Club Council for 2017-18

Sitting: President Keith Otter and 1st Vice President Anne Moriaty. Standing: Frank Tew (Youth Service), Keith Dabbs (Foundation and International), Eddie Cassels (Secretary), Jenny Black (Membership), Stan Keller (Public Image), Janice Goodman (Community and Vocational), Philip Goodman (Immediate Past President). Not shown: Bob Booker (Treasurer)

Our Club President  welcomes you to the club website and invites you to join members in the Fellowship of Rotary. We meet on Thursday lunchtime 1pm at the Hampton Leisure Centre (formerly called Marconi Social Club) Beehive Lane, Chelmsford CM2 9RX. If you wish to obtain further information contact the Secretary - Tel. 01245 263133. To discover more about Rotary and Rotarians go to the RIBI website.

Chelmsford Rotary Club is the original club in the city formed way back in 1927. Since this time members have brought a richness of life to many people in the community and moved on with a broader involvement to incorporate numerous local and international projects. Rotarians offer their services in many different ways. If you have recently moved to the Chelmsford district and wish to put something back into the community, we can offer you an enjoyable and stimulating way of doing so.

The club has a major international project ongoing with Girls High Schools in Sahiwal, Pujab, Pakistan.  We are helping to build schools with better facilities & improve the quality of life for studentts.  It is also financially helping CHESS, who seek to relieve homelessness and related hardship and distress amongst single adults in Chelmsford and Essex, for the next 5 years. These are but two of the many ways that Rotary in Chelmsford has moved forward in offering a Service to Mankind.

You would be very welcome to come along to a meeting to hear more of what Rotary does and how you could be involved.  Just phone or complete the contact form on this website.

7 June 2018: Business meeting and more

We had one of our regular business meetings today. There weren’t any questions on the various reports, so it finished quite early.

That was just as well, as we were also helping to run a Rotary stall in the High Street as part of Chelmsford’s “Volunteering Festival”. All five local Clubs participated on a rota throughout the day. We took the first and the last slots as we were setting the stall up and dismantling it afterwards.

Altogether we spoke to a couple of dozen people about Rotary and gave away some District magazines and some of our Clubs’ leaflets. It remains to be seen whether any of those we spoke to will explore Rotary further.

President’s Dinner

Our President’s Dinner for 2017-18 was held on the evening of 12 June 2018. This is in many ways the climax of the President’s year, as it is the last big event.

The dinner took place at Chelmsford’s County Hotel. Fifty of us sat down to eat. It should have been fifty-one but one person got held up when his earlier commitments overran and never made it.

We enjoyed a three-course meal in convivial surroundings. We had the hotel’s main hall to ourselves and sat at seven tables with seven or eight people at each. There was a buzz of conversation throughout.

We had a ten-minute break after the meal. Sadly when everyone returned our President announced he had just received news that member Mo Sadiq’s wife, Salma, had died that afternoon. Whilst her death was not unexpected it was nevertheless a time of sorrow.

Our President then formally welcomed our guests:

• District Governor Nick Sillitoe and his wife, Jane;
• Jill Parkin and Philippa Parkin from the Chelmsford Competitive Festival of Music, Speech & Drama, our long association with which has contributed to the success of Rotary Young Musician in Chelmsford;
• singing tutor Cathy Edkins, who always encourages her students to enter Young Musician if they qualify and one of whose students achieved third place in the 2017-18 National Final of the competition;
• Will Warns, Assistant Director of Music at Felsted School and Director of Music at All Saints’ Church Springfield, who was to provide our entertainment, and his wife, Steph
• members of other Chelmsford Rotary Clubs; and
• spouses and partners of our own members.

The entertainment consisted of Will Warns playing a portable keyboard to accompany Buster Keaton’s silent film “The Electric House”.Everyone enjoyed both the film and Will’s playing.

Happy Birthday, Bill!

Our oldest member, Bill Partis, was born on 26 April 1918, so on Thursday, 26 April 2018, we took the opportunity to celebrate his birthday in style. Fifty-one of us sat down to lunch, including Bill and his daughter-in-law Mary (a member of the Rotary Club of Chelmsford Phoenix, seven Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower, our Area Governor Ann Holmes and fourteen other guests (spouses, partners and former and honorary members). Bill paid for the drinks; we don’t know whether he realised just how many would be there!

After we finished lunch the caterers brought in a special birthday cake. It did not have 100 candles but it did have the Rotary logo on the top. The rest of us stood to sing “Happy Birthday, Bill”. Our Area Governor commented that she did not think we should consider forming a choir! The cake was then whisked away again so the caterers divide it into pieces to distribute to everyone there.

We also presented Bill with a card from the Club, one from District Governor Nick Sillitoe and another from the Rotary Club of Chelmer Bridge. The front of our Club’s card bore a photograph of Bill when he was President in 1974-75. Our gift to him was a purpose-made wooden box bearing birthday greetings and containing a bottle of red wine. Hopefully he and his family will find a use for the box once the wine has been drunk.

Jazz Night

We held our Annual Jazz Night at Writtle Sports and Social Club on Friday, 20 April 2018. Entertainment was provided by the Essex Youth Jazz Sextet under its Musical Director, Martin Hathaway.

Martin, who was born and brought up in Chelmsford, is now a Professor of Jazz at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Musical Director, Essex Youth Jazz Orchestra and a widely known jazz musician with various jazz bands.

With Martin on alto sax was Kerensa Newcombe, trumpet; ma Kruger, trombone and vocalist; Will Hobson, piano; Joe Ward-Thread-well, drums; and Harrison Dolphin, double bass.

A wide variety of jazz numbers was played in the two sessions, including numbers by Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller.

The sextet provided lively entertainment for the audience who were greatly appreciative of the music and individual contributions of members of the Sextet.

A total of £785.90 was raised from the night towards Rotary charities from ticket sales and a raffle with prizes generously donated by Chelmsford Rotary Club members.