were very grateful to John the owner for running this for us and to his staff and friends who helped and all of those who donated to the auction and raffle.
Mostly though, I am proud of M&C for getting on and doing something positive to raise funds, they are a credit to the club albeit that they are our newest members. Well done!

Cold Meals

The issue of bad meals raised it's head again last night at club. This time food was served cold to some members and quite rightly there were complaints. There are no excuses for this and I have asked for a formal complaint and a meeting with management very soon. If we have anything more like this we are going to lose members so the time may be near when we have to re-consider our tenancy at Oakwood.
Some confusion over which charity traditionally gets the donations from next week's Carol Service at Sutton Valence. All sorted now and it will go to the Maidstone Christian Centre who support the homeless. This arrangement was set up in Mike Baker's year and it makes good sense to continue with it. It does however, raise the question of continuity between President's from year to year. Maybe using a Blog such as this will help. If there had been these comments last year I would have known what the arrangements are.

Enough of the moaning- on Friday we have our Snookeroke to look forward to. It is the first event organised by Maria and Clare so we must give them all the support we can. We are now into the fund raising part of the year so let's go for it!

Churchill Evening

I can't believe that we got lost again this year! Harry has been 5 years now and always gets lost. The sat nav was impressive but clearly didn't understand what a golf club is. Surprising as it was in Harry's car! Richard S spent what seemed like hours in The Spinning Wheel pub trying to find out where to go - they weren't sure even although it was only about 8 mins away. We eventually arrived just as they were about to take their seats. Usual huge attendance, couldn't afford raffle tickets at £5 per ticket or a snip at £25 per strip! Still it is in Sevenoaks/Westerham area so plenty of others bought them and it made over £1000. 

Can't say I was overly impressed by the eminent speaker historian and broadcaster Christopher Lee ( no not the Dracula one!). He said he lost his notes and it showed. Obviously a very learned man but hardly dynamic with little ability to put over the points to a large crowd. Plenty of overfed, over-wined middle-aged Rotarians nodded off. I wish I had my camera there. 

Journey home was less exciting than the journey there although someone did think they saw Hastings pier as we hammered down the A21. We had three backseat navigators and one in the front with very little agreement amongst the lot of us. Still it was great fun and thanks to Harry B for taking us.

Aberfan

I was so glad that we had a good attendance to hear Doug Baguley recount the role his father had at the scene of the disaster in Aberfan in 1966. We had a couple of guest Rotarians plus a guest of Maria and Clare - there about 30 in total at club. The evening went well with an attentive audience giving Doug a lot of support for what is an emotive subject.

Walnut Tree

I gave Rotary a miss so that I could receive a £200 cheque for COSMIC  from Shepherd  Neame during the opening of the re-furbished Walnut Tree in Loose. Landlord and Lady Phil and Debbie had agreed to support COSMIC this year and have so far raised over £100. The pub was full and it included two of our lady Rotarians who managed to invite two well known prospective members along as guests next week. So a good evening was had by all with a potential spin off for Riverside. I also met John, owner of the 147 Club where we are holding our social event on Friday 5th Dec. He is very keen to help us. Maria and Clare are steadily drumming up local friends to attend but we will want more from our club to attend and bring their friends as well. It looks like being a great evening.

Remembrance Day

There was we believe, a first this year when all three Rotary presidents from Maidstone laid their wreaths at the Memorial in Maidstone as one group. We asked if this could be done and there was no problem. Shame we couldn't get a picture but another significant gesture on this year's aim to get more joint participation between the clubs. A good turnout of the public from Maidstone especially at it was the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice.

KM Visit

Grateful to Geoff W for organising a tour of the KM offices and printing facilities. Interesting but the current financial crisis was apparent- several empty desks through recent redundancies. Interesting to see how the editors put together stories etc now using computers, much easier than previous hot metal imprints. Also noted that PCs have replaced AppleMac- seems strange as AppleMac is a designers computer. Reason - cost!
Went to Papas Fish and Chip restaurant at Ditton. Nice food but expensive for fish and chips. Some members thought it nice to get out and about for meals at different places. Mike St has got a special deal for the Marden Tandoori- he will try and get it programmed in.

