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.