Alzheimers Presentation

It was great to able to present the Maidstone Alzheimers Group with £1000 yesterday at their weekly meeting. Several of their number had sponsored our tandem rideso it was a an opportunity to thank them also. Whilst there I met a young Maidstone based businessman named Jason who offered support for future events we may well organise for Alzheimers. It is nice when people come forward to offer assistance.

My last business meeting was somewhat routine but we tidied up the year in terms of income and out goings. We managed a gross income in excess of £20K and it has all been dispersed or put aside now for a wide range of charities. The concert looks like it has made just over £3k so all in all not a nbda year.
Next week handover- sad really, I'll miss being at the helm but time to move on and perhaps focus on fewer but more specific ideas rather than trying to juggle all the balls.

Last Speaker Evening

So that's another milestone. My last evening to introduce a speaker before I finish my tour of duty in two weeks time. A good speaker again this time from NSPCC. Some interesting but worrying facts such as there are 85 calls every day in our region to the Childline which is now run through NSPCC. Also we had a special guest, Mike Springett who came as a guest of his son and brother. It was good to see him.
Oh yes and I forgot the loyal toast for apparently the second time. Still Past President Richard managed a few more than that I believe during his year!

Stabart Mater

After all the worrying about lack of numbers attending, our joint Rotary clubs charity Concert at Mote Hall on Saturday was a success. No word on money raised yet but we probably had about 400 in the audience- not the 800 we had hoped for but as I hear that the Jim Davidson Concert next week has only attracted 300 ticket sales- we did well. It was enough to give the performers a rousing ovation especially for Rachael Lloyd the mezzo soprano who was excellent.
Special thanks to my team of volunteers who helped out on the night, a most enjoyable and hopefully a successful evening for the Heart of Kent Hospice.

Credit Crunch

Before dinner I read a card from Mike S thanking the club for the flowers and card following Margaret's funeral last week.It was good to see Andy and and Lloyd back at club so soon. We hope that being with friends will help in some small way to ease their pain.

Good to welcome back Bryan Baughan to talk about the Credit Crunch. Some enlightening insights into what went wrong and where we are at the moment. A lot of questions and I had to cut them short to allow the meeting to finish. For the benefit of those not at President's Night I played a sample of the CD, unfortunately my old portable CD Player messed it up. This probably accounted for the fact that I didn't have a queue for sales at the end of the evening. I did however, have two donations so we have now made £270 for the fund. Those without a copy are really missing out on a remarkable piece of musical history- so don't be shy, give me a call, I have a few left and Christmas is coming!
We had another guest tonight who is a potential member, hope he enjoyed the evening.

Presidents Night

Modesty prevents me from making comment after reading Nic's account on our website!All I will say is that everyone involved in this remarkable evening have made an old man very happy. It was for one night only and my retirement at the pinnacle of my musical career is a sensible move as one can only take so much stardom.

It was a really great night and I have written thank yous to a whole host of people who made it all possible so I won't repeat names here- you all know who you are, thank you all so much. No president could ask for a better send off than the one I was privileged to receive last night, we have a fantastic club and the future is looking really bright.

100 club draw took place during the evening and was presented by our new club Grandad.

It was a pity, but most understandable, that some members and guests couldn't join us for the evening due to the recent bereavements associated with our club this past couple of weeks. Many of us attended Margaret's funeral earlier in the day and the large numbers attending spoke volumes for her popularity.

What a week of mixed emotions.