Malcolm B

I collected Malling Rotarian Malcolm B from hospital in London today. He had an operation to remove cancer in the liver. It appears to have been successful but Malcolm will know in a couple of weeks when he returns to see the consultant. Malcolm will now continue with his chemotherapy. Carolyn his wife and our club secretary, is grateful to those Riverside Rotarians who offered their help with transport if it was needed. She found it reassuring to know that help was at hand if needed. We wish Malcolm well with his future treatment.

Denise & Stan

We were privileged at our Partners Meeting to listen to Denise Lintern MBE talk about life with her husband Stan. Stan has Alzheimer's Disease and for 13 years now he has needed full 24hr care for every function of his life. Denise provides this fully in their own home. She is totally devoted to Stan and is determined to live as normal life with her family as is possible. Denise is the third speaker I have arranged in our programme to come and "tell it as it is'. We previously had young Claire in her wheelchair and then my son Stuart who spoke about our little Grace. I believe that this is important in anty Rotary programme and so far it has been very well received. It does ensure a quiet and attentive audience however.



We also welcomed this evening DGE Scaria Jose from Kerala India and his wife Sumam. Both very dedicated Rotarians who have been hosted by Dawn Patrol and were also guests at the conference.





A good evening slightly marred by a catering cock up. We are onto this one - poor communication within the Oakwood set up meant that the chef was not prepared for a salad buffet so not enough quiche! Severe complaints from a couple of members who I hope were able to put it all into perspective once they had listened to Denise! We even had a call for a change of venue?! Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Conference

A good time had by all at the Conference. Great programme, great time. Riverside got noticed if only for the hot air in the balloons. Fortunately, this years President behaved- not so sure about next year's ?!

Excellent speakers - particularly impressed by Richard Stilgoe and his work with the disabled group Orpheus. Everyone else agreed, they got a standing ovation.

Really enjoyed "Beyond the Barricades" - very good show by past Les Mis artists.

Proud of the Riverside team - loads of involvement, stewarding, registration, boat stand for New Horizons and of course the Elms Team did all the registration stuff and rarely left their post.

All in all a great weekend.

Amazing Grace

A year and a half on after losing our dear little granddaughter Grace, for the first time I have had a chuckle over something also relating to Grace. This time it simply the issue of a rota for members to take turns in saying Grace at club meetings. Why so funny? Well, business meetings are the times when some members feel free to voice their opinions and frustrations. This they did following our issue of a rota to make the reading of Grace and Objects of Rotary fairer and even more meaningful e.g given time to think up something amusing or interesting rather than have the Grace book thrust at you as you walk in on a Tuesday club night.

The complainants were forceful and supported by everyone in the room, so I suppose I did feel a little exposed. There was nothing personal in this other than the fact that I am President and er.. yes it was me that suggested we had a rota. Still democracy is alive and well so under such overwhelming pressure I withdrew the scheme forthwith. I won't go into all the arguments put to me but the only really sad bit was when I was told that nobody would comply with the list because most people in the club are apathetic. So, if apathy rules over the question of who says Grace I am not going to lose any sleep because in the grand scheme it is irrelevant.

In the meantime real Rotary work is gathering momentum. The Wishing Well had double the takings last time, Interact are going to support our social evening which should boost our numbers somewhat and events for the new year are beginning to take shape. So all in all I think things will start to pick up soon. Xmas tin rattling I hope will be fully supported unfortunately, Chas struggled to get helpers for the MacMillans tin rattling last week. We have a few volunteers to walk the streets for a charity that wants to do a homeless head count soon. This is what Rotary is all about. Conference coming up this weekend- I am really looking forward to it.

Despondency

Have to admit to feeling low after last night's club meeting. this wasn't because of the speaker from Red Cross who was very good, no, it was the response from members to attend functions that are coming up. A total of 23 members and partners are on the board to attend the talk about Altzheimers from Denise Lintern MBE. This will be a moving tale straight from the heart from a lady whose husband Stan is totally reliant upon her for every aspect of life, Stan has been like it for 10 years and is only in his mid 60's now. Stan will be there to hear his wife talk. Nobody knows for sure behind his blank exterior whether or not he is able to hear. Maybe he does but probably doesn't. Denise has to live with that uncertainty everyday.

It is great that Maria and Clare have organised a social evening as a fund raiser in December but as yet the response from the club is very poor- maybe it will perk up. I had asked everyone in the club to come up with at least one idea and make it happen during the year. Early days I know but not looking too promising.

However, I cheered up this morning when I was contacted by Malcolm R to say that the Bedgebury Walk for next May is progressing. Good on you Malc, after going through everything he has endured with his illness and to still rise to the challenge is fantastic. He certainly deserved his PHF Award.

I've just agreed to do a street count of the homeless for a charity soon. I've asked all members if any will join me. I await the response with interest.

Coroner

Our speaker this week was Roger Sykes who is the Coroner for Maidstone, Medway and Mid Kent. We were fortunate that he was able to spend an evening with us and his talk about the work of the Coroner's office was interesting and enlightening. It was frightening for example, just to know how many deaths there are due to unnatural circumstances in our area. A busy man indeed having to oversee a huge amount of work.

I also had the sad duty to announce the resignation of Tony Lush. Tony was our very first president and has played a significant role in the life of Riverside throughout the years. He now has other interests to pursue so we wished him well and he was thanked for all he had done for our club.

Our attendance (25) was a bit better this week but we are still not getting the commitment to take part in some forthcoming events. Maria and Clare are organising a social evening soon and we could do with a lot more people to come along and join in. Hopefully, as the saying goes, it'll be alright on the night.

Once again I emptied the wishing well on Tuesday. Sticky lollies played a major part in the rubbish fished out, along with the usual chips, crisps sweets etc. Coupled with that our notice highlighting the charities we are supporting has disappeared. Having said that after washing the money (thank you to whoever was the smart.... who asked if this was money laundering) it does appear that we have a slight increase this week. Tony is counting and we await the outcome.

Ghurka Statue

It was a privilege to be part of the large crowd of Maidstone people who attended the unveiling of the Ghurka statue at the museum yesterday. The soldiers led by their own band, paraded from County Hall to Faith Street and was a very moving sight. It was good to see a few of our own Rotarians amongst the crowd. Riverside helped pay for the statue and although I had initial reservations thinking that £15k could be better spent on the poor in Nepal, I have changed my mind having seen the statue and felt the warmth towards the Ghurkas that Maidstone clearly has. I recommend that everyone should go and visit it.

The troops were inspected by the Mayor and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent. Cllr Brian Moss who is a Maidstone Rotarian, was the instigator of the idea of a statue, he gave an excellent speech.

Our own Terry Shead was a guest representing his own industry and was photographed with the statue. I managed to snap one as well, a bit more casual though, than the official ones.

Porchlight

Our speaker last night was Rachel Holliday who gave a good presentation about her charity Porchlight which works with and for the homeless. Rachel previously spoke to us in May about her Group Exchange visit to America. Porchlight covers all of Kent now and it is disturbing to hear that they cannot cope with temporary housing for all those that need it. There is also a rise in the number of young people who are homeless, ironically her organisation is growing to meet demand. Next week our speaker is Roger Sykes, Coroner. I hope we get a better attendance I am still concerned about the reducing numbers attending club night.

I spoke earlier with Malcolm R who is recovering from having a "bionic" computer fitted to help his heart rhythm. We look forward to seeing him back at club shortly. Malc has had a very difficult time with his cancer but he has fought back bravely. An example to us all.

Norman and I popped into the Grangemoor and paid the deposit for next year's President's Evening on June 5th 2009. It's definitely on then now!

Alzeimer's Concert

Thanks to those who were able to come and support the concert. Sue and I enjoyed it, just a shame that the music system didn't work for the finale, we felt really sorry for the performers. There was a very talented local rock band called In the Red - a tad loud unless you are young and trendy like me. The theatre was almost full so well done to the charity  and all their supporters.

Well Done!

It was my great pleasure on Tuesday evening, on behalf of the club, to formally congratulate Steve Elms for his Paul Harris Award which had been presented to him by District last week for his work with Fun Day. A worthy recipient if ever there was one. Well done Steve.

Fortunately, we had Chas at club with his posh camera to also get a picture of our victorious winners of the Pepper Pot Golf Challenge held in France. Unlike the European Ryder Cup team, we did retain the trophy so congratulations to Geoff and his team for another excellent performance. I think they also enjoyed themselves by the look on their faces!



Tom Corkery gave us an excellent talk about life and working in Dubai which he did for a couple of years. Some brilliant little anecdotes such as having someone to clean your sunglasses for you and having weddings that last three days with no women invited including the bride.
I make no comment as this is on the web!

It was a shame that less than 20 members were at club night on Tuesday. I have noticed a decline in numbers since I became President, this is beginning to concern me particularly as the standard and variety of speakers has been excellent. Perhaps it is me or am I becoming paranoid?!

On the subject of speakers I went to visit Denise and her husband Stan today (Thursday) who has a very serious form of Alzheimers Disease. Both will be at club on 28th Oct and Denise will start her talk with a clip from a TV programme that featured them both. As someone who knew Stan before he was ill, I found it very difficult to watch without tears. Even for those who do not know them I think you will be very moved. I am glad that some of our members answered the call and are also supporting the local Alzheimer's Society by attending a show at the Hazlett Theatre on Saturday. I am sure we will enjoy a really good evening.

Finally.... I emptied the Well again this week. This time I went armed with surgical gloves bearing in mind some of the rather unpleasant articles which were thrown in last week. (see earlier posts). Alongside the £27.75 in coins were the usual drinking straws, bottle tops and crisps. In addition this time we had vinegar soaked chips and some cake which had clearly been squeezed through the two inch diameter hole! Once again thanks to the users of Maidstone Leisure Centre for their generosity (I mean that seriously for those who donated and used the well properly) and no thanks to the remainder of the erks who have found themselves an amusing pastime of defacing something that is there to help others less fortunate in the community. They are probably the same ones who have stolen a wheelchair that we use for our disabled swimmers each week, but that's another story.

Demelza House

It is the 10th birthday of Demelza House. Local Rotary clubs were invited there for the staff to say thank you for support over the years. I recall going there many years ago but I was glad this time to go along with Sue and Norman to represent the club there tonight. It was an interesting and very enlightening evening and we were so impressed with what they have achieved in these 10 years. Personally, of course Sue and I couldn't help but relate our recent tragedy to the situation that the children and their families go through. However, it does seem that every step of the mainly tragic route they go through has been extremely well thought through at Demelza to help ease their burden .

One club presented £800 whilst there and Dave Hatcher from Medway asked for support for a combined Rotary project to send kids and their families to Disneyland. I offered Riverside's help in principle and we'll maintain contact to see just what is needed.

Air Ambulance

Our club night speaker tonight was a volunteer from the Kent Air Ambulance Trust. Only about 20 attended but it was an informative talk, a lot of questions and interest. I am finding it useful to deal with the business at suitable gaps in the evening so once again we finished at a reasonable time. (9.30 tonight). One blunder on business, I was passing on a message from the Medway club about a forthcoming speaker about trains. Club then reminded me that we have this speaker ourselves in a few weeks time! Particularly embarrassing as I am the one who keeps telling them to keep an eye on the website programme! Oh well, it got a laugh so all was well.
Spoke to Martin, our plan now is to ride the tandem to Dordrecht next year dressed in 1930's clothes, might try and do it to raise funds if possible.

Have also provisionally booked the Grangemoor Hotel for President's evening on Friday 5th June 2009. More details to follow.

Make - A -Wish

Last year our then DG Denis Spiller asked all club Presidents to do something they have always wanted to do and in doing so raise funds for Make - a - Wish an excellent charity that allows youngsters who are seriously ill to do something special that they want. Richard our IPP wanted to demolish a building and raised over £600 by waving a sledge hammer over the old Opthalmic Hospital and smiling nicely for the camera. Last night his efforts and those of all the other past presidents were rightly recognised and applauded in a great evening at Salamons House Southborough. £60000 was raised by the combined events of the clubs throughout the District. Sue and I attended as Richard could not make it. We were on a table with members of Tenderden Rotary Club, and we had a great time. The meal was first class, Graham Clarke our local famous artist attended and the cheque was handed over to the charity. The evening was rounded off by a short but superb classical trio playing some 18th century music which blended in extremely well in the lovely old Victorian theatre. I was apprenensive about going because of the cost, but in the end both Sue and I were glad we went.

MGS Speech Day

I was pleased along with Sue, to be invited by Neil Turrell to his last Senior Speech Day before he retires next year. We had a super afternoon and it was good to have two past president's of Riverside prominent on the stage. Richard Ratcliffe was Guest of Honour and gave a nostalgic speech as an Old (very old!) Maidstonian and both he and Neil were able to give our club a plug on more than one occasion. It was my first visit to the school for many years, my youngest son left there some 15 years ago and I retired as a School Governor around that time. Co-incidentally, or not, it was then that Richard, myself and the late David Wood joined other similar groups who were all suitably rounded up by Mike Whitfield and his merry gang to form the Riverside Rotary Club. There were was quite a presence of Rotarians at Speech Day so all in all we did very well. Let's hope that some of those remarkable young people who we saw and listened to, one day become Rotarians themselves.

Business Meeting

I went to the Leisure Centre today to remove the first two weeks takings from the Wishing Well. There was around £22 ish plus 3 straws 2 bottle tops , a fag end and half a pint or so of (hopefully!) orange juice poured into the well. I washed the sticky coinage before handing over to our treasurer who will count it in due course. If we make £10 a week on average we should get about £500 per year if it stays there. We can top that up at other events, so hopefully we will cover the costs reasonably quickly and promote our Club at the same time.
Business meeting went well. We would have finished by 9.30 but we had a lot of discussion about Claire's Kenya project. It was agreed that we should budget for £5k to be made available when we have some funds raised. We still finished by 9.45, so OK I think. Maria and Clare want to run a games evening at the snooker club, plenty of support so they will sort out a date and organise it. Fingers crossed, things going reasonably well at present, we just need to get some funds in so we can spend it on our projects.

Council Meeting

Council meeting last night. 7 from 12 attended and there was a lot of business. It is my intention to keep such meetings as short as possible but as we only hold them once every two months I suppose it is inevitable that there will be a lot to discuss. Last night's meeting didn't finish until around 10.00 pm. A lot of discussion on club finances this time and that is not something that can be shortened when council members need to discuss fully. No problems, more clarification of yearly accounts. Business meeting next week so all matters raised have to be fully debated before we go to club. A good proposal has come in for a sponsored walk by International committee. It is good to see that the groundwork has been done. The Council has given it the go ahead in principle. We certainly need some more money spinning events on the table. I will push that to club next week.

Stuart

I was just so proud of my son Stuart who was our club guest speaker last night. His Mum came to give him support and she was so glad she could be there. Stuart told us about the work of COSMIC and the events he and the family have been involved with since Grace died. He was understandably emotional when he talked about his daughter but he composed himself so well and gave an excellent presentation. He finished by showing the video of London - Paris Cycle Ride which lightened the talk for him. Clive Carden gave an excellent vote of thanks and many members came up to Stuart afterwards and expressed their support and congratulations for giving such a good presentation which would not be easy for anyone who had recently lost a child. I don't think I could have done it.
In fact, I was nervous chairing the evening meeting as there was a Bradburn family presence and the nervousness showed according to my close advisers! Still as I will be making a substantial club donation to COSMIC this year I felt it appropriate that Stuart came to tell us all about the charity. This he did professionally but with with personal emotion as anyone would expect.

I also presented Lloyd with the Golf Cup he won recently, it has just been engraved so it was an appropriate time to hand it over formally at club. Well done again Lloyd.

Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater ? what is that all about? It's the name of a new choral work by composer Karl Jenkins. He is the guy who wrote the music to the advert with the boy swimming down for pearls - his music is a cross between Bach and Enya, well that's my assessment anyway. It involves a large choir and orchestra and our club along with the other Maidstone Rotary clubs will be promoting the event when it is performed on June 13th 2009. at teh Mote Hall. I went to a meeting with the President of Maidstone Rotary Dennis Fowle and Jeffrey Vaughan Martin who will produce the concert through his Jupiter workshops. He will be auditioning many youngsters to take part and it will be the opening event of the Maidstone Festival of Music next year. No financial risk to our club but we will need to sell tickets and help publicity. All profits will go to the Heart of Kent Hospice. I will tell club tonight and go to Council tomorrow for formal lift off.

Whilst at theLeisure Centre this morning I checked the Wishing Well, it's still in one piece and has attracted a small amount of copper and even some silver. I got some youngsters to have a go and that attracted more interest. I am still convinced that occasional promotion visits from our members will help considerably.

Tonight at club our guest speaker is my son Stuart. He will talk about COSMIC and the fundraising he has done over the past year and a half since his daughter Grace died. £55 k raised for the paediatric unit at St Mary's Hospital Paddington is fantastic and it has also helped him and our family to cope with our tragic loss. Hopefully his talk will end on a lighter note when we play the video of the pictures taken on the London to Paris Cycle Ride that we did in June.


Yesterday I popped into Inner Wheel and gave them a cheque for £550 as their contribution for their help at County Show.

Wishing Well

Well well. The well has been returned after a trial at Dymchurch by Romney Marsh Rotary Club. They tried it for a week at the local sports centre and then at their fun day on Aug BH. Bad weather didn't help but total takings were only £14 for the two events! not looking good is it? However they did donate £10 of it to Riverside so that's a start. I will keep a database of where it goes and how much it makes. At the moment it is a very much a simple database- that's £44 so far! more positively I have today installed the well in the cafe area of Maidstone Leisure Centre. Nic has kindly prepared a notice highlighting some of our chosen charities. I have chained and padlocked the well securely and have tested it. When I produced a lot of coins and got them spinning I had a lot of interest and then I allocated them to the kids and they thought it great fun. When the money was used I viewed the scene from a distance and no interest was shown. It looks like the need to demonstrate and involve the youngsters is all important. I will ask club members for volunteers to spend a little time there on occasions to generate interest. Hopefully however, once people get to know it it will be used. I will check it regularly, clean it and hopefully releive it of some money. Time will tell. Pictures of it at the Leisure Centre.

Claire

In my excitement preparing to go on holiday a few weeks ago I forgot to mention that our speaker on 15th July was my friend Claire Hedger. Claire has Frederique's Ataxia which is a disease that progressively attacks the muscles and nerves and ultimately leads to an early death. Claire is her early thirties and is now in a wheelchair and fully dependent on assistance for her mobility. However, over the past few months she has been learning to swim and can now swim on her back just using arms. Her goal this year is to move into the large pool and swim 1 length unaided. This will be a massive task but she has the will power to do it. She told the club about her condition and the problems related to it and how she copes. The club were clearly impressed by her attitude and self motivation. There were offers to sponsor her for the one length swim and this has made her even more determined. We donated some of our funds to the Friday Club where Claire meets and works with other disabled people in the Maidstone area.

Last night I went to the Service Committee meeting at Lloyd's house. Amongst a busy agenda we had a detailed look at the coming programme which is looking good.

Finally, today is the 2nd anniversary of my friend Roger's death. Whilst he was not a Rotarian ( he was self confessed and well-respected local Freemason) he was an inspiration to me and many others in so many ways but especially to me in his work in the community. He is sadly missed but will never be forgotten. He was one of the best Rotarians we never had.

What a Great Day!

Met the manager of Maidstone Leisure Centre today and he has agreed to house the Spiral Wishing Well in the Centre near the cafe. No determined time- let's see how it goes. I will deliver on Thursday 28th Aug after we get it back from Romney Marsh Rotary who are using it at an event over the BH.
This afternoon went to the Riverside Golf Tournament at Kings Hill. I enjoyed stalking members and taking photos which will be available on the website.

I learnt a bit about golf, like what the yellow ball is for and why you can have a second go if your first hit is rubbish! Not sure if I am ready for such a technically advanced game such as this yet.

There were some fine shots played......



Well done Geoff for organising a great day and also to good old Steve for doing the scoring stuff which I had no idea about.

Back from Holiday

After a well deserved break after two weeks as President! I am back for a couple more weeks before whizzing off to Spain for 10 days. Best to get hols out the way in the quiet time I say.

I came back to club night to greet our new DG John Wilton who gave us a good presentation on what he sees for the year. Very concise with full of passion. He has already visited 28 clubs in his first month and is very determined to be an "up front" leader. Interestingly John doesn't drive so he has a team of 7 Rotarians to drive him ( only one at a time though!), so we had a PP from Beachy Head RC to add to the guest list. The evening was enhanced by an unexpected visit by husband and wife Rotarians from Darwin, Australia who were passing through on holiday. Along with a visit also from PDG Tony Hodges we were well represented by guests.

I visited the new Rotary Club of Minster-on-Sea last night to present their cheque for their work at County Show. They are a very lively club comprising mainly ex- Tablers so there was a lot of time spent on Sargent at Arms. However I was pleased to tell them that their gate manning contribution was one of the best of all clubs and they are really keen to be there in force next year so that is good news.

County Show

The first time I have done all 3 days for a couple of years. We have yet to have the feedback but I have to say it is an event everyone at Riverside should be proud of. Sue can't wait till next year she thoroughly enjoyed dealing with other people's money. No doubt there will be areas yet again which we can learn from but it is now a well established and slick operation which the Society relies very heavily upon. The dynamic trio of T, S & R have yet again led us in a most professional way. Other clubs recognise us as the County Show club so I think this event is a permanent fixture for the foreseeable future. Our duties inevitably overlap, we have dealt with lost children, car parking, disabled access and have tried to answer every question fired at us- "how on earth do I know where you left your car?! Was a silver one?!!!" . I even left my gate to help a lady who had collapsed. She was fine when she came round - she gazed into my eyes and all was well!
My main concern is to ensure that the key jobs of T,S & R plus a couple of others are shadowed so that we will always maintain continuity.





Heart of Kent Hospice borrowed our new Spiral Wishing Well. A few lessons learnt- it needs to be kept clean to allow the coins to spin and it must be on flat ground. The most important point is that it needs to be operated to attract people especially the kids. the HofK people did a bit of this but not enough as they were busy with other attractions. Even so they made about £30 which they wouldn't have had otherwise and our name was prominent at their site. I think the wheel will be great at Xmas.

First Business Meeting

Well, the business part of the business meeting didn't happen. We welcomed Colin Norgate into the club that's 41 members now. I took the Well along and we substituted it for the mug. Some had a go and change trickled in. About £10 in the end but as it was a very good attendance we could have done better. A few reserved comments about the Well, so we need to use it as much as we can. Could do with a company to sponsor it and have their name on the front.

We had a further briefing on County Show. This took longer than I thought it would so we did without the committee reports, that enabled us to finish about 21.40. Several stayed on to try the ticket and card machines.

Attended some of the Service Committee. Peter B has agreed to be Press/Media and Richard S will be meals contact. Very grateful for this additional help.

Just as Well I don't go to work!

Today I helped my friend Claire to move home. She is disabled and confined to a wheelchair. The housing trust have provided a nice ground floor flat designed for wheelchair use. So why are there no hand rails in the bathroom, no ramp access to the patio, and fire doors that she can't open! Anyway she has a great attitude and will I am sure overcome these problems. Claire will be talking to our club next week about what it is like to be severely disabled. Should be interesting.

The Spiral Wishing Well has arrived and I have assembled it. I am just off to the Service Committee meeting followed by my first business meeting as President. I'll take the well for a demo and it can replace the jug collection tonight. 100 Club draw and induction for Colin tonight plus a last County Show briefing. We should be busy- but i need to keep on time. We'll see.

ByLaws and Attendance

Went to the County Show training session on Saturday. Great job done by Tony, Roger and Steve. I do have concerns that we need to have these guys' jobs shadowed for future continuity.

I have spent a large part of today tidying up the draft Club ByLaws so that I can move them on for the club to have a look at after tomorrow's business meeting. The introduction of the new attendance rules should be straight forward but they didn't come across as such at council last week. At the request of council I have now written a simple guide to what constitutes attendance and in particular the criteria for so called "Make Ups". It is very easy to get bogged down in all this but the benefit is that members can have a bit more flexibility in relation to their club participation. I hope it will improve attendances generally once it is settled in. The other advantage is that it might help us to attract new members who feel reluctant to join because of the meeting commitment.

Also had a call today to say that our new Spinning Wishing Well will be arriving tomorrow. Providing I can get it assembled and all the Riverside labels stuck on- we should be OK to loan it to Heart of Kent Hospice for the County Show.

First Council Meeting

Good attendance at my house albeit somewhat cramped- we had 10 out of 12 council members plus Harry B who joined us to discuss attendance issues. Some lively debate over the new ByLaws. It's great that members are taking an interest but it does highlight one of the problems with Rotary. To be a Rotarian means you have an opinion and that opinion will be voiced whatever anyone else thinks! But that's what makes it fun even though we have the occasional tiff. Still, no damage done, all shake hands and move on. Some good decisions made and hopefully I might even have the ByLaws agreed and in place in the not too distant future. Watch this space. Bottom line is that we are going to apply the new flexible attendance rules and hopefully it will be fairer to everyone and will be helpful to prospective new members. Meeting finished at 9.30pm- not bad considering we had a few big issues to sort out. Must remember a few few more nibbles next time- I'll speak to the catering staff.

District Handover

It was good to see the club well represented at District Handover at Eastbourne. We gave thanks to Dennis Spiller- what a great year he had, and welcomed John Wilton as the new DG. Different personalities and styles, but equal in their sincerity and enthusiasm to keep the District top of the league. Dennis estimated that District raised about £2 million this year for charities. That's what Rotary is all about. Steve and Margaret joined Richard and me at the handover and is was good to hear team Elms rightly singled out for their work for Fun Day.

I gave Dennis Fowle and Doug Baguley from Maidstone Rotary a lift there and back. Who says Maidstone Clubs don't work together?! Dennis and I are still keen to support a concert for Heart of Kent Hospice next June after the disappointment at not getting the show Oliver of the ground. Doug is coming to club to talk about the Aberfan Disaster- his Dad was there at the time.

Getting Started

I have decided to keep an informal record of my year as President of The Rotary Club of Maidstone Riverside. My year started at Club Handover on 24th June 08. This was a week early for the official Rotary year which starts on July 1st. However, as I had to go to District Handover on the 1st, Richard Ratcliffe passed on the chain of office that bit earlier. I had a low profile handover but my short speech outlined a Plan for the year which I then sent out to all members along with a copy of the speech and the programme to date.

It was pleasing to see 29 members at club- a few more than we get normally at regular meetings.

Hopefully this will be a good year. I need to get the ByLaws sorted very soon and approved by club then I can concentrate on the fund raising and fellowship. ADG David Brake came along and wished us well. It's always good to see him and reassuring that I can get in touch if anything "District" needs sorting